Setting up an HTPC to run Media Center, I was looking to get an optical output so that I could hook it up directly to our receiver. Current sound cards with an optical out unfortunately run around $100 at the low end. I had a couple motherboards that actually have optical outputs, but for the life of me, I couldn’t get the one in the NF7-S to work in Vista, and while the Gigabyte 7VAXP-A’s worked with drivers from Realtek’s site, that motherboard didn’t like the mobile Athlon XP-M very much (it would only work if i set the onboard switches to a 100Mhz FSB which didn’t tickle me in a pleasant way). The 7VAXP-A wasn’t totally useless though… it provided me with one of those little cables that plugs into the motherboard and provides an output via a rear slot.
Problem of course was that the little accessory had 3 pins and plugged into the motherboard. The Audigy 2 I had kicking around (and wanted to use) had a digital out, but it was unfortunately a 3.5mm jack. I needed the TOSLINK style. It did have an SPDIF_IO section on the card, but it had a whopping 8 pins to contend with, as opposed to the 3 pins I had to work with. Pin-wise they didn’t look at all plug and play, but fortunately there’s a way to make it work. continue reading…
