I'm glad I stay with 44.1. I used to have all these weird switching issues and tracks playing out of tune whenever I tried 48. Sonar would swap clock rates on me and revert back to 44.1 without warning etc.
Mostly I'm using 44.1 just so I don't have to think about down converting to go to a CD etc. My Yamaha 01v mixer also only supports 44.1 via spdif.
I use Share drivers with other programs.
I can run Sonar, Cubase, Wave Lab and Gold Wave at the same time and all are using the ASIO driver. There is no other driver anyways. I have disabled any traces of the on board sound. It is disabled in the BIOS.
I know 48 might improve my sound by 1 % but it's just easier to live without it.