Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum Soundcard

List Price: $149.99

Features:

• Utilizes Creative Lab's Audigy chip
• EAX Advanced HD offers 3D audio performance
• Built-in Dolby Digital decoder for true 5.1 multi-channel playback
• Full bandwidth and 96 DMA channels
• Includes wireless remote control and front panel Internal Audigy Drive with accessible connectors

Customer Reviews:

Useless piece of junk on XP and Win2000 [Posted on 2002-09-08]
I first installed this card on an HP machine running Windows 2000 Advanced Server and... Viola! The first time Windows 2000 crashes and gives me the BLUE SCREEN since I first installed it a couple of years ago. I gave the card the benefit of doubt and thought that I had installed and uninstalled too many software and hardware that the machine might have become unstable.

But recently I bought a brand new Dell Precision Worstation 530 running Windows XP Professional. Everything was working like a Swiss clock... until I installed the Audigy Platinum on it. Once I did that, I started getting hard crashes and blue screens. It crashed my machine more than 30 times before I finally trashed the card. The guys at Microsoft might have gotten sick of receiving my blue screen crash reports. I downloaded and installed the recent drivers from Creative's website (revision: AUD-WEBUP-W2-US, Date: 8/26/2002) and it didn't work.

Contrary to Creative's claims, this card just doesn't work on Win 2000 and XP Pro machines, or at least the Audigy customer base who use Win 2000 and XP Pro are too small for Creative to bother with a fix.

The sounds for gaming and CD play are good, I don't deny that, and it might be a cheap choice for a small home studio (it's not a genuine 24-bit though), but if you're using Win2K or XP pro, it's useless unless Creative finally realizes there's something terribly wrong with the driver and do something to fix it.

I didnt see any problems [Posted on 2002-11-02]
I recently purchased and installed the audigy platnium(w/internal breakout box) and have had absolutely no problems with the card. I popped it in and XP(w/SP1) recognized it with no problems.I loaded up the driver disk and in less than 10 mins I was up watching DVD's in 5.1 digital audio. My advice: Get this card since its going down in price due to the introduction of the Audigy 2 line. Its a real steal!

Terrible Build, Worse Support [Posted on 2003-03-27]
I purchased this card in 12/01. After a very quirky install, the card worked well for 4 months and then went dead. It took numerous phone calls to get an RA. It then took Creative 4 months to return the card, which still didn't work. A few more phone calls and a new card arrived. After working for 3 months, died. I marked the card and returned for repair/replacement. After 4 months I received the same card back, not working. I was then sent a 5.1 card that I couldn't hook-up to the front panel. I am now junking this card and trying a new product. Will never use a Creative product again. I could excuse the problems, but not the shameful lack of customer support and service.

One Of The Best Consumer Audio Cards on The Market [Posted on 2003-07-15]
Want truly superior gaming, audio playback, and recording sound? Do you record audio to you computer? Do you play video games? This card will rock your world with it's hardware sound effects and multiple level EAX environments that create a virtual world only the Audigy Platinum 2 can beat. With Dolby DTS and 5.1 codec, and multiple audio inputs and outputs with the live drive, you won't ever buy another brand! Turn your computer into a complete recording studio in minutes! Want to sound like you are recording live? choose from different accoustical environments to suit your sound. The hardware is quiet and packs 100 db s/n (signal to noise) ratio and 24 bit encoding and up to 96 kHz sampling (better than CD). With awesome technology like this, you can become a pro DJ, Track Master, or warp to the world of your video game with one great card. Now all you'll need is a bigger hard drive to store all of your music and games on!

Great Card at a Great Price [Posted on 2003-12-03]
I am running XP and had a SB Live card. The card has been great for about 2-3 years but I wanted something more. Even though some of the reviews I have read for this crad talked about install problems. I still got the Audigy Platinum card. All I can say is I had not one problem installing the card. It runs like a dream. I just got all the latest software from creative's site instead of using the install CD. The card is running strong and I am very happy with it.

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