Adding and external sound card to an imac

Can anyone tell me if adding an external sound card to an iMac will work, even though the sound card on the motherboard is fried ?

I damaged the computer while connecting a hifi input in order to use Audacity. Now the sound card has disappeared. There is a red flashing light from the output, and system profiler shows no sound is installed. There is no start-up beep so I am sure it is not just the optical socket sticking. No sound input either.

It is a 5 year old Intel iMac running Snow Leopard.

Not sure there is much you can add to an iMac apart from memory and a new HD. I believe the graphics card has come in daughter cards or right on the logic board depending on the vintage of the iMac..

Since there are no expansion headers for you to use..adding a new sound card is most likely not possible..you might look around and see if you can get a new logic board..

Regards

You may be able to use an external USB sound card. Several members have reported using them with their Macs. Go to this LINK.