 |
|
Mark Muschett and Mikael Hagén put Creative Labs' Live!Drive I / II to the test. |
|
|
|
|
|
| Sound News | Press
Releases | Archives | Week In
Review | Editorials
| Articles | |
|
|
|
||||
|
|||||
|
|
Sound Blaster Live!Drive I / II - Mikael Hagén and Mark Muschett - Last updated February 12, 2001
Introduction: Update: Just a quick update to let you know that the Optical Digital i/o 2 card will work fine with the new Live 5.1 cards which have the same expansion connection as the CT4760 cards. The new Live!Drive IR will most likely replace the Live!Drive I/II in the near future. The Live!Drive IR offers the same functionality as the Live!Drive II and in addition includes a remote control. You can find more details about the Live!Drive IR in our Live Platinum 5.1 review With the launch of the Platinum Creative introduced the Live!Drive that in addition to digital in/out allows easy front panel access to several of the in/out functions of the card including volume control for the headphone and microphone jack and MIDI. The connections are easy to access because Creative has placed them on the front of a box that is the same size as a standard 5 ¼" drive. This box as you would expect then fits perfectly into any available 5 ¼" drive bay, hence the name Live!Drive. If you have the original Live full version or any of the new Live cards introduced this fall you will be able to buy the Live!Drive directly from Creative. It's already available in Europe and should be available later this month in North America It will not work with the original Live!Value boards (CT4670) since they lack the required Aud_Ext connection but it will work fine with the original Live (CT4620), the new retail Live cards(CT4760) and the new OEM Live boards (CT483x). The Live!Drive will be available in two versions in US - the Live!Drive I that comes bundled with the Live!Platinum in US will cost $129 and the Live!Drive II that was bundled in Europe will cost $149. Current owners of the America’s version of the Platinum will also be able to upgrade to the LiveDrive 2 through a HotSwap program. The cost is $49 to upgrade from the LiveDrive 1 to LiveDrive 2. In Europe you will only be able to get Live!Drive II, which now is available for $181 including tax and shipping. The most significant difference is that the Live!Drive II includes optical in/out in addition to the coaxial in/out that comes with the Live!Drive II. In this review we will take a look at what the Live!Drive I and II offers.
|
Sound Card Reviews Hurricane Extreme Initial Review SoundBlaster Live! reference review SoundBlaster Live! Platinum 5.1 European Edition SoundBlaster Live! Platinum 5.1 America's Edition Sound Blaster Live! Player 5.1 Sound Blaster Live! X-Gamer 5.1 Hoontech SoundTrack Digital-XG Boostaroo Headphone Amplifier / Splitter Sound Blaster Live!Drive I and II Sound Blaster Creative Digital I/O 2 |
|
|
|
All content, design and work is ©
2001 - 3D Sound Surge Please respect the copyrights of the articles and writers herein. All copyrights are enforced by 3DSS.