How to Connect 5.1 Speakers to Your PC

Understanding Your Computer

The installation will depend if your PC has separated outputs for rear and center/subwoofer speakers or not. Let’s talk about both scenarios.
PCs With Separated Rear and Center/Subwoofer Outputs
In this case you should make the connection like this:

• Front cable (green): To green jack (line out).
• Rear cable (blue or black): To blue jack (not the one right next to the green jack) or black jack (rear out). Pay attention since the blue jack we are talking about is not the same as line in (see Figure 8).
• Center/Subwoofer cable (orange, yellow or pink): To orange or yellow jack.

We show this in Figure 10.

Figure 10: How to connect the speaker system on a PC with separated rear and center/subwoofer outputs.

You will now need to configure your PC, like we will explain in the next page.
PCs Without Separated Rear and Center/Subwoofer Outputs
In this case you should make the connection like this:

• Front cable (green): To green jack (line out).
• Rear cable (blue or black): To blue jack (line in).
• Center/Subwoofer cable (orange, yellow or pink): To pink jack (mic in).

We show this in Figure 11 (please forget that our PC had separated surround outputs).

Figure 11: How to connect the speaker system on a PC without separated rear and center/subwoofer outputs.

You will now need to configure your PC, like we will explain in the next page.