PC upgrading time for me too!

[Wyrm]

Turtle Beach and Philips both have some pretty good sound cards out. id software actually used a Philips sound card at last years E3 booth to show off Doom 3 features. There's a Turtle Beach 7.1 card that rivals the Audigy 2 ZS as far as quality goes (if I remember the article I saw right) and is a bit less than the Audigy (roughly $77 vs the ~$85 for the low end ZS one). However, it doesn't hold a candle to the Platinum and Platinum Pro as far as features go, and doesn't come with any games like the Gamer does.

If you do want a SB card though, now is the time to get one, there's an online sale here, where you can get a mail in rebate on them for a really good deal (Platinum for 95 w/rebate, Platinum Pro for 137 w/rebate, or the others for 30-50 w/rebates).

Side note, if you're looking for information on just about any computer part, Tom's Hardware Guide has good reviews of just about everything.