Creative Sound Blaster Z Gaming Sound Card Review

Skunkworks · 4 Mar 2013 at 15:31

InkZ said:
Hope it's better than my X-Fi where I have to change modes every time I boot up just to get sound working :/

I haven't had that issue, but there have been a couple of occasions where my speakers seem to move round, i.e. centre moves to front left, front left moves to back left etc. Very confusing when gaming.

dfour · 4 Mar 2013 at 15:42

Yeah I have had that as well but the front stereo pair become the rear stereo pair- really annoying another reason the change the card over to the new SB-Z

alex20000 · 4 Mar 2013 at 20:25

Nice detailed review here

kaiserc · 6 Mar 2013 at 13:47

This sound card looks the business

CivilDrone · 9 Apr 2013 at 19:06

Just installed Creative Sound Blaster Z.
I've got Edifier 1900 speakers.
Where do i plug them in?
Please help

CivilDrone · 9 Apr 2013 at 19:12

My guess its 3rd from the top? A bit different from onboard

PhysicsMan94 · 10 Apr 2013 at 14:04

Hmmmm... Very tempted. I might have to get this sound card, looks like it could be a worthy investment. Will it be a good upgrade from the onboard sound on the ASUS Rampage IV Extreme X79 Motherboard which has "Realtek ® ALC898 7.1-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC"?

rjk · 10 Apr 2013 at 14:46

without a doubt. a huge upgrade from onboard realtek

welshdragon · 11 Apr 2013 at 21:40

PhysicsMan94 said:
Hmmmm... Very tempted. I might have to get this sound card, looks like it could be a worthy investment. Will it be a good upgrade from the onboard sound on the ASUS Rampage IV Extreme X79 Motherboard which has "Realtek ® ALC898 7.1-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC"?

Just do it. I was of the mindset that onboard sound these days must be 'good enough' and then I had one of these and the improvement in sound has blown me away. Even using my low end Creative T10 speakers I noticed the difference immediately. But on my Sennheiser 363D's....

Litmoose · 11 Apr 2013 at 22:11

Does it support 7.1?

dfour · 11 Apr 2013 at 22:46

Litmoose said:
Does it support 7.1?

no 5.1 only

CivilDrone · 12 Apr 2013 at 05:24

who needs 5.1 or 7.1. i got rid of logitech 5.1 and got edifiers. GODLY with this sound card

PhysicsMan94 · 12 Apr 2013 at 12:45

Fine, sod it, I'm gonna get one

Chicken #16 · 12 Apr 2013 at 14:03

how does "scout mode" work? Sounds like cheating to me

DublinDude · 15 Apr 2013 at 21:34

Worthy upgrade from an x fi xtremegamer?

Skunkworks · 16 Apr 2013 at 10:19

Looks like I’m getting my first driver issues!

This actually happened a couple of weeks ago too, but is now happening again. The card has vanished from the sound panel and my sound has defaulted to my monitor speakers. The card is still listed in Device Manager and is showing no faults. I delete the card from Device Manager and reboot, it then finds the card as a Recon 3D and it doesn’t work.

The way I fixed it last time was to physically remove the card, restart, , shut down, re-install the card, boot up, install drivers. If I have to do this every other week it’s going to get pretty ****ing old.

dfour · 16 Apr 2013 at 11:59

DublinDude said:
Worthy upgrade from an x fi xtremegamer?

yup just do it.

DublinDude · 18 Apr 2013 at 11:27

dfour said:
yup just do it.

You could be just saying that... :eek:

dfour · 18 Apr 2013 at 15:18

DublinDude said:
You could be just saying that...

I upgraded from a xfi fatal1ty model and I dont work for OC either

ubersonic · 18 Apr 2013 at 15:22

Does this have the pin header on it for connecting a gameport backplate?

** Creative Sound Blaster Z Gaming Sound Card Review **

Creative Sound Blaster Z Gaming Sound Card Review