Desktop gaming PC setups are now a very niche area. The vast majority of people who play video games use consoles, especially younger gamers. People like you and me who grew up building ourown desktop gaming rigs from scratch with Creative Labs sound cards and speaker systems are now 40-year-old millenials with spouses who don't want their houses shaking with bass every time you click your mouse to shoot someone, or no longer require big elaborate setups because we play games much less frequently due to other obligations like working and having families, etc. In that context, either getting a good set of headphones or settling for a solid 2.1 setup if you're not a headphone person just makes sense. Frankly, the quality of those 2.1 setups is generally a lot higher than what we used to use in other configurations.
There just isn't a market to support the development and marketing of the systems you're looking for. You're basically representing a group of people who are PC nerds AND audiophiles at the same time, but aren't interested in engaging in the effort involved with building a passive setup through an amp. The people who want high end audio from their high end desktop PC are precisely the same hobbyist types who would enjoy creating a complex, personalized setup after agonizing over every small detail.
__________________ "The great promise of the Internet was that more information would automatically yield better decisions. The great disappointment is that more information actually yields more possibilities to confirm what you already believed anyway." - Brian Eno
I think you'd still need an external "receiver" in the form of a DAC, wouldn't you? Not that that's a huge deal, just a minor extra step.
EDIT: NM, it seems to do it on board with software. Weird. Never tried that. Probably wouldn't because it'd be a mess of cables but I guess it would work in some fashion.
__________________ "The great promise of the Internet was that more information would automatically yield better decisions. The great disappointment is that more information actually yields more possibilities to confirm what you already believed anyway." - Brian Eno
Last edited by CorsiHockeyLeague; 01-08-2026 at 12:26 PM.
Shouldn't need an external receiver, the onboard sound is doing the DAC part and the speakers should have an amp, the speakers have 3 3.5mm plugs (left/right, rear left/right, and center/sub). His old computer sound card (onboard or whatever) had 3 plugs for this purpose.
Could also let us know the exact model of Logitech speakers, maybe they have a TOSLINK input.
The new motherboard probably only has 2 3.5mm plugs in the back (l/r, mic) but the software should be able to repurpose the mic plug as an output and also one of the front case audio plugs (assuming the front audio exists and is connected) to get the 3 needed. But depends specifically on the model of motherboard to confirm if it will do that.
__________________ Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position.
But certainty is an absurd one.
The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to photon For This Useful Post:
You'd presumably have to use the mic and front input plugs for various channels and it would only wind up being 3.1, but it does seem to suggest it would work... would the resulting quality be any good? No idea.
__________________ "The great promise of the Internet was that more information would automatically yield better decisions. The great disappointment is that more information actually yields more possibilities to confirm what you already believed anyway." - Brian Eno
Shouldn't need an external receiver, the onboard sound is doing the DAC part and the speakers should have an amp, the speakers have 3 3.5mm plugs (left/right, rear left/right, and center/sub). His old computer sound card (onboard or whatever) had 3 plugs for this purpose.
Could also let us know the exact model of Logitech speakers, maybe they have a TOSLINK input.
The new motherboard probably only has 2 3.5mm plugs in the back (l/r, mic) but the software should be able to repurpose the mic plug as an output and also one of the front case audio plugs (assuming the front audio exists and is connected) to get the 3 needed. But depends specifically on the model of motherboard to confirm if it will do that.
I'll have to take a look when I get home. I know for sure they don't have TOSLINK though. Like I said, they're really old but still sound awesome.
As far as repurposing the existing plugs, I had wondered about that. I have yet to fire up the PC as I only finished building it last night. It's entirely possible they could be re-configured in BIOS? I seem to recall 1 input, one output and one mic plug.
Desktop gaming PC setups are now a very niche area. The vast majority of people who play video games use consoles, especially younger gamers. People like you and me who grew up building ourown desktop gaming rigs from scratch with Creative Labs sound cards and speaker systems are now 40-year-old millenials with spouses who don't want their houses shaking with bass every time you click your mouse to shoot someone, or no longer require big elaborate setups because we play games much less frequently due to other obligations like working and having families, etc. In that context, either getting a good set of headphones or settling for a solid 2.1 setup if you're not a headphone person just makes sense. Frankly, the quality of those 2.1 setups is generally a lot higher than what we used to use in other configurations.
There just isn't a market to support the development and marketing of the systems you're looking for. You're basically representing a group of people who are PC nerds AND audiophiles at the same time, but aren't interested in engaging in the effort involved with building a passive setup through an amp. The people who want high end audio from their high end desktop PC are precisely the same hobbyist types who would enjoy creating a complex, personalized setup after agonizing over every small detail.
