Ok, to hold me over until i can get a good system i just bought a cheap $40 surround sound system for my PC. It has 2 fronts, 2 backs, a center and a sub box It can be hooked up either by RCA jacks or by a one wire headpone jack cable. They are bare wire type connections that all run into the sub box and then the cord from there to what you are hooking them to. The standard really. What i want to know is if anyone knows where i can get a set of 3 or more headphone jack style connectors that i can run the bare wires into so that i can hook them directly to a port on my PC rather than into the sub box? I have a newer motherboard (MSI 975X Platinum Power Up Ed.) and it has serperate channels for it's surround sound. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2366176&CatId=2438 i am sure you know what i mean but there is a picture. with just a one cord set up i can never get surround sound, what i get is either the front or the center/sub through all speakers.
In order for speakers to work, they need to be connected to an amplifier which you have in the sub box. Sound cards only feed a sound source out for an external amp. The amplifier needs a source in this case is your pc. The cables you need are 3.5mm headphone jacks into two RCAs. Connect the correct headphone jacks into the PC and the correct RCAs into the sub box. There you have it. Pretty simple really.
headphone jack into RCA splitter will not solve the problem of each speaker set being on a different plug. Nice thought but will not do the trick. I already have one of those. I am just buying a new set with actual plugs for back, center/sub, and front and being done with the whole mess.