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Creative Labs SB1040 PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio Sound Card


Creative Labs SB1040 PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio Sound Card


Best Price: $68.99

Product Features
  • Device Type - Sound Blaster
  • Interface Type - PCI-E
  • Sound Output Mode - 7.1
  • - Recording: 24-bit/96kHz
Editorial Reviews
Product Description

Why settle for basic, built-in sound? Your music and movies deserve Xtreme Fidelity. Add the Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio sound card to your PC and turn your downloaded music into your own personal concert. Plus watch DVDs or downloaded videos with full cinematic surround sound.

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Customer Reviews
K. Hyder Said: BEWARE! A COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME! ( Nov. 4th 2009 )
I bought this card to take in digital audio from the TOSLINK port into a sound editing program. Although I could hear audio through the card, the Creative applications provided with the card (and the ones I downloaded from Creative's website) refused to find the card in the system. After hours and hours of frustration I decided to return this card. The replacement card I bought costs half as much and works well. Shame on your Creative Labs! I bought this card and installed it with Windows 7. My motherboard has onboard audio and I disabled it from the BIOS. I continued to get "Can't Find Audio Device" Error when I ran Creative applications. I tried and tried so many things... - installed the entire Creative driver/ application suite from CD - installed just the Creative drivers first and then the application suite from CD - installed from the Creative CD first and then let Windows 7 upgrade the Creative drivers - installed from the Creative CD first and then upgraded drivers and applications from Creative's website - tried the Daniel K package - upgraded the motherboard BIOS and chipset drivers - shut down, removed the sound card, booted up, then shut down, then re-inserted the card, then booted up again - moved the card from one PCI Express slot to another None of the above options could get me to a point where the Creative applications (e.g. Creative Diagnostics) could recognize the card in the system. I needed these applications to work in order to use the digital audio input (Toslink). I could not get phone support. It either does not exist for this product or they keep it a secret. I have been very disappointed with Creative Labs for this experience! I have used their products for 12+ years and I think the quality has gone down a lot recently. I have worked in the IT industry for 20 years; if I'm having so much trouble I wonder what non-technical users have to go through. Shame on your Creative Labs! It's the last time I bought one of your products!
Timothy Bochard Said: Terrific sound and excellent value ( Oct. 11th 2009 )
I purchased the PCI-e version of this card about a month ago when the built-in audio circuitry on my motherboard quit working. Sure wish I had done this sooner! Even though I had high-end sound on a top-of-the-line motherboard, the Soundblaster X-Fi Extreme Audio Card was better - by several orders of magnitude. It was easy to install and configure. It did take some time, after loading its software, to download updates from the Internet. But, that will happen with any card. Frankly, I was happy it did it automatically as I hate hunting for drivers. Anyway, it has some nice config software although you may find, as I did, that it works just fine out of the box. I run a relatively inexpensive set of computer speakers with combined subwoofer -- nothing fancy -- and the sound is amazing. Much better than before. I now use this PC as a Windows Media Center PC, watching and recording TV, movies, pictures -- you name it -- in the Family Room. This card really rounds out the experience. I paid around $50 for the card on Amazon. I consider it a great value. There's a reason why Creative Labs is still cranking out these boards even though motherboard manufacturers build audio in: the sound is BETTER! Upgrade from your motherboard card and hear the difference!
Marion M. Meradith Said: I am sorry but it is not much better than wht came with this mother board ( Oct. 5th 2009 )
it really inn't any better than what was supplied with the onboard sound and a macrophone doesn't work on it
B. Richardson Said: Great Card...Great Software (minimal instructions or tech support). ( Aug. 17th 2009 )
I purchased the Creative Labs SB1040 PCI Express Sound Blaster Xtreme Audio sound card to replace the built-in sound on my Windows Vista computer's motherboard. I needed more power and more 'line out' sockets. I found that this card satisfied both needs excellently. I installed the software to see if it was as 'ho hum' and problematic as some other reviewers had written. I found the software to be outstanding and allows you to really tailor the sound of your system. The only truly lacking part of the package was the instructions on using the software (especially the "Entertainment Mode"). It took me a few days to figure out how to get normal output to all line out sockets instead of the default 7.1 output. I literally stumbled across the screen that allows you to make that configuration change while looking for something else. You pretty much have to figure out what each feature does by experimentation before you can truly make use of them. Once you gain an understanding of how things work you'll find that you can get tremendous performance from this sound card. I must say that more in-depth instructions are available at the Creative Labs web site and you can download a file that contains help and instructions from that site. Live technical support, however, is non existent. I would normally have reduced the score of my review due to the less than adequate instructional material and no technical support (beyond web site FAQs), but my review is really of the sound card hardware and software. They are both great!
Trip Like I Do Said: No X-Fi, deceptive marketing ( Jul. 11th 2009 )
As other reviewer(s) have mentioned, this is a deliberately mislabeled product. It has no X-Fi chip. Apparently, it's just an old 33 dollar Audigy Sound Blaster with some software drivers pasted on. That was very "creative" of Creative Lab$$ aka "money-grubbing cheats". As for performance, it was fair and not sufficiently better than on-board audio to justify the cost.

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