I'll turn off the soundcard before I turn off or boot up the computer. Frankly, getting a $600 preamp or so just doesn't seem worth the money just to not have tics and hissing. Most preamps at that price, which are out of the question for budget reasons anyway, don't have spdif input, just the receivers do, and the quality there is definately not the same as I'd expect from a good amp. I've also never seen an integrated amp with the spdif inputs either.
I think I'll just go for the amp and the soundcard, except connecting a subwoofer in the future would appear to be tricky with this kind of setup.
