Hooking up front USB, Firewire, and Audio

The front of your computer case might be equipped with any of these three different connectors (1). There should be corresponding cables on the inside of the case that are labeled. They will usually be labeled on the connector (2). Refer to your motherboard manual to see if your motherboard supports these connectors. Almost all motherboards support at least one external USB connector, but Audio and Firewire are more of a rarity reserved for higher end motherboards. You motherboard manual should also tell you where on the motherboard the hookups for these connectors are. They will look like a small cluster of pins and are usually labeled in small printed text on the motherboard as well (3). Firewire is frequently labeled and referred to as 1394. Most cases will have these plugs all joined together as one big plug (1), but some of them are broken apart into individual pin connectors (4). If they are all one solid connector then hooking them up is as simple as looking at the connector and identifying the missing pin (frequently called a key) and lining it up with the corresponding missing pin on the motherboard (5). But, if they are separate pin plugs then you will need to look in your motherboard manual for a labeled diagram of what each individual pin on the motherboard is and plug in each pin plug individually by matching the labeled pin with the correspondingly labeled pin plug. For instance, pin number one is usually Power, or sometimes labeled as +5V. You would need to find the individual pin plug that said +5V on the side of it and plug it into pin one. Then repeat this for all the pins.

(1)		(2)
(3)		(4)
(5)

The above procedure should be almost identical for both Firewire and Audio connectors. If you are hooking up each pin individually, be careful that you are oriented correctly and are sure you are hooking it up correctly. Failure to hook up the USB or Firewire correctly could reverse the voltage through any device plugged in and burn it out. This has happened to me and it is not fun. I recommend hooking up a cheap device that you would not be sad to lose first as a test.