Long story short, My laptop is nice in most respects, but it has a normal problem that it likes to spit out digital noice when it is connected to a board through 1/8" to 1/4" cable in the insert jacks. I know that one can buy one of the $150-$500 digital interface boxes that go through one's USB or Firewire port, but I"m on a student budget and can't quite afford that right now (wish I could). I was curous to know if anyone has tried to connect their laptop through a decent ($40-$50) DI box and if this is enough to get rid of the digital noise that picks up through the laptop's headphone jack.