Sound Blaster PCI128 for quality sound for a home computer
Written: Dec 15 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Good, quality sound at a decent price.
Cons: Card died in a little less than a year.
The Bottom Line: Great sound card for home use.
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| Kittyokc's Full Review: Creative Labs Sound Blaster PCI 128 Sound Card |
I have always been partial to the Sound Blaster line of sound cards ever since we got our first computer many years ago, not much has changed. I know there are people out there saying there are better ones out there, but for my personal use on my home computer, it's perfect.
Features
The Sound Blaster PCI128 uses the PCI bus, making it use less CPU overhead than regular sound cards, meaning you get higher frame rates in games and more bandwidth for audio playback.
The Sound Blaster PCI128 has 3D Audio, 128 voice Wavetable Synthesis, and 4 speaker output. For playback or recording audio, you have your choices of 8 bit, 16 bit mono, or stereo, along with your choice of sample rates from 5 kHz to 48 kHz. Using stereo, of course, makes a larger file, but you can really tell the difference in sound quality, but if you're just making a wav file to assign to a certain task on your computer, 16 bit would be fine, plus it would be a smaller file.
It also supports 16 MIDI channels, 128 GM & GS compatible instruments and 10 drum kits. Now, I'm not so sure what all of that means, but I do know that the sound quality coming through my speakers is great.
Software
The software that came with the Sound Blaster PCI128 includes: Creative CD, Creative MIDI, Creative Mixer, Creative Wave, Sound 'LE, Wave Studio, and Keytar. All these programs are for playing, creating or adjusting your sound files, except for Keytar. Keytar is a guitar, you can simulate playing a guitar with it, although I didn't mess with it much, my kids enjoyed playing around with it, they said it was cool.
Installation
Installation was a piece of cake, once my husband put the sound card in it's proper slot in the computer. It was easily recognized by Windows and then we installed the software and we up and running no problems at all.
System Requirements
Intel Pentium or AMD-K5 133mhz or faster processor
Intel or 100% compatible motherboard chipset
16MB RAM
Windows95 or higher (2000 and ME compatible)
Half-length PCI 2.1 compliant slot
Speakers or headphones
CD-ROM drive
My Thoughts
As I mentioned before, I have always liked the Sound Blaster line and it has worked well for my home use. The sound quality coming through my speakers, even listening to CD's, sounded good.
The only bad thing that happened, was that a little less than a year after we got it, it stopped working. Maybe we just got a bad card from the start and didn't know it, I have never had any problems with them before, in fact we usually upgrade before the card dies.
Even though we had the problem with this one card, I still recommend the Sound Blaster PCI128 for anyone who is looking for a quality sound card for your computer. This is not the top of the line card, but it should be just fine, unless you are a serious gamer and you would probably want the Sound Blaster Live instead. You don't necessarily have to have the top of the line for quality sound, it all depends on what you expect and need from the sound card, and for my needs the Sound Blaster PCI128 fit in nicely in both price and quality.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 30
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Kittyokc
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Member: Kathy
Location: Oklahoma
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