Sound card vs. onboard for digital output

[canuckaudiog]

Hi everyone,

I am currently contemplating adding a sound card to my music server. Right now I am using USB out to a DAC, and I have heard that going with SPDIF, either as optical or coaxial, is superior because of less processing. Further to that, the USB on my DAC is only capable of accepting 96kHz, whereas it can accept 192kHz through SPDIF.

My motherboard does not have any SPDIF outputs so I will need to add a sound card to get these outputs.

My first question is, does anyone here know of a sound card currently available that has coaxial out?

My second question is, with optical, is it worthwhile spending money on the sound card? I have a budget of up to about $100 (less is better, though), and I can get a sound card as low as about $20 which sports an optical output. In other words, is it worth it to spend more money on the sound card when all I really need is the digital output? I guess one difference is some sound cards output only 96kHz through the optical out, whereas I have seen spendier cards capable of sending 192kHz. Are there any other differences?

Thanks!

 

[drew_t]

You might want to double-check that your motherboard doesn't at least have a SPDIF header. I built a system with a board that had the header but no cable to implement it. All it took to make it usable was looking up the pinout and making an adapter out of an RCA jack and a length of twisted pair wire with the motherboard-type connector on one end (salvaged from an old junked system -- it was the cable for the hard drive LED or the reset switch or something). I drilled a hole in one of the port covers and mounted the RCA jack in it.