Any Cases With Front-Facing Expansion Slots? 50
owenferguson asks: "I'm sick and bloody tired of futzing around with ports (USB, sound, video, firewire, serial) that come out of the back of my mid-tower case. Does anyone know of a case that allows you to mount the motherboard 'backwards,' that is, with the expansion slots and various ports situated beneath the drive bays, facing foreward? I'm planning to build one myself, but if there's one already on the market, I'll probably just buy it."
Yes and no (Score:2, Insightful)
Or, cheaper but more difficult (due to having to do your own cabling) you could use an external drive chassis the same way.
Re:Yes and no (Score:1, Interesting)
VAX
Who needs a desk - Use a table without sidewalls (Score:1)
Another solution (Score:3, Funny)
BTW, does anyone know of a case that allows you to mount cd drives, floppy drives etc on the back of the machine?
Re:Another solution (Score:1)
does anyone know of a case that allows you to mount cd drives, floppy drives etc on the back of the machine?
Sure, it's called FireWire, iLink, or IEEE 1394...
Lazy Susan (Score:1)
Patch panels... (Score:3, Interesting)
An external one (intended for laptops, but what the heck) is made by Mobility Electronics [mobilityelectronics.com]. There was an internal one featured on Scan's Today Only [scan.co.uk] page the other day, with temperature monitoring and all sorts - I'm pretty sure it was made by ASUS, although I can't find it on their site.
I've seen several cases with front panels like this, too. Even my gf's cruddy e-machines PC does that. Coolmaster case with front USB [coolermaster.com] (and optional 1394 IIRC).
Re:Patch panels... (Score:1)
They're excellent for the exact use mentioned above, and you don't have to deal with the extra tangle of cables involved with fully reversing your motherboard (video, etc..).
Extension Cables (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Extension Cables (Score:1)
Re:Extension Cables (Score:1)
Re:Extension Cables (Score:1)
Options... (Score:4, Informative)
Another simpler option (USB only) can be found at Antec's site [antec-inc.com].
Thought of Rack Mount? (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Thought of Rack Mount? (Score:2)
Re:Just a thought... (Score:2)
Re:Just a thought... (Score:1)
Re:Just a thought... (Score:2)
Not exactly, but... (Score:2)
It has both USB and speaker/mic ports on the front. I have bought some of these cases before and am very satisfied. Just use the supplied cable extensions, and you're ready to go.
$20 solution (Score:5, Informative)
~Philly
Re:$20 solution (Score:2)
up an explansion slot per se. It will take a
slot from the case, but if there are more slots
on the case than the mobo, then you plunk it in
one of those slots, that has nothing behind it.
I'm looking at two two-year old cases (ATX) and
neither has an extra slot, but there are several
cases at work like this (I think they are AT
style cases). The white box shops tended to stuff
parallel ports and serial ports in 'em. But, you
can mount those into knockouts rather easily.
Re:Satellite System (Score:1)
I got tired of this, too... (Score:3, Informative)
I got a six foot folding table (they make larger ones if you need it), put it in the middle of the room, and put my computers underneath it. That way, if I need to change connections, etc - I just go around to the back and fiddle with them. No more dragging machines out, etc.
To get power to the machines, I ran an extension cord along the ceiling, then down to the desk, and wrapped it with split loom tubing. Same for network connections, etc. You can also run the cords along the floor, and use those rubber floor cover thingies. Ideally, you would have a raised floor - I might do that next time.
So far, it has worked great for me, much better than the desk I had!
Re:I got tired of this, too... (Score:2, Insightful)
From the early-90's beginnings of DV editing, I realized that I was going behind my workstations/beta decks/etc. at least twice a day... and up against a wall, that just lags.
My solution was to simply face the desk outward from the wall, or (more usually) set the desk two feet from the wall to allow walking space.
Helps a bit with heat dispersal from montiors and the like as well, FWIW.
--dr00g
Ridge Spin Server cases (Score:2)
The Dremel way... (Score:2, Funny)
One idea, probably stupid: (Score:2)
Well, I said probably stupid, but what do you expect when I'm only on my second cup of coffee.
Oh for godsakes! (Score:1)
One dumb , one not-so dumb, and one clever idea. (Score:2)
Mind you, there's one I've seen in the Jensen catalogue (it's a UK tool company, an kind of engineering pr0n magazine
OK, run extension cables from the ports back into the case thru a slot, then up to the drive bays, and make a new drive bay plate that you mount them in.
Or, ignore all our ranting and just read the posts that answer your question, i.e. who mkaes these sorts of case!
An alternative. (Score:1)
Unfortunatly this was a good number of years ago and I've no idea who produced them.
Re:An alternative. (Score:1)
Front USB (Score:2)
There are literally piles of boxes with front mounted USB ports. The only problem is that most of them are really cheap. Best advice is to grab a $30 usb hub and velcro it to the side of your box.
I want one rear mount drive bay (Score:3, Insightful)
It would be worth $20 to $30 to not need to get out the dremel and make my own rear facing drive bay.
The other choice is externally mounting the CD-Writer. That makes the whole system more fragile. More of a pain to move and to work on. It's hard to run IDE cables externally, possible, but hard. SCSI CDWriters are either slower, more expensive or both. USB 1.1 is slower. Firewire and USB 2.0 are more expensive. Check pricewatch.com, $71 for 24x10x40x IDE, USB 1.1 is limited to 4X4X6X ($85), firewire starts at $144.
Just answer the question. (Score:2)
We all know of the drive bay plug answers, and other such stuff and there is always the dremel tool solution, but if would be nice to know if there is a case that already fits the need. which amoung the 30+ answers no one really says...
Re:Just answer the question. (Score:1)
ccg
My case,,, (Score:1)
and.... (Score:1)
I have one side door open, with a desk fan pointed at it
Re: (Score:2)