Adding Front USB and FireWire connectors

Don't you just hate it , every time you want to plug in that firewire camera or hard disk, to have to reach to the back of the machine and 'find' the plug blind? Sure the most logical place for I/O port is on the back of the case ... for devices that are connected permanently. But what about removable devices ... like your camcorder or photo camera ?

This article will take a look at the options and show you what is out there. We reviewed a couple of great products as well.

Today a lot of Brand computer names have USB and sometimes Firewire ports on the front panel. The bigger names in computer cases for self assembly like Chieftech and Antec also have the ports.

But these connectors depend on the availability of a USB and Firewire port on the motherboard. The ends of the cables are bare pin header connectors. You have to figure out yourself what goes where. And if your motherboard doesn't have these pin headers you are stuck

Fortunately there are a lot of 'add-on' device available today that allow you to add this functionality and more ..

Well there are multiple ways to tackle this problem. A number of companies make small panels that fit the front of a standard 5 1/4 inch bay in the computer case.

These can be classified into 2 primary categories: active and passive devices. Passive device have no or almost no electronics on board. They simply bring an electrical connection to the front of the computer. In case they do have some electronics on board this has nothing to do with the actual ports but is used for things like internal temperature monitoring or other gadgets.

Active devices can have port multipliers ( hub's) in them , and even other functionality. Some even show status information about the inner workings of your computer.

The simplest is to just bring the USB ports to the front. This can be done using an all passive device.

Antec makes a simple bracket that allows you to do just that. It slides into a free 5 1/4 inch bay and offers room for one additional 3 1/2 inch device. Great for a Zip drive.

The drawback is that this is a pure passive device. You need USB ports on the motherboard , and you can only connect this device to small pin headers. So if your motherboard doesn't have these you are stuck.

Other passive devices feature fan speed control and temperature monitoring. Even though this is accomplished using electronics , the basic port replication function has no embedded electronics. If you are tinkering with over-clocking you might appreciate these features, or if not it jut looks cool. Well known brands that make these are Enermax and koutech. Some of these devices are very well made and come with exchangeable front panels to match the color of your case.

Active devices multiply the number of available ports by adding hub electronics , or they add a new function altogether. This can be a multimedia card reader, or some other peripheral function that i normally found as a standalone unit. The device draws power from the computers power supply , and plugs into a a free USB and a free firewire port.

Some add-on boards feature a special internal plug specially for this purpose. So if you still need to buy the port adapter card you might want to look for this feature.

We tested two active devices: The Trust 5 Port USB 2.0 card that is a targeted to people that needed upgrading to USB2.0 anyway , and the Trust USB2.0 Multiconnect hub.

Trust is a company that has been around for a while and focuses on easy to use products at a fair price. The USB2.0 kit is no exception to this rule.

In the box is the USB 2.0 PCI card , a front panel connector block an installation CD rom with drivers for the board and an installation booklet.

The drive bay is a split construction that both fits 3 1/2 inch bays ( like floppy bays ) or 5 1/4 inch bays.

The option to install this in a free 3 1/2 inch bay is a great feature of this product.

A lot of computer cases have 2 slots for 3 1/2 inch devices, and most of the time only one is used.

These days a floppy drive is about the only thing still available in this 3 1/2 inch format and even this is disappearing silently, as recordable CD's have become the removable storage medium of choice.

The drive bay itself is a pure passive device since all electronics resides on the PCI card.

A fairly long pigtail connector links this up with the PCI card. The bay itself holds three of the USB 2.0 connectors. and the PCI card holds the remaining 2 ports.

THe half height PCI board sports the NEC uPD720100 USB2.0 controller. This device was one of the first to be officially approved and supported under Microsoft Windows XP and 2000 operating systems.

Drivers for this chip are WHCL qualified ( see also insert about WHCL below )

Furthermore this particular chip actually has 3 internal US controllers. 2 are for USB1.1 and one is for USB2.0.

The USB2.0 controller serves all 5 ports, where as the two USB 1.1 controllers split their activity. One controls ports 1 3 and 5 , the other handles Ports 2 and 4.

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Why is this split controller issue important ?

Well most people won't notice any difference as long as you just use printers, mice and keyboards.