Creative any better?

[imashination]

All my experiences of creative soundcards have largely been bad; bloated drivers, silly childish interfaces, pushing eax on an industry that didnt want it, my external NX 2 died twice, they refused to provide vista/ win7 drivers for the cards I did have etc.

Last time I tried one was 3 years ago. Right now I have a gigayte UD3 motherboard and as expected the onboard sound pretty much sucks. The main issue being I can heard plenty of interference whenever the harddrives are accessed.

All Im after is a simple sound card with low noise and thats it. Ive no need for 7.1, no sound in. I just want it high quality and to get out my way; so no mountain of taskbar icons, no 50 meg driver package loading at bootup, no monthly reminders to register. Just install, sound good and get out of my way. Oh and last time I wanted to install a driver, they refused to offer downloadable drivers, only offering small update patches, that was a huge turn off.

Have creative improved or should I expect the same old crap?

 

[imashination]

Im hooked up with a Marantz amp and a pair of B&W speakers. Ive no intention of going to surround any time soon, this machine really is 90% music, most of my games are muted whilst i listen

That was the other thing i remember from last time i had a few creative cards. Pick the wrong pci slot at your own peril and watch your machine bluescreen

 

[imashination]

Oh, balls, im a little short on pci slots -_- Its going to have to be pcie