News This 3.5-inch hub will turn your PC case's front panel into a USB paradise

[Admin]

Delock has launched a 3.5-inch USB hub that offers 10 USB-Type-A ports with speeds up to 5 Gbps.

This 3.5-inch hub will turn your PC case's front panel into a USB paradise : Read more

 

[Krieger-San]

Wait... there's cases that have drive bay slots still? /s

I mean, I have some ancient Coolermaster CM690 II/III's, but those are for my home lab servers.
P.S. - I think it would be awesome if there was a drive bay resurgence, but I feel there's just not enough of a market anymore except in home lab.

 

[newtechldtech]

Wait... there's cases that have drive bay slots still? /s

I mean, I have some ancient Coolermaster CM690 II/III's, but those are for my home lab servers.
P.S. - I think it would be awesome if there was a drive bay resurgence, but I feel there's just not enough of a market anymore except in home lab.

They still exist , but not for gaming PCs and not for watercooling .

 

[Findecanor]

Do my eyes deceive me or is the lower row of ports upside-down?

 

[GoldenGonchies]

What front panel? The front of a pc is a mesh air filter with 3 fans behind it. Possibly a radiator.

You don't need to alter your pc, just put a USB hub on your desk like a normal person and run the cable cleanly to the back of your pc.

 

[Eximo]

5 1/4 bays are still somewhat common, but I haven't seen an external 3 1/2" bay in quite some time. Why even make an article about this?

If someone is needing a duplicator or anything like that, there are tons of products. I can't conceive of a use case where I need all the USB ports to be in the front of the case.

 

[ravewulf]

It would be nice to have front drive bays again. Even just one 5.25" bay would be nice and then I could go back to my SATA Blu-ray drive. USB optical drives are "fine" but the desktop versions are faster.

 

[8086]

I wish Case manufacturers never dropped the front panel slots, I find them to be very useful for things like port expansion and fan controllers.

Any idea of where to buy this USB hub?

 

[8086]

5 1/4 bays are still somewhat common, but I haven't seen an external 3 1/2" bay in quite some time. Why even make an article about this?

If someone is needing a duplicator or anything like that, there are tons of products. I can't conceive of a use case where I need all the USB ports to be in the front of the case.

5.25 to 3.5 drive bay adapters exist and have been around for decades.

 

[jg.millirem]

It would be nice to have front drive bays again. Even just one 5.25" bay would be nice and then I could go back to my SATA Blu-ray drive. USB optical drives are "fine" but the desktop versions are faster.

Yeah, and if you wait long enough maybe you’ll get a bay for vinyl LPs.

 

[LabRat 891]

What? Is USB 3.2 Gen2x2 uplink too much to ask for, or something?

Seems like all of these 'many ports' USB hubs are always the base 5gbps spec. NtM, typically laid-out internally in a 'daisy chain', further hurting performance of anything connected to the hub.

 

[Li Ken-un]

Seems like all of these 'many ports' USB hubs are always the base 5gbps spec

Far from the “USB paradise” as the quoted hyperbole makes it out to be

What still puzzles me to this day is the nonexistence of USB4 internal headers analogous to those for all of the prior USB generations. Surely somebody’s going to want USB4 for their front panel connectors just as the mini PCs do. I’d guess the internal cables would have to have active circuitry to make up for the extra signal loss. But USB4 is that market that will be able to bear the costs.

 

[usertests]

What? Is USB 3.2 Gen2x2 uplink too much to ask for, or something?

Seems like all of these 'many ports' USB hubs are always the base 5gbps spec. NtM, typically laid-out internally in a 'daisy chain', further hurting performance of anything connected to the hub.

Even if all 10 ports are sharing a measly amount of bandwidth, it could be worth it to someone just to have all the ports to plug into. Making them all USB3 instead of USB2 ensures that any one device can use 5 Gbps at once. Maybe there is a use case where you want to have 10 devices plugged in all the time but usually only operating intermittently.

But for some people, they may be fooled into thinking that much more bandwidth is available.

If you want to add additional fast USB ports, you're probably going to get a PCIe card instead. I looked around and found one with 7x USB-A on it. Some have a mix of USB-A and USB-C.

 

[Rob1C]

A Hub is a shared paradise since everything plugged in shares the bandwidth.

I'd rather have USB 4.0 and TB4 with a card reader, a headphone jack would be a bonus.

A minimalist USB 4.0 isn't worse than the Delock:

 

[Hooda Thunkett]

Yeah, and if you wait long enough maybe you’ll get a bay for vinyl LPs.

I don't think there's space for vinyl as they tend to be 7" or larger, but I'm pretty sure you could fit in an 8-track tape player!

 

[Eximo]

I don't think there's space for vinyl as they tend to be 7" or larger, but I'm pretty sure you could fit in an 8-track tape player!

That was a thing:

https://www.retrothing.com/2009/06/exidy-sorcerer-the-8track-computer-1.html

 

[eye4bear]

It would be nice to have front drive bays again. Even just one 5.25" bay would be nice and then I could go back to my SATA Blu-ray drive. USB optical drives are "fine" but the desktop versions are faster.

There are still a few cases with front 5.25" bays, in fact I was looking at one yesterday online, still for sale. If you believe otherwise, you did not do your homework when buying your current case.

 

[Geef]

That speed IS SLOW when trying to transfer files to a USB drive. The slowest you should buy is 10Gbit and if spend a little more get the USB 3.2 Gen2 which is 20Gbit.

For an item like this you DO want to spend the extra money on higher speed because it is something that can be moved to future cases. You will probably have it for a long time. (Save the front cover for the 5.25" bay so you don't have a hole when you do remove it. Tape it inside the case so it doesn't get lost.)

 

[husker]

The worst kind of hell is when they first tell you it is a paradise, and you believe them.

 

[ravewulf]

Yeah, and if you wait long enough maybe you’ll get a bay for vinyl LPs.

Let me know when official streaming services let you download unencrypted movies/TV shows that you own and get to keep 🙄
Not to mention archiving older CD/DVD-ROM games and software

 

[ravewulf]

There are still a few cases with front 5.25" bays, in fact I was looking at one yesterday online, still for sale. If you believe otherwise, you did not do your homework when buying your current case.

Sure, some exist but they aren't that common and you won't find them in most modern designs, which was the point

 

[Krieger-San]

They still exist , but not for gaming PCs and not for watercooling .

Alas... the CM690 III could do it all. A capable beast of a chassis, mine saw its glory days with two dual 120 radiators; she now touts a quad bay 3.5" SAS/SATA running my media server with a stack of spinners. Much drive bays; many media.

 

[King_V]

I built my PC in early 2022 using this case, as it was my "I don't want any sort of glass, RGB, etc for my case."

If I ever found a need, well, I've got a 5-1/4" bay. I have considered putting my Blu-Ray/DVD/CD writer in it, but frankly, it's more convenient for me to have that on USB to attach to other computers at the moment.