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

It DOES work with Windows 7 (64 bit)! Please read the rest of my post because it may help you. I upgraded my OS from Vista to Windows 7 and needed a Windows 7 compatible sound card. I did some research and chose this card over the Extreme X-Fi. I installed the sound card and booted up my PC, without disabling the onboard audio. After I downloaded the drivers, it worked nicely for about 30 minutes. Afterwards, I was getting popping and crackling noises throughout my music. I disabled the onboard audio, in the BIOS, and then I removed the drivers and downloaded them again. (I did this several times.) Problem did not go away. I removed the drivers, again, and restarted my pc, allowing Windows 7 to apply the Microsoft HD audio device driver. The noise went away, and the music sounded pretty good, but I wanted the full functionality that I paid for. I contacted Creative tech support, and they were very helpful. I used some of their suggestions and added some of my own ideas. Here's how I got the sound card to work properly: 1.) I removed the sound card from my PC. 2.) I went to Device Manager and uninstalled the sound card. 3.) I went to Programs and uninstalled ALL software from Creative. 4.) I went to my PC vendor's website and downloaded the latest BIOS, drivers and firmware. 5.) I ran Norton Utilities 15 to scan and fix any errors on my C drive and registry. (It removed about 1500 temp files from my repeated attempts to reinstall the sound card drivers.) 6.) I installed the sound card into a different PCIe slot on my motherboard. (Even though Creative tech support, expressly, stated that I should not install the sound card in the PCIe slot right next to the video card, I ended up doing that because it was the only other slot available.) 7.) I went to the BIOS and disabled the onboard audio. 8.) I downloaded the drivers for the sound card from Creative's website. DO NOT USE THE CD THAT CAME IN THE BOX. The sound card has been working, beautifully, for two weeks, now. I don't know what combination of the steps that I took to fix the problem did the trick, but it's better to be thorough. I am using some cheap speakers and headphones, but the sound is more nuanced than what I was getting from the Realtek HD onboard audio that I was using with Vista. Be careful because the volume is very loud! When you change modes or settings the volume can reset to something very high and blow out your eardrums! Overall, I highly recommend this product. Now, I just need to buy some better speakers and/or headphones so that I can get the full benefits of this sound card.

Despite being an older product, the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium sound card is still considered to have superior sound quality and powerful features compared to integrated audio chipsets.

This sound card replaced a older Sound Blaster Live Plat PCI interface card from at least a decade ago. That card still works it was just slower and not as many options as this card has. The install was seamless and I was up and running with the new PciX sound card in 15 minutes top. I use my sound cards to record my demos and this card really cranked for sure. It made the PC and older Altec Lansing 5.1 speakers sound really nice. I was able to record a few demo's, crank some tunes then a week after the install the card just died. I removed it; reset it even put in a different machine and it was DEAD. so I contacted Amazon.com and their return policy was great except they no longer had stock available. I then purchased a different brand of sound card (Asus) and I am still waiting for its arrival. A few days after ordering the replacement card Amazon had stock available again at a noticeable price increase. Its a nice sounding card that will wake up your computer and with all the additional apps you have so much more than a regular sound card. I rated it a 1 because it died after a week in the PC.

The sound quality is decent, noise floor not as low as one would want, but overall the quality is what you pay for. Installation was easy like any other plug an play pci card and the drivers worked flawlessly. For the price, there may be better out there, but you wont necessarily regret this purchase.

It took hours and hours and many posts on the SB forums to get most of the features working in my card. There are some new drivers out there but when I try to install them I get a message that I do not have the supported hardware to use the driver (this is a very common issue with x-Fi cards) so I am stuck with the original CD drivers that came out of the box. Before buying this card, make sure your read this Wired article: [...] It explains why power users of Sound Blaster cards are fed up the ethics of this company and leaving Creative Labs

Love Creative Soundcards!!! Only way to go !!!