[geeks] Wow, PCs are cheap...

[nate at portents.com]

>>Nice, tiny, quiet.  I noted it has audio headers on the motherboard, but
>>no headers for a speaker.
>
> That's pretty common in the MBs I've come in contact with, and I only
> notice it when I build a system with an oddball chassis that happens to
> include a built-in speaker.

The only thing that comes out of a desktop PC 'speaker' output on a
motherboard these days is diagnostic beeps, which are often just handled
by a piezo buzzer soldered on a lot of motherboards.  (The one exception
to this is some proprietary systems that Dell and other big box makers put
together which include a small onboard amp connected to the onboard sound
which gives their built-in speaker the ability to be a standard audio
out.)

The last time I've heard a plain PC speaker output do anything other than
beeps was in 1992 with the game "Star Control II: The Ur-Quan Masters"
which could play back single-channel digital audio very quietly over the
PC speaker if you had no sound card (including the MOD music).

- Nate