Which soundcard?

I've recently been having problems with latency (posted about it before and got some good advice) but unfortunately the problem seems to be that my soundcard is too slow, or should have onboard RAM but doesn't. It's just what came with the computer which is a couple of years old. I was just wondering what soundcards you guys use and what specification a soundcard requires to run cakewalk so that I can play my midi instrument and record in real time? At the moment everything comes out out of time and slows down the longer I run the program for. Am I right about this needing onboard RAM?

Thanks!

Sound card do not have onboard ram, but having a ton of ram in the computer helps. To realy decide what kind of sound card, you need to decide what you want to do, one card or interface works well in one situation, another will not.

To clarify, are you going to record as a solo act, or with one friend, or with a band of four or five? This matters because then you can decide what you can afford that will give what you want, a Solo artist working alone does not need more than one or two inputs, unless he wants to mike up a drum set. second what kind of computer do you want to use, a desk top or laptop? there are choices to make there as well, then cost comes in to play is this a hobby or working toward a profession? think these things thru and post back we all can make more informed suggestions then.