Well now I bought an M-Audio interface for $79 (which has the added benefit of recording to Pro Tools and has phantom power for a mic), and I think the sound quality is much better than my on board chipset.   I already had the M-Audio interface for a couple months but I was only using it for...

I recently bought that usb external sound card device and it is vastly superior in its percieved audio quality compared to my existing chip set, which was an integrated virtual chipset instead of hardware.  I have a lap top.  The device is for the lap top.  It makes YouTube videos in standard...