Doe graphics cards include in build sound cards?

[sandavsin]

Hi Guys...

Yes your probably laughing and thinking "...what a daft questions", so apologies in advance for what might be an obvious matter for most of you.

Essentially, am going to be hooking up a 'Dell Dimension E521' desktop computer (AMD X2 500 with a lame 307 watt power supply) to my AV sound system. Why you may be asking. Well, I want to use all my mp3's via some media centre software, such as XBMC, Windows Media Centre, or anything else that you may be familiar with. (if you have other recommendations, it would be appreciated)

Ever since seeing someone using 'Windows Media Centre' on their massive home LCD, i wanted to do this too, but not so much for video but audio.

I've always fancied the idea of having all my mp3's, like a juke box. To be able use my media centre remote control, via the television, to select albums, create playlists, from my armchair, with all the goodness brought by mp3 tagging, to provide lots of information about artists, pictures, etc...

My AV reciever is a ONKYO TXNR609
http://www.eu.onkyo.com/products/TX-NR609.html

..and I have 4 KEF IQ5SE
http://www.richersounds.com/product/floorstanders/kef/iq5se/kef-iq5se-blk

...so I am relatively serious about sound quality.

However, here lies the problem. I have a relatively pathetic on board sound on my Dell E521. (or I may be making an assumption here because its onboard)

Ideally, for me to get all the graphical goodness from my PC to my AV (then TV), I will be using a HDMI socket, from my graphics card (which I understand also carrys sound)

So this is the technical bit. Is the sound that is going to my graphics card (and to my reciever) being processed by the on board sound card, or is the graphics card doing its own thing, in that it is processing the sound as well as the picture?

The reason I am asking this is because I was wanting to upgrade my sound card to ensure I was getting all the goodness of my mp3's to my AV reciever. But if the graphics card is processing the sound, then theres no point in upgrading the sound card.

Depending on the answer to the above question, this leads to other questions, hence:

If the sound is being processed by the graphics card..., (alongside the picture through a HDMI cable) how do I ensure which current graphics cards have high quality sound processing capabilities, i.e what should I be looking for? (£100 budget)

If, the sound is being processed by a sound card (regardless of the graphics card), with a budget of £50, what would you recommend as an upgrade? (my priority would be that it provides clean sound, and has the best possible connectivity to my AV reciever)

Note: am running Window 7 Home Edition, with 2GB of Ram.

Thanks in advance!

 

[gamerk316]

Most GPU's now [ATI 4000 series and up, NVIDIA 400 series and up] include chipsets for audio. These are typically onboard audio quality Reltek chips. Graphics cards are NOT processing the audio from another device. [NVIDIA 200 series GPU's could connect to another audio device via SPDIF cable to carry the signal over HDMI, but that feature was removed in favor of a dedicated audio processor].

For your budget, I'd look at the ASUS Xonar D1/DX and HT Omega Striker.

 

[sandavsin]

Based on the reply, I assume I somehow disable the audio being carried on the HDMI cable to my AV reciever, and then use some method of connected the improved audio from a good sound card? As for my amp, it does have an optical input... is this the same as a SPDIF on the sound card?

I have found an old Creative Soundblaster Live 5.1 (Value card); is that any good, or should I still pursue the purchase of something like the ASUS?