Solved! How to connect my pc to my amp

[majesticburger]

Hey, I've recently bought an amplifier and I am wondering how best to connect it to my pc. My motherboard is the: "GA-Z170-Gaming K3 (rev. 1.0)"
and I do not have a soundcard.

Here is an imgur link to the ports on my motherboard and the ports on my amp:

https://imgur.com/a/61fnJ4x

The amp I bought is the Onkyo A-9010 with dac built in. I will pair it with the dali spektor 2 as stereo speakers.

I believe it is hence preferable to have a digital output that has been messed with as little as possible, so I can have the best and cleanest sound. The specifications of my motherboard say it has support for S/PDIF out, but I don't see a port anywhere. Would I be best off buying a cheap soundcard or is there a different solution? I'm wanting to spend less than 40 euros on cable/adapter combo but if this will bottleneck or isn't possible I'll just have to spend more.

If you know any way to connect it will be much appreciated!

Greetings, Seth

 

[Campy]

According to some quick googling, it appears that your amp does not have a DAC.

 

[majesticburger]

According to some quick googling, it appears that your amp does not have a DAC.

No, there are two types: the uk version and the global version.
I have the global which has a wolfson DAC, as can be seen by the coax and optical ports.

 

[Campy]

No, there are two types: the uk version and the global version.
I have the global which has a wolfson DAC, as can be seen by the coax and optical ports.

Ah ok, my bad. Your motherboard has a SPDIF internal header but no port. The simplest solution would be to just get a sound card if you want optical output.

The other option would be to use a small backplate with coax(RCA) and optical port that connects to the internal SPDIF header, but the problem is the motherboard header only has two pins, SPDIF signal and ground, and you would need to pull 5V power from somewhere else on the board to get the optical port working. If you're fine with coax I don't think you'd need to do any modifications, just make sure you put the connector on the header the right way around.

 

[majesticburger]

Thank you! I was going to use the coax anyways since I heard it had better sound so I won't need to use the 5v pin. I've bought this: https://www.alternate.nl/GIGABYTE/3...slotplaatje/html/product/1214216?event=search

Together with this cable: https://www.hifiklubben.nl/kabels/digitale-kabels/argon-audio-blue-edition-coaxiale-kabel/

I'm pretty sure this will work but if I've made a mistake please correct me haha.
Thanks so much for your help!

 

[Campy]

Should work, just make sure you connect the cable correctly to the two pins on the motherboard. Your motherboard manual will tell you where the SPDIF header is, it's two small pins just above the regular audio header at the bottom of the board.