[LAT] To much latency

Hi, I am a musician and programmer. I use a laptop with an internal soundcard (intel) and ubuntu studo. When I see the qjack control settings window I always see a 46.6 ms latency. On a older Desktop computer with an internal ac97 soundcard or an pci sweex (cheap) I have the same problem. Reducing the sample period to 512 , reduces the latency, but always ends up with problems. My question is how to have a good studio setup for recording (and playing midi in the background)? Is it possible to better the performance with an external soundcard? What are your experiences? I also tried ccma an av linux, but the same problems. Anyone suggestions? Regards, Dave Stikkolorum