Crackling Game Sound under WinXP

Working on a new computer with WinXP...

ASUS P5N32-E SLI mobo with SoundMax Card attatched + 2 8600 GTS NVidia cards

I'm getting crackling game sound in my favorite games... my sound and video drivers are up to date.

My old Dell never had these sound problems under WinXP... but I'm stymied about the crackling sound with this new rig.

I have 3 fans inside, so I'm not likely to blame heat.

When I play my musicfiles through the Windows Media Player, the sound is fine... so I'm guessing it's not the speakers.

My old Dell used an SB Audigy... but how different could that be from the little sound card stuck to an ASUS mobo?

The SoundMax card does seem to have its own little slot... not sure what "integrated" means tho...

Would it be complicated to uninstall? as compared to removing a PCIe card?

Would it be a good idea to remove it completely before trying a SoundBlaster?