recording on the line in, buying recommendations?

hey folks, i've looked around the forum here but didnt find anything that quite answered my question.

i have integrated sound on my mobo (a8n-e) and i've used various programs to try recording over the line in, but the result is always pretty staticy.

is there an audio card with optical input that would do a good job of recordng cleanly?

what i'm trying to record is audio being streamed over the interet through realplayer. so if there were an audio card with optical out and optical in, could i just send right from one to the other to record what my computer is outputting?

so are there any sound cards you'd recommend for this purpose?

thanks in advance,
scott

You don't necessarily need it to be a optical in out, just digital in/out and yes there are many cards that have this feature, but the analog ussually does a good job as well. I haven't tried it with a lot cards in the past, just my X-Fi and audigy and both recorded analog well.