# [SOLVED] Which Creative lab sound card is best?



## oldsilverfox (Mar 14, 2014)

I need to replace my SB0790 Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme audio card which died. Substitued an ols Audigy SE card for now. I use Vista OS on my HP PC. Searching the internet I find there are 2 available. Which of the following is the newer(& Better?) version: The SB0790 or the SB0792. The former is priced around $90, the later at $45! (why the huge differance?)
Other than using the card for typical PC sounds, viewing YouTube, etc, I use the card with a recoding software to record then burn songs my wife sings for retired groups. Thanks for your interst & hopefully help.


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## T_Rex (Oct 21, 2012)

*Re: Which Creative lab sound card is best?*

Hello Fox welcome to TSF firstly,

I believe you are looking for a PCI card right? If I were you I would invest in an Asus Xonar DG they can be had for a mere $29.00-$37.00 US depending on where you buy it. It will sound better than your previous card as well. I owned your previous card in the past and I can heartily recommend the Asus Xonar DG for value. All but one (and a very expensive card) creative cards that are PCI are all but gone now except on ebay from what I have seen. Asus has a few great PCI models left the rest are PCie. Check out the Asus models see you think you might like one of them.


ASUS Xonar DG 5.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI Interface Sound Card - Newegg.com

A bit higher end here

ASUS Xonar DS Audio Card - Newegg.com

Much more high end here

ASUS Xonar Essence ST Audio Card - Newegg.com


Honestly though the DG sounds 98% as good as the other two.


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## oldsilverfox (Mar 14, 2014)

*Re: Which Creative lab sound card is best?*

ChronoGeek:
Thanks for the quick reply. Yes it is a PCI card. That's why finding these "old" cards that are not used was hard. I appreciate your 3 suggestion bur for now would like to stay with the Sound Blasters. The PC is set up with the Vista drivers which would make for an easy installation with the same card.


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## T_Rex (Oct 21, 2012)

*Re: Which Creative lab sound card is best?*

Amazon.com : Creative Labs SB0790 PCI Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio Sound Card : Pci Express Video Card : Electronics

This card you mentioned is basically the same as an Audigy Live 24 Bit, which is also the same as your current Audigy SE. The advantage that your former card had was a working software EQ and Crystalizer.

If you would like a better Creative PCI card try one of these models.you can get them used cheaply.

Amazon.com : Dell Creative Labs SB0460 SoundBlaster X-Fi Xtreme Music Sound : Computer Internal Sound Cards : Electronics

^These Dell Pulls are real hardware capable X-Fi's also, and also very affordable but as you can see with the comments you would need to finagle the Creative Software in the device manager to get it working with Full Creative software suite like a regular retail card.


X-Fi Xtreme Gamer was also a nice hardware capable PCI card (with working front audio port) and can be had cheaply - though used usually.

Amazon.com : Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Sound Card (70SB073A00000) : Computer Sound Cards : Electronics

Note: if you are looking to use the same drivers you have now I would look to the card I linked to first but it will sound the same as your current Audigy SE. If you get any of the other cards, some hardware capable you will want different drivers (eg. different drivers for different models).


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## WereBo (Apr 5, 2008)

*Re: Which Creative lab sound card is best?*

Hi oldsilverfox and welcome to TSF :wave:

The 'SB0792' is now discontinued by 'Creative', which is a shame as I have one and it's an excellent card. It's still available as new, but in diminishing numbers (and possibly price-hikes with rarity).

The 'SB0790' is still readily available, with drivers for Win-XP, Vista and above. I can't see any differences between the 2 cards, as far as performance etc. is concerned, I suspect the 'SB0790' was designed for older Windows versions, which didn't have the quality of audio that newer PCs now have.

I can't really comment about 'Asus Xonar' cards as I've never personally used one, but from my colleagues here and reviews elsewhere, it's an excellent and very capable card for it's price.

One word of caution when installing 'similar' replacement-cards though, it's worth re-installing the drivers for the replacement card, there's often slight differences between the hardware-components that are detected during the install, that otherwise might not work properly, or cause other problems later on with the 'older' drivers.


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## JimE (Apr 16, 2009)

*Re: Which Creative lab sound card is best?*

I agree. Unless you are replacing with the EXACT same card, you should uninstall the associated software/drivers prior to installation. 

This applies to ALL PC hardware.


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## oldsilverfox (Mar 14, 2014)

*Re: Which Creative lab sound card is best?*

I appreciate all the excellent input I have received. *WereBo*, your comments were what I was looking for since I preferred to stay with Creative Lab cards.
*ChronoGeek*, I'm thankfull of all the time & effort you have put into reserch on my behalf. The ASUS Xonar DS product will be considered a back-up choice if needed. At this point I will be ordering a new SB0792 I found. When received I'll do the uninstall of the software/drivers recommended by *WereBo & Dogg.* Thank you all. I'll let you know how the new card turns out.


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## WereBo (Apr 5, 2008)

*Re: Which Creative lab sound card is best?*

You're welcome and Good luck


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## oldsilverfox (Mar 14, 2014)

*Re: Which Creative lab sound card is best?*

Ordered the SB0792 from the online vendor I had found. Received the bubblewraped card in about 3 days. Eventhough the vendor's number/barcode on the static wrapping indicated SB0792, when I checked the backside of the circuit board the imprined model# indicated it was a SB0790, the same as the one I was replacing. When I 1st installed it the sound out worked fine, but when I tried recording sound with my recording software via a mike or the line-in, it wouldn't record. After several hours, I won't go it the details, I tried the new card again & it worked! Whew!! I just rechecked it today & it's still working. So I want to thank you all again for your input. As I recall I'm suppose to "close" this "thread" as solved. I've checked this site & can't find how to do it. Maybe WereBo could let me know how.
Thanks


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## oscer1 (Jan 27, 2010)

*Re: Which Creative lab sound card is best?*

To mark your thread as solved. Above your your first post is thread tools their will be mark thread as solved


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## WereBo (Apr 5, 2008)

Glad it's all working for you oldsilverfox and thanks for posting back with the results - The different board# is likely to have the newer 'upgraded' components mounted on the old PCB :wink:


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