After 8 years, it's new desktop time!

[Oreo]

Some of the parts may be out of stock.

Motherboards these days have good integrated sound cards, the Gigabyte and the Asus board both have 7.1 onboard with optical/coaxial digital output and the Radeon HD 5870 has digital sound output through HDMI.

Onboard sound has improved, but make no mistake, a dedicated soundcard is a much better option.Yes, much.

I am now in the same boat, i am getting my faulty GTX 470 RMA'd for £300 cash refund, and i'm in two minds whether to get a 5870 or GTX470 now.

 

[CalcProgrammer1]

The GPU now shows as out of stock, but when I bought it it was in stock, so I don't know why they would let me buy it with it being out of stock, if I'm going to have to wait for it I would just pick a different one.

As for sound, isn't digital sound the same any way you look at it (other than codec support)? The actual sound quality depends on the digital decoder in your speakers or receiver. The analog output on the sound card isn't as good as a dedicated sound card though. One thing I've noticed with onboard sound (especially on my laptop) is noise from other devices (humming sounds when the HDD is running or clicking noises when I'm using the GPU) but I only hear it when I'm using good headphones.

 

[Oreo]

You can still have digital out coming from a great source and a terrible source.