Ray, computers are designed to be a jack of all trades all singing dancing cover everything machine. Now for most people what comes as standard will more than do the job. A lot also depends on the specs of the PC in question.......but all that said when it comes down to a speciality pro application like video production, specialist photography, high end gaming and music production the standard components and software just do not cut it. To do these things to a higher end pro standard specialist software and hardware are necessary. The point about not putting in inferior components that do not work IS NOT AN ISSUE....most manufacurers put in reasonably good quality soundcards ok for every day use..... This standard soundcard will do a lot but will not produce the quality required for specialist applications like gaming and music production. If you read the article from the link I gave in an earlier post you would understand why.

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInfo.cfm?bandID=687727&songID=5238055