Creative Labs SB0880 PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Sound Card

Creative Labs SB0880 PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Sound Card
by Creative

Creative Labs SB0880 PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Sound Card

 I was interested in this card because I was looking to upgrade my old Sound Blaster Audigy 2 on my Win XP desktop for two reasons. One was that I could tell my card was clearly outdated in terms of gaming features because the sound would not work at all for some games (Call of Duty 4) and I could tell a lot of sounds were missing from others (Far Cry 2) even after updating the drivers and editing all of the game settings that I could. The second reason was because I now have my desktop hooked up to my living room's HDTV and I wanted to have the capability to run my computer sound on my TV's 5.1 receiver by using the card's optical out (TOSLINK) feature. By searching around, it seemed to me that this was one of the only card's that had the optical feature within a decent price range. 

So, in terms of what I was looking for, this card has excelled in both areas. After installing it on Win XP SP 2 (where I did not run into any of the driver issues described by others in their reviews...perhaps Win 7 capability was the main issue there), I booted up Far Cry 2. Let me tell you I was VERY impressed with this new card. The EAX 5.0 clearly made a huge difference. Playing this game with the X-Fi Titanium made it a whole new experience. I then checked out Call of Duty 4. Great surround sound as well. This card honestly blew my expectations out of the water for how much better Far Cry 2 could sound. 


The optical out feature has also been great. To refute another reviewer's post, the optical out DOES output in 5.1 surround sound. You simply need to switch on the "Dolby Digital Live" feature within Creative's provided software console. When you first hook your card up to your receiver, it will only push out sound in 2.1. You will need to switch this setting on to get 5.1 surround, a process which takes all of about 5 seconds. 

Another aspect that I would like to refute from a previous reviewer's post is that switching between the sound modes (entertainment, gaming, etc) is some kind of difficult, annoying, or tedious task. Actually, I think it is so easy and a nice little feature to have. To switch the sound modes, all you have to do is click "mode" in the software console and then click a picture for one of the three different modes -- and that's it! Compare it to the amount of time you spend clicking between two browser window tabs, two IM windows, or two Google chat windows. It is seriously so easy. 


Finally, another great feature is the "X-Fi Crystalizer". Since I didn't see it on the Amazon product description, I figured it's a worthy mention. When you switch this feature on, your mp3 music becomes much cleaner and clearer. Using it with iTunes, I could hear a noticeable difference. I only listen to music with this feature on now! From Creative's site: "The X-Fi Crystalizer(tm) analyses your audio file, identifies key elements that were lost or damaged during the compression process, and re-masters them using selective audio enhancement. The mid-range and high-end (treble) becomes cleaner and clearer. Low-end (bass) frequencies are richer and more defined."