Thinking about an internally mounted audio speaker, not a mobo speaker.

[NoYesIdunnoMaybe]

Primarily I do not listen to music or watch video through external speakers on my desktop. I use headphones. But every so often I need to play audio out, to show someone a video or whatever. I've been thinking it would be handy to have a single speaker mounted inside the case, maybe in a spare fan mount. How could I wire this up without running cables outside of the case? Could it be set up to be the default audio device, like if there's nothing plugged in to the front I/O or the mobo I/O it will play audio? 

 

I'm fairly handy, I just don't know much about this side of pc hardware, and I haven't found anything like what I'm thinking of. 

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

4 minutes ago, NoYesIdunnoMaybe said:

Primarily I do not listen to music or watch video through external speakers on my desktop. I use headphones. But every so often I need to play audio out, to show someone a video or whatever. I've been thinking it would be handy to have a single speaker mounted inside the case, maybe in a spare fan mount. How could I wire this up without running cables outside of the case? Could it be set up to be the default audio device, like if there's nothing plugged in to the front I/O or the mobo I/O it will play audio? 

 

I'm fairly handy, I just don't know much about this side of pc hardware, and I haven't found anything like what I'm thinking of. 

You could use your somehow wire it using the front panel audio headers. But that would mean you would loose your front panel audio. 

[RollinLower]

you oculd always just get a cheapo speaker on a 3.5mm jack, and run the cable out through a PCIe cover to the rear I/O. it should detect as a primary audio driver then.

[NoYesIdunnoMaybe]

4 minutes ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

You could use your somehow wire it using the front panel audio headers. But that would mean you would loose your front panel audio. 

Yeah I don't want to do that, since I use headphones. Is there a way to wire up multiple audio jacks? 

[NoYesIdunnoMaybe]

1 minute ago, RollinLower said:

you oculd always just get a cheapo speaker on a 3.5mm jack, and run the cable out through a PCIe cover to the rear I/O. it should detect as a primary audio driver then.

I don't want to run a cable out of the case to the rear I/O. I'd really like this to be clean 

[NoYesIdunnoMaybe]

5 minutes ago, Pangea2017 said:

Why not add a usb sound card? There are enough usb header inside a pc.

Like a USB audio adapter? 

Like this? 

[Termenater382]

I would go the USB option 

internal USB to dual Female USB cable

https://www.amazon.com/Motherboard-Female-Header-Adapter-Cable/dp/B015F6QXKO/ref=pd_sim_147_1/147-4961045-1720502?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B015F6QXKO&pd_rd_r=EPTXHK7K8A9R8MY0W653&pd_rd_w=OvcAn&pd_rd_wg=HXZct&psc=1&refRID=EPTXHK7K8A9R8MY0W653

 

USB sound card link

https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-External-Adapter-Windows-AU-MMSA/dp/B00IRVQ0F8/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1526500196&sr=1-3&keywords=usb+sound+card

 

JGarrison

[NoYesIdunnoMaybe]

4 hours ago, Termenater382 said:

I would go the USB option 

JGarrison

That makes a lot of sense. Just need to find a simple usb powered speaker. Thanks

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

5 hours ago, Pangea2017 said:

Why not add a usb sound card? There are enough usb header inside a pc.

Either method is going to be janky and requires manual switching of audio out / audio device. 

[NoYesIdunnoMaybe]

I just found this usb speaker, which seems like exactly what I'm looking for, with no 3.5mm jack required. I think I even have an open usb port in my case, so it would just come down to figuring out a way to mount this. The reviews are hit or miss, but this seems like a cheap entry to trying this out. 

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

Just now, NoYesIdunnoMaybe said:

I just found this usb speaker, which seems like exactly what I'm looking for, with no 3.5mm jack required. I think I even have an open usb port in my case, so it would just come down to figuring out a way to mount this. The reviews are hit or miss, but this seems like a cheap entry to trying this out. 

Nothing a bit of hot glue can't fix. 

[NoYesIdunnoMaybe]

19 hours ago, Pangea2017 said:

This enitre idea is janky. Sound quality will also be questionable.

I'm not looking for high quality sound. I'm looking for a cheap and space saving way to have speakers for the rare occasions where I need to share the sound out of my PC with someone else. I use high quality headphones for 99.5% of my audio experience.