I've got a Dell Inspiron 7520SE laptop with (according to Speccy) a Conexant SmartAudio HD sound card. As I have recently bought a new high-end headset, in terns of sound qualty, would I be better off using the internal card or should I get an external USB card?

Since you ask the question, you are likely not an audiophile. An audiophile-type person will likely chime in and tell you how much better an external card would be.

But the truth is in your ears. Maybe swing by Best Buy or a friend's house and plug your headset into some expensive gear. See if you can tell the difference in both music and gaming or whatever is important to you.

An area where the expensive stuff stands out is in surround sound processing. If you want any of the Dolby stuff, then you need to pay for it. Dolby does sell Dolby Headphone and Dolby Digitial Live that people enjoy for FPS gaming.

If your ears cannot tell the difference most of the time then just ignore those people who get overly passionate about their expensive gear and try to talk you into spending more money on things that don't do anything for you.

And for NO apparent reason coat hangers :

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/154863-the-meta-sata-pataphysics-of-usb-transfer/#entry985935

jaclaz