Questions
Q1
Why ATI motherboard have noise on Vista SP2 when use HDMI® output?

This problem was caused by the Vista SP2 version.

Vista will force to enable AC3 output support.

If HDMI® device does not support AC3 audio, then the noice will appear.

Please refer the Microsoft's document for more information.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/973590/en-us

Here is the setting for fix the audio noise.