MOBO's digital out VS. sound card digital out.

[anorexorcist15]

hey! i just got a smokin deal on a set of logitech z-5500 5.1 speakers for my computer system, which ill be building into a home theatre pc down the road a couple months. i just have a few questions regarding audio with the HTPC:

- whats the pro's/con's of using a motherboard(asus a7n8x-e deluxe)'s coax spdif digital output, versus a soundcard's digital output? (sound quality? processor/resource usage?)

-also if you think i should consider a sound card, what would you recommend? i was looking at a m-audio revolution 7.1, but i dont know much about sound cards (will be mainly used for music/movies, very minimal game playing)

-ive read mixed reviews/comments regarding advantages between optical and coax interfaces for digital audio, my speakers have both inputs. what do you think would be best for me? or is it personal preference?

Thanks in advance for the advice.

[noddin0ff]

My opinion...digital is very robust and the quality of the interconnect doesn't really matter. Early optical cables were spotty in quality and there were biases against them. If your mother board's got a digital output, I'd use it. A good sound card is mostly for converting to analog or for giving more output options. If you have a receiver or other device that will accept the digital output I see no reason for a soundcard.

SPDIF is a standard RCA style output right? I use a cheap old generic RCA interconnect that came with some component I bought for my digital connections on my home system. It's perfect. Others will tell you they hear differences between opitical cables, RCA vs optical etc. I'll go on record as stating its their imagination they hear, or something else in their system settings. Unless you run your RCA interconnect through a microwave oven and over some magnets it well perform fine, no need to spend more money on something fancy.

[anorexorcist15]

hmm, what about processor usage on onboard vs soundcard? i have pretty kickass cabling from my mobo to my speakers, some pretty high end monstrosity cable, with monster cable speaker cables for the system as well. (i get ~50% off, otherwise i wouldn't buy it :o)). thanks for your opinion noddin0ff.

edit: correct, spdif is the standard rca digital coaxial cable.

[noddin0ff]

I don't really know about processor usage. Since presumably the digital signal is not processed there shouldn't be much drain on the processor without a sound card. Depends on what else is running I suppose. And, I think the signal transits through the processor any way on its way to the soundcard. So probably have the same effect on performance either way.

Nothing wrong with nice cable, if the price it right!