Dont touch ANY soundcard that is usb.
They are utter shit, have high latencies and tons of problems....probably will give even worse performance than your onboard sound, seriously they are that cack. USB was just not meant for audio (hi Access!
and definately not audio production.
You want PCI or firewire, and if your going firewire you only want decent brands because there is some shit flying about. Ill recommend the RME fireface or Presonus Firebox or Firepod, even though your on a budget take a look at them.
Otherwise you have PCI cards and you cant go wrong with either RME again (pricey though) Maudio or Echo. Dont touch EMU, bag of crap.
Checkout RME 9632, Maudio 2496 or 192, echo mia or layla.
Going cheap on a soundcard will only cost you later in the long run with shitty performance or hassle with hardware or something else.
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