Front Ports for PCs? 38
Vassily Overveight asks: "After the 400th time hauling my PC out from under my desk in order to mess with the cabling, I'm wondering if there's a better way. I'd like to find a means of bringing frequently-accessed I/O ports to the front of the machine so that I can attach/detach things like my palmtop, digital camera and camcorder, microphone, headphones, etc. with ease. Frontx has made a good start with a drive-bay installable set of ports for multimedia (audio-in, earphone, microphone, and game port), with promises of other port types in the future, but I'd like to find out if there're any other offerings already available (particularly in the form of an external box) that also provide front access to serial, parallel, USB, firewire, etc."
Well, Fry's has a solution for around $15... (Score:1)
Re:Current cases are all backwards (Score:2)
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considered it (Score:1)
Alternately, as the anonymous coward suggested, one could turn the computer around so the ports are in the front, and cut holes in the back for the power switch and status lights. If you don't want the power cord coming out the computer's new front, one could open up the power supply, cut a hole in one side, run a power cord from that to your compuer's old front, cut a hole in the computer, and mount a new power connector there. You can cover up the now-unused holes in the power supply with metal plates, or you can mount power sockets in them so you can power other devices off of it.
Alternately, you can do what we do at work. Just get extender cables and run them from the ports in the back to the front. You can run them wherever you want the ports to be. We use them for our rack of servers (a wire rack, not rackmount) so that we don't have to roll it away to plug things in.
Speaking of racks, some rack-mount cases have front-accessable ports. You could find one that does, and then put rubber feet on it to stand it on a desk.
or use an external drive enclosure (Score:1)
That, or put all your drives in another machine and export 'em over the network to the backwards one.
Keep looking (Score:2)
About 5 years ago I saw at an amature radio show a little box that mounted in a (empty) 5-1/4 disk drive bay. It then had everything you need to put headphone a headphone jack on the front of your case.
Personally I'd buy a USB hub (and other USB gear, see other posters) and put it on my desktop. Then I'd head to radio shack and rig up a sound hub on my desk.
DIY (Score:1)
However, if you could move the power supply to the front, turn the case around, punch some holes in the back, and move at least the external drives over there, and fake some paneling, and... etc., etc.
Really, it'd be best to design your own case. If you don't know how, find some people who can make plans for it, and know how to bend metal and whatnot. If you have to, you can paint that, or build a prototype out of whatever you have lying around.
But the bottom line is, if you like it, and other people like it, then maybe you can sell it, or at least sell the idea! I'm sure it'd go great with a 'Happy Hacker Keyboard', preferably hooked up in the front too, like they used to be. (like my XT was...
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pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate [ncsu.edu].
USB (Score:1)
Another solution is to make your own box and put a USB hub inside, and if you want a Serial Cable extension. Or you could just mount a USB to serial adapter, a USB Hub, headphone jack or anything else, if it can fit, in an empty drive bay in your computer
Re:front ports (Score:1)
front ports (Score:1)
Alternatively, get a set of sheet metal cutters and a Dremel and DIY.
in regards to audio ports (Score:1)
it's a pricey unit, but it's very useful.
-andy
Re:It's getting better (Score:1)
move the drives (Score:2)
Only drawback is the reduction of the number of available external drive bays. And the ugly. Now you have to look at the cables that so many people try so hard to cover up.
Um, turn it arround. (Score:1)
-- Crutcher --
#include <disclaimer.h>
Have you noticed (Score:1)
-- Crutcher --
#include <disclaimer.h>
Re:USB: Belkin (Score:1)
Re:Now I'm thinking... (Score:1)
- Mike
Re:Current cases are all backwards (Score:1)
Probably the real reason the cards aren't put in front is that marketing people (and many people with some kind of 'asthetic preferences') would object to putting those nasty grey-metal card-ends on the front of the machine. It would be a huge eyesore...
- Mike
Compaq quality observation (Score:2)
However, the product line they sell for home users can only be described as flaming garbage. We bought several at my old job (as sort of minimalist PCs), and they were plagued.
It's strange that a company would willfully choose to sell one product line that's good, and another that destroys their credibility.
My school's solution (Score:1)
Re:Well, Fry's has a solution for around $15... (Score:1)
Thanks!
Fryless in VA!!
forwarding ports (Score:2)
even so, I noticed the latest set of "internet ready" keyboards we got from HP had a set of extra wires to go in the soundcard (mic and spk) which led to sockets on the keyboard case. you could do something similar with joystick and serial/parallel ports (most of which have off-the-shelf extensions or switches)
In addition, my tower-case's motherboard ports are mostly on extension wires from the motherboard to a standard-slot carrier. assuming the wires would reach, you could mount them on a drive-bay blanking plate reasonably easily....
