Laptop To Monitors

[c4sper]

Hi there, i'm a real n00b when it comes to all this studio audio stuff. But i guess we've all gotta start somewhere. I need a little advice.

I've just spent £80 on some brand new behringer MS 40 active monitors. (Anyone who can give feedback on what these monitors are like would be appreciated)
I do all my music production on my laptop. Do i need any specific way of connecting my monitor speakers to my laptop? Or will a 1/8 jack to RCA do the job fine? I dont quite get exacly how the whole digital to anologue thing works.

My mate plugged a set of his pc's creative labs speakers into his mixer and when he played a record it sounded crap. I assume that was a digital/analogue thing. I don't want the same kinda thing to happen with my monitors.

Also, will my laptop's sound card sound ok? Its a standard inbuilt intel one.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Lee

[TimOBrien]

While you can just take the line-out from your soundcard to your active monitors, you're facing one huge limitation: Built-in soundcards are made with about $1 worth of chips.

Think you'll get quality out of them???

#1 Rule of Music Production: You MUST replace the onboard soundcard.

Good basic guide and suggestions here:

http://www.tweakheadz.com/soundcards_for_the_home_studio.htm