Avoid at all costs
Written: Dec 20 '00 (Updated Feb 25 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: supports 4 speakers
Cons: horrible drivers, conflicts, no 3d sound
The Bottom Line: Do not buy this card!!!!
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| dalighieri's Full Review: Rio Diamond Monster Sound MX400 |
I originally "upgraded" my Soundblaster Live! Value card to this because I had read some reviews that suggested the Diamond card was better for gamers. Unfortunately, the perks of the product are far outweighed by the numerous flaws that make the card unusable. It does support four speakers, but since I only have two, I don't know how well they are supported. The A3D support leaves something to be desired as only 1.0 is supported, and 2.0 is far superior. The big problem is all the conflicts that arose because of this card.
First, Quicktime stopped playing sounds properly. I wrote to Diamond and they said it was Quicktime's fault. I wrote to Apple, and they said it was Diamond's fault. I wrote back to Diamond, informing them of this, and they said, "Oh yeah, just disable 3d sound." Now, this worked, but I can't imagine, for the life of me, why they couldn't tell me this the first time or why it is even necessary.
The driver support is atrocious. There were only two "revisions" of the drivers, and they both failed to fix anything. The most recent version of the driver won't even install properly through Diamond's customized update utility.
Games are a problem. Anything with 3d sound doesn't work right. I am left to wonder whether every game developer in the world is writing bad code or if Diamond simply decided to release (and subsequently not support) the worst sound card in the history of mankind.
I would encourage everyone to avoid this product like the plague. It might make a good present for someone you dislike intensely, or perhaps for a 3-year old who might have fun breaking it.
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Update: On reading another reviewer's review, I recalled the other fatal flaw with this card... it will not fit into a PCI slot properly. The card will not line up with the case slot and motherboard slot at the same time... *sigh* DO NOT BUY THIS CARD!!!!!! One other note: Diamond Multimedia is now largely defunct. I wonder if it could be because they couldn't make quality products?
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
dalighieri
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Reviews written: 4
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