Thank you for the quick replies. That Asus is definitely inviting.
listening to music and producing it are two different things. I have been reviewing a lot of pro recording equipment and very few run on USB. Mainly because USB doesnt have the same bandwidth as Firewire or Thunderbolt so it cannot process 100's of tracks simultaneously. These tracks could be either simultaneously recording tracks or the 100's of effects sends and returns on different tracks. Since I am looking to upgrade my gear towards that side I prefer being safe and future proof so that I dont need to keep upgrading.
However you are right in the fact that a lot of pro audio gear does use optical. But connecting optical to a PC is, atleast for me, unheard of.
Thanks again