I have done the same thing with my soundblaster card. The high end ($150+) soundblasters have digital outs. Honestly they don't sound all that great, even going through a DAC. I note that I used a long (6 foot) optical cable. I ended up selling the DAC, and using the equally crummy analog outputs. I speculate the crummy sound was related to the cheapo-depot transports used in computer cd roms.
If it's gonna be bad, it might as well be cheap ! You might want to check out guitar center. They sell some more pro-quality pc soundcards at significant discounts. Note that some of these 'musician' soundcards are not certified compatible for many games.
If it's gonna be bad, it might as well be cheap ! You might want to check out guitar center. They sell some more pro-quality pc soundcards at significant discounts. Note that some of these 'musician' soundcards are not certified compatible for many games.