The front panel connectors are about 10 (or 12) pins in two rows, closely
spaced. there is no locking tab, the connectors merely slide down over the
tiny pins. The entire thing is about 3/8 inch long.
Yeah, I think I've seen a panel connector or two, am familiar with
them. The locking tab is what retains the wire in the plug itself,
not a mechanism to keep the plug plugged into the pin-header. They
all have a locking tab except those very crude or OEM-integrated,
with insulation displacement.
The older boards and
cases used the three pin plug, the new board uses a two pin plug. It's a
minor thing; the case supplier (or board maker) should provide the adapter.
(if the world were perfect).
An easier way to do it would be to make the
two pins have their own tiny plug, so each could be slid onto the correct
pin; the vacant socket in the three pin plug would merely be replaced by a
gap.
I can't agree with that, I had those individual pins, they just make
it harder than necessary... we need to move to the standard pin layout
Intel has used for years, and stick with it. I'm against following
Intel when it's just a move to proprietize, but in this situation we
simply needed a single standard, and to stick with it.
The offending plug is for the green power light. The machine will run, but
the light will not work. It is mostly just irritating to build the thing
and the only glitch is a tiny mismatched connector.
It's not all that irritating though, is a whole lot faster and easier
to swap a wire or two, than any of the other tasks in building a PC,
like installing drives or OS, selecting fans or (take your pick), it
only takes about 30 seconds to do... would take longer to find a
different case, note that detail when choosing one.
The HD light problem is with polarity, just flip the plug around to fit the
other pin. I believe there is a vacant pin when finished. (I don't have
the schematic available)
What I'd like to see is a case arrangement where there's at least 4
IDE lights, each attaching directly to the drive itself, and
dual-color for read/write.