The soundcard is just a suggestion really.
Personally I like having 2 devices; X-fi goes to the speakers, my headet is on the onboard.
A dedicated card can do the audio processing in hardware, but some say onboard chips do the same thing nowadays. I'll see if I can find something more helpfull, or someone more knowledgeable could chime in.
Lol yeah, sims tend to get expensive.
