Computer audio question

13579

So, I've been using the integrated audio from my motherboard. I have, for outputs, a normal audio headphone jack, a orange-colored RCA plug "Coaxial" digital output (What I've been using), and a fiber-optic output.

For as long as I've used the odd orange output, seemingly randomly my computer will "skip" a half second or so of audio, varying in frequency from twice a minute to once every five or ten minutes.

This is extremely annoying. I am assuming this is due to interference of some-sort.

I also recently bought a Nvidia GTX 460, which apparently has a built-in sound card and outputs to a HDMI cable.

My amp accepts normal 2channel (red and white) RCA jacks, the orange single RCA "digital coax" jack, fiber optic, and HDMI.

My question is which connection is the "best" to output to my amp, and if anyone knows why my audio skips frequently for about half a second.

I am assuming the orange single RCA jack I've been using is better than the 2channel rca plug, and if I had to guess I'd say that fiber optic is better than the orange rca jack. But what about the HDMI sound output of my graphics card?

Thanks for any help-

13579

Also, apparently I'm supposed to be using a special coaxial cable for my digital coax audio. I'm using a normal RCA plug extender connected to another rca plug. Is this bad, is there any real difference, should I get a real coax cable?

Unknown

Hmm. I'd go for the Fiber Optic as HDMI transmits both audio and video signals and I'm not sure if this would be a problem.