Sound Card

The sound card is an essential component in the PC, since it translates digital signals into analog audio for your listening pleasure. Well, that's true, if you want to play games or run multimedia applications in your PC. Otherwise, it may not be necessary, especially in business environments.

Sound card ports

A computer sound card is used by a computer for music, sounds during applications and entertainment (TV, movies and games). A typical sound card usually has four ports. The largest port is the Midi/Game port , which is used for connecting a joystick or gaming controller to. The other three ports look similar and are generally green, pink and blue.

Underneath each port will be a small engraving of what each port does. The pink port is for a microphone which can record sound to the computer. The green port is line out and this is where the speakers are connected to produce sound from the computer. The blue port is line in and this is for connecting a CD-player or cassette tape to the computer.

Remember a sound card by itself is not enough to hear sound. You will still need to purchase some computer speakers or a headphone set. If you want to make use of the microphone feature then you will need to buy a computer microphone and you should then be able to record sound to your computer.

When you are choosi ng one Sound Card you have to consider:

• First thing to consider here is your intended usage of the sound card. If all you want is basic sound support and not spectacular 3D surround sound, I'd say go buy a cheap, simple card or even rely on your motherboard's on-board sound.

• If you want great surround sound and better speaker connectivity options, then you'll want to consider a dedicated sound card.