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The only problem.. (Score:3)
A possible solution is to develop a generic case that has front plate mounts, and hope it is adopted as a standard. Then people can have a comm port, USB connector, and firewire port on the front as standard (as well as add-in connectors for audio jacks and the like).
However, until a standard appears, anything possible will likely be a hack that won't work the same on similar boxes.
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Current cases are all backwards (Score:1)
PS|
---------|
___|mobo |
drvs|crds|
____|____|
front
and the front of the machine would look like this:
5.25 3.5 cards
__V____V____V____
|____|___||||||||
|____|---||||||||
|________||||||||
^ports,buttons,lights
Also, I really don't get why people like towers so much, and why they put them on the floor. It's like they're ashamed of that big box controlling their nice spiffy peripherals. If I had a tower on the floor I'd end up kicking it and breaking my back trying to access the drives. If I put it on the desk, I'd worry about it tipping over, and I wouldn't be able to put thing on top of it because 1) most are curved on top, 2) again, it's not at natural arm level, and 3) it's too narrow for most things anyway. Desktops don't waste desk space because you can put lotsa junk on top of them. Someone please tell me why they think towers are better.
Re:Current cases are all backwards (Score:1)
Racks (Score:2)
Re:Extension cables? (Score:1)
Anyhow. I'm quite sure that a generic ATX case with front ports DOES exist, and I've seen ads for it on the web. I'm searching for it, and if I find it I'll be sure to post the URL.
Now I'm thinking... (Score:2)
Even if you had easy access to front-of-case ports, you'd still have to get down on the floor, crouch, squint, wish you hadn't misplaced that flashlight, etc. while attaching cables. At least, you have to do those things if you're as old and half-blind as I am.
What I'd like to see is the ports on the TOP .
Think about it. If the ports are on top of a tower case, you can put the case in one of those desks that holds a tower case on a pull-out tray. The combo would be about perfect; pull out the case/tray and there are the cables, right on top, ready to be futzed with. I won't even have to get out of my seat to plug/unplug stuff.Another thought: Cut off the top leading corner of the case at a 45-degree angle and you'd have the perfect spot to mount the floppy, CD and maybe DVD drive. You wouldn't have to pull out the case to get to them and they'd be lots more convenient in that sort of top corner placement where they sorta face up at you. To me, this placement would be far better than the current situation with those drives on the front of the case and (inevitably it seems) always just an inch or two too close to the floor to be easy to reach.
Surely someone has done this before. It just seems so...so...obvious.
They haven't? Where's the name of that patent attorney...?
:-)
Re:in regards to audio ports (Score:1)
Front port capability (Score:1)
Extension cables? (Score:1)
As others have mentioned the Compaq computers do this, has anyone taken one of these computers apart to see how they did it?
Extension cables (Score:1)
I used to use a couple extension cables, especially one for the serial port, so I didn't have to dig around on the back of the PC to swap devices. You could put a couple of these together with shrink-wrap or something and terminate them in a plastic or metal box that you stuck on top of your case or next to the monitor.
But personally I gave up and put my tower cases on wire shelving like a rack, so I can get to the back of the boxes almost as easy as the front.
Any time I have to plug or unplug something on my wife's computer, though, I use a mirror so I don't have to move the case to see the back. It helps that her ports are well-labelled. I used to keep a post-it note on the side of one case that showed the layout of the ports, especially those 3 identical-looking jacks on the sound card.
The Obvious Answer. (Score:1)
Ok so you do use the cdrom/floppy. How about sideways? Not as unattractive. You can reach both front and back. And save some room and the desk too.
Quick fix: (Score:1)
Re:considered it (Score:2)
If you're going to do that, you may as well buy the Frontx unit and make new holes in it for whatever additional type of ports you want. They leave some blank areas for their future port types. (Come to think of it, maybe that's what I ought to be doing
Build your own. (Score:2)
Re:Current cases are all backwards (Score:1)
Because, when you have two video cards, two sound cards, a RAID controller, a video capture/TV tuner card, an ethernet card, a modem, an extra serial expansion card, three hard drives, two CD-ROM drives (one is a CD-R), and an LS-120; a normal desktop case just doesn't have ROOM for all that STUFF...
:=)
"What's this quote thing?"
Re : Ports on front (Score:1)
Re:in regards to audio ports (Score:1)