poprhetor

The other day a friend of mine gave me his old water cooling kit. I've never worked with this stuff, so I thought I would begin with a simple computer: one rom, no gpu, etc. I want an htpc anyway, and I'd prefer it were silent, so I'm starting to pre-plan. The difficulty is the audio solution.

So, I have an Auzentech Prelude in my gaming system. Since it has an optical out, I was thinking of using it in the htpc by running fiber optic to a dac that runs into one of those "budget audiophile" integrated amps (e.g., Marantz PM 5003) and then out to some appropriate speakers (e.g., LS3/5a reference maybe?). Alternatively, I suppose I could get some better powered speakers, like Audioengine 5.

1) Is this approach feasible?

2) If I want to run hd cable through this system, I'll get an hdtv card. I guess I wouldn't connect via hdmi since I wouldn't be using the audio feed in that way. I'm a little unsure about how this will play out. Suggestions?

3) Better ideas in terms of product or approach?

Thanks!

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