[Focker]

I blew my klipsch computer speakers and my only other speaker option at the moment is using my onkyo reciever/speaker system. I'm using a soundblaster audigy 2 nx and the optical output and it will not separate the channels for anything but actual 5.1 dd such as dvds with powerdvd and I'm really hating not having surround sound for my games.

I'm going to build a new pc in about a month, and I would love some suggestions on what kind of soundcard or motherboard with on-board audio with an optical output that would actually separate the channels, if there is such a thing? I've read something about nForce motherboards being able to do this, but they only support AMD I think? Are the AMDs as fast as the pentium 3.4's?

[Codeine]

AMD and Intel are both good, but they are better perforuming at variant tasks. Intel are ideal for Encoding and 3D Rendering, while AMD are ideal for gaming. All the other benchmarks, they are neck and neck. Alot of people say AMD are only good for gaming, while Intel are better at everything else. This is false.
So its not a matter of what brand is better. It depends on what you need a processor for.