Sick Of Music Store Salesmen

You know what I'm fucking sick and tired of? I'm tired of music store salesmen ripping me the fuck off. It always seems to go like this (in the past anyways): I need some sort of music equipment, usually its something to help me get vocals recorded; so of course, I head to the nearest musical instrument and equipment shop. There, I tell the guy/girl working EXACTLY what I need - and somehow, by the time I get out of the store, they've got me thinking I need something slightly different, whether cheaper or more expensive than whatever I was originally looking for. For instance; once I was looking to buy a condenser mic setup. Now, for it to work, I wouldn't be able to just buy a mic and thats it: you need an audio mixer with phantom power, or an m-audio box, something to channel the quality vox through and also power the mic. Now, we're talking about a standard XLR cable condenser microphone for vocal recording.
Now, I HAD an Apex 435 condenser mic, and I bought an 8-track mixer (Peavey PV8) with phantom power that plugs in USB to your PC. But the mic didnt work well - I was getting too much hiss in the background, and not enough quality out of the raw vocals I WAS getting recorded. I also bought a digital keyboard too, a Casio CTK-4000, beautiful machine - ended up trading in that keyboard + paying $100 to get this stupid fucking microphone called the Samson G-Track, a USB mic. I should have known from the fucking start that a USB mic was trouble. However, it was convincing because I wouldn't need an m-audio box or phantom powered mixer to run the mic; because it has an audio interface built right into it. Now don't get me wrong; the mic isnt that bad, its just not made for what I'm using it for. The USB cord is the only vessel for the 'quality' of my vocals to get to the recording program (Cakewalk's SONAR 6 LE, in this current case), so thats 1 thing that makes my vocals sound hissy and shitty. 2nd of all, I know for a fact that I don't have a very good soundcard in my Black Demon 4000 PC. So those two factors combined really puts a damper on my vocal quality, WHICH I CAN. NOT. HAVE. Not if I want to record my own material at home.
So, what do I need to get rid of this fucking background hiss issue??? As far as I've been able to figure out, Cakewalk's SONAR 6 LE recording program does not have much in the way of audio FX to help me gate out the hiss yet keep every word clear enough to make out.
Also, that Peavey PV8 mixer I did have, I sold, thinking I would no longer need it with this new "mic wonder" I had bought.
The questions remain:
Do I need a new soundcard for my PC???
Do I need to ditch this mic, sell it???
Should I go buy another mixer or audio box/condenser mic ???
Is there any FREE-TO-GET (whether illegally or not, I'll download it if its not virus-ridden) software for recording that I could use that would specifically have an FX chain I could conjure up to get rid of that god-awful BG hiss???
Please oh please, someone help me, its been 3 years of buying this and that and this and that and NOTHING has worked. I'm no closer now to making a motherfucking album than I was 5 years ago. Its making me want to quit making music I'm getting so fucking frustrated.
Let me know, someone. Let me know.

- DNA