NamelessFragger: The X-Fi XtremeAudio is a fake. Get rid of it. If you want a sound card, get something like the X-Fi Prelude, Forte, or HomeTheater HD. Expensive, but they'd probably do your speakers some justice.
cogadh: What do you mean by "fake"? If you are saying that it is a software-based sound card like my current Audigy LS, that is not true. They offer a software-based card as an option on this system, the Soundblaster X-Fi MB. The X-Fi Extreme is the full hardware card that is the next step up from that.
My understanding is that the X-Fi XtremeAudio IS a software-based card and has more in common with the Audigy SE than the rest of the X-Fi lineup...then again, Creative is notorious for making OEM versions with the same names, but different hardware/driver features.
cogadh: The old sound card is an Audigy LS, I don't think Creative is even supporting it with driver updates anymore. It works fine in the XP machine I have now, but it is too dated for a new machine.
Miaghstir: I'd go with a card from Asus or Auzentech, not Creative. Granted, I have no experience at all of the former two, but they surely can't be worse than Creative's crash-prone drivers, even if Auzentech uses Creative's chips as a base.
</personal opinion>
Auzentech's X-Fi cards DO use Creative drivers, but they seem to suck less.
Mind you, I had to go through a LOT of driver updates before my X-Fi Prelude started working the way it should, but as of the first version that was touted as Windows 7-compatible, it's been smooth sailing.
