Quick question...probably a dumb one but..
I have an x-fi soundcard and i use surround sound headphones. I also have a basic speaker setup w/ a subwoofer. My question is..is there anyway to have them both pluged in (speakers in my onboard card, headphones in my soundcard) and working w/o having to unplug and plug them in everytime? I didn't know if maybe there was a setting i could click to switch from one source to the other..?

i have inbuilt sound in my motherboard and an out/input in my front panel... i have both connected at the same time, when am listening to music i can hear sound from both soundsystem and my headphones:P.. i just turn off the sound system and pick up my headset... but my pc automaticly detects any headphones in my front panel, and then activates it... if u dont have anything like this u probalby have to plug in and unplug it when u need to use it

it takes 30 seks, so aint much of a problem dude ^^

Like Vaffel said it's possible to get them both working at once, but switching between them without physical intervention is tricky, I can't think of any convenient way to do it, sorry.

The easiest way would be to get some sort of AMP \ Audio switch if those exist that you can turn a dial to swap between the two, apart from that you could get a sound card and put one on each and then swap over to the one you need in software.

Well if we're bringing exterior equipment into it that would work, if there was an amp with a double set of 6-channel 3.5mm inputs/outputs, I have enough trouble finding one with a single set though. And this is presuming the headphones aren't an absolute fail USB set/integrated 'card', not sure if the price would be worth it either. There might be an audio switch at a more reasonable price, but that's something you'd have to look for, I imagine it would be just as obscure, if not more so, than the aforementioned amp.

I know one with 2 inputs but only one output, opposite of what is needed.

Would one of these work?

It would have the sound out of both at once so you'd need to be able to power one down.