Gaming microphone

I just started getting into pc gaming, because I was finally able to afford a pretty decent build, me and my housemates are gonna start playign some games online together so of course I need a mic, problem is I dont want a headset that play in game sounds, I want one that somehow just has the mic fuctionality and that I can hear chat on, I bought my 5.1 sound system for a reason I dont want to listen to the game through headphones. From what I am told I can not setup the headphones/mic combo to just play chat sounds? if that is the case is there anything that will? What if I got the xbox 360 wireless headset ( I have the 360 pc connector so I can connect a 360 controller to my pc) would that do what I want?

For those instances where you can't always control the audio through seperate outputs (Configuration doesn't always hold), get a 1/2 duplex USB Adapter for mic only. A speaker input is provided for pass-through convenience. These are unfortunately going away soon, but it will do what you ask.

Then, connect a headset to the USB adapter. Any headset will do as long as it's not a USB headset. http://www.microphones.com/microphone.cfm?URLID=12

Rick