i had an issue with the realtek chipset, mostly cos i didnt realise that the front speakers are now only on the front panel, since the move to 7.1. it seems that theres no space on the back for this jack plug. is it unusual or are all motherboards doing the same thing?

First I've heard of anything like that, but I'm not using my onboard on my new board as I have a dedicated sound card. Long shot guess, but it might be that you've got it set to 'HD Audio' in the BIOS, which uses the digital outputs?