Yea way to reply too slow Skümmet… bah!
But as Flymaster said, most standard noname soundcards or onboard soundcards don’t have an optical out… You can buy soundcards with this option fairly cheap nowadays though…
Also, optically recorded songs put the tracks in automatically if you’re recording from a CD. That is, everytime the CD changes to the next track, a track mark is put onto your MD at the same time.
Woohoo! Phil, I ordered the very same one as you. In blue, as a matter of fact. Got a sweet deal on the price, too. USD 155, as mentioned below. Couldn’t find anything lower than that, and this machine seemed to fit all my needs.
Not so with my sound card, though. No optical output! So, Skummet, is the difference in sound quality that big (optical out vs. “regular” out) to justify a USD 70 Creative Labs sound card?
And, more in general, does anyone have any useful info on good sound cards with an optical output?
I was getting tired of my Avance Logic ALS4000 CrapCard anyway. 
God, I love new toys.