Greg, unless a tech support person happens to also be into DAW's like we are they will have no clue what you're talking about. All they know is you can plug in one of those stupid little mini plugs into a $100 desktop PC speaker system and play your games or watch a movie. For that the guy says "sure, your soundcard is fine".

Don't worry about it though, as a PC your Dell is perfectly good. Also don't worry about installing another soundcard inside your computer, that's why there's lots of very good USB external ones. People here use pretty much all of the different names with good results. I have the EMU, others have a Focusrite, I know someone uses a Roland, there lots of different ones. The price depends on how many inputs and outputs. My Roland Sonic Cell is also an interface and lots of verious guitar sims, and other hardware outboard gear also hook up via USB and can act as an interface as well so depending on your plans you may not need to buy a completely separate USB interface, some other piece of gear may do it.

In my case I have the top of the line 1820M with 8 ins/outs so my EMU costs around $500. They also have some with 2 in/outs for $100-150 or so. You also get pro level 1/4" and RCA plugs, individual headphone outs plus much, much higher quality preamps and circuitry than what's in that el cheapo Real Teck chip on your motherboard.

I'm out of date on the latest offerings, just Google "USB audio/midi interface" find one that fits your budget and then ask us about it before you buy.

Bob

Biab/RB latest build, Win 11 Pro, Ryzen 5 5600 G, 512 Gig SSD, 16 Gigs Ram, Steinberg UR22 MkII, Roland Sonic Cell, Kurzweil PC3, Hammond SK1, Korg PA3XPro, Garritan JABB, Hypercanvas, Sampletank 3, more.