Get 7.1 surround from my htpc

[americancliche8]

Hey guys, I need some serious help!

I have been pricing an HTPC, and I ran into a problem when it comes to audio. The problem being that I want to have to possibility to run 7.1 Dolby HD Surround from my HTPC to a receiver (I havent chosen one yet), and I have some questions. The first being that the mother board I have chosen is an

ASUS P8Z68-M Pro LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

It has 8 audio channels, which I have been told means it can do 7.1 surround. What I dont know is if it has an integrated sound card that can handle that, or if I still need one.
My second question, is whether or not I will need to run separate HDMI cables from my video card/ gpu to my tv, and from my sound card/ motherboard (if the sound is built in) to the receiver. The whole point is to minimize the cables running around my entertainment area. The GPU is a

EVGA 01G-P3-1335-KR GeForce GT 430 (Fermi) 1GB 64-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card

Any help is appreciated but Im very ignorant to audio, so please dumb down your answers for me! Also if there is any other relevant hardware you need to know about, let me know and Ill get you the answer. Im in no rush to buy this HTPC, as I am stuck in iraq until may of next year but I love window shopping online! Thanks for the help guys!

 

[anwaypasible]

none of the soundcards available are decoding the new HD versions of surround sound.

you will have to downsample the audio into a lower sampling rate
or
wait until the soundcards for computers can decode the HD versions.

there is ONE soundcard that will output the digital audio from an HDMI connection.
the soundcard is the only one that will let the audio out of the computer without changing the sample rate.

your soundcard must be able to support 192khz on all 8 channels.
most soundcards nowadays do 192khz stereo.. and 96khz on the remaining speakers.

some of the audio is only 96khz anyways.
but
the higher ones are 192khz on all channels.


the soundcards of yesterday need to decode the audio in software before sending it to the soundcard.
that means you need the movie player to support decoding of the new HD audio.
your reciever must accept 7.1 analog inputs for all of it to work.

you could find the one soundcard that outputs a digital connection.
the link to the soundcard is here:
http/www.auzentech.com/site/products/x-fi_hometheater_hd.php

BUT
beware, the output is HDMI version 1.3a