You didn't mention what platform, but all of the Mac laptops (except the Air), have optical i/o built in. These are intel boxes, so you could run Mac/Windows/Linux on them. I'm not sure about how the i/o works under Linux, though. New ones can be had for around $1000, and there are plenty of options for used models for significantly less, and on par with current specs found in most PCs.
keytohwy