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#11
Can't help myself... must clarify.
All soundcards whether internal or external have AD (adc) and DA (dac) converters. For consumer use DACs are never sold separately, they are integrated with secondary electronics, basically, it's just an external soundcard with both AD/DA converters.
There are inexpensive USB devices that only convert digital to audio (DAC) but these are usually sold with laptops in mind and have no inputs and tend to be noisy because of their low price.
Also, professional model external audio devices almost always use Firewire connections, most all consumer, and a few Pro units use USB.
An external set of high end DAC's can be purchased ($1000 and up), but these are made to work with an audio card usually installed internally and are connected by proprietary cable or one or more 8 channel ADAT Lightpipe connectors.
The ADConverter takes an analog signal (say, from a microphone) converts it to digital and passes it on to other electronics in the soundcard. The DAConverter converts the digital info back into analog and passes it to a preamplifier then onto headphones or speakers.
The Asus Xonar card looks like your best bet...
Ap
I ordered the omega striker, thanks to all the persons who tried to help. Cheers.