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The Creative Sound BlasterX AE-5 ships in a black box with plenty of colourful accents spread across the front. A photo of the sound card itself is also splashed across the front of the box.
Inside, the first thing we come across are the accessories, including: 1x welcome card, 1x quick start guide, 1x warranty guide, 1x RGB LED strip and 1x LED strip extension.
After that, we co me to the sound card itself. It is quite a compact unit, measuring just 145 x 20 x 128 mm, and obviously connects via the PCIe interface.
Covering the PCB is a thin sheet of metal – this is both to give the card some aesthetic appeal as well as providing protection to the internal components.
The back of the AE-5 has been left bare, but the two-tone PCB design is quite attractive and should fit in most systems. In any case, this sound card is likely to be installed underneath a graphics card so you are unlikely to see much of it once installed.
At the end of the sound card we find two connection points – 1x Molex power input for the RGB lighting, and the HD Audio front-panel connector.
On the side there is the Sound Blaster product branding, as well as a small 4-pin connector for the include RGB strip.
Lastly, the audio outputs are definitely worth looking at. The AE-5 supports, from left to right, 1 x TOSLINK Optical Out, 1 x 1/8″ (3.5mm) Mic In/Line In, 1 x 1/8″ (3.5mm) Headphone/Headset Out, 1 x 1/8″ Front Out, 1 x 1/8″ Rear Out, 1 x 1/8″ Center/Sub Out.
That means you can connect a pair of headphones, a mic, and have a 5.1 speaker setup connected at the same time.
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