Hello,
My onboard sound recently failed, and I decided it would be easier to
add a PCI card than to deal with a Taiwanese RMA department.  I may
have been wrong.  The catch is that I'm dual booting Ubuntu 9.10 and
Windows 7.
I started by trying a SB Live that I had sitting around, which worked
great in Ubuntu, but I was unable to find any drivers that would make
it work right in Win7.
I next looked for something a little newer for sale.  Found an Audigy
SE, which is said to work well under Linux and had fairly recent
drivers available for Win7.  It does work well under Linux (it was
working by the time the login window came up, no interaction from me)
but once again, no drivers that actually work for Win7, contrary to
what Creative's web site says.  Creative's tech support is useless.
"Try uninstalling your drivers and then reinstalling."  Yes, that
happened to be the first 5 things I did.  Creative is now dead to
me...I'm not putting up with their fast release cycle and poor drivers
any more.  I think I recall having this same issue a couple years ago
with Vista and that SB Live that was in my parts bin...
So I ask not because it is a Linux issue, but because I'm guessing
someone has been in a similar situation: Does anyone have first hand
experience with a PCI or PCI-e sound card that works well in both
Linux and Windows 7?  I ended up with the Audigy by cross referencing
Linux compatibility lists with Windows driver availability from the
manufacturer, and that got me nowhere, so I'm hoping I can get
somewhere with actual experience.
I don't want to break the bank, and I'm no audiophile, but I'm willing
to spend some money to get something that works well.
Thanks!
-- 
Justin Kremer