Sound Card advice for dedicated media pc

[DrMekon]

Im looking to put some pc bits together to build a dedicated media centre solution, and wanted some advice over sound cards...

I have just got a Yamaha RXV2600 receiver, and wondered if I just need a bog standard card with either RCA and/or Optical SPDIF connectors... letting the amp do all the processing magic...

or would I benefit from getting say the HDA Mystique, or X-Plosion.. they both seem amazing cards, and unlike the creatives, have both the connectors I would require, without having either an external box, or front panel...

Do I need such an advanced card, with all the features they boast, or will anything with a digital output produce the same results with the receiver...

Any advice would be great...

Thanks

 

[tom_nieto]

If you're only playing DVDs and DD/DTS encoded material, then anything with an optical output would do.

If you've got a lot of stereo material that needs upmixing then the HDA cards would be a good option. Saying that though, I'm really not sure how they compare with PL2x and DTS:Neo6. I think the main advantage of the HDA cards is that they convey the surround sound information in games in DD or DTS (depending on the card in question) straight to the amp. You're in a massive minority unfortunately owning a media PC and a nice amp and I've certainly not seen any comparisons or reviews comparing the merits of the HDA cards vs those of PL2x etc.