[Solved] Recommend a sound card

I'm in the market for a sound card (I think). Here is the situation:

I am getting some slight buzz through the onboard sound of my motherboard (ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe). Also now that I have upgraded to windows 7 I don't have the soundmax control panel which I used in xp, so I don't have a graphic equalizer. So I guess I'm looking for a solution that eliminates the buzz and offers graphic equalizer functionality. However I will be upgrading my mb in a few months. Unfortunately on the new mb both PCI slots are directly below the PCI-E slots which will be occupied by the graphics cards, and the aftermarket heatsinks on them will obstruct both PCI slots. That only leaves a PCI-E x1 slot for the sound card, and from the preliminary searching I have done the sound card selection for PCIEx1 slots is seems abysmal.

I've considered picking up a pair of desktop speakers (not interested in surround) with bass and treble knobs on them. Anyone care to weigh in with a recommendation?

As far as i'm concerned most soundcards worth considering do in fact have pcie x1.
The Asus DX line and higher models.
Auzentech Bravura and Forte.
Creative X-FI Titanium line.
Really depends on how much you want to spend and your intended uses.
Some are hardware based and offer better gaming performance.
Good cards are $80-200.

I listen to music while I"m browsing and stuff, mostly symphonic metal, and I enjoy the game music when I'm gaming. doesn't have to be super high quality or loud, but I don't want any buzzing or distortion at mid listening volumes

I see that, I'm leery of dropping too much $$$ on a sound card because I don't want the quality of the card to outstrip my speakers by too much. Not a whole ton of point if the speakers can't put out quality sound to match the card

that sounds promising, why are the pciex1 cards so much more expensive than the pci cards?

Best answer selected by Execut1ve.