Does My Sound Card Support 5.1 Surround sound?

Question

I have a E-machines T2642, its an older computer, (My new one got water damaged).

I was going to buy some 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround sound speakers, there is 6 speakers in the set. But i noticed on the back of my computer there is only 3 ports for my sound card. 1 of them is green, and says Line-In, one is orange saying Spk for speakers i suppose, and the other is orange saying microphone.

Would this computer have the ability to support all 6 of those speakers i want? The speakers are 1 sub-woofer, and 5 satellites. If not, how many of those speakers could i support? Thanks.

Answer 1

Your computer does not support 5.1 because it only has 1 output for speakers.  It'll do stereo, but not 5.1.

You could do "fakey" 5.1 but connecting your front and rear pairs to the computer, but that's not the same as 5.1.

A card that can do 5.1 will have separate inputs for speakers, or at the least, an optical audio output port, that you'll need to connect to a 5.1 decoder (like your home theater setup)

Answer 2

a soundcard that supports 5.1 would have 6 ports.

in your case, i think it will just be stereo.