What to do with extra internal USB ports (What can my system use)

[barflydc]

Hi all,

Last night I built this system sourced from newegg. Total cost under $1k. System will be used for photo/video editing and some gaming. Please provide feedback and answer questions below.

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 3000 BX80623I52500K

MB: GIGABYTE GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX

RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2133 (PC3 17000) Desktop Memory Model F3-17000CL9D-8GBXM

GPU: GIGABYTE GV-N560UD-1G GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

PSU: OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W Modular High Performance Power Supply compatible with Intel Sandybridge Core i3 i5 i7 and AMD Phenom

HDD: Western Digital Caviar Blue WD2500AAKX 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

Optical: ASUS Black 12X BD-ROM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM SATA Internal Blu-ray Drive Model BC-12B1ST/BLK/B/AS - OEM

OS: Windows 7 home premium 64

Also, generic usb card reader.

Build went without a hitch and so far everything is great.

The question is, what am I missing? I'm using a Lian-liu case (so worth the extra money) the front bays are used by the BD drive and the card reader. I've hooked up the front panel USB, audio, and esata. The card reader will use another USB, which leaves me two internal USB 2.0 ports on the board that are unused.

I was thinking about adding a 4-port bracket to use them, but since that would take up a pci slot maybe I should just get a PCI-USB card?

Is it a waste of system capability to not use these ports?

I have two external drives (one esata and one usb3) so I have no more need of storage and am using an USB wifi adapter.

 

[alvine]

its normal to have extra usb headers on the bottom of the mobo
with my computer i have 1 of the 3 headers connected to the front panel to give me connections
my second usb header is connected to a media card reader
third one empty


media card readers

$62 AFT PRO-57U All-in-one USB 3.0 5.25" Media Card Reader
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820176023

$20 Koutech IO-RCM621 All-in-one USB 2.0 3.5" USB 2.0 Front Panel Multi-format Card Reader with USB 2.0 Port
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820162024

 

[Onus]

In addition to PCI slot brackets, you can buy little adapters that will turn the header into a USB port for something inside your case. You might try your USB wifi adapter, although it may not work inside the shielding of the case. Startech.com has them.