How to build a SPDIF/OUT for my pc

[aprad046]

My motherboard comes with an integrated Realtek AC'97 audio chipset, and on the manual it says that you can have SPDIF output, if you buy the expansion card and connect it to the mb.
I feel like tinkering with my soldering iron, so I was thinking of maybe doing that myself. The pins on the mb are laid out like this

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[+5v][ ][SPDIFOUT][GND]

Now from Wikipedia, I see that SPDIF uses 1V, so using 5V directly is probably not a safe thing to do, and this probably means that the cabling is a little more complicated than just grabbing an old RCA and a 4-1 pin cable and soldering everything together. There's probably some kind of diagram that I can use, but so far I haven't found anything.
Do any of you guys know anything about this? I know there's some folks around here that connect their SNES pad through the COM port, so this should be a piece of cake for them.

[paulguy]

isn't SPDIF just 2 conductors? You probably just need the SPDIFOUT and GND to complete the circuit.

[Gil_Hamilton]

I'm with paulguy. S/PDIF shouldn't NEED an external power supply.

[funkyass]

+5 is probably for the other things on the expansion card.... maybe for the optical variant of SPDIF, using TOSLINK.

go with the RCA jack, and ignore the +5v.

[l3v3l]

Simply buy that CHEAP slot bracket at eBay...

[aprad046]

Well, of course I could buy the slot bracket @ e-bay, but that would defeat the purpose of fooling around with the computer.
All right, I guess I will try that. Hopefully that won't fry the computer.

[Gil_Hamilton]

Worst you're likely to do is fry the audio chip. In which case you just have to buy a sound card, netting you a decent increase in audio quality at the same time.

[aprad046]

sounds like a good deal then (no pun intended)

[aprad046]

nope, seems not to be so simple. The goods news is that the on board audio is not dead yet.
Perhaps I am not cut out to solder. I should stick to programming.