Front USB Ports

[du]

I have just a small query. If i was to buy a pc case that had usb
ports at the front of it, what do i have to look out for with regards
to purchasing a motherboard and how exactly are the front usb ports
connected from the motherboard to the case?

Thanks in advance

du.

 

[Harry]

Ideally you want a m/b that has USB connections on the actual board.
You will get USB ports on the back of all boards but you do want them
also on the actual board itself too.

The case should come with a set of wires ready to connect to the USB
connection on the m/b. I have a Asus A7V333-X and it has 2 USB
connections on the board that I have connected to a front panel that I
use for my MP3 player and joystick. I also have an additional 4 rear
connections on the m/b that are used for my printer/scanner/mouse and
gamepad.

HTH

Harry

 

[Ring Toss Dave]

I got a front access bay for sound / usb / 1394 / serial kind of a neat
deal you put it in a bay slot and the cables run to the back and plug
in. I got it at Starsurplus.com worked for me. cost 16.95 plus
shipping

 

[Alan W. Blackmon]

I bought a panel with USB connector that fit into a 5 1/2 bay opening on my
case. One for the 3 1/2 inch bay was avaliable too. The wires then went to
the USB connectors on my MB. This made two USB ports avaliable on the
front of my case. I got the 5 1/2 inch model. It has a cut out for a
floppy or zip drive to be installed next to the USB ports. $19.95 at Comp
USA.

Alan in Boise

 

[spodosaurus]

I have just a small query. If i was to buy a pc case that had usb
ports at the front of it, what do i have to look out for with regards
to purchasing a motherboard and how exactly are the front usb ports
connected from the motherboard to the case?

Thanks in advance

du.

Most motherboards currently will have at least 2 USB ports built into
the back of the board. While there are setups that will allow you to
route these through the case to the front of the PC, this is not what
you are looking for. You are looking for a motherboard that has
additional USB "headers". These are clusters of pins that connect to
USB rear brackets or USB front brackets (including those that come built
in to the case) via usb cables with pin sockets on the end to plug
directly into the motherboard. Generally each USB wire coming from the
case's front ports has it's own connecting plastic and you will have to
match up the power/ground/data+/data- wires from the case to the
appropriate pins on the motherboard. If you have your motherboard
manual handy it should take all of 2 minutes. It is important to
connect the proper wires to the right pins, though, as you can 'fry' a
USB motherboard header by connecting things in reverse (yes, people have
not paid attention and people have made unfounded assumptions and they
have damaged their motherboards: most people don't have this problem).
When buying a motherboard read about the types of USB headers available:
they will be either USB2 or a combination of USB 1.1 and USB2. Any USB
header on the motherboard can be connected to an appropriate speed USB
port via a cable to the case or to a PCI slot holder at the back. Some
cases have a circuit board for the USB front ports along with the cables
I've already discussed. These can cause some issues, as has recently
been seen on an Antec case or two. Antec appears to have cleared the
issue up, but it requires customers to contact them for the proper
replacement parts.

HTH,

Ari

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[hawk]

My Antec case has four USB ports on the back of the case and it has two
USB ports inside a small "hatch" on the front of the case. There are 6
or 8 (I don't remember the number.) small wires that connect pins on the
Asus P4PE mother board to the front panel. On my system, they are
individual numbered/colored wires with connectors that push onto the pins.

Regards, hawk

 

[du]

My Antec case has four USB ports on the back of the case and it has two
USB ports inside a small "hatch" on the front of the case. There are 6
or 8 (I don't remember the number.) small wires that connect pins on the
Asus P4PE mother board to the front panel. On my system, they are
individual numbered/colored wires with connectors that push onto the pins.

Regards, hawk

Thanks for all the replies the board that im interested in is a
Gigabyte 81PE 1000 Pro an here is some information that i obtained
from Gigabyte's website about the board

Internal I/O Connectors

2 x Serial ATA ports
2 x IEEE 1394 pin headers
2 x USB 2.0 (supports 4 ports by cable)
1 x S/P DIF input/output pin header
2 x UltraDMA 100/66 Bus Master IDE
1 x FDD
CD/AUX in
1 x Game port pin header



Expansion Slots


1 x AGP 8x slot
5 x PCI slots (PCI 2.3 compliant)

Rear Panel I/O

4 x USB 2.0 ports
1 x RJ45 LAN port
1 x LPT port
2 x COM ports
3 x Audio ports (Line-in / Line-out / MIC)
2 x PS/2 ports (Keyboard/Mouse)