USB 3.0

lflowers · 26 Feb 2012 at 21:18

Hi all, I am thinking of buying a new case that has USB 3.0 ports on the front panel. Unfortunately my motherboard (Gigabyte Z68AP-D3) does not have any USB 3.0 internal headers and so i was wondering whether i would still be able to use the USB 2.0 internal headers for the USB 3.0 front ports or is there a specially made cable that would allow me to do this?

Thanks in advance

Nightglow · 26 Feb 2012 at 21:29

Buy yourself a USB 3.0 Port PCI-E Card.

Most have one or two internal connections & one or or two external usb 3 connections.

Also USB 3.0 allows 900mA to devices (compared to 500mA for USB 2.0), plus it is compatible with USB 2.0.

panyan · 26 Feb 2012 at 21:46

nope you cant do this, it would work at usb 2 speeds

lflowers · 26 Feb 2012 at 22:03

Thanks for the replys. I was also wondering whether the cable that comes from the front ports will plug into a USB 2.0 header on the motherboard?

Devrij · 26 Feb 2012 at 22:09

lflowers said:
Thanks for the replys. I was also wondering whether the cable that comes from the front ports will plug into a USB 2.0 header on the motherboard?

That's the idea

FallshirmjAEger · 26 Feb 2012 at 22:15

USB 3.0 front panel connectors will only plug in to these headers:

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/535/dsc0926p.jpg/

They have more pins for the extra power & data connections, so they won't work on USB2 headers.

Surveyor · 26 Feb 2012 at 22:20

lflowers said:
Thanks for the replys. I was also wondering whether the cable that comes from the front ports will plug into a USB 2.0 header on the motherboard?

No it won't unless it comes with some sort of adapter.

How would you plug this:

into one of these:

Surveyor · 26 Feb 2012 at 22:22

Devrij said:
That's the idea

It doesn't work though without some form of adapter.

See the posts above.

Davefran · 26 Feb 2012 at 23:51

Depends which case you're thinking of getting. Some cases have a lead from the front usb3 ports that you plug into the rear I/O usb3 port

Surveyor · 27 Feb 2012 at 00:27

Davefran said:
Some cases have a lead from the front usb3 ports that you plug into the rear I/O usb3 port

They did when USB 3.0 was first available as the motherboard header design hadn't been finalised.

I'd be surprised if they hadn't been updated by now to include a proper 20 pin USB 3.0 header.

lflowers · 27 Feb 2012 at 15:37

Is there an adaptor i can get? The case i will be buying when it is available is the Corsair 550D. Thanks

lflowers · 27 Feb 2012 at 19:18

Hello again, i have done some researching and have found a 2 Port Silverstone EC01 Internal USB3.0 PCIe Card. This has a USB 3.0 Internal header and i would like to know if this would work the same way as a USB 3.0 header on a motherboard and would allow me to plug the cable coming from the front ports on the panel?

Sorry if im being a bit of a pain!

panyan · 27 Feb 2012 at 19:21

Surveyor said:
I'd be surprised if they hadn't been updated by now to include a proper 20 pin USB 3.0 header.

just for reference, the 600t's still ship with a pass-through usb 3.0

Surveyor · 27 Feb 2012 at 20:21

panyan said:
just for reference, the 600t's still ship with a pass-through usb 3.0

Consider me surprised.

It's taking them a while to catch up then.

welshdragon · 28 Feb 2012 at 10:45

There is a cable that you can use to convert the usb 3 ports to usb 2 but for the life of me I cant find where I saw it. I am pretty sure a silverstone case comes with one possibly the temjin small one. However as mentioned a USB 3 card with an internal header would be good.