Good soundcards for Windows 7, Home Studio 6XL, and live recordings?

Hello. I'm using SONAR HomeStudio XL. I have a Windows 7 machine and I'm using the M-audio Delta1010LT soundcard.

This soundcard worked fine in Windows XP but in Windows 7, not so good. The M-audio forum is full of guys all complaining of the same weird random clicks and pops and buzzes that I'm experiencing.. and some guys are posting these very elaborate BIOS schemes to eliminate it... I'm just afraid of all that.

I bought the Delta1010LT because it has 8 inputs... I can send feeds from 8 channels on my mixer, and basically record 8 tracks, live, simultaneously.

Are there any good soundcards out there that can do this, that arent made by M-Audio? I want to be able to record the 8 tracks live but I'm tired of dealing with this noise issue... I've updated all the drivers for everything...

thanks, I was thinking of a Firewire interface, but dont know anything about them.

Do these essentially replace the soundcard? I understand I hook the feeds from my mixer into the interface, and it connects to the computer via Firewire, and SONAR sees it... 

but what if I want to simply play an mp3 thru Windows Media Player? Does the computer see the Firewire thing, as "The soundcard"?

Yes, they replace the soundcard. You can try RME products also (which they say usually has the best drivers in the biz, but I suppose some of the other ones work also). http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Babyface/ http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/FirefaceUCX http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/FirefaceUFX