Paul wrote on Fri, 31 Dec 2010 15:41:26 -0500:

James Silverton wrote:
Hello All!

I am having to plan a shift to a new desk top machine. At the
moment, it seems I would need 6 external USB ports and it
looks like another 2 might be useful as spares. I want to do as
little plugging and unplugging as possible.

1 Printer
2 Scanner
3 Digital camera connection
4 UPS
5 External Hard Disc
6 Memory Stick

Are there machines with 8 ports that people would recommend? I am
assuming that the machine would support a cordless
keyboard and mouse without dedicated external ports.

Thanks for any assistance.

When you shop for a motherboard, they come with USB ports in
two places.

On the back of the computer, in the I/O plate area, you could find
stacks of USB ports.

Inside the computer, on the surface of the motherboard, there
are additional 2x5 pin headers. It takes four pins, to support
a single USB port. A 2x5 header, supports two USB ports (plus
a ground signal for the shield).

By using a "slot cover adapter", you can plug a cable assembly
to the 2x5 header, and that gives two additional ports on the back. If
you use enough of those adapters, you could have as
many as twelve USB ports on the back, six in the I/O area, six
as three adapter plates or eight in the I/O, four on adapter
plates.

This one has 8 USB on the back, even without adapters. The two
red ones at the top of the red stack are USB. Two stacks of
two are USB. And the one with the LAN connector, has two USB.

http://images17.newegg.com/is/image/newegg/13-131-402-S08?$S640W$

And this is an example of a "quad USB adapter bracket". This
has two, 2x5 cables on the end. The adapter fits where a
PCI card slot cover would go. As long as the motherboard has
the USB headers, then the ports will work.

http://web.archive.org/web/200610310...=951&catid=226

On this motherboard, the two, dark blue connectors on the
right edge of the board, are the 2x5 connectors. By using the quad
adapter plate, that brings the total usable USB ports to 12.

http://images17.newegg.com/is/image/newegg/13-131-402-S09?$S640W$

The 12 ports are supported by the Southbridge chip. If you
need additional ports, you can install four port PCI cards
to add to the total.

(PCI version)
http://images17.newegg.com/is/image/newegg/15-124-007-S01?$S640W$

(PCI Express x1 version - bridged chip design)
http://images17.newegg.com/is/image/newegg/12-186-010-S03?$S640W$

The only problem about installing further USB ports is whether or not
the mother board will supply sufficient current to run plugged-in
devices. I have also had interference problems with externally powered
USB hubs.

As a further question, does anyone know if any standard makers supply
USB 3.0 ports?



--

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

Email, with obvious alterations: not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not