Motherboard USB's

If a Motherboard is listed as having 2 USB's, then is that the maximum I can use with out adding a PCI card? Like say I buy a case with two front USB ports, can I connect the ports to the Motherboard for a total of 4 USB's?...or, is there no place on the Motherboard to attach them to?

BTW-Are the front two USB's connected to the MB and the Power Supply or? Thanks

It depends on the motherboard. Some mobos have only two ports. ASUS mobos have been sold with as many as 7 ports. I have A7V266e with 4 ports.

Yah, the Abit Max2/2 has up to 10 USB ports, but the Abit BE7 has only 2. Quite a difference! I thought maybe it was possible to add with out a PCI card, but I guess not. Thanks.

I was thinking that the BE7 had an extra USB header on the motherboard that allowed you to connect additional USB ports (like front ones on some cases). Check your mobo manual. Another thing that you can do is to buy a cheap USB hub to allow you to connect more USB devices.

I'm not sure about the BE7, but I've got a BD7-II at home that's got 2 on board usbs, but headers onboard for up to 4 more usb ports...

Thanks for the info. marphyre. How do you like your BD7II? If you had a chance to change it, would you stick with the BD7II or get a MAx 2 ver. 2?

BD7-II's have 2 USB ports on the back pannel, and a headers for four more. A connector for the second pair is included, and you may use the front panel case connectors if your case has them for the third pair. The BD7-II is an inexpensive board and a great overclcocker. The IT7 series boards are expensive boards and great overclockers. The only really limiting aspect to the BD7-II is that it is limited to 2.65V on the ram. IT7's will allow up to 3V. I like my BD7-II a lot, it is very stable. It would be nice to be able to put more voltage on the ram, though. There is a memory voltage modification for it I will perform someday.

I won't be overclocking, so I want to start with a board and memory that have good performance with out me tweaking anything. The big questions are (1) Get cheaper components because not overclocking OR get better components to compensate for not overclocking? (2) Need vs. Want vs. Won't make any real difference in performance anyway? (3) Worry about upgrading later and buy cheap now, or get the best you can now, and not worry about later, *lol*.

I tell ya, picking the Motherboard and the RAM are the hardest decisions! Everything else is set. I am prettry sure about the Max 2/2, but then the price aggravates me a little. Same with Corsair 2700 XMS. $170 MB and $168 RAM. Their cheaper counterparts can be $125 MB and $100 RAM.
Price isn't an issue in the sense that I have it in my budget for the Max and Corsair.

I don't know, these two parts are tough. Soon my case will be back in stock and that will be it, I'll have to decide.

EmTSea19 said:

Yah, the Abit Max2/2 has up to 10 USB ports, but the Abit BE7 has only 2. Quite a difference! I thought maybe it was possible to add with out a PCI card, but I guess not. Thanks.

Click to expand...

It has ten built into the motherboard?!

or does it just support ten, like maybe four onboard and six via cable on the front of the case?

The board has 6 USB 2.0 headers, and 4 USB 2.0 connectors on a back panel. The specs for the board are at the link below.

http://www.abit-usa.com/products/mb/it7max2v2/techspec.php

The Abit BE7 is about $50 cheaper than the IT7 Max2 v2 ad you're not really sacrificing that much going with the BE7 except maybe the firewire and SATA. If you're getting PC2700 memory, consider Kingston, newegg.com has 512 meg sticks on sale for $103.50 shipped. A buddy of mine has a stick of that in his system and it's running 133 FSB at 3:4 ration flawlessly. However, I wouldn't skimp on the RAM, I'd get PC3200 (like the Corsair XMS), since that can be migrated to your next system. You might wanna overclock more in the future than you figure right now too.

I am probably going to get the Abit Max 2, but I am still considering everything up until I actually purchase it, *lol*. The good thing about the MAX is it has a lot of features. I am just not sure they all work as good as they should. I've been reading some posts on another forum that not all the USB's are 2.0, but I can't confirm it. Plus people have had trouble with sound and using the RAID.

I definitely want firewire, so even if I go with a cheaper board, I'll have to pay extra for some firewire.