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How will front IO ports change in the coming years?

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beyondinfinity

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Nov 19, 2015
I think case front IO ports are going to change, and current cases will become obsolete rather quickly. I say this because of two reasons

1) USB-C
I think new cases will have to have at least one USB-C connector on the front panel. Currently we usually get minimum two USB 3 ports, but with USB-C I don't think people will want to bother with adapter in the long run and opt for cases that come pre equipped with USB-C ports.

2) front audio ports - will they keep or remove the headphone jack? (following smartphone manufacturers push to remove it)
Ok I think this part is unlikely since they don't really save anything much by excluding it. But if everyone uses wireless audio, it might make the front audio ports obsolete?
Maybe this might happen much later than the USB-C issue. Perhaps far down the road when Mini ITX and smaller form factors dominate, and everyone is just trying to save as much space as possible.


Any thoughts?
 
I imagine C will become more of a standard and will start showing up more and more.

As for headphone/speaker jacks I imagine those will stick around on cases that generally would have them. Phones are a completely different beast than a tower.
 
Like the others have said, I expect to see more USB3.1 G2 on the front as well as type-c. Regarding audio.. that really isn't changing. 1/8" plugs, SPDIF, USB...all for audio and nothing new so that won't change.

I can't say they will be obsolete rather quickly, however, as not many people have usb type c devices at this time, there are ports on the I/O on back. Some mfg even offer updated front I/O panels. ;)


Can't say I've heard usb 3/3.1 G2 were buggy.... been solid here!
 
Saw a few cases at CES while there with USB Type-C on the front panel already.
 
Can't say I've heard usb 3/3.1 G2 were buggy.... been solid here!

USB3 has been around for a long time now. My previous Sandy Bridge system had one port, provided by 3rd party solution. It was really fussy about what was connected to it. Fast forward to toady. I have loads of USB3 items. They just work, as it should. I think it is now mature enough. Maybe not the faster one, but the base standard at least is ok.

USB C would also be welcome as the only two devices have with it are my phone and laptop, and I'd love to see more of them around.

Oh, there have apparently been a lot of poorly made USB C cables, but nothing new there!
 
I can see the future implementation of VR ports as it becomes more mainstream but this may be a few years away.
 
Can't say I've heard usb 3/3.1 G2 were buggy.... been solid here!

Been nothing but trouble for me. I began to wonder if my swear jar and the little blue devils werent plotting between them :) Mine work so randomely and haphazardly (across all devices) that I dont even consider them to be functional and often use USB 2 ports instead. When I searched around it seemed a common enough problem, but it has been a couple years now so hopefully functionality has improved for newer products.
 
Been nothing but trouble for me. I began to wonder if my swear jar and the little blue devils werent plotting between them :) Mine work so randomely and haphazardly (across all devices) that I dont even consider them to be functional and often use USB 2 ports instead. When I searched around it seemed a common enough problem, but it has been a couple years now so hopefully functionality has improved for newer products.

Board makes a big difference here, no mention of what yours is in the post.
 
Board makes a big difference here, no mention of what yours is in the post.

No worries, but if you are curious..... Both the boards in my sig (and a separate laptop, also older) have the same issue: unreliable for use. I can plug on a thumb drive (on the case or the mobo) and it will not register 80-ish percent of the time. I've made sure to have the most recent drivers from the manufacturer and checked previous versions. I've also tried with a fresh install of Windows and only the essential drivers added (chipset/sata/usb3.0 for these purposes). Linux is better but still not to be counted on.

As I said I've thrown in the towel for this issue. My assumption is that an update in platform will be the best fix, but I'm not scheduled for that kind of update for a while yet.
 
No worries, but if you are curious..... Both the boards in my sig (and a separate laptop, also older) have the same issue: unreliable for use. I can plug on a thumb drive (on the case or the mobo) and it will not register 80-ish percent of the time. I've made sure to have the most recent drivers from the manufacturer and checked previous versions. I've also tried with a fresh install of Windows and only the essential drivers added (chipset/sata/usb3.0 for these purposes). Linux is better but still not to be counted on.

As I said I've thrown in the towel for this issue. My assumption is that an update in platform will be the best fix, but I'm not scheduled for that kind of update for a while yet.

I'm mobile so your sig isn't showing, gotcha.
 
Been nothing but trouble for me. I began to wonder if my swear jar and the little blue devils werent plotting between them :) Mine work so randomely and haphazardly (across all devices) that I dont even consider them to be functional and often use USB 2 ports instead. When I searched around it seemed a common enough problem, but it has been a couple years now so hopefully functionality has improved for newer products.
That's a shame and news to me! Across how many motherboards I've reviewed and used, none were flaky. :)

I wonder if that's an AMD thing...looking at his sig..

I think there are front-panel add-on devices for this currently
Last year I think EVGA's VR cards with the HDMI outputs on the side came out with a 5.25" HDMI ports so you can connect the device to the front panel.
 
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