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Any Cases With Front-Facing Expansion Slots?

Posted by timothy on from the facing-forward dept.

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."

4 of 50 comments (clear)

  1. Patch panels... by Howie · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Depending on how many free drive bays you have, there are certainly drive bay mounting panels to present most of the common things you'd want to plug and unplug regularly - audio, USB, 1394 and serial.

    An external one (intended for laptops, but what the heck) is made by Mobility Electronics. There was an internal one featured on Scan's Today Only 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 (and optional 1394 IIRC).

    --
    "don't fall into the fallacy of believing that Perl can solve social problems. Maybe Perl 6 can, but that's a ways off"
  2. Extension Cables by HeeG · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Just buy some extension cables approx 50cm you will need high quality cables for Firewire / USB / LAN and Video if running at a high res. This will also releve "wear and tear" on the ports.

  3. Thought of Rack Mount? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    If you're after a rack mount case, then a Spin Server Case might be what you're after.

  4. Re:Yes and no by vax · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Ive seen some computers with the ports in the front(eg that soundblaster case and i think tigerdirect.com has one too..) but another option would be mounting usb ports in a 5 1/4 drive bay so that usb could go in through the front.. other than that i dont plug much else in and out frequently. also there are various switch boxes if you would rather have all the ps2 and com ports controlled on top of your desk. (it is a box with a switch on the front and in the back everything from ps2 ports to com ports to monitor ports etc.. also useful for multiple boxes with one keyboard and mouse (thats why i use mine for) just a thought.
    VAX