When you say upgrade the sound card.... you can not go to a computer store generally and buy an upgraded sound card and expect it to work.....
What "WE" mean when we say an upgraded sound card is the kind of sound card (interface) that is sold in music stores which have Music Recording departments.
M-Audio, Presonus, Focusrite are some of the many interface manufacturers who make decent USB interfaces that will work well. The nice thing about the external interfaces is that once you install the drivers and set up the DAW software to recognize it and use it as the default sound card, you can swap it back and forth between a desk top and a lappy as often as you need.
I use a Focusrite interface and it moves between my lappy (when I need it) to my custom build desktop DAW where it mostly stays these days.
You can pick up a nice Audio/midi interface for between $100 to $300 depending on the features and the bells and whistles. The number of outputs, inputs, pre-amps on the audio inputs will determine the price. In the Cakewalk store, they have some interfaces as well that will work fine.
http://www.cakewalk.com/P...aspx/Cakewalk-Hardware look around since they are available in many budget ranges.