Bort
And is it possible to have low latency and also prevent SONAR from taking over control over the PC sound muting all other apps?

Change the Share Drivers With Other Programs setting.

CJaysMusic
No, you need to get a sound card made for recording and one that has good drivers for low latency. Look into MOTU, Echo, Focusrite and RME for sound cards. I think k the only one you can get for under $200 may be one of the focusrite models, as those other sound card manufactures start at about $600 and go to $1800.

 
Again remember what I will be using this for. Absolutely no recording. No need for inputs. No need for absolutely anything else other than rendering live sound generated by VSTI in the cleanest possible way with 0 latency. I prefer the interface be inside the PC (i.e. PCI) for best latency and no component clutter. No USB portability required or desired.
 
1. Looked at MOTU. In their PCI Audio section, they only have three expensive offerings that are rack mountable with lots of inputs and fancy recording features. Need none of that.
 
2. With Echo I see no internal card offerings.
 
3. Focusrite is all external boxes with lots of knobs in inputs. Don't need nor want any of that.
 
4. RME is expensive and overkill for not needing any of their features.
 
With the vast experience in this forum, can no one recommend a simple PCI audio card that just renders audio out, has great drivers for latency and good clean sound quality. I don't need expensive external boxes with features I will never use.
 
Guess I'll go with ASUS Xonar Essence ST if no one can help with fitting suggestions and cross my fingers.
 

Noel
Change the Share Drivers With Other Programs setting.

 
Does not work. I checked that box and the moment I play anything in SONAR all other apps go silent. Tried with WASAPI and ASIO drivers. The only other driver that works is the regular sound card one but that one has horrible latency.

This might be a stupid question but if my motherboard DAC is the problem, will an external DAC like (FiiO TAISHAN-D03K Digital to Analog Audio Converter) give me the needed clean sound with no lag?
  
Optical out of the on board Realtek into this one. Wouldn't that eliminate the poor quality DAC on the stock motherboard? Maybe I don't understand what extra an audio interface provides for me, but if all I need is a clean analog signal out (with none of the recording features of the other studio interfaces), then the digital signal out of SONAR just needs to be converted to analog right?

I can't say for sure, but I don't think using the Realtek's optical out is going to solve the problem. Also, getting a dedicated audio interface for SONAR will automatically solve the problem with driver sharing, as you can let Windows, browsers and other multimedia apps continue to use the Realtek.
 
If you have a PCI slot (i.e. not Express), you might consider M-Audio audiophile 192 or 2496:
 
http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=products.family&ID=PCIinterfaces
 
Otherwise, in that price range, you're going to have to shop used.

Bort, I'm sorry but this is just the way things are. Quality costs. PCI(e) cards are not often used anymore and there are few budget offerings, but a USB based offering like the Scarlett shouldn't really be much worse latency wise, the quality of that has improved significantly over the last few years.
 
The smallest options from the really pro companies like RME or Apogee (Mac only) cost upwards of 500 bucks. If that is not what you want to spend then you're looking at something from Focusrite, Edirol or M-Audio. I wouldn't personally recommend M-Audio and the Focusrites are popular on this forum. That should tell you a lot. If you really want top quality and few features you could go for a PCI based RME 9632. It has only one analog I/O, midi, a phones output and an optical ADAT I/O. It sells for 325 euros where I live.

After paying near retail for MOTU 2408mk3 core and expansion systems, I was back at GC for a cable or two, and what did I spy?
 
A 2408 mk2 w PCI card in the pre-owned case, for $160! Its mine now!
 
It came w a 30 day locally exercisable guarantee that I didn't need, it works perfectly.

Sanderxpander
The smallest options from the really pro companies like RME or Apogee (Mac only) cost upwards of 500 bucks. If that is not what you want to spend then you're looking at something from Focusrite, Edirol or M-Audio. I wouldn't personally recommend M-Audio and the Focusrites are popular on this forum. That should tell you a lot. If you really want top quality and few features you could go for a PCI based RME 9632. It has only one analog I/O, midi, a phones output and an optical ADAT I/O. It sells for 325 euros where I live.

No one has mentioned the Komplete Audio 6? It is very reasonable in price. Is this any good?

I don't know that particular model, but I used to own and beat the crap out of one of their older interfaces - can't even recall the name now.  But it gave me bulletproof reliability for several years of HARD gigging use.
 
So, while not knowing that model, I WILL vouch for them making good converters and a quality hardware box for them, so I would think that device would be fine.
 
Bob Bone
 

Yeah I think they're probably around the Edirol range, I would rate them slightly above the simplest M-Audio ones but that may be cause I'm kinda done with my Fast Track Pro.

But I thought you didn't need/want 4 analog ins and outs? The Scarlett 2i2 is half the price and I don't expect a large difference in quality. It doesn't have midi though, the 2i4 does (and is still cheaper than the Komplete).