Thanks for the feedback captains. Salute O7
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I’m upgrading my PC and after hours of comparing specs, I’ve finally chosen the mainboard. One thing however is that the mainboard only has two outputs for sound. A single 3.5mm jack and then SPDIF. My surround sound system uses 3x 3.5mm jacks.
So my questions:
- Any recommendations of how to connect my speaker system to the new PC hardware other than buying a sound card?
- I see surround sound systems are somewhat scarce these days for PC. What are people using for speakers for their PCs when it comes to gaming? Surely something better than just two small loose speakers?
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@aldyr / @SlinX - weren’t you guys talking about audio setups for your PCs recently?
Headsets probably?
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Option 1. Add-in sound card that plugs into a PCIE slot on your motherboard, and has the appropriate 3 to 6 philips audio jacks on the back. This is remarkably difficult to find nowadays, but if you find one, it’s usually not expensive.
Option 2. An external Digital Audio Converter (or DAC), that supports the surround you have, either 5.1 or 7.1 signal. The only one I’ve seen recently is on wootware.co.za, that has one audio out, but that carries a 7.1 signal, I believe. (I stand to be corrected, though). I think they may or may not have wires, that split appropriately for dedicated surround audio cables. You would have to do in-depth research on each DAC, you’re interested in.
I have a 7.1 surround speakers, that I chucked in the store room. Didn’t feel like the headache of wires, and exactly your issue. In the end, I opted for stereo monitor studio speakers (https://www.takealot.com/presonus-eris-e3-5-monitor-black-set-of-2/PLID48570054), probably more entry level, as far as studio monitors go. Good enough for my needs of gaming and music, but apparently not bass’y enough for @SlinX Either I’m deaf, or he is. I’m inclined to believe it’s me.
I also have a pair of Corsair Void Pro wireless that’s 7.1 surround sound. https://www.corsair.com/us/en/p/gaming-headsets/ca-9011152-na/void-pro-rgb-wireless-premium-gaming-headset-with-dolby-headphone-7-1-carbon-ca-9011152-na
They are FUCKING UNCOMFORTABLE, but their surround is pretty good. That said, my cousin has the same pair, and his headset IS comfortable, so I think I got the defective pair, because the ear cups are sagging, creating strain on my ears.
As a side note: I find the implementation on surround sound in games, to be hit or miss, but mostly miss. However, binaural or stereo is usually fantastic. This is probably not what you want to hear, 
Also just my opinion 
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Thanks for the feedback.
I’m not a fan of headsets. I can eventually feel them hurting my ears and also with small kids in the house, I need to be able to hear what’s going on around me.
I’ll try the sound card option after I’ve built the PC. First need to make sure that there is an accessible PCIe slot because in my current PC, the 2 display cards block everything else.
I’ll maybe try this thing first (https://www.takealot.com/usb-audio-adapter-external-sound-card-with-spdif-digital-audio-s/PLID71424768), but the reviews have been mixed thus far.
It is crazy how much the landscape has changed over the past few years. I couldn’t even get a newer mobo that supports 2 display cards at 8x each. Instead the primary display card will use 16x channels and any other only 4x. It might be a change for the better, but will see. Will need to reconfigure my monitors a bit.
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Which chipset motherboard are you looking at for your new pc?
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I went for the Z690.
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Agree so, so, so much. I’ve got permanent hearing damage from standing too close to our drummer (and his drumset) in our high school band practice room, so I always doubt myself when it comes to hearing things accurately, but I’ve never really found a game to use surround sound well. I’ve chalked it up to poor headset implementations in the last few years, but reading that you also feel that has me thinking again.
I use a set of cheap Logitech stereo desktop speakers, as I rarely turn it up loud enough to make a huge difference. Headset I use a Corsair HS70 that I love, and it’s much more comfortable than the void I tested at a friend’s.
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I always used old HiFis with my PC. Currently I’m using a 5.2 Technics system.
It is immense. Proper 3-way, full range speakers up front with stereo bass, centre channel and rears.
The sound card issue is interesting. I specifically chose a premium Asus motherboard, which supposedly had better than average onboard sound. It was fine, but after a couple of years, it broke.
It was extremely hard to find a discrete soundcard 2 years ago. It’s still hard now, but literally nobody had anything in stock. Even Amazon only had 3 choices. I eventually got an Asus Strix from Dreamwaretech:
The quality difference between onboard and this is huge. You know how you can’t hear things when you’re underwater, then you resurface? That big.
