Looking for a new case: How do the front USB ports work?

[Blayze]

I am looking for a new case and I have seen several that I like, but they all have front usb and firewire ports. I have USB, but not firewire and Im wondering how you get the front ports to work?

is there a cable that you run to one of your USBs to do this?

just wondering...

 

[fatbaby]

your mobo should have some connectors labeled usb 1 - 4 near the last pci slot, those connectors look like sysfan connectors but have 4 or 5 pins...connect the female pins (front usb port) to the male pins on your mobo...then go to bios, and do as instructed in your mobo manual to enable them

 

[Blayze]

ok I see so if the motherboard doesn't have extra USB connectors on the motherboard you can't use the front USB. correct?

the old motherboard I have now has two ports on board and then two more ports on a card that connect to the motherboard. I assume this is what you are talking about.

 

[fatbaby]

no i mean this...to the left of pci slot 5...take note of usb 3 and 4

 

[Blayze]

thanks

 

[amdskip]

Some cases just have a normal usb cable that you run through an empty pci slot and plug into one of your existing usb ports so it's basically just like a built in usb hub.

 

[txgixer]

I use the Abit IT7 Max MB and added this bay accessory

It works great for me.

 

[FlowerMan]

ftp://ftp.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/slota/k7v-rm/k7vrm-101.pdf

According to page 14, you do have a USB header on your mobo. Assuming you're upgrading your K7V's case

 

[Blayze]

yeah thats the motherboard.

planning to replace it in a couple months with a new CPU and RAM, but I am going to buy a new case soon.