{"id":2698,"date":"2020-10-16T18:02:19","date_gmt":"2020-10-16T18:02:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/?p=2698"},"modified":"2020-10-16T18:57:51","modified_gmt":"2020-10-16T18:57:51","slug":"do-i-need-a-sound-card","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/do-i-need-a-sound-card\/","title":{"rendered":"Do I need a Sound Card?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2700\" src=\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/img\/blog\/soundcard.jpg\" alt=\"Soundcard header\" width=\"640\" height=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<p>One frequently asked question we often get is do I need a Sound Card with my custom PC build? The short answer is, in most cases, no. Virtually all consumer grade motherboards have excellent integrated onboard audio with support for 5.1 and even 7.1 surround that\u2019s more than adequate for most gaming and workstation applications. Adding a discrete sound card to your build simply will not improve audio output enough to justify the additional spend. At least in most cases.<\/p>\n<p>There are a few notable exceptions though:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Server and Workstation motherboards<\/strong> \u2013 some server and commercial workstation motherboards, like the SuperMicro H11DSi-NT that we use in our dual <a href=\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/hd360max-workstation-pc.php\">Epyc HD360A Workstation <\/a>do not have onboard audio. For most customers using that type of system for highly threaded workloads, that lack of audio is inconsequential. But if audio output is a part of your workflow in any way, you\u2019ll need at least a basic discrete sound to output audio from that type of build.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Extreme Audio or Surround set ups<\/strong> \u2013 Though onboard audio may be sufficient for the vast majority of users, there are still a strong contingent of audiophiles that may need discrete audio to connect to extreme or specialized systems. Most onboard audio codecs won\u2019t support surround sound higher than 7.1 or have specialized outputs like Toslink, RCA, or XLR so you\u2019d need a discrete solution if any of those are requirements of yours.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Professional Audio Production<\/strong> \u2013 If you use your PC as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/promagix-hd60-workstation-pc.php\">Digital Audio Workstation<\/a> (DAW), you may want the highest resolution audio output possible, which is something only a Pro grade sound card can provide.<\/p>\n<p>So, what did we miss?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One frequently asked question we often get is do I need a Sound Card with my custom PC build? The&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2703,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[24],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>Do I need a Sound Card? | Velocity Micro Blog<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Do you need a Sound Card with your custom PC build? Virtually all consumer grade motherboards have excellent integrated onboard audio.\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/do-i-need-a-sound-card\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Do I need a Sound Card? | Velocity Micro Blog\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Do you need a Sound Card with your custom PC build? Virtually all consumer grade motherboards have excellent integrated onboard audio.\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/do-i-need-a-sound-card\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Custom Gaming &amp; Workstation PC Blog | Velocity Micro\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/VelocityMicro\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-10-16T18:02:19+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-10-16T18:57:51+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/img\/blog\/soundcard.jpg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Josh Covington\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Josh Covington\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/do-i-need-a-sound-card\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/do-i-need-a-sound-card\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Josh Covington\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/47a2ac15f1865e4e1a7ad91a2716710c\"},\"headline\":\"Do I need a Sound Card?\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-10-16T18:02:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-10-16T18:57:51+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/do-i-need-a-sound-card\/\"},\"wordCount\":282,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Hardware\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/do-i-need-a-sound-card\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/do-i-need-a-sound-card\/\",\"name\":\"Do I need a Sound Card? | Velocity Micro Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-10-16T18:02:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-10-16T18:57:51+00:00\",\"description\":\"Do you need a Sound Card with your custom PC build? Virtually all consumer grade motherboards have excellent integrated onboard audio.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/do-i-need-a-sound-card\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/do-i-need-a-sound-card\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/do-i-need-a-sound-card\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Do I need a Sound Card?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Custom Gaming &amp; Workstation PC Blog | Velocity Micro\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Velocity Micro\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/VMLogo_Black-HD.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/VMLogo_Black-HD.png\",\"width\":2229,\"height\":420,\"caption\":\"Velocity Micro\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/VelocityMicro\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/VelocityMicro\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/47a2ac15f1865e4e1a7ad91a2716710c\",\"name\":\"Josh Covington\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4dab101f4a81eef5a86d0ceb84b38104?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4dab101f4a81eef5a86d0ceb84b38104?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Josh Covington\"},\"description\":\"Josh has been with Velocity Micro since 2007 in various Marketing, PR, and Sales related roles. As the Director of Sales &amp; Marketing, he is responsible for all Direct and Retail sales as well as Marketing activities. He enjoys Seinfeld reruns, the Atlanta Braves, and Beatles songs written by John, Paul, or George. Sorry, Ringo.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/author\/velocityadmin\/\"}]}<\/script>\r\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Do I need a Sound Card? | Velocity Micro Blog","description":"Do you need a Sound Card with your custom PC build? Virtually all consumer grade motherboards have excellent integrated onboard audio.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/do-i-need-a-sound-card\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Do I need a Sound Card? | Velocity Micro Blog","og_description":"Do you need a Sound Card with your custom PC build? Virtually all consumer grade motherboards have excellent integrated onboard audio.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/do-i-need-a-sound-card\/","og_site_name":"Custom Gaming &amp; Workstation PC Blog | Velocity Micro","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/VelocityMicro\/","article_published_time":"2020-10-16T18:02:19+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-10-16T18:57:51+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/img\/blog\/soundcard.jpg"}],"author":"Josh Covington","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Josh Covington","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/do-i-need-a-sound-card\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/do-i-need-a-sound-card\/"},"author":{"name":"Josh Covington","@id":"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/47a2ac15f1865e4e1a7ad91a2716710c"},"headline":"Do I need a Sound Card?","datePublished":"2020-10-16T18:02:19+00:00","dateModified":"2020-10-16T18:57:51+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/do-i-need-a-sound-card\/"},"wordCount":282,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Hardware"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/do-i-need-a-sound-card\/","url":"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/do-i-need-a-sound-card\/","name":"Do I need a Sound Card? | Velocity Micro Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2020-10-16T18:02:19+00:00","dateModified":"2020-10-16T18:57:51+00:00","description":"Do you need a Sound Card with your custom PC build? Virtually all consumer grade motherboards have excellent integrated onboard audio.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/do-i-need-a-sound-card\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/do-i-need-a-sound-card\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/do-i-need-a-sound-card\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Do I need a Sound Card?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/","name":"Custom Gaming &amp; Workstation PC Blog | Velocity Micro","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Velocity Micro","url":"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/VMLogo_Black-HD.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/VMLogo_Black-HD.png","width":2229,"height":420,"caption":"Velocity Micro"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/VelocityMicro\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/VelocityMicro"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/47a2ac15f1865e4e1a7ad91a2716710c","name":"Josh Covington","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4dab101f4a81eef5a86d0ceb84b38104?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4dab101f4a81eef5a86d0ceb84b38104?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Josh Covington"},"description":"Josh has been with Velocity Micro since 2007 in various Marketing, PR, and Sales related roles. As the Director of Sales &amp; Marketing, he is responsible for all Direct and Retail sales as well as Marketing activities. He enjoys Seinfeld reruns, the Atlanta Braves, and Beatles songs written by John, Paul, or George. Sorry, Ringo.","url":"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/author\/velocityadmin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2698"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2698"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2702,"href":"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2698\/revisions\/2702"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.velocitymicro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}