Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi 5.1 Pro review

Thanks to Creative’s driver software, this little black box has full support for environmental audio and 3D positioning effects in games using standards such as EAX 5.0 and OpenAL. This makes it far better for gaming than most external surround-sound audio devices, although it lacks the dedicated gaming mode audio control panel we’re used to seeing from other Creative sound cards. The driver also includes various THX TruStudio Pro effects, including virtual surround sound and a Crystalizer that attempts to interpolate details that are lost in compressed audio. Both are enabled by default – we strongly recommend disabling them before you listen to music, particularly if you favour lossless formats. A copy of PowerDVD with surround sound support is also provided.

The X-Fi 5.1 Pro sounds good and its software makes the most of your games and movies. If you’re after a reasonably priced 5.1 multimedia sound card to use with your laptop, this is a great buy. Desktop users are still best off with the Asus Xonar DX which costs slightly less and sounds a bit better.