What is the purpose of each of the audio jacks on the motherboard?

[GamerGry123]

What is the purpose of each of the audio jacks on the motherboard?

 

I know good motherboards have 6 audio jacks and some motherboards have the latter s / pdif. I know that speakers or headphones are connected to the green one and a microphone to the red one and what is connected to the others?

On some motherboards, the s / pdif socket is changed instead of the 3.5 mini jack which socket is in the s / pdif socket.

Because there are 5 mini jack 3.5 audio sockets on the motherboard and the last one is the s / pdif socket or it is so that all 6 are mini jack 3.5.

I sent a photo of what it looks like.

[Digideath]

It's for surround sound speakers. 5.1 and 7.1. I use 5.1 surround speakers and i need to use 3 of the jacks on my audio card.

[minibois]

13 minutes ago, GamerGry123 said:

I know that speakers or headphones are connected to the green one and a microphone to the red one and what is connected to the others?

Keep in mind the colors may be different on motherboards, I'll address the regular standard colors:

Green = 2.1 out (headphones, 2 speakers setups, maybe with an included subwoofer)

Pink = microphone (audio in)

Blue = line-in, also audio in, but meant to connect other devices to (i.e. a mixer for example)

 

Connections for 5.1/7.1 speaker sets:

Orange: dedicated subwoofer connector

Grey: side speakers (7.1 speaker setup)

Black: rear speakers (5.1/7.1 speaker setup)

 

SP.DIF/Optical audio: can typically do 5.1/7.1 audio too.

[SupaKomputa]

3 output = 5.1, 2 main speaker, 2 side speaker, 1 subwoofer.

 

[WhitetailAni]

Note that if you fiddle with the sound settings enough, you can get a 2.1 sound setup with a dedicated subwoofer (that uses its own audio jack) working with the green and orange jacks.

It's what I use.

[mariushm]

Most onboard audio chips are  5.1 or 7.1 these days, even those that have only 3 stereo jacks at the back. Their role can be changed from default stereo out , line in, microphone  to , front speakers left+right, center+subwoofer, side speakers left+right,

You can do 7.1 systems using the headphone or microphone jacks in front for extra connections... or you can buy brackets with 2 audio jacks and connector that goes in the motherboard header for front panel audio.

 

The optical out / coax out (if any) can carry data digitally and it can do lossless uncompressed stereo, or 5.1 dolby digital or dts i think (not sure it's possible to do 5.1 lossless even though in theory the toslink cable can transfer the amount of data)

 

 

[GamerGry123]

17 minutes ago, minibois said:

Keep in mind the colors may be different on motherboards, I'll address the regular standard colors:

Green = 2.1 out (headphones, 2 speakers setups, maybe with an included subwoofer)

Pink = microphone (audio in)

Blue = line-in, also audio in, but meant to connect other devices to (i.e. a mixer for example)

 

Connections for 5.1/7.1 speaker sets:

Orange: dedicated subwoofer connector

Grey: side speakers (7.1 speaker setup)

Black: rear speakers (5.1/7.1 speaker setup)

 

SP.DIF/Optical audio: can typically do 5.1/7.1 audio too.

Some motherboards do not have a gray slot: side speakers.
Instead they have s / pdif, how to connect the side speakers which are gray sockets? Is the s / pdif the same and connect the side speakers and it will not affect the quality of the sound?

[minibois]

2 minutes ago, GamerGry123 said:

Some motherboards do not have a gray slot: side speakers.
Instead they have s / pdif, how to connect the side speakers which are gray sockets? Is the s / pdif the same and connect the side speakers and it will not affect the quality of the sound?

If a motherboard does not have a grey port, it's not suited for 7.1 setups which use the 3.5mm connectors.

Without a grey port, it is still fit for 5.1 speaker setups (which use 3.5mm).

 

Simply put, with 3.5mm:

2.0/2.1: green

5.1: green, black, orange (side, rear, sub)

7.1: green, black, orange, gray (side, read, sub, side)

 

The SPDIF connector is not an equivalent to the grey connector. SPDIF is it's own connector and typically your sound system uses either 3.5mm or SPDIF. Not both at once.

[mariushm]

The role of each jack is not fixed, the onboard audio chip detects if you plug speakers or microphone or line input  and configures the jack accordingly.

Even if the jack says Microphone, you can put speakers in that jack and the sound card either reconfigures it automatically, you can go and set the role manually.

 

For example, in Windows 7 on my sound card.. i just plugged the 3 connectors, one  in the stereo out because it's green and easy to remember, but the other 2 I just plugged in and manually set the role from the application. 

 

On SOME sound cards, the stereo out jack has slightly better quality (or has a pre-amplifier) so it may be worth double checking that you connect front speakers to it, but other than that, it shouldn't matter.

 

If I double click on the jacks on the right side (under device advanced settings), I can manually select the role of each jack if I want to override what the sound card thinks it is :

 

 

 

In device advanced settings on my sound card there's options to disable speakers when headphones are inserted/detected, or to treat the headphones as separate stereo sound card (so i could configure a video player to output sound on headphones and have music player or game on speakers)

 

In Windows 10, there may be an option in the control panel for these things, if there's no longer a custom application from the sound card or motherboard maker.

 

 

[mariushm]

2 minutes ago, minibois said:

If a motherboard does not have a grey port, it's not suited for 7.1 setups which use the 3.5mm connectors.

No, that's not quite correct. A lot of motherboards re-purpose the headphones out jack in front for the extra 2 speakers in the 7.1 setup.

Like I said, jacks can be reconfigured.

 

Lots of motherboards don't use colors anymore, because of design reasons (ex have all gold plated jacks or all black io shield so colors wouldn't look cool)... it's also sucky for color blind people

 

2 minutes ago, minibois said:

Without a grey port, it is still fit for 5.1 speaker setups (which use 3.5mm).

 

Simply put, with 3.5mm:

2.0/2.1: green

5.1: green, black, orange (side, rear, sub)

7.1: green, black, orange, gray (side, read, sub, side)

 

The SPDIF connector is not an equivalent to the grey connector. SPDIF is it's own connector and typically your sound system uses either 3.5mm or SPDIF. Not both at once.

 

[GamerGry123]

5 minutes ago, minibois said:

If a motherboard does not have a grey port, it's not suited for 7.1 setups which use the 3.5mm connectors.

Without a grey port, it is still fit for 5.1 speaker setups (which use 3.5mm).

 

Simply put, with 3.5mm:

2.0/2.1: green

5.1: green, black, orange (side, rear, sub)

7.1: green, black, orange, gray (side, read, sub, side)

 

The SPDIF connector is not an equivalent to the grey connector. SPDIF is it's own connector and typically your sound system uses either 3.5mm or SPDIF. Not both at once.

Or can you sweep the gray s / pdif port usage to get 7.1?

Which configuration is better 5.1 or 7.1?

[mariushm]

Optical out / Coaxial out (SPDIF) is a DIGITAL CONNECTOR ... it sends bits to a device that can decode the stream of bits and convert to analogue.  Think of it like SPDIF being HDMI and the analogue jacks being VGA.

The SPDIF  can not be repurposed for extra audio channels.

 

SPDIF is limited by the amounts of bits it can send through the optical wires ... well, in theory it's good for up to 125mbps, but in practice there's various limitations.

You can do lossless 24 bit, stereo , 192kHz  and you can do 5.1 Dolby Digital encoded audio (a bit lossy) kinda like 5.1 AC3 on DVDs and DTS. 

 

You can do Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD through HDMI.

 

--

 

There's no "better" configuration ... configure the amount of speakers you actually have.

If you buy a 5.1 system, configure 5.1... duh