Do I need a UCB DAC, external soundcard, etc.?

[shleepy]

Until just a few days ago (before I started parting out my desktop), I was in the process of making a decent audio setup to suit my HD650's, driven by an X-Fi XtremeMusic (which I sold). I recently ordered a Yamaha receiver that has 24/96 DAC's (a used mid-range one), and I've already received a Creative Digital I/O Module (anyone wanna buy it, by the way? Brand new and unused) and an optical cable. I even ordered a Little Dot 2++ amp a couple days ago from another head-fi member.

However, given that I'm parting ways with my desktop and won't be building another one at least until mid-May, I'll be stuck with the Dell XPS M1330 laptop that I also just recently ordered (selling my Thinkpad T61P, too) as of now. I mostly listen to high-quality MP3's (and the occasional FLAC or something), so I'll probably be using an external HDD for my music collection and whatnot. My big issue lies in the fact that I won't have optical outputs on my laptop. In fact, I don't know how good a receiver would be as a DAC, in the first place...

Questions:

- Would a decent receiver be fine as a sort of DAC (in the case that I'd use it as such)? The long-term plan would be to get nice speakers for the receiver, as well.
- If the above holds true, then could an immediate solution to use with my laptop be a cheap-ish external (USB) sound card that has optical-out?
- If one of the above doesn't hold true, then should I get a cheap-ish USB DAC without an amp, and which ones come recommended?
- For the desktop that I might build in the relatively near future, should I just get a decent ~$150 sound card (e.g., that modified X-Fi or Asus one) that has optical out? I'd be doing some gaming along with music listening.

A note: I might do some slight gaming on the laptop. Probably not too much, but might be worth mentioning.

Thanks!

[shleepy]

bump.

[m3_arun]

Chances are mainstream receivers will not have DAC sections comparable to standalone units. If cost is your primary concern, then you can get away with using the Yamaha's internal DAC. In that case, you need to get a USB-SPDIF converter like the HagUSB or diyparadise's USB convertor (there are many other options too) to use with your laptop (assuming your Yamaha has coaxial SPDIF input). When you build your desktop you can add a nice soundcard, and you should compare its analog output to the sound from the Yamaha's internal DAC via optical out from your soundcard. If you go this route then later on you can always put a standalone DAC unit in between your computer (either laptop or desktop) and the receiver when you decide to upgrade.