Ableton - Midi Timing Issues With External Hardware (Help)

After configuring the Akai S3000xl an installing the SCSI2SD card,

I decided to trigger drum samples inside the sampler using Ableton on my laptop and a cheap audio/midi interface (Novation Nio) To do this was simple, connecting the midi out of the Nio to the midi in of the sampler, the first thing I noticed straight away was huge Jitter and sloppy timing. The drums had no flow to them, 

What I done was inside Ableton, under Perferences in the Audio section, clicked Hardware Setup, 

and lowered the latency/buffer size of the soundcard to as low as it can go, When I hit play the second time things became much tighter. 

I only wanted to use the Laptop for midi sequencing the sampler, I didnt really care about audio tracks from Ableton, 

The next thing I wanted to find out how this would sync up with other gear/computer so I tried this

I also have a Studio PC with Ableton installed on it, I linked the Studio's PC and the Laptop using Ableton Link, To do this I activated both links on the top left of Ableton,  

Remember both computers need to be on the same network to link up,  

I played some Audio tracks from the Studio's PC  into my mixer,  I  then hit play on the laptop which is  only playing midi tracks to trigger the Akai Sampler, I also plugged the output of the sampler into the same mixer to see how they would sync together, As you guessed, yes they where out of sync.

To sync the two together, on the Laptop inside Ableton, under Perferences in the Audio section,

I lowered the driver error compensation, and listened by ear to sync them together, when I was happy with the two in sync,I let them play for around 15 minutes and they stayed in sync, 

One thing I noticed is there is still some Jitter but no comparison to what is was,  I am aware that midi through USB has its problems, If you know how i can improve on this whether it be through the software are better midi interfaces please let me know, I hope this may inspire other Idea's 

Thanks.