Help me decide whether or not I should BUY THIS!!!!

[OverclockMe]

Well first off I have a Diamond MX300 which the drivers lick and I cant use it in 2k pro

Next I might be able to get a SoundBlaster LIve Platinum (not the 5.1)

So should I get the Platinum for 99 bucks???
Will it run in 2kpro
what does it come with??
Is it that much better than the mx300

Please give me a few pointers here, thanks
also to give you an idea, I love to play games, watch movies, and do some mixing every now and then. So maybe that will help too.

 

[OverclockMe]

help?

 

[Bignate603]

if you do mixing, then the platinum may be nice for you. The Live! Value is technicallythe same card but it just lacks the Live! Drive which puts the input jacks on the front of the case. Takes an external drive bay though.

 

[faolan]

Grab the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz card, Buy.com has it for $90. I bought it to replace my Quadzilla (Vortex 2, just like the MX300), and have been very happy. No dealing with the fluff and crap in Liveware, while getting a card virtually identical to the Sound Blaster Live 5.1 cards. It has excelent Win2000 support, and has the potential to be upgraded down the road, where as Creative enjoys just releasing new cards all the time.

 

[Shu8]

i'm pretty sure creative has drivers for win2k on that platinum. i have the platinum 5.1 and everything's fine...i bought it for 37 bucks more from buy.com because of free shipping and 30 dollar off $150 purchase. i use my live drive w/ headphones and making MDs w/ optical out. i'm not sure if the older platinum has optical out.

 

[OverclockMe]

Cool thanks guys, I think i will buy the platinum

 

[noxipoo]

the platinum isn't very good and its overpriced. why not look at the phillips offerings?

 

[Thanatopsis]

For $99, I would go ahead and get the platinum. I paid $99 for my Live! Gamers Edition, because the platinum was 199 at the time.

As for liveware, you don't need to install it. Just install the standalone drivers and the card runs fine.

 

[SUOrangeman]

FWIW, the Santa Crux is $70 on EBWorld.com.

I want to start researcing this Acoustic Edge from Philips. Could it be a contendah?

-SUO