I’m putting together a couple of new PC’s. Every M/B I’ve looked at has numerous extra USB headers on the M/B, presumably designed to be connected to something. And I would have thought that (what with the array of cameras and phones etc that need to be temporarily connected to a PC these days) the obvious place that many people would want their extra USB ports would be on the front panel (not on an expansion slot bracket at the back).
All I want is something as basic as this expansion bracket, except in a housing to go in a front drive bay. However, I’m finding it bafflingly difficult to find this. In fact, I can find precisely one in the whole of the internets, and that from a relatively expensive UK or German vendor. I would ordinarily expect basic bits like this to be purchasable from HK and other vendors for a few bucks, by the zillion. I can find any number of such devices that connect to a PCI-E slot, or to an existing USB-A connector on the back panel, but why would everything be designed to connect up in that way when so many M/B’s have spare headers on the mainboard? Is what I want so weird
And before someone says, yes there are various kludges I could put together, like buying a front panel 4-port usb hub with a USB-A female connector then buying an adapter to plug that into the M/B header but I just can’t understand why it is so hard to find something that is exactly right. Am I missing something here?
no, not that I can see. any of the front-bay USB-slash-card-readers I’ve seen have bundled in some USB A to B cables, and nothing to connect the USB B port on the reader to the 9/10 pin motherboard header. on my own PC I just gave up and spliced together my own cable.
zwede that looks to connect via a type A USB connector, not to a m/b, though the description is a little confusing. And Dewey yes something like that may be an option, but most of it is just going to be slots for collecting dust.
There seem to be any number of possibilities as long as you are happy to use an adapter to fit to your m/b header. It just seems strange that something that comes with cables to connect direct to your m/b header isn’t commonplace given the ubiquity of m/b USB headers.
And thanks for confirming that I’m not going insane or my google-fu hasn’t totally failed, jz78817. I really can’t understand this seemingly gaping hole in the market. A-splicing I shall go, apparently.
Yes, but it works off a PCI-E slot. That’s the thing, there are any number of front bay USB ports that work by wasting an existing external USB port or a PCI-E slot but weirdly enough there seems to be a near total vacuum when it comes to hubs that work off the otherwise unused motherboard USB headers.
Are you saying that the panels you find don’t come with the cable to the USB header, or that they don’t even have the interface? I thought most of those panels had both types of connectors, like this one.
At any rate, it doesn’t surprise me that the market isn’t that large - every case I’ve put together already has front USB ports for the motherboard headers.
This place does DIY modular front panel units…probably will do what you want
FRom the same place you could order this
and just dremel out the appropriate holes to an existing 5.25 front panel cover plate, remove the included bezel, and screw/glue to the bay cover plate.
That connect straight to 9 pin motherboard connectors. That one also connects to a firewire motherboard connector as well - I didn’t have one of those and spent like $15 on a firewire PCI-E card that had one. Fits into a 5.25" drive bay.
But those connectors are first for cases - every case I’ve owned in the last 7 or 8 years has needed at least one 9 pin on the motherboard to connect front or side USB ports.
I’ll second the FrontX stuff - I’ve used them before.
You would want the CPX088 case (which fits in your 5.25" slot) and a CPX108-2 dual USB internal port (which will fill one part of the CPX008). It connects to the 10-pin M/B USB header.
Thank you, drachillix, for linking the FrontX stuff. I’ve been looking for something like their panel-mount cables for a while, and this is exactly what I need
A couple of those and an x-acto knife or dremel are all you need. When I did mine I just mounted it the back of a regular drive bay cover. I left the screws exposed but I’m sure they could be glued if you prefer a smoother look. If you have snap in or flimsy bay covers you may have problems when plugging/unplugging things.
Yes there are certainly any number of ways of putting something like this together, I guess my GQ though was why isn’t the exact thing I want readily available?
I guess maybe most people just use whatever number of built in USB ports their case already has, or that if they are going for extra USB ports they go for something with card reader capabilities also.
It just surprises me that - when almost every other combination or permutation is amply catered for - what I wanted isn’t extremely easy to find, when obtaining something extremely similar but (at least to me) obviously inferior is so easy to find.
