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A basic question about desktop audio

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avanalarf | 22:53 Mon 28th Nov 2011 | Computers
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As I posted in my last question I am probably going to buy this desktop http://www.comet.co.u...s#product_description
(the Comet site contains a more detailed spec than the Amazon page) and I note there is no built-in sound card included.

I know a little bit about software but virtually nothing about hardware and so I was wondering whether a lack of a built-in sound card means that there will be no audio? Or is such a sound card only needed when it comes to connecting to an external audio device?

I realise that this is a very basic question and hope I'm not being too dense so thanks in advance for any answers.
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Nearly all mobo's have a built in sound card, if it doesn't you will have no audio unless you fit one.
I wouldn't touch that particular PC with a bargepole. The only specs I could find concerned the processor, what about all the other components?

For that sort of money you could get a much better PC from somewhere like Mesh.

http://www.meshcomput...fq22qwCFZQhtAodd0RBGA
Some PCs have the soundcaerd incorporated into the motherboard. Yu can see from the spec. if there is built in sound.
better set of specs here

http://www.packardbel...nt/model/PT.U6DE2.008

Id say it's got onboard sound ie., integrated on the motherboard.
It does have microphone & earphone jacks so that is a bit of a clue
Thanks slack, the specs aren't too bad but I still wouldn't touch it, I got fooled into buying a Packard Bell once and I hated it with a passion! lol
I agree about the onboard sound, i've never known a new PC to have no sound at all.
I think it has an added soundcard .. not on-board sound.
There are audio sockets .. and if .. as it says .. it plays CD's , etc .. how can it play without any soundcard.
Specs just do not list it .. They just say there is no ON-BOARD sound (that means on the motherboard (like on-board Graphics)
I should think it's an OEM PB audio card .. maybe 5.1 or 7.1.
Your possibly right, I have been looking for a view of the back/rear but cannot find one.
They are onboard audio, although it is digital onboard audio.

there are also additional headphone and mic sockets on the front (as visible in the pictures in SAs link)
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Thank you all for your replies.

daffy654 - why do you recommend avoiding Packard Bell - is that from recent experience? From googling it, I do realise that the brand name has had a bad reputation in the past (and probably rightly so) but all those 'avoid like the plague' reviews are from 2008 and before, mostly several years earlier, and the reviews I can find from after that date seem to be positive - unless they are fake.
For the price you're paying It's not bad and Packard Bell are not as bad as they used to be... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packard_Bell The first paragraph says all you need to know...

since Acer bought the brand they've been fine, before that they were crap.
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Thanks ChuckFickens for confirming that

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