Socket A Motherboard with optical/coaxial

juitz · **16th March 2007, 07:23 PM**

Hi All,
Im still on a steep learning curve wiht all the terminology so please excuse my ignorance. Im currently looking for a Socket A motherboard for my amd athlon xp 2600+....that's not too hard to find. But i would also like to have a coaxial or optical sound connector to connect to my Yamaha Amp. All I see is SPDIF this or that, but Im not sure what type of connectors these are? Can anyone briefly explain what the diff types of connectors are and possibly recommend a motherboard that would have the type of connector im looking for?

Cheers!
David

CraigMBecket · **16th March 2007, 07:58 PM**

Hi juitz,

S/PDIF is the digital sound system you refer to as coaxial, generally the connector is a RCA type however on some sound cards it can also be handled via a 3.5mm plug, some systems also have the optical (toslink) system.

Craig.

eepunk · **16th March 2007, 10:14 PM**

Any nforce2 board will work well with MCE in my experience. Although some iterations of the chipset are better than others.

E.E.

Mattmannz · **17th March 2007, 04:17 PM**

Realise though that the onboard Nforce2 sound solutions are not officially supported under Vista so if you want to upgrade in the future you will need a new card.

Matt.

juitz · **18th March 2007, 10:15 AM**

Cheers guys, your help is greatly appreciated. Doing this is so much easier with this forum.

tweekin · **19th March 2007, 09:44 AM**

I am using an ABIT NF7-S with an athalon XP 2800. It has the spdif optical out which I connect to my yamaha amp. Works fine.

cheers

davidgol · **19th March 2007, 09:48 AM**

I currently have an old A7N8X-deluxe2.0 (socket A) with a 3200+ Barton in it. It's got a RCA SPDIF port on the back (not optical) that I use with my Yamaha amp and it works flawlessly. You need to get the latest realtek driver to get it working with Vista but I've never had a problem with it. That said, these boards are quite old (5 years?) and you'll struggle to get all the features working properly under Vista (like standby/resume - I just can't get it going)