For speakers I would go with Altec Lansing or Logitech; for sound cards, after my disappointment with CL I bought a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card which I loved (it is still kicking around in one of my computers) but now most of the computers have a good enough on-board sound card, so I am not sure what are the advantages of a Sound Blaster this days, I am sure there are, but I do not know for me the on board are good enough; for CD/DVD there are many; mice I also buy Logitech, webcams... I do not know, after barely using the one I bought 8 years ago I never cared anymore, I do not have it even connected now.

>That seems to be the take of many after this weekends fiasco.
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>What are the alternatives to Creative?
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>>I used to be a fan of Creative Labs I bought lot's of their products, even one that many people do not even know it ever existed, a mouse that flies aka "bat". Then one day I bought a Webcam "Go" and had the misfortune of also buying Windows ME at around the same time, and trying to make those two pieces of .... work I found the Creative Labs forums or newsgroup, and started reading their "answers". They were so unprofessional, insulting and un-helpful that I decided not to buy anything from them anymore.