I love this soundcard. Only thing to check is Win 11 drivers, as at the time, mine didn’t have them.
I like surround sound, games that use it well are rare but it’s nice to have. It’s hugely noticeable in movies.
DON’T buy that external soundcard you listed. I used it in the interim and it is NOT GOOD.
This is similar to mine
A more affordable option but check reviews and drivers for Win 11
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Hmmm. I was thinking of getting it and if it doesn’t work, then I’d just return it for a refund. What is wrong with it?
The whole idea is to try and not buy a new set of speakers since I already have this ancient set of surround sound speakers that still works perfectly. Plus it is already installed in my office with all the wires out the way. I was hoping I could just get an adapter that converts 5.1 to SPDIF, but this is the closest I could find.
I see I can get a Creative Sound Blaster sound card for about R900 (wow, talk about a blast from the past… takes me back to my school days when that was the thing to have). I guess I could go for that, but wasn’t really looking to spend money just to get my sound working again. I guess I could just wait a week and buy it with eBucks if it will fit.
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Yes, Sound Blasters were the only choice when I was growing up!
Yeah, you can try that external card and return it. The sound quality is generally poor. Channel isolation is bad, and the surround effect is weak.
It’s better than nothing, but I’d almost be tempted to just run stereo until you can get something better.
My system also works off 3x 3.5mm jacks, but a good sound card makes all the difference 
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I skimmed through the last few replies here and then randomly found this on Carb. Just thought I’d share. @Viper
Ah I see it’s a headphone amp, not surround.
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A different flavour of tech support. Our 4 plate hob is dying. One plate trips the power, a second heats up very slowly, and the remaining plates are teeny tiny. I’d like to use the opportunity to upgrade to an induction hob. As I’m doing the research and window shopping, I’m first noticing that my existing hob has weird measurements, or I’m measuring at the wrong spot compared to specs.
Does anyone have any recommendations or advice in this arena? Please note, gas is not an option, electric only.
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Has anybody ever needed to claim warranty from Samsung for SSD? Any idea what the process is?
I suspect that my SSD is the cause of my blue screens. The stats on Samsung Magician says all is well, but my experience does not confirm this. The computer is extremely slow and a complete format and reinstall of Windows last year did not help with either the blue screens or slow performance. I’ve only done 96.7Tb/w (out of I think 600).
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Surely you’d be claiming from wherever you bought the SSD from? or did you buy from somewhere like evetech 
Sadly it might potentially come down to there not being SMART data that is showing any kind of fault, and it sounds like this drive may be too old now to be easily just “swapped out for different new one”.
Sorry if the above doesn’t really help you much 
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This is exactly right .
I’ll just wait until I’m sure all must stuff is transferred to the new pc and then I’ll contact Samsung directly. I think the warranty only runs out in November or next November.
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So I’ve rebuilt my computer, installed Windows and moved all my other hard drives over from the old PC. With UEFI boot, is there a way to get my OS on my gaming drive to boot or will I have to reinstall that Windows as well? I tried adding it as another boot option with Visual BCD, but when I reboot and select the 2nd boot option, it just restarts (as per normal to boot into the 2nd OS) and then it either reboots again (taking my back to my primary boot OS) or hangs.
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Never mind, got it working. With UEFI, the application path in the BCD store should point to \Windows\system32\winload.efi. Started my gaming OS without any issues, even with the mobo change.
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Sorry to hear that. Sadly you took the gamble and failed with this one.
The term you might be looking at then is RMA. You’re wanting to RMA the drive directly with Samsung. Fingers crossed that works and they don’t just tell you to talk to your actual retailer/supplier, as they don’t deal with customers directly. Hopefully that is NOT the case and you can get somewhere.
Best of luck. But yea, another point score for not buying from evetech and rather supporting honest e-tailers that have exceptional customer service. Its this exact scenario that i’m so glad most of my stuff is with Wootware, who time and time again have proven to me personally that I never have to worry about such a thing.
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To be fair though, back when I bought it, Evetech was still ok. Things only started going south sometime after that I think.
Wootware is great though. I switched to them after Evetech moved and with this purchase, they even upgraded the mainboard’s BIOS to the latest version before shipping it to me. Think I saw the bios version is from 31 May 2023.
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