i have an original sundblaster live. its a piece of bum fluff so that could be (a rather big) issue. im saving up a bit of cash for an upgrade (P4 instead of athlon hopefully) n the soundcard upgrade will come in good time. im just gonna stick with sx1 for now but cheers for all the posts, its been a bit of an eyopener, hope its helped clear a few issues up for other people as well