Do I need sound card for sound in a PC build?

[Guest]

http://pcpartpicker.com/list/bdhTYr << My proposed build is available there 

 

Hi, I'm thinking about building a PC, and I was wondering - do I need a sound card to play sound out of the PC (via a 3.5 mm headphone jack)?

 

Also, while we are at it, do I need the wired and wireless adapters in order to be able to have ethernet connectivity/WiFi connectivity?   

[Jens Peter]

No you don't need a sound card.

 

It depends, ethernet(wired) will more than likely be on the motherboard already so that shouldn't be a problem. Your motherboard should tell you whether it comes with some form of Wi-Fi dongle in the box, if not then yes you need an external one. (Same goes for bluetooth)

[Enderman]

1) if a motherboard has audio jacks on it that means it has onboard audio, and you don't need a sound card. Pretty much every motherboard from the past decade has onboard audio.

 

2) yes you NEED to plug the antennas into the wifi card or you will fry it.

[MrDrWho13]

10 minutes ago, VPrime said:

http://pcpartpicker.com/list/bdhTYr << My proposed build is available there 

 

Hi, I'm thinking about building a PC, and I was wondering - do I need a sound card to play sound out of the PC (via a 3.5 mm headphone jack)?

 

Also, while we are at it, do I need the wired and wireless adapters in order to be able to have ethernet connectivity/WiFi connectivity?   

Wired will be included in the motherboard.

[Curufinwe_wins]

13 minutes ago, Enderman said:

2) yes you NEED to plug the antennas into the wifi card or you will fry it.

You don't fry wifi cards by not attaching the antennas... That should be painfully obvious. That said without the antennas the wifi card will be next to worthless from a usability perspective since it won't have enough reception gain to pick up most signals.

[nohuevos]

No, you don't need a sound card. The on board audio will be more than good enough for the majority of users.

The motherboard you've picked out doesn't come with built in wifi so the adapter will be needed. It has an Ethernet port though so you can always go for a wired connection.

 

Also, your build has an i5-5600k and an aftermarket air cooler. It doesn't appear that your motherboard supports CPU overclocking. If you want to overclock, you should look for a Z motherboard. Here's the same board you've selected but with the capability of overclocking. 

[Enderman]

41 minutes ago, Curufinwe_wins said:

You don't fry wifi cards by not attaching the antennas... That should be painfully obvious. That said without the antennas the wifi card will be next to worthless from a usability perspective since it won't have enough reception gain to pick up most signals.

Sounds like you need to do some research...

 

An antenna is a load. When you don't attach an antenna to a wireless device there is nowhere for power to go, and this can damage the amplifier module.

 

http://superuser.com/questions/428956/wireless-card-getting-very-hot

http://www.digi.com/support/forum/49636/module-with-no-antenna-attached-is-it-ok

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/wireless/aironet-340-series/8125-faq-hardware.html

Quote

Some radio equipment manufacturers specifically warn against the operation of radios without the attachment of the antenna. Operation without the antenna can damage the transmitter. Most pieces of amateur or commercial radio equipment carry this warning because the equipment operates at a much higher transmitter power. A failure to use a proper antenna or load causes a reflected wave standing wave ratio (SWR) that can damage the final amplifier stage. This final amplifier stage is the power amplifier (PA).

 

Immediate damage may not occur since computer networking wireless is pretty low power, but turning off a device while changing an antenna is common practice.

Higher power devices will instantly die if you turn them on with no antenna attached.

[kelvinhall05]

1 hour ago, VPrime said:

http://pcpartpicker.com/list/bdhTYr << My proposed build is available there 

 

Hi, I'm thinking about building a PC, and I was wondering - do I need a sound card to play sound out of the PC (via a 3.5 mm headphone jack)?

 

Also, while we are at it, do I need the wired and wireless adapters in order to be able to have ethernet connectivity/WiFi connectivity?   

no you shouldnt. also a few recommendations to your list. first, get rid of the thermal paste, it comes preapplied on the cooler. second, get a hyper 212 evo, its better for the same price.

