I'm currently using a powered usb hub/laptop cooler....
I'll get everything transferred to my desktop and see if I have the same issues. I has an older GTX 295 video card, and a realtek onboard sound card on a gigabyte board. It's a monster, with an engineering-spec i7 950 overclocked and watercooled, 12 gig of DDR3 memory and 2 TB of fast Barracudas in Raid10.