It's great if all you're doing is listening to music.. but if you need it to use skype, vent, etc, then no. I thought maybe mine was just faulty, but after reading online it seems that others have had the same problem.

Dedicated sound cards provide better audio quality, more features and more stable drivers than on-board audio, but most of us aren't prepared to pay the Earth for one, particularly if we spend more time gaming than listening to uncompressed audio through a ￡300 pair of studio headphones.

Kitguru says: Good value for money combined with excellent performance. Recommended.

Good build quality; Value for money; Powerful headphone amplifier; Easy to use software

Unattractive and slow loading software; Stiff competition

Being a gamer and a bit of an audiophile, I love the sound quality produced by the Blaster Z. I would have given it 5 stars but the drivers & software could use some updating/improvement, and I had to turn off the speed shift technology (SST) features of my rig as a work-around because it was...

In the world of on-board audio processing for motherboards, graphics cards and even headsets, it's no small wonder that companies like Creative are...

Excellent audio quality; Good step up on most on-board audio; SBX Pro Studio processing; Superb microphone

Crystal Voice occasionally digitises voices; SBX Pro Studio (very occasionally) crashes

By vulcz Loving this sound card. Recently upgraded my computer, and sadly wasn't able to use my old sound card (X-Fi Fatal1ty Professional PCI) because my new motherboard (ASRock z97 Extreme6) doesn't have any PCI slots.

Works great with Windows 10. A lot better than onboard audio.

Gaming with the Sound Blaster Z is truly a spectacular experience. The Sound Blaster Z is an ideal all-round solution for your PC gaming and entertainment needs. It comes complete with the Sound Blaster Beamforming Microphone for crystal clear voice communication.

Well Built; Lighting; Great sound quality; Beam mic

Better than Onboard but with todays tech; not substanitially; no light control :

Makes a huge difference over using on-board sound, whether listening via headphones or speakers. Did require some initial sound balancing and tweaking though, using the provided software.

Creative Labs recently sent us over one of their new Sound Blaster Z sound cards. The Sound Blaster Z is the entry-level in their latest sound card line and we were very excited to review it, given the sometimes controversial outlook on discrete sound cards by gamers.