5.1 Sound system

Hello overclockers I have come to you (guys and gals) for guidance today =)
My dad gave me an old sound system (receiver box, 5 speakers and subwoofer) and I want to hook it up to my PC. I don't have a dedicated sound card, but my motherboard does support 5.1 surround sound, problem is that my board only takes 3.5mm jacks and the speakers I have are the two wire clamp kind, so I wanted to know if there was a way to cut up some old earbuds and wire the 3.5mm jack to the speakers so I can use them. If this can be done, would it be loud enough? If not, is there a budget amp you could recommend, or a kit to put one together? Thanks in advance everyone


Picture: This isn't my exact board but the audio I/O is the same

http://images.tweaktown.com/content...75_pro3_intel_z75_motherboard_review_full.jpg

Not sure about splicing a 3.5mm plug to speakers, never done that. I have my Sony stereo system and a pair of Bose Companion 2 speakers hooked up to my computer using a 3.5mm splitter. Sounds great.

cwinot said:

Not sure about splicing a 3.5mm plug to speakers, never done that. I have my Sony stereo system and a pair of Bose Companion 2 speakers hooked up to my computer using a 3.5mm splitter. Sounds great.

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Hmm.... I tried a splitter to my sound system and I lost too much of the bass, it was almost inaudible so for the moment I'm using some sony headphones on the same 3.5mm jack and I get great bass (weird?) why would I lose the bass?

No idea. I did not have that problem.

It seems like you would want to hook the computer to the receiver and use its amp to drive the speakers. Not a lot of power from just the motherboard. What brand/model is the receiver?

bfromcolo said:

It seems like you would want to hook the computer to the receiver and use its amp to drive the speakers. Not a lot of power from just the motherboard. What brand/model is the receiver?

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It's an old Panasonic, I tried doing just that and I was getting inaudible bass, I'll try again and see if I can tweak realtek to give me the bass