Need a Sound Card with at least 6 outputs

[Indraneel Arampatta]

Hey guys,

I just built a new computer for myself and as an extra treat I bought myself the Microlab FC360 5.1 Surround Sound Speaker system.

My aim was to connect a soundcard that had 5.1 capabilities to this system and get some killer surround sound for my games and movies.

However, the card I bought (admittedly was the cheapest one in the shop) says it can handle up to 7.1 but duped me because it combines left and right for the front, surround and back and also combines centre and subwoofer with one plug!

This is a pain so what I was wondering is if you guys could suggest a sound card to me that:

Has a separate 3.5mm jack for right AND left for front and rear (as its 5.1) as well as separate jacks for the centre and sub

So in all it should have at least 6 separate 3.5mm jacks (or phono, I'm not too bothered) for:

Front Right
Front Left
Rear Right
Rear Left
Centre
Sub

Many thanks and sorry for the HUGE post!

 

[maddogfargo]

You may not need a sound card. Many modern Motherboards are coming equipped with hi-end audio.

What is the exact make/model of your motherboard? We can use this to research the audio codec on it and see whethre it's high quality or if you should get a discrete card.

 

[noidea_77]

Why don't you use the adapter cables, that came with the speakers? The way your soundcard works is exactly how all of them work.

 

[COLGeek]

You need something like this sound card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132052

Note, that front pair, rear pair, etc speakers plug into separate ports on the sound card. You also have to tell Windows (Control Panel/Sound) that you have a 5.1 system, vice stereo.

If your budget allows, one of these would be even better:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102048

 

[maddogfargo]

Well whether on-board or discrete card, most of the time Center and SUB are on mini 1 plug. It just splits the channel and the sub crossover or soundcard crossover handles the rest.

You may be able to get around this with a Y cable if you need to split the outputs manually between seperate center and sub channels. See if your speakers can support both input methods.

As was mentioned above, if they came with an adapter it likely takes this kind of connection into account.

 

[Indraneel Arampatta]

You may not need a sound card. Many modern Motherboards are coming equipped with hi-end audio.

What is the exact make/model of your motherboard? We can use this to research the audio codec on it and see whethre it's high quality or if you should get a discrete card.

Well whether on-board or discrete card, most of the time Center and SUB are on mini 1 plug. It just splits the channel and the sub crossover or soundcard crossover handles the rest.

You may be able to get around this with a Y cable if you need to split the outputs manually between seperate center and sub channels. See if your speakers can support both input methods.

As was mentioned above, if they came with an adapter it likely takes this kind of connection into account.

Hi Maddogfargo,

My motherboard is the Asus P8Z77-V LX; it has line-in, line-out and mic jacks. The sound card I bought is this one:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/prosound-7.1-pci-sound-card-with-coaxial-digital-out-226543

This a picture of my sound system Amp.

http://www.microlab.cn/UploadFiles/FC360_51_3.jpg

The 2 holes at the very top are the stereo aux inputs, then the 6 holes below that are for the separate input channels (Front Left, Front Right, Rear Left, Rear Right, Centre, Sub).

The 6 holes at the bottom are outputs to the individual speakers. What I would like is a sound card that has all the right "holes" (bear with me here) to fit into the 6 input holes in the amp.

 

[noidea_77]

What you need is three of this cables: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882203173 The manual of either the soundcard or the speakers will tell which plug goes into which hole.

 

[COLGeek]

Well whether on-board or discrete card, most of the time Center and SUB are on mini 1 plug. It just splits the channel and the sub crossover or soundcard crossover handles the rest.

You may be able to get around this with a Y cable if you need to split the outputs manually between seperate center and sub channels. See if your speakers can support both input methods.

As was mentioned above, if they came with an adapter it likely takes this kind of connection into account.

The Y cables match the speaker pairs and then allow you to connect the speakers (via the RCA connections) to the proper ports on the sound card. Several have made this observation.

Essentially, you don't have to have 6 ports for 6 independent speaker connections.

 

[COLGeek]

+1. These will do the trick!

 

[Indraneel Arampatta]

Although I did pick noidea_77 as the best solution for this query, I wanna thank all you guys for your help! Hopefully this thread will be of some use to a poor clueless sod like me in the future!

 

[COLGeek]

Let us know how it turns out when you install the speakers. Good luck!

 

[Indraneel Arampatta]

OK, so I just came home from uni for the weekend and I've set up the sound system using Y-cables going from the sound card to the amp of the sound system...and it just sounds AWESOME! Thank you guys for your help! Now my next project is getting another 3 displays and trying out AMD Eyefinity

 

[COLGeek]

That is good news indeed! Have fun!