USB 3.0 header question

[trents]

Can anyone tell me if the motherboard USB 3.0 header pinout is the same as USB 2.0 or at least physically compatible with the cable connectors coming from USB 2.0 front panel devices? I'm building a comuputer friends and want to use the card reader and usb/audio panel hardware from their old system.

 

[noxqzs]

The internal USB3.0 header is not compatible with with USB2.0 plugs. From my understanding, only a select few boards have just started to come out with 3.0 internally. All X58 chipsets i have used, do not have 3.0 except on the back.

 

[petteyg359]

The internal USB3.0 header is not compatible with with USB2.0 plugs. From my understanding, only a select few boards have just started to come out with 3.0 internally. All X58 chipsets i have used, do not have 3.0 except on the back.

You mean that non-official artificially proprietary header from ASRock and ECS? EDIT: Missed the extra wires. The same USB 2.0 header pinout could still be used (9 pins), just move the key, and one port per header, rather than a huge 20-pin header.

 

[QuietIce]

Trents, are you sure the internal header is USB3? That would be a new one.

You mean that non-official artificially proprietary header from ASRock and ECS? EDIT: Missed the extra wires. The same USB 2.0 header pinout could still be used (9 pins), just move the key, and one port per header, rather than a huge 20-pin header.

You might be able to physically get the USB2 cable on the USB3 header but it's tricky at best without a MM to figure out which of the two plugs on the other end is the "bad" one. Get it in wrong and you've got +5VDC going through the data channel.