help choosing cable pc to dac.

Personally I wouldn't go crazy on the cable. I'd look for an entry level cable by good manufacturer to connect to the musical fidelity v link.  I would definitely not use the 3.5mm jack.  USB will be far better.  The Cable Co. Has custom lengths available for Kimber V21 digital coax with RCA connectors.  That will cost you $149 for a 5.5 meter run.  There is a V-Link II on Audiogon now for $90 which will handle up to 24/192, so that's a steal!  Pick up a short high quality USB cable such as Kimber's USB Cu for $50 also from The Cable Co.  Total expenditure $300.  Pretty high quality stuff, and getting the benefit of USB out of the computer is great.  Good Luck!

The V-link II for sale is mine. It only goes to 24/92. Though I agree that a USB/SPDIF converter would serve better, it might be that a entry level cable will serve the OPs' objectives regarding background music listening. I bought a 20' cable on E-bay that would suffice for ~$25. 

As a follow up on my last post. The OPs' sound card outputs through 3.5mm analog using internal DAC or SPDIF using optical. 

A USB/SPDIF converter will not serve unless the OP chose to bypass the sound card and use USB which would require the purchase of a USB DAC or USB/SPDIF converter/DAC combination.

Regarding use of the 3.5mm analog output the choices are: 1) the 3.5mm to dual RCA cable under consideration, or 2) the suggestion made by audioman2015, use a 3.5mm to dual RCA converter with standard RCA interconnects.

One other option would be to purchase one of the inexpensive DACs from China off Ebay with optical input along with a toslink cable and a pair of RCA interconnects. My question would then be how to best divide the 18' between the two cables.

Any reason i can't use a single run of my older monster cable with a 3.5 to rca adapter?I t can go to the xtra coax plug on my ps dac.This would suffice until i choose type of gear i need/want in the future.It all changes so fast.Thanks everyone.RW

Somehow I seem to have let myself get confused. After rereading this thread I am now aware that you have a soundcard with coax output and a DAC with coax input. I would use a 1.5M coax between soundcard and DAC. Use a Pair of RCA interconnects of the desired distance between DAC and preamp input.