does this exist? front panel USB only...

[Matthew]

Is there a front panel USB for the 5¼" slots? I've got a friend in the
photography business and he uses a ton of portable usb drives and is always
complaining about not having enough front panel USB ports. I've tried
googling for this but haven't really had any luck. I'm not really looking
for any sort of multi port device (which is all I can seem to find), just
one with nothing but a lot of USB.

Actually at this point I would settle for a 3½" one if it was also nothing
but USB and had more than 4 ports.

 

[Matthew]

Is there a front panel USB for the 5¼" slots? I've got a friend in the
photography business and he uses a ton of portable usb drives and is
always complaining about not having enough front panel USB ports. I've
tried googling for this but haven't really had any luck. I'm not really
looking for any sort of multi port device (which is all I can seem to
find), just one with nothing but a lot of USB.

Actually at this point I would settle for a 3½" one if it was also nothing
but USB and had more than 4 ports.

oh and before someone says it... he doesn't want to use a hub if at all
possible...

 

[jinxy]

oh and before someone says it... he doesn't want to use a hub if at all
possible...

Could this be the answer?
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1506104&CatId=4753
hope so.
-J

 

[Paul]

oh and before someone says it... he doesn't want to use a hub if at all
possible...

A tray mounted device, could be a hub.

For example, this is a hub. One port comes in, four ports go out. So
this is a hub, packaged in a 5.25" tray mount. The chip on the PCB, is
what performs the hub operation.

http://images.highspeedbackbone.net/skuimages/large/C184-30564-main.jpg

This one on the other hand, looks to be just adapter cables. You
would need two 2x5 motherboard dual-port USB headers, to use one
like this, and have all the USB ports work. There is no chip on this
one, and no chip means it is not a hub architecture.

http://images17.newegg.com/is/image/newegg/13-999-355-S05?$S640W$

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813999355

http://www.silverstonetek.com/downloads/pindefine.jpg

You can get much the same thing (non-hub wire extension to front bay)
from here. This shows, effectively, how that Silverstonetek one works.

http://www.frontx.com/cpx108_2.html

The FrontX ones are modular, and you build your bay using modules.
It allows you to have a custom layout of connectors on the front
of the computer.

http://www.frontx.com/cpx088p2.gif

So if you can see pictures of them, detailed pictures, you can
kinda guess what type they are.

Modern motherboards can have as many as three 2x5 USB headers, providing
up to six USB ports. Older motherboards might not have as many of those,
and thus your options are more limited. In this picture, there are three
blue colored 2x5 USB2 pin headers, in the upper right hand corner. That
would be enough for 1.5 Silverstonetek bays.

http://images17.newegg.com/is/image/newegg/13-131-386-S03?$S640W$

The connector options on the USB bay, as also an issue. Some bay kits,
come with a real USB connector on the end, rather than a 1x5 or 2x5
pin header connector. To connect a bay with a real USB connector, and
keep it inside the computer, you'd use a PCI USB card.

For example, this PCI USB2 card, has a single USB2 connector for usage
inside the computer. You'd use that with a hub-type USB bay, to get four
ports. That means a regular USB2 cable, stretches from the bay, down
to that connector on the PCI USB2 card.

http://images17.newegg.com/is/image/newegg/15-104-216-S01?$S640W$

A bay with real USB connector on the inside of the computer, is
likely to be hub type.

HTH,
Paul

 

[Flasherly]

Is there a front panel USB for the 5¼" slots? I've got a friend in the
photography business and he uses a ton of portable usb drives and is always
complaining about not having enough front panel USB ports. I've tried
googling for this but haven't really had any luck. I'm not really looking
for any sort of multi port device (which is all I can seem to find), just
one with nothing but a lot of USB.

Actually at this point I would settle for a 3½" one if it was also nothing
but USB and had more than 4 ports.

The OS will chain up to 128 USB headers, maybe more.

Tricky part will be getting past 28 drive letters.

 

[DevilsPGD]

In message
<9965bf9f-20cc-4bb5-9053-f7cb4604bac7@v41g2000yqv.googlegroups.com>

The OS will chain up to 128 USB headers, maybe more.

Tricky part will be getting past 28 drive letters.

28?

And why would this be a problem? You can mount drives to paths instead
of using drive letters. Take a look for USBDLM for a tool that will
automate the process.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Is there a front panel USB for the 5¼" slots? I've got a friend in the
photography business and he uses a ton of portable usb drives and is always
complaining about not having enough front panel USB ports. I've tried
googling for this but haven't really had any luck. I'm not really looking
for any sort of multi port device (which is all I can seem to find), just
one with nothing but a lot of USB.

Actually at this point I would settle for a 3½" one if it was also nothing
but USB and had more than 4 ports.

I have a little geegaw that provides 4 USBs in the opening for the 3
1/2" drive. One cable to a USB port (my machine has an internal USB
port on an expansion card) and it gets it's power from the floppy
power cable.

I don't recall seeing a 5 1/4" version but I wasn't looking, either,
as I have no open 5 1/4" bays.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

The OS will chain up to 128 USB headers, maybe more.

Tricky part will be getting past 28 drive letters.

What are 27 and 28?

Note that you can mount your volumes in directories rather than as
standalone drives. This will let you mount as many as Windows will
tolerate.

 

[Matthew]

How about one of these:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Scan-2-Port-USB2-PCI-card-with-3-port-Internal-35-Front-Bay-Hub
Not a hub, three ports at the front and two more at the rear and chips as
chips to boot.

I've had two and they work fine.

Thanks again, looks like I'll end up stacking a couple of 4 ports for him.

 

[Mike Easter]

Thanks again, looks like I'll end up stacking a couple of 4 ports for him.

It is hard to imagine (exactly) how it would be to be in someone else's
shoes and the OP didn't say whether there were any existing USBs in
front, so I'll assume that there are not.

So...

.... if I were a person who had a 'whole bunch' of USB devices, say about
6 or 7, that I sometimes needed to connect and disconnect; I would
prefer to have something like 4 USB ports in that front bay and some
kind of powered hub device as a separate bunch of USB ports on my
desktop nearby or maybe standing on edge next to my computer.

That way I wouldn't have to worry about a 'deficiency' of power to my
accumulated USB devices and I wouldn't have to worry about 6-8 usb
connection cables sticking out of the front of my computer's bays.

 

[Peter]

Thanks again, looks like I'll end up stacking a couple of 4 ports for him.

And how do they connect to the computer's motherboard? These things are
not always that straightforward.