Expensive sound card..yes or no?

[War10ck12358]

Recently I decided to repurpose my old PC into a media center with kodi.The motherboard is Asus P5vd2-vm se

https/www.asus.com/Motherboards/P5VD2VM_SE/

But the onboard audio is not working.I am planning to go with a 2.1 setup due to space constraints and I have decided to buy this speaker - 'edifier c2xd 2.1'

http/www.edifier.com/int/en/speakers/c2xd-2.1-optical-input

This particular speaker has a seperate amplifier with optical in.I decided to go with this speaker because I intend to use the same speakers with my sky HD box also which has an optical out.Now my question is will there be any benefit if I go buy an expensive sound card for use with this particular set of speakers.I need a sound card anyway because my onboard audio is damaged,but will a cheap one suffice?.Also I don't have any AV reciever.Do you have any suggestions regarding which sound card should I buy?
Also I have a gt 520 gpu inside my media center PC,so can I just use HDMI out from the card and then pass it through a HDMI splitter like this one -

https/m.ebay.in/itm?itemId=221711915710

into video through HDMI and audio through optical and thus bypass the need for a sound card all together
If I asked something stupid kindly let it go,I am kind of a noob when it comes to audio

 

[americanaudiophile]

If you are going to use the optical input then don't waste your money on an expensive soundcard. The digital to analog conversion will take place in the speaker. If you were to use the analog inputs then the soundcard might improve the quality.