Going backwards? 5.1 to 2.1

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KillRoy X

Gawd
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Aug 15, 2004
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I'll try and make a long story short. My 10-year-old rig has been great, but just not cutting it anymore. I took a chance on a prebuilt from Skytech. (updated rig specs soon)

Overall, pretty happy with the purchase. Going from a 2060 to a 5060 Ti has been a god send.

With this prebuilt it was a bit risky with the mobo brand, power supply, memory, etc., wasn't really sure what I was going to get. Again, not terrible. .... except one thing I didn't think about:

The Asus Prime Wi-Fi (ATX) Motherboards audio jacks are only for a stereo speaker set up. I was shocked.

I still have a fully functional Logitech 5.1 speaker system that for now, it's nerfed.

Been doing some research to possibly add a dedicated 5.1 sound card but noticing a trend here on Windows 11. There don't seem to be many of them.

Anyone has any options in this scenario? This motherboard doesn't appear to have any other options (no optical or other) so I think the only option if I want to keep the rig is to find a dedicated 5.1 card that will be compatible with new PC's and Windows 11.

thx for any feedback!
 
KillRoy X said:
The Asus Prime Wi-Fi (ATX) Motherboards audio jacks are only for a stereo speaker set up. I was shocked.
Click to expand...
Maybe I will sound stupid and not up to date, but are you sure of that ? Sometime there is 3 plugs and even though one will be named mic-in, line-in or something like that they can be used in 5.1 mode.

There is also external USB DAC/sound "card" has an popular modern option, like the :
https://ca.creative.com/p/sound-blaster/sound-blaster-x4
 
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LukeTbk said:
Maybe I will sound stupid and not up to date, but are you sure of that ? Sometime the is 3 plug and even though one will be name mic-in, line-in or something like that they can be used in 5.1 mode.
Click to expand...

This is still current. 5.1 will probably use all three of the rear jacks, 7.1 would also use one of the front jacks. Some motherboards might do 5.1 with one rear and two front jacks or something too. You might need to load the driver from the motherboard website to get the port configuration tool, and it might just popup when you plug stuff in.
 
LukeTbk said:
Maybe I will sound stupid and not up to date, but are you sure of that ? Sometime the is 3 plug and even though one will be name mic-in, line-in or something like that they can be used in 5.1 mode.

There is also external USB DAC/sound "card" has an popular modern option, like the :
https://ca.creative.com/p/sound-blaster/sound-blaster-x4
Click to expand...
Appreciate it, and that's what I thought as well. There are 3 jacks (different colors than what my previous MB) but when I plugged them in, it still only utilized the front L/R. Even on the description on this ASUS home page for this MB, it states, enjoy stereo sound.

Maybe there is something I need to change in the BIOS? Day 1 on having this computer so i'm still trouble shooting. Hopefully can figure this out :)
 
From the manual. Unless I am missing something.


audio.jpg
 
KillRoy X said:
Asus Prime Wi-Fi
Click to expand...
which one, intel or amd?
but as Dar just showed, it should have it, most do these days. on the off chance it doesnt, see if your speakers have spdif and if the board has the option to add it via a header(mine do).
 
You can also purchase a used dedicated sound card if you have a spare PCIe x1 available, or a good budget external DAC. Even a decent audio extractor will work these days.
 
pendragon1 said:
which one, intel or amd?
but as Dar just showed, it should have it, most do these days. on the off chance it doesnt, see if your speakers have spdif and if the board has the option to add it via a header(mine do).
Click to expand...
Yeah, it's an AMD motherboard. After a lot of trouble shooting, I think my only option will be a dedicated card or external. Kind of a bummer, but for whatever reason this motherboard just isn't taken the inputs, not recognizing the 5.1 even in the sound options. Unfortunately, the speakers only have the orange, black and lime green audio jacks. Maybe something in the MB bios, but so far, no luck.
 
KillRoy X said:
Yeah, it's an AMD motherboard. After a lot of trouble shooting, I think my only option will be a dedicated card or external. Kind of a bummer, but for whatever reason this motherboard just isn't taken the inputs, not recognizing the 5.1 even in the sound options. Unfortunately, the speakers only have the orange, black and lime green audio jacks. Maybe something in the MB bios, but so far, no luck.
Click to expand...
be specific... there are 23 "amd prime" boards...
BUT most have 7.1, so rtfm.
 
pendragon1 said:
be specific... there are 23 "amd prime" boards...
BUT most have 7.1, so rtfm.
Click to expand...
Sorry bout that. It appears to be the ASUS B650M-AX 2 AM5 motherboard. The post above, the ASUS realtek audio control, I do not have. I will attempt that path. Another question was where did I choose the 5.1 instead of stereo. I did NOT even have that option that I can find.

Work and progress but appreciate the feedback,
 
all you should need to do is install the drivers, connect the speaker jacks correctly, and set it to 5.1 in the sound properties.
 
pendragon1 said:
all you should need to do is install the drivers, connect the speaker jacks correctly, and set it to 5.1 in the sound properties.
Click to expand...
I think I may have got it. Thx to all folks here for your help. This audio driver may have done the trick. Still testing but this would resolve alot for me.

Huge thx!
 
I'm glad I ditched my Logitech 5.1 system so many cords. I've been using a Edifier 350DB 2.,1 since 2019 considering the new light up Edifiers but I wish I could test them first. I did have a 623 Logitech set before the Edifiers but they were kinda lacking compared to the Edifiers. They don't include the sub so they might be lacking. I rather just keep what I got these are tuff speakers they are always on I had the power go out maybe 4-5 time since they from critters frying in the the nearby transformers or storms. Plus I run a Humidifier like 8 months out of the year due to dry air so they took alot of moisture damage.
 
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