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turn on suggestions
 Auto-suggest helps you quickly narrow down your search results by suggesting possible matches as you type. I have used Creative for about 15 years and never had any serious problems with them. They are/were the leaders in developing sound hardware for gaming specifically. If I wanted the top of the line card, money no object I would have bought a Creative X-Fi.
So why do you say stay away from them? A bad experience? Or just following what someone else said?  
What card are you using? Audigys are pretty reliable. X-Fi's aren't.
Creative never once was a leader in anything. They were outclassed by much smaller companies with far superior APIs. But Creative had the money and so they bought out every single last one of their competitors and became the sole monopoly of positional audio. That's how they got to be "the leaders." Then their complacency ended their relevance after the release of Vista and the switch to OpenAL. Every single one of their products hasn't advanced since 2007. Their sound quality is outclassed by the lowest-end products from ASUS, HT, and M-Audio. The proprietary tech that made them so "great"? None of it is used anymore.
I had a forum post detailing my miseries with the X-Fi Fatal1ty Pro but I can't find it for the life of me. To sum it up, I couldn't get it to work with anything but XP and Linux. Actually, I got it working with Windows 7 just fine until I installed their shit-tastic drivers. Then my audio became garbled static. It took a random person to modify the drivers himself to fix Creative's retardedness. The length of time between driver releases was abysmal.
I've long since switched to a Xonar and never looked back. Started with the DX, compared it with my old X-Fi and, save for older games, my DX outdid the "top of the line" X-Fi in every way. Now I have a Xonar STX.
If you want a Creative card I suggest looking at Auzentech. They edit Creative's drivers and provide much better support. I almost got one of their cards but they keep going out of stock. 
Which Creative card have I not used would be an easier question to answer. I started using them back when ISA was the only port for internal periphals, right around the time you turned 4
I haven't used a dedicated sound card since I turned my Core 2 Duo into a home theater PC and started using HDMI audio (about 4 years ago). That's why I asked but after looking over reviews I have found HT and M-Audio to be problematic leaving only Asus and Creative. Both make good sound cards but Asus' does better in the mainstream area it seems.
Whatever floats your boat. I remember using a Soundblaster 32-bit. I also remember complaining to my dad all the time because the audio wouldn't work. Go figure.
What's problematic with M-Audio? I know HT has a few rebadged Creative cards and a few duds but there are a handful that are pretty decent and miles ahead of that X-Fi XtremeAudio, which isn't even a true X-Fi card. But you already bought a DG so all is well.
I've been using an X-Fi for like 5 years now. I only went that route because onboard sound cards where not doing good enough with surround sound and didn't push speakers for crap. Do any motherboards now come with good intergrated sound? May effect my next mobo purchase. I would love to free up a slot. 
yea I found two asus boards that have soundblaster cards.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8
and
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8
My only problem is I bet that they don't have enough outbound power to give you some decent punch on largers headphones or speakers.
Oh wtf.. that is some serious fall advertising then in my opinion. Why is realtek the only game in town?
Also.. what about onboard nics? Did they ever become worth a damn. I have a pcie Intel card because I have never found an onboard nic that was solid.
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I started with the Soundblaster, then the Soundblaster 16 Bit, SB 32 Bit, 64 Bit and 64 Bit Gold (with 512KB of built in ram for positional effects). I picked up an Audigy and Audigy 2 ZS for my first dual core machine. Last one I had was an X-Fi PCI that worked for me with no problems on Win 7 with a Core 2 Duo. Except for a few off shoots and Turtle Beach I don't remember anyone talking about anything but Soundblaster sound cards during that time.
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