Laptops and Surround Sound

[imported_rapjo]

I am considering purchasing a 5.1 system for my desktop, but I was wondering, if I wanted to use this system with a laptop, would I have to purchase an Extigy or some other such external USB sound card to use these speakers with a laptop, or can modern laptops run multichannel sound out of the box?

 

[LtPage1]

youd have to have a usb sound card, unless you found some crazy unheard of beast of a notebook. no big deal- i dont think theyre that expensive.

 

[tweeve2002]

you can also just get a 3 way splitter for the sound....I have used one on my surround sound set up before. it works ok.

 

[piroroadkill]

Some laptops have optical SPDIF connectors which will run surround sound from DVDs etc, but support in games is a bit sketchier. I have no experience with USB sound cards but I should imagine they'd take a significant amount of the USB bus to process sound :-/

 

[DAPUNISHER]

USB? You don't need no stinking USB!