[Curufinwe_wins]

31 minutes ago, Enderman said:

snip

And you know the FCC has power regulations on those chips right? They will never fry just from not having an antenna attached.

 

Fuck you can detach the antennas of "high end routers" mid stream and they don't die. I've done this.

 

Common practice being a good idea to turn off ANY electronic before fucking around with it. Doesn't mean they instantly perish if you do (which they don't).

[Enderman]

39 minutes ago, Curufinwe_wins said:

And you know the FCC has power regulations on those chips right? They will never fry just from not having an antenna attached.

Yes they can.

Again, go research how wireless works.

[Curufinwe_wins]

23 minutes ago, Enderman said:

Yes they can.

Again, go research how wireless works.

Really, because this is straight from the horses mouth....

 

Quote

 

Most pieces of amateur or commercial radio equipment carry this warning because the equipment operates at a much higher transmitter power. 

 

For Cisco Aironet equipment, the transmitter power output is 100 milliwatts (mW) for the 350 Series and 30 mW for the 340 Series. Damage is unlikely, but possible.

 

It's not going to happen. It could hypothetically. But it doesn't and will not. I understand how electronics work, that doesn't make a damn bit of difference to the truth that you will not damage the wifi card by running without an antenna.

[Enderman]

27 minutes ago, Curufinwe_wins said:

Really, because this is straight from the horses mouth....

 

It's not going to happen. It could hypothetically. But it doesn't and will not. I understand how electronics work, that doesn't make a damn bit of difference to the truth that you will not damage the wifi card by running without an antenna.

"unlikely but possible" means that you shouldn't do it anyway.

I bet you don't even know how many mW your wireless devices are anyway, so why take the risk?

 

Either way, the wireless card will not get any reception without antennas, which was OP's question.

[Guest]

11 hours ago, Enderman said:

Sounds like you need to do some research...

 

An antenna is a load. When you don't attach an antenna to a wireless device there is nowhere for power to go, and this can damage the amplifier module.

 

http://superuser.com/questions/428956/wireless-card-getting-very-hot

http://www.digi.com/support/forum/49636/module-with-no-antenna-attached-is-it-ok

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/wireless/aironet-340-series/8125-faq-hardware.html

 

Immediate damage may not occur since computer networking wireless is pretty low power, but turning off a device while changing an antenna is common practice.

Higher power devices will instantly die if you turn them on with no antenna attached.

Wow, you hit me with science

[Guest]

12 hours ago, nohuevos said:

No, you don't need a sound card. The on board audio will be more than good enough for the majority of users.

The motherboard you've picked out doesn't come with built in wifi so the adapter will be needed. It has an Ethernet port though so you can always go for a wired connection.

 

Also, your build has an i5-5600k and an aftermarket air cooler. It doesn't appear that your motherboard supports CPU overclocking. If you want to overclock, you should look for a Z motherboard. Here's the same board you've selected but with the capability of overclocking. 

Great suggestion about the overclocking!  Haha now all I need to do is come up with the money... well, maybe I'll see you while working at Lowe's Foods soon, stocking away to my dream machine.

[Gordon Bennett]

15 hours ago, VPrime said:

 do I need a sound card to play sound out of the PC (via a 3.5 mm headphone jack)

That depends! I have a Creative Soundblaster ZX, and I wouldn't be without it (or another soundcard). But, I only listen to WAV/FLAC music files, and movies are all DTS HD-MA, or Dolby Atmos. The card is connected to 5.1 THX speakers, & a set of Sennheiser HD 800 headphones.

 

The difference between the on-board sound, and the sound card is night and day. The experience is totally different. But during the day, or like now, I turn off the speakers, & have sound through the HDMI socket as I am neither playing music to relax, or watching a movie. If I didn't want that level of sound quality, then the on-board is fine, and you probably won't use it most of the time anyway, as your graphics card will do the work of the sound card anyway (via HDMI), unless you use headphones all the time.

 

But if your headphones are approaching $100 or more, go to a PC shop and take your phones with you and ask them to demo a sound card. Once experienced, you will never be without a sound card again!