Yes I agree a proper sound card is best. I love gaming (although I hardly get much chance to play nowadays) but I'm not a sound connoisseur! I used to have machines with literally everything, speakers, force feedback gaming peripherals but now to avoid spaghetti junction of cables (and trying not to overload just two plug sockets in the room my wife relegated technology to) literally have just the monitor, desktop, keyboard and mouse, printer and Ethernet switch. I hoped the monitor in built speakers would suffice but unfortunately even to my untrained ears I think they aren't much cop so will at some stage bite the bullet and some slightly better speakers. Trouble is I barely remember the sound setups I used to run and hdmi being in the mix now just confused me!!! Thankfully things have been explained very clearly. It prob would of been obvious if I could of gotten a clear look round the back of the PC but it's literally a case of shining a torch and reflecting mirrors to see without pulling all sorts of cables out. I know I'll have to do it if and when I buy new speakers but I'm glad I asked the question and I'll have to only do it the once