Recommend some speakers?

[The Old Man]

Hi all,

My Videologic ZXR-550 5.1 system died a few weeks ago just before I got some new games for Xmas I've been looking at some replacements but just don't know which to go for. Currently I have an Audigy Player soundcard which could do with being upgraded too.

Considerations are:
5.1 or 7.1 for games like Oblivion, Dark Messiah, Call of Duty 2, Far Cry etc?
If I go for the 7.1 I definitely will need a new sound card to power them but I can't find a sub £70 speaker set with a nice optical input as I think the X-Fi has optical out? Don't they use them yet? I thought optical was the way to go.

Any advice on a sound card and surround speakers up to say a total of no more than £130ish would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Dr.EM]

Logitech X-530 or X-540 with second hand Audigy 2 card should be good. Or I think you could sretch to an X-Fi card if you wanted

 

[The Old Man]

Thanks I'll check those out - you're right, an X-Fi is overdue.
I was put off by someone posting about a conflict with the DS3 motherboard and the X-Fi but it turned out he had left the onboard sound on!