Another reason for a proper, external audio interface is noise. My previous ASUS mother board introduced a noticiable buzzing noise when using it for receiving

Another reason for a proper, external audio interface is noise. My previous ASUS mother board introduced a noticiable buzzing noise when using it for receiving audio, even though it was claimed that the isolation was good. Maybe something else in my desktop was outputting stronger interference than what they had tested with. Newer ASUS motherboard doesn't suffer from the same issue. Although the noise sucked, the real reason I got a external audio interface was the 1/4"/XLR connections anyways, so matters less.