Summary:
Creative's latest addition to the groundbreaking Soundblaster Live series, the Platinum edition introduces the Live Drive, and also Live Ware 3.0.

Using the basic sound blaster live card (Basic, yeah right, this card is a freaking moster), the platinums winning gambit is the introduction of the Live Drive. Importing settings like midi out, headphone out, and mic in, the live drive is basically a music editors dream. It's useful when your roomies, girlfriend or parents wants you to turn the sound down and all you have to do is pop on some good Sony headphones on and go on your merry way.

Along with the hardware, comes Creatives award winning LiveWare software suite. Trust me, this is all you will need, though I find it easier to remove the live taskbar from the top of the screen.

Summary:
The SoundBlaster Platinum card is by far the best card I have used. It is very similiar to the SB Live! Value card which I had, except that it has the Live! Drive, which makes it very easy to plug in headphones(Sennheiser), or other recording,playing devices. The pre-programmed game patches for the games is awesome. It also came with a great software bundle, including full versions of Descent 3, Thief, and Need for Speed III. Also included was IBM ViaVoice, Key Tar, and a couple of others that I have not really checked out. Overall the best card available for great surround sound when paired with the Boston Acoustics Digital Media Theater Speakers with Surround Sound subwoofer.