[testudoaubreii]

Hello,

I am not sure if I am posting this in the correct forum, so I apologize in advance. Hopefully, a friendly mod will relocate it if it is not in the right spot.

Here is my situation:

I have this motherboard:
Gigabyte GA-F2A78M-HD2

It has an HDMI port and audio 3.5 ports, but it does not have an optical audio port. I would like to get some sort of home theater/home audio system going with my TV. Would I need to get a receiver or an amp to make that happen? Do I need to get a sound card of some sort, or can the on board audio handle surround (specs says that it can)? Do I have to get a receiver based audio system or can I use "quality" computer speakers?

I have no idea what to do. I am extremely new at home audio and, after purchasing my TV and components for the HTPC, I am on a pretty limited budget. I hope that made some sort of sense. I am a bit confused myself.

Thank you in advance for any and all help, advice and/or suggestions that you all may have for me.

Thanks!

Testudo

[bluray]

If you are using AMD APU, you don't need a discrete GPU. APU included a very capable iGPU in it, and you don't need a sound card either. You should read this "Windows - HOW-TO Bitstreaming using XBMC" to get some ideas of what you needs.....