Microphone Problem

Hi guys. I've been having this problem for quite a while now.

Headset: Steelseries Siberia v3 (jack input)
PC:
CPU: Intel Core i5 3570K @ 4.3Ghz
OS: Windows 8.1
Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-V LX
RAM: 8GB Corsair 1600mhz Vengeance (1x8GB)
Hard Drive: 1TB S-ATAIII 6.0Gb/s
Optical Drive: 22x DVD±RW DL S-ATA
Graphics card: AMD Radeon HD 7850 2GB
Sound card: Onboard 7.1 Audio
Case: Zalman Z11 Plus
PSU: 650W Corsair TX V2


For as long as I can remember I've been having troubles with the microphone quality being very bad, I've tried multiple headsets that are 3.5mm and I always get complaints about my mic quality being poor, or as if I'm talking from half way across the room and it being very muffled up etc.


Overall my mic sound quality is very bad compared to people on teamspeak and my friends often say it's horrible, sounds just wrong and not my voice.

I'm using the onboard sound card on the mobo - Realtek® ALC887 8-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC

I've tried the rear input jacks also, still no luck, messed around with every setting Realtek software and Control Panel sound options. Still the same. I have horrible echo unless I tick echo cancellation and horrible noise unless i tick that too. - Also updated to the latest Audio drivers from ASUS for the mobo.

I was wondering would an external USB sound card fix this issue? And would it ensure a lot higher quality mic input also. I've got a Steel Series Siberia v3, similar to what a few of my friends have and their mic quality is 10x better than mine, and I've tried my headset on there PC and it seems to be perfectly clear.

So I can only blame my onboard sound card.

I was looking into an external sound card such as this.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Creative-Pe...id=1420158657&sr=8-11&keywords=usb+sound+card


Would you guys recommend that? Or is there any other external usb soundcards you would recommend?

I've also looked into this. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Creative-So...qid=1420158657&sr=8-4&keywords=usb+sound+card
And I was thinking of only plugging my Microphone into that and my audio into the onboard sound. But I feel as If it would not be worth it and to just go for the Creative External Soundcard.

I'd love your input.


Thank you very much for your time.