Ya that's basically me. Luckily, my wife is also a gamer so she doesn't mind at all. The neighbours on the other hand....
Never really thought of myself as an audiophile but perhaps I am. Recently also finished up a decent true home theatre setup and have REALLY been enjoying the Bose speakers in our new car so maybe you're on to something haha.
I do find it frustrating how often sound seems to be an afterthought. For me sound in movies and gaming is every bit as important as good picture quality and get frustrated how hard that can be to achieve.
I'll have to take a look when I get home. I know for sure they don't have TOSLINK though. Like I said, they're really old but still sound awesome.
As far as repurposing the existing plugs, I had wondered about that. I have yet to fire up the PC as I only finished building it last night. It's entirely possible they could be re-configured in BIOS? I seem to recall 1 input, one output and one mic plug.
Yeah if the speakers work no point in replacing them!
The plugs would be repurposed in the Reaktek software, once the PC is built and you've downloaded the Realtek drivers and device software from Gigabyte there should be options in the software.
What are people doing for PC speakers these days? Turns out I overlooked a little something something....sound.
For damn close to 20 yrs, I've been rocking a set of Logitech 5.1 speakers. These things pound. Unfortunately they have the 3.5mm orange/black/green outputs that my new M/B doesn't have inputs for. Seems they are getting rare these days?
So my options are:
1) Buy a dedicated sound card. I seem to recall this not working out well in the past. Various models had poor sound or had a buzzing noise.
2) Hope I can exchange the M/B for one that has the correct inputs (Build is basically done naturally so have to undo all of that) or bite the bullet and get a new one.
3) Downgrade my speakers and buy some 2.1's. Not wild about this either.
I know headphones are a thing, just don't like em. Maybe I just don't have right ones but I really dislike having them on and I don't find the surround sound is as natural as free standing speakers.
I notice a lot of gamers are using bookshelf speakers but how do you connect those to a PC? Do they need subs?
Ugh...what a mistake to make.
Personally I have some wall mounted nearfield bookshelfs above my monitors in a 2.0 setup powered by a focusrite external soundcard. My reasoning is
- nearfield bookshelves account for boundary gain (freestanding bookshelfs do not, and end up sounding chesting in a PC setup)
- I do not really require a subwoofer in this particular room, but I can see why someone may want one. If your bookshelves have a -3dB point (F3) of around 100hz, that really does cover everything most people would need.
- a centre might make sense if it were an identical speaker above my centre monitor, but my room has a window where a centre would mounted.
- surrounds might make sense if I didn't have a door and a closet behind me
But if I had a room that were genuinely setup for a 5.1 or 7.1 gaming setup, i would have all identical speakers plus a sealed subwoofer with an F3 around 50hz - maybe a CSS SDX10 powered by a plate amp. For speakers i would probably buy five to seven of whichever KALI Audio active studio monitor speakers such as the LP-UNF (or if the budget were higher, I would be looking at Amphion audio and if the budget were even higher, Genelec)
as far as a dedicated sound card goes, the key is good faraday shielding because computers generate a ton of inductive noise (along with electrical noise). If you have passive speakers, then a home theater receiver is probably the most cost-effective tool for the job if you have space for it under your desk, otherwise if you need XLR outputs putting something like this:
But I wouldn't be surprised if a modern sound card is already pretty good for the price, especially since you seem to have had good sound from onboard surround in the past so you might be overthinking it. Onboard sound is usually actually an inferior tradeoff to a dedicated soundcard because of electrical noise but if you were happy with it before, that's a good sign that a good sound card can get you the results you need as long as it's kept away from inductance (hence why external is better as GPU coils are often culprits)
__________________
"May those who accept their fate find happiness. May those who defy it find glory."
The Following User Says Thank You to GranteedEV For This Useful Post:
But I wouldn't be surprised if a modern sound card is already pretty good for the price, especially since you seem to have had good sound from onboard surround in the past so you might be overthinking it. Onboard sound is usually actually an inferior tradeoff to a dedicated soundcard because of electrical noise but if you were happy with it before, that's a good sign that a good sound card can get you the results you need as long as it's kept away from inductance (hence why external is better as GPU coils are often culprits)
This strikes me as a good rabbit hole to fall down. I always suspected a dedicated card should be better than onboard but never seemed to have much success. I'm going to try out photon's solution, compare that to the internal card I ordered but looks as thought SB also has external cards that may be worth a try too.
Much like G-Sync turning into VRR, the real win will be when Pulsar becomes mass-market technology. And eventually it will find it's way into OLED, this is one of these techs that I'm happy to wait a few years and a few revisions for
