Never had one, don't know where to start so I will heed advice. Budget is $120 USD I've heard a lot of complaints about Creative's drivers malfunctioning so I'll stay away from there.
I love my Auzentech X Meridian 2G but no PCIe sadly. I guess you'll go with one of the Asus Xonars. I would certainly steer clear of the creatives.
I've got an asus xonar D2X PCIe and it's great, wonderful clarity and was a lot better than my previous on board sound
What will be your primary use? Media playback, gaming, recording? What speakers will you be using with, stereo or surround?
I've had no problems at all with the Creative Soundblaster Z - drivers installed without issue. A review said the same, they'd had problems with Creative cards but not this one.
Gaming and media. My home stereo will be the majority of playback except when gaming ill be using a pair of turtle beach x41s
Does your stereo have spdif? If so I would just connect up with the onboard that way and forget it. The receiver does all the heavy lifting either way so a soundcard isn't serious benefit there. Otherwise if you are analogue only I would suggest HT Omega.
I'd probably disagree with you there Ivan. I used to use onboard SPDIF on my Rampage 3 Extreme, outputting to a Bose home theatre system. I picked up my SoundBlaster Z a couple of weeks ago and the difference is very noticeable switching over to a discreet audio card.