7.1 external sound card needed, Which one to pick ?

[8811sPiNzCoBrA]

So ever since I got my second R9 290 in. I haven't been able to use my Asus Xonar D2 since the PCI slot has been covered by AMD awesomeness,
and now I am using the integrated Realtek ALC 1150 :unsure: on my Gigabyte Z97x Gaming 5 which even though it sounds alright while not gaming.

the features are terrible and the sound in-game is like a bull having diarrhea since the cross-talk from the motherboard is almost louder than the music that i am listening to.

SO the only solution is to go USB.
Now i have been looking around, and the only promising option is the Asus Xonar U7.

which supports 7.1 stereo expansion ? which is something the realtek does not do well. and it is a necessity for me since i use a multi speaker setup.
it does not need to have a good headphone out since i already have something else for that. 

Is this a good choice or are there any other options ?

 

[Krishtrinity]

All those 7.1 soundcard from ASUS and creative offer fake surround,for actual surround sound experience you need an AV reciever and a front and rear bookshelf speaker with a powered subwoofer.Like pioneer bs22(front)+micca mb42x(rear) and a polk 50w or 100w subwoofer for a small room it's more than enough.But if you are satisfied with a 7.1 soundcard go ahead.Seriously bookshelf speaker+dac and amp is way better than any 5.1 or 7.1 from creative,logitech etc

[8811sPiNzCoBrA]

I have a 7.1 surround speaker system, it is comprised of a amplifier from Yamaha and has a subwoofer and 7 speakers like you would expect. now i listen to music and i really like to have the sound to come from all speakers. hence the need for a soundcard since the speaker fill option from Realtek is absolutely hideous(it has some weird reverb effect which makes my head spin) i need a external soundcard purely for the low noise and the stereo expansion that the Asus Xonar D2 did have.

am i completely out of options here ? 

[8811sPiNzCoBrA]

thanks for the help but i have come to my own solution,the asus U7 does have 7.1 upsampling.