New Motherboard or New Sound Card For Digital Out?

[baqai]

I want to connect my computer to my home theater (Sony MUTEKI HTDDW 1600) currently i am using onboard sound of my 965RYCK which is analogue, i was looking around for a cheap sound card which supports optical out and unfortunately my only available option from the local market is XFi Platinum Fatality.

So i was thinking what if just replace my motherboard to Intel P35DP which supports optical out, it would cost me around 75% less than buying that sound card.

Since i am very new to all this in my opinion, signal would be decoded on the home theater amp so investing in a high fi xfi card which supports decoding would be waste of money, onboard sound which just relays the signal digitally would do the same job.

Am i wrong in assuming it or would buying a XFI would make any sigificant difference?

[Neuromancer]

XFi is good but if you want a multimedia card, grab an Auzentech XMystique or similar.

DDL and DTS encoding. And replaceable opamps if you want to upgrade it later on.

XFi is for gamers.

[baqai]

well my receiver supports Dolby Prologic Iix / Dolby Digital / DTS / DTS ES / DTS 96/24 / DTS NEO:6/ Digital Cinema Sound (DCS) / Cinema Studio EX

http://www.sony.co.nz/products/product/home-theatre/theatre-systems/htddw1600.jsp

so would it make any difference if the sound card (onboard) is able to decode or not? or do i need to spend on a specific sound card to get the desired results (watching high def movies with true surround)

[Mpegger]

You'll want a sound card that has Dolby Digital Live and/or DTS Connect if you do any gaming, as the standard digital output only outputs a Stereo PCM signal (L+R). Any pre-encoded material, such as a DVD movie track (AC3, or DTS multitrack encoded audio) will meerly "pass-through" the digital output to your reciever to be decoded.

If you do no gaming, or dont care about multi-channel gaming, any sound card with a digital output will suffice.

[baqai]

well i do gaming from time to time, that is something i didn't knew about, can you name some cards supporting that?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102016
http://www.turtlebeach.com/products/riviera/specs.aspx

Edit: Among above two cards which one would be better?

[Mpegger]

If your in Vista, I'd probably choose anything not Creative. But neither card you listed supports DDLive or DTS Connect.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829156001
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829118109

Those cards support DDL and DTS Connect for multi-channel sound for games.

But again, if you really dont care about that, any, and I do mean ANY sound card with a Digital Output will suffice.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829118103

There are some cheaper ones (<$10), but they all seem to have the same poor reviews of early deaths or not working at all.

However, re-reading your original post again, if you are concerned about sound quality from the PC (NOT sound quality from a DVD movie!), then you would be better off going for a much better sound card, or just go all out and get the best you can afford. Using the sound card in pass-through mode for pre-encoded digital audio, as from a DVD movie, does not go through the sound card hardware so it does not get affected by the quality of the sound card. But any sounds from Windows (windows itself, games, CD-Audio, using WMP/Winamp to play mp3's, wma's, oog's, etc) would be affected by the quality of the sound card.

I suggest, just save up until you can get a great DDL/DTSConnect card and be happy with it. The Auzentech Prelude is currently the best choice for this, but they do have other models that are geared more for sound quality then gaming that are less expensive, but still support DDL/DTSConnect.

[baqai]

i re-read my post and i think so i wasn't clear enough

- Should be able to play true surround via my home theater, source can be movies (normal / high def, from hdd or directly from dvdrom) or games (counter strike source etc)

After going through a lot of reading i also came with the two cards you suggested i.e. Auzentech and TB Montego, My friend is coming from states tomorrow (He lives in Washington State) and unfortunately bestbuy,walmart,circuitcity didn't had Auzentech card (atleast online) so i have asked him to bring Montego

I hope i won't be disappointed with the card, first time i am going to use non creative card :)