Hey rudedog, about your mic...
 

Its a Labtec right?

What is it about them? I get the same background noise I heard from you that first time.

I picked up the pair with the stereo head phones yesterday for $30 at BestBuy.

Now if I can just setup the 2 soundcards so TeamSpeak is only used by one of them I'll be super 1337 :P

TS says its possible:
Advanced (settings):
The advanced menu item has 2 entries. The first (Sound devices) opens a dialog box which allows you to choose between wave and direct sound in- and output drivers. Since version 1.05 you can even choose what sound device you want to output to. So if you have 2 soundcards, you can let your game sound go over one, and teamspeak sound over the other.
When other option (play notifications sounds) is checked, a sound will be player when you connect and disconnect from a server, and when new people enter your channel.

Yep, mine is a cheap labtec

I have separate controls on my audigy sound card that allows me to raid and lower the gain on my mic. externally via hardware.

I also have mic gains on the audigy "box" sticking out of my PC, the headset and WinXP. I had to play around with all of them. so I was not picking up ambient sound in my room

I performed the loop back test and it sounded fine to me

I also use PTT ( push to talk )

I gots me a Logitech Pro 3000 webcam with a built-in mic. I'm talking with Jasper, and he hasen't complained so, I guess i'm set! biggrin:

No complaints except you sound like your eating gravel :)