^^ I've bought a cheap sound card back in 2008 at around ~400 bucks and it lasted only for 1 year - the sound was too low even after lots of software tweak - it had some old creative sound chip.
after that I've bought one USB Sound Dongle a year ago at 150 bucks - though you need to boost the audio a bit using your audio player / windows sound and audio devices properties - the sound quality is pretty good
So Op can either get a USB sound dongle ( just make sure it's has at-least 1 year warranty ) or he can buy a Asus sound card but never opt for some cheap sound card from less known brands - they just use some old unused chips for which there's no driver updates are even available anymore - only option is to use the CD that comes ith it. USB Audio dongle though is cheap but needs no driver installation - tested on Xp, Vista and Win 7