Firewire in front of case? Motherboard / Case Questions?

[FordLorider]

Though I don't see it that often, the person that I am building a computer for wants front USB 2.0 and front Firewire. Obviously I want to go the cheapest way possible, in other words, save money from my $800 budget for more important things. Case size is a bit important, a smaller mid tower is suitable, probably gray in color. AMD is definitely the way to go here. I will probably will have to find a firewire card, I don't know that many affordable AMD motherboards that have firewire built in. Let me know what you guys think, if I have to go the way if a firewire add-in card that's fine but are there any other options? TIA!

 

[Wicked00]

As far as cases go, check out the Antec cases. A lot of them have front usb & firewire. They're not the cheapest cases, but its what you're looking for

 

[Mavrick007]

I would just use whatever case that you would like and can afford with your budget.
Then get one of the front panel jobs that allow you firewire and USB 2.0 ports. These are usually found for not a bad deal and will generally include the firewire/USB 2.0 card as well. The only thing is that this will take up a 5.25" external drive bay. This shouldn't matter since alot of cases have spare ones that are hardly ever used.

The Antec case that was mentioned does have firewire/USB but I think it's USB 1.1 only as I'm not sure if there's a difference between the cables that connect the case to the card/board. I have the Antec Performance Plus case and it has these ports but I'm not using them at the moment (don't have firewire and wrong connectors for the USB). You will still need a firewire/USB card with this type of case if the mobo doesn't have the connectors.

 

[FordLorider]

Yeah, I am thinking of leaning toward the 5.25 slot ports also. Anybody else got the perfect solution that we are overlooking?

 

[bigben]

How about this?

I think you can find some good deals on the hot deals forum. I have a friend who has one and he loves it. It is really quiet too.

 

[FordLorider]

I was thinking about that but you are really restricted on what you can have as far as the number of drives. Good idea though.

 

[bigben]

eh..there are always external drives to be had. Trust me, from what I have seen of that system, it is worth the extra effort. It is tiny and the quietest pc I have ever (not) heard

 

[FordLorider]

Price also comes into being a factor, that's a bit much for someone that's just going to use this computer for email and Word.

 

[bigben]

true true

 

[Aganack1]

Look at this

 

[GoodRevrnd]

Since when do email and word require USB2.0 and firewire?

 

[FordLorider]

Yeah, Word and what not don't require anything, but monkey see, monkey do. She sees a computer with ports on the front "Well I heard that all future peripherals will be firewire" and what not, hard enough getting her to settle for an AMD .

 

[FordLorider]

Good info Aganack1!

 

[Aganack1]

In my opinion I would wait for nforce2. Everything is included in one package. And I?ve heard that they were hoping to keep the price competitive. The time issue might be a factor? does anyone know when I can put one in my hands?