mettelus
that would be a fool's errand . 

 
Yup that's my job 

mettelus
Not arguing with you Jim, that would be a fool's errand . From my perspective is more to understand a piece of hardware being "bad"... to clarify... hardware may be limited (i.e., Realtek cannot record for crap), but is not "totally incapable."
 

We're really not arguing at all...   
 
In the example of Realtek onboard audio, it can work completely glitch-free (albeit not particularly great fidelity or low-latency performance).
BUT, if the machine suffers from super high DPC Latency (not a result of the Realtek itself), it doesn't matter if you're running a Fireface UCX, Apollo, or SoundBlaster... the audio is going to glitch/dropout.
No amount of CPU will remedy the situation.  No audio interface will remedy the situation.
Increasing the ASIO buffer size might buy more time before the glitch/dropout, but again won't remedy it.
The issue has to be solved at the source.  In this case, it was the motherboard components/drivers.
With low/consistent DPC Latency, you can effectively run ANY audio interface that has stable drivers.
Those with top-notch drivers can be run (with substantial loads - glitch free) at the smallest ASIO buffer sizes.

What motherboard make/model did the OP ultimately go with? I'm looking at an upgrade soon too.

Jim Roseberry
In the example of Realtek onboard audio, it can work completely glitch-free (albeit not particularly great fidelity or low-latency performance).
BUT, if the machine suffers from super high DPC Latency (not a result of the Realtek itself), it doesn't matter if you're running a Fireface UCX, Apollo, or SoundBlaster... the audio is going to glitch/dropout.
No amount of CPU will remedy the situation.  No audio interface will remedy the situation.
Increasing the ASIO buffer size might buy more time before the glitch/dropout, but again won't remedy it.
The issue has to be solved at the source.  In this case, it was the motherboard components/drivers.
With low/consistent DPC Latency, you can effectively run ANY audio interface that has stable drivers.
Those with top-notch drivers can be run (with substantial loads - glitch free) at the smallest ASIO buffer sizes.

We all know about DPC latency here. A formatted/clean install of windows might have resolved it (not a custom build OEM with bloatware and vapourware all over it), with firmware/driver updates everywhere. Followed by a sprinkling of windows update. Unless that happened first you can't possibly nail it down to hardware. These are the factors you are side stepping here. The OP was running a build configured by the OEM for business. The Intel management applications were installed for instance (just one example), I've seen them increase DPC latency as some of them hook into the drivers at hardware level, working similar to ASIO design principles... Only they are so poorly designed the PC latency deteriorates considerably.
 
Anyways...

Dr A, With all due respect...
While you're debating me on semantics, I solved the OP's issue. 
Plain and simple, he's on to getting work done.
If it's more palatable for you to think it was random happenstance... you keep thinking that.  
 

Yes   It is working well now.  Thanks Jim.  

Jim Roseberry
Dr A, With all due respect...
While you're debating me on semantics, I solved the OP's issue. 
Plain and simple, he's on to getting work done.
If it's more palatable for you to think it was random happenstance... you keep thinking that.  

 
I'm not demanding answers, but what has been written does seem rather evasive and the responses really didn't make much sense to me. Glad the OP is up and running anyway and yup guess this is a waste of time discussion now.

The dog doesn't need replacing. It's just on the wrong food.

Hey Doc.  I just want you to know that I sincerely appreciate you taking the time to try and help me.