Audio Systems: Sound card for PC, home stereo system, denon receiver

Question
Hi--

When recording from my home stereo system (an older Denon receiver which has various inputs) to my PC, I can hear a hum that's not present in the source. This is particularly true with material I'm recording from the FM tuner. I have a low-end Dell PCs with on-motherboard sound chips (i.e., not a discrete soundcard).

I've heard that PCs are very noisy, what with less-then-ideal power supplies and all the electronic stuff going on inside the case of a PC. My question for you is this:

Is buying and installing a modest quality ($50 - $100) sound card going to reduce/eliminate the noise I can hear on my recordings, or is the PC background noise going to still be a problem?

If you have ideas/suggestions, they would be most welcome.

Thanks for making yourself available on AllExperts. I appreciate it.

2.

Answer
Troubleshooting Analog to PC anomolies is not that simple. Yes a good sound card or external box (like an M Box) will usually solve the problem providing there is no problem with your PC. There are driver and set up compatiblity (ie: sampling rate or dither)concerns. Then the hum could be generated by your reciever or connections to you PC. Without test instruments you can only use your ears to tell you when there is noticeable hum. FM is a source, so if there is more hum when recording from the FM tuner, then very possibly the hum is present and being amplified once you are recording it to your PC.