cdkane01

The POD becomes your soundcard essentially so your mobo sound is inactive,so as above if you wanted to hear everything you will need to use the outputs of the POD. As for speakers the sky is the limit really. Last night i couldn't be bothered firing up the pc so plugged in a pair of logitec pc speakers to the 1/4 output. Get a few 1/4 to 3.5mm adapters and you will have a tonne of options.

Correct, was more of a suggestion as the OP asked if you absolutely need a head to run it into a cab. No you don't, just a poweramp will do :-)

A quick fix i found is add a tube comp at the end of your chain. Cuts through the mix in a live setting like butter

I recently added a ehx magnum 44 to my podhd rig which powers a 4x12 easily.

It is trial and error however i have found setting the podhd master at 3 o'clock and adjusting the volume through the mixer to be a safe bet. I think i am at about +5?That way you still have some room to go louder if the engineer needs it (i have not had that issue once though)