5.1 speakers & sound card questions

Hi everyone this is my first post here but I've been browsing these forums for about half a year now when I thought about getting (and bought) the acer 5920 but this is my first post.

Ive been thinking about getting a set of 5.1 speakers to use with the laptop as it is my main method of watching DVD's in my flat and not to mention 5.1 gaming would be cool too.

I know a fair bit about hardware etc but my knowledge of speakers and sound cards is very limited (at the moment im using 2.1 speakers that plug into the headphone socket )so I'm seeking out your help. Im not looking for anything great just a fairly cheap set of creative or logitec speakers would be fine for me but my real questions are how it connects all up to the laptop, I know that the laptop is above average for its sound performance but would i need a USB/expansion slot sound card or could i use the SPDIF out?

Any help would be great. Oh and BTW im in the UK incase anyone knows a good website to purchase sound stuff from

 

You should get a system that supports optical digital input, and then you can use a cheap adapter from the Lineout/SPDIF socket in the laptop, to output optical 5.1 to your system.

 

Thanks for the quick reply, so as long as it has a connector like this:

(from the creative 5500)
1 x SPDIF input ( RCA phono )
1 x SPDIF input ( TOS Link )
Audio line-in

Plus an adapter that you said, it would work fine? Sorry about the questions I know nothing about this.

Edit: Im looking at the Logitech X-530 as they are same model as my speakers atm but 5.1 not 2.1 so i know that they are good enough for my standards and are in my budget, but it doesnt support optical out so I would have to buy a soundcard or can i configure the line-in/mic/headphone jacks on the 5920 i know i can on my old laptop. Or the uglier creative 6100 but it does have an optical input.