Not enough USB headers?

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wizkidalex

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Feb 22, 2012
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Hi everyone,

I've had my first build running for about a month now (hooray!) and I'm starting to tweak and mess around with it some more. Now, when I first built it, I had a media card reader that I wanted to put in, but my case (a CM Storm Scout) used up both of the USB 2.0 headers on my motherboard (it's mATX). There's a USB 3.0 header on the board but I don't know if the connector from the card reader will fit (I'm away from my computer right now). Do I need to get a larger form factor motherboard (ATX)? Do they come with more USB headers? Or is there something like a Y-cable I could buy and hook them both into the same header?

Thanks, Alex
 
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zdbc13

zdbc13

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Feb 7, 2012
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First find out of your card reader can use the 3.0 header, if so, use that. Otherwise you can always remove one of the case connectors and use a 2.0 header for the card reader. Most motherboards only have 2 2.0 headers however there are some exceptions, look around.
 
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TylerHam

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Apr 21, 2013
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You can buy cards that have additional USB ports. You plug them in to your MOBO like a graphics card or wireless card into the PCI Express ports and they can offer 2 or so USB ports (3.0 or 2.0) in the back.

And USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports are the same. They should fit.
 
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geofelt

geofelt

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Usb 3.0 headers are different structures. But in theory, they are compatible.
Some cases with usb3.0 front ports will include an adapter to plug into a usb2.0 header.
You might find such an adapter to do the reverse.
I could not readily find one.

A second option would to install a usb card in one of the free slots of your motherboard.
Something like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815283028

Perhaps better would be to buy a media card reader with a usb3.0 connector.
That would give you a usb3.0 front port.
Like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811992010
 
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wizkidalex

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Feb 22, 2012
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I know the USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports are the same, the question was about internal headers. The problem is that my front panel uses up both the 2.0 headers and leaves my card reader without a USB header to connect to on my motherboard.
 
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Fasih_

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