Xonar

hi! I recently purchased the asus xonar d1. at first I was happy with the instant improvement in quality especially via headphones but now I'm getting rather frustrated.

recording mic in is still really poor - well, everybody says consumer quality cards never do well in that area so I guess I have to live with that. so I thought at least I have echo, etc. to play around with now. wrong. a mod on the official asus boards says it's not possible to record stereo mix and have the effects running at the same time. as soon as I turn those on, it automatically switches to microphone over from stereo mix. He says it's a spec limitation. can anyone confirm this is actually possible on lower end creative cards like the x-fi extreme gamer or an audigy?

well, tough luck. so I'll try to record via usb webcam mic. wrong. apparently, since I installed the xonar-no other device appears in the menus be it control panel/audio recording devices, audacity, etc.pp
older/generic drivers do not help with this issue. can anyone confirm this problem?
or is anyone using their webcam successfully while having a xonar in their machine?

I'm getting rather frustrated here..I feel like the only good thing I got out of this thing is a bunch of clicking relais and a not-so-nerdy-looking box :[