My buffers have to be set to 512 to play the song on the dvd disk. Is that good. Anything less I get drop outs?
I am using the built in motherboard realtek ac97 Is that fast?
Tomorrow I will install the m-audio 1010LT, and set that up. Is that a good recording card?
Whatever buffer size works is the right size. There is no downside to raising latency during playback other than a very slight pause between hitting the spacebar and hearing sound come out.
Small buffers are only necessary if you're using soft synths or monitoring software-based effects during recording. When that's necessary, you can bypass effects and freeze tracks during playback in order to free up CPU cycles while tracking. Once you've recorded the tracks and are ready to start mixing, bump the buffer size back up. If you're just recording live audio (vox, bass, drums, guitar, hardware synths) you can monitor directly off the interface and keep the large buffers all the time.
The 1010LT may not be a high-end unit, but it should work just fine for you and is definitely superior to the Realtek interface.
After installing the M-Audio, be sure to disable the Realtek. Having two audio devices can cause conflicts.
Whether or not the 1010LT will allow you to lower buffer sizes, I don't know. Don't be surprised if it makes no difference, since the interface itself does not have much impact on latency. The efficiency of its driver does, though, which is why some cards to better than others. Mostly, though it's about the sample rate and how much CPU horsepower you have and what kind of demands your song places on the CPU (e.g. reverb and linear-phase equalizers are CPU-intensive effects).