Advice for a total noob on 5.1 or 7.1 card

Hi

I don't know anything about sound cards, I am looking to buy a 5.1 or 7.1 sound system and have no idea what sound card i should get for my PC
Most of what I want to use it for is watching movies and maybe a very little bit of games
any advice?

Thanks

i have a gigabyte p965-DS3, i am not sure if you consider that old or new

I do have an optical output, I am not sure if it supports 7.1 though, do all optical outputs work properly with 7.1?
while I am at it might as well ask, should I get a 5.1 or 7.1 system?

they should do, though some PC games and films may only be designed for 5.1, blue ray should be 7.1 but tbh when u go to an electonics shop to buy a home cinema most are 2.1 or 5.2 very few are 7.1 simply cause its soo many speakers, 5.1 gives 5 directions of sound which is enough for the average room

like Jay said with 7 speakers its a lot of wiremanagement, id stick to 7.1

this is how id have the perfect set up...

Video:
From PC, either HDMI or DVI
to TV, HDMI

you can buy the cables on ebay

Sound:
Optical from PC to Optical in home cinema


also if u have an ATI card some let the card take the sound from the motherbaord using the HDMI which is again a 7.1 signal... so if u had the right stuff u could just have a hdmi going from PC to TV carring sound and video

and then from TV to home cinema optical

this is better as u may have a PS3 bluerayplayer ect all using HDMI to transfer thier 7.1 sound so the telly can transfer all thouse sound signals over the one optical wire

because tellys have 2-4 HDMI sockets but devices only have one optical