EMI shielding (red metal), and the card has two red LEDs that are very bright on that later. The big pros are that the card has a short, compact size with a PCI-E interface. I know to never use a driver on a CD as shipped, especially for sound card s.

Driver disks and a quick start guide are provided, although I downloaded the latest driver set from the Creative web site. The card comes tied down with twist ties to the red velvet coated cardboard inside tray. The retail packaging is excellent, and shows off the card nicely through a transparent window. I have also owned the ASUS Xonar DSX, Auzentech X-Fi Forte 7.1, and others. I have experienced the driver foibles, hardware issues, and you name it. I have used Creative Sound Blaster cards in the past, starting with the original Sound Blaster 8 bit card, all the way to the X-Fi series. Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Refurbished If you are considering this card and you enjoy gaming this card is awesome and a great buy you will not be disappointed in the sound quality with its deep rich bass and awesome highs. Ok so the cons are not much for cons considering the great sound quality you get but I did enjoy the other features other cards had like the Xfi or Audigy ZS series carried and this did not make much sense to me since this Z series card brags about quad core audio processing but had less features than previous cards. Lacks some features that the ol der cards had Separate line out and headphone jacks on the back I have been using Creative brand sound cards for years, as a fact my first card was a creative sound blaster live! back in 98 and through the years I upgraded my cards be it because tech specs changed or the cards had features I loved and wanted, but the one factor that remains true through all the upgrades is that the sound quality has always been top rate with Creative Sound Blaster, music and movies have a quality that seems to come to life and games are just that much better and pop out at you as sound plays just as important role in immersion of any media experience and this Sound Blaster Z card does not fail at any of it.

Sound blaster z mic not working