I have a cable that goes from my audio jack on the back of my desktop to a double RCA connection for L/R speaker. If I hook this up to my receiver will it pass the 5.1 audio If I play a DVD on my desktop? Sorry I dont know much about this stuff. thanks.

No. You can apply a DSP like DPLII that will give you pseudo-5.1 sound. You need a digital output and connection from your computer to your receiver to get true 5.1 audio.

No. You can apply a DSP like DPLII that will give you pseudo-5.1 sound. You need a digital output and connection from your computer to your receiver to get true 5.1 audio.

Yup. Or you can use 6 or 8channel analog outs if the card does its own decoding. Because of the EM/RF noise in most computers I recommend going digital out though.