How do I plug in my headset?

[JohnJSal]

I just got my first headset and I'm a little confused about how to plug it in. I see the jacks (audio, mic, USB) on the front of my PC, but will this mean the sound will use my onboard audio instead of my dedicated sound card?

If so, I'd rather use the sound card, but I don't know which jacks are which. I saved all my component manuals, but the sound card manual is not among them. I have the Creative 70SB073A00000 model (Xtremegamer) and it has four jacks. One is already in use by my speakers. It looks green. The two next to it might be what I need, but they are a pale greenish-white and the other is orange, which don't quite match the plugs on my headset (green and pink).

So my questions are these:

1. Will I get inferior sound if I use the front connections?

2. If I use the sound card, how do I do it? Do I have to unplug the green speaker cord? I still want that because mostly I will probably just use my speakers anyway. Which are the right jacks for the headset?

3. How do I switch between these outputs when I want to change how I hear my games?

Thanks!
John

Edit: I found the manual! So the four jacks are labeled as: 1) Optical Out/Line In/Mic In, 2) Line Out 1, 3) Line Out 2, and 4) Line Out 3

According to the picture, I need to plug in the Mic plug of the headset into the first jack, leave the speaker plugged into the second (or move it to one of the other two), and plug the audio plug of the headset into one of the other Line Out jacks. Is that right?

Edit 2: A bit more confusion. When illustrating how to plug in 4.1, 5.1, etc. sound systems, it labels the three Line Out jacks as Front, Rear, Center, Subwoofer, Rear Center, Rear Left, Rear Right, etc. Is this something intrinsic to the sound card jacks, or is it only for specific cables on a sound system?

 

[JohnJSal]

Anyone please? I tried plugging the headset into the jacks that I thought were for the microphone and audio, but I don't see how to switch to this to test it. I see a list of "Ready" devices, and the one for my sound card says SPDIF Out. I don't know if this is it, but making that the default didn't work.

 

[StrangleHold]

Why don't you just plug your case audio and mic headers to your card and not the motherboard. Seems that way it would switch back and fourth from your speakers and headset depending if you have it plugged in.

 

[JohnJSal]

Why don't you just plug your case audio and mic headers to your card and not the motherboard. Seems that way it would switch back and fourth from your speakers and headset depending if you have it plugged in.

You mean plug the front connections to the card? I'd rather plug the headset into the back of the computer instead. Shouldn't it work like that?

 

[G80FTW]

You mean plug the front connections to the card? I'd rather plug the headset into the back of the computer instead. Shouldn't it work like that?

What he means is, from the front inputs on your case will be header pins from the wires going to them. Which are normally plugged into the motherboard. However, your soundcard should have pins on it that will accept these and thus you can plug your inputs on the front of your case to your soundcard.

But also, the color your looking for is pink.

 

[JohnJSal]

What he means is, from the front inputs on your case will be header pins from the wires going to them. Which are normally plugged into the motherboard. However, your soundcard should have pins on it that will accept these and thus you can plug your inputs on the front of your case to your soundcard.

But also, the color your looking for is pink.

That's what I thought. But rather than open up my case to do this, why can't I just plug the headset directly into the sound card in the back of the PC?