Could be very true.
I'll read into this tomorrow. NOt now. Off to bed!

My new HP system

CPU
You Have: AMD Phenom(tm) II X6 1045T Processor
3.0 GHZ
PASS

RAM
You Have: 8.0 GB
PASS

OS
You Have: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Edition (build 7600), 64-bit
PASS

Video Card
You Have: ATI Radeon HD 5570
PASS

You Have
Video RAM 4.0 GB
Hardware T&L Yes Yes
Pixel Shader version 3.0 5.0
Vertex Shader version 3.0 5.0
PASS

Free Disk Space
Hard Drive
1.5 T
You Have: 926.0 GB
PASS

monitor HP 22 inch LCD HD flat screen

looking to buy an affordable 24bit sound card(preferably under $50). I really don't know which brand to get or anything.

What are you planning on using it for? (gaming, music production, recording, etc.)

Pass.

listening to music on my good headphones while playing games(I usually mute them). I figure I could save some CPU cycles while possibly improving the sound fidelity of some things(24 bit FLACs for one).

You'll probably just need a gaming card then. If you're just listening to music and playing games, you won't really need to worry about input/output options, nor will you have to stress over getting the best AD/DA converters money can buy.
Creative usually comes with some good 24 bit soundcards. Not sure if you're planning on an external solution or an actual PCI type card to plug into a desktop mobo though. ?

Correct.

I'm just looking for a PCI card.

Hmm.. well for external USB I'd recommend Creative, but for PCI and your price range, look into this:

Asus Xonar DS 7.1 PCI Gaming Sound Card Review | bit-tech.net

For 50 something-odd bucks, you can't expect a supernova or anything but that card, or something similar, will meet your needs.

Good sound cards in my opinion are made by companies that are specialized in these things.
M-audio, ESI, EMU, Apogee, Tascam for instance.
I love my ESI Juli@. Cost a bit more than 50 bucks though. But there is some nice cards ranging from 50 to 80 bucks.
Below that you just get the usual PC hardware brands (indeed Asus, Creative etc.). I wouldn't recommend those if you want to get quality sound.
I prefer PCI above external (external cards are often a bit buggy).
24 bit is sort of useless when you plan on listening CD quality or mp3's.
Most recordings are done in 16 bit, so most rips are done to 16 bit. I wouldn't bother if I were you :).

What headphones are you using? Without trying to bring you down I might tell you whether they are worth a good soundcard ;)

And then there's this: when you buy a defective Minidisc, DCC or DAT recorder that still wants to switch to rec mode for a couple of bucks, you can use this as an digital/analog converter (DAC).
You can hook up pretty much every soundcard that has coaxial or toslink digital out to the md/dcc/dat and it will provide you with a sound that's way better than this card would normally do. Most of the time there's a better headphone preamp built into the MD/DCC/DAT than there is on your soundcard.
This is how I used to listen to music on my PC before I got the ESI.
Also remember: Most serious sound cards don't have headphone jacks. They have sperate rca or mono jack (not mini jack) in/outputs.