# Newbie's Questions on Motherboard Connections



## vnhill1981 (Dec 26, 2011)

Thanks to all of y'alls help I have the following items ordered and on the way:

Intel i5 2500 (Non K)
ASUS P8Z68-M Pro LGA 1155
CORSAIR Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3

Now I have never built/worked on a PC before, but through loads of studying in preparation, most of the hookups are pretty straight forward. I know that with my new motherboard my Firewire will not be supported (no 1394 hookup). So now on with the questions:

1. If my stock front panel has USB ports (rated at 2.0), will they automatically become 3.0 when I hook them up to the 3.0 connectors on the motherboard? Basically just asking if the only thing that makes them 2.0 or 3.0 is what kind of connector they are hooked to.

2. I have a 10 pin audio hook up on my front panel. It is labeled F_Audio. I am unsure if it is HD or AC97, but believe the latter due to it being 2-3 years old. Here is the diagram in the manual of the new ASUS board (note mine is an old ASUS made specifically for HP, which has no manual to be found online or otherwise, from what I have read ASUS does not publish a manual for these because they are custom for specific manufacturer). 
View attachment 44877


Here is a description of how mine is hooked up (for reference I used A and B to represent wire 1 and 2 of a specific color):

Black (2 wires)--Empty----------Green(A)--------Empty-----------Black (1 wire)
X---------------X---------------X---------------X---------------X
Red(A)---------White(A)--------White(B)--------Red(B)----------Green(B)
X---------------X---------------X---------------X---------------X

Wires coming from the headphone jack:
1 of the 2 combined black wires and the third black wire
White(B)
Red(B)
Green(B)

Wires coming from Mic jack:
1 of the 2 combined wires (note: it is thicker than the second wire in the same pin)
Green(A)
Red(A)
White(A)

Now I know how to move the pins between the spaces, but don't know the proper layout and was wondering if someone could help me out.

3. Final question is about front panel. Here is the diagram for the new ASUS board:





Now on my current board, I only have a 10 pin connector, which looks like this:

Black------Blue-------Red--------Black-------Empty
X----------X----------X----------X----------X
Yellow-----Black------Empty------Empty-----Empty
X----------X----------X----------X----------X

Now I have no clue how these will hook up. I will not be using a speaker system. I only want the power to come on and the blue LED (running) and amber LED (Idle) to work. If it is not possible I would mainly just like for it to turn on when I push the button (LOL). If someone could make sense of these wires I would appreciate it. Again thanks for you time and I would not be asking if I could find an actual diagram of my current MOBO, but that is a "NO GO".


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## vnhill1981 (Dec 26, 2011)

If it helps my PC is an HP a6442p. Here's link:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01403218&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&product=3715502&tmp_track_link=ot_search#N77


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## Jstn7477 (Dec 26, 2011)

USB 3.0 connectors have 9 pins each and thus USB 2.0 connectors do not support the USB 3.0 standard. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USB_3.0_A_Buchse_13.jpg

You do not need to connect the front panel audio connector if you are not using the case's front ports. For the front panel button and lights, I usually cut up the proprietary block connector and attach the individual pairs to the respective spots on the motherboard.


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## entropy13 (Dec 26, 2011)

Why not take an actual picture of your board first?


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## theJesus (Dec 26, 2011)

I'm not sure about the USB 3.0 to 2.0 question, but I know they use different physical motherboard connectors, so at the very least you would need an adapter to do that.

Your front panel audio on the case is neither HD or AC97, because it's the motherboard that determines that.  In this case, it will be HD.  Each pin is separate on the connector so that they can be arranged to support either HD or AC97, and they should be labeled so you can just follow the MB diagram for HD audio.

For the other front panel connectors, each one should be labeled just like in the diagram so you just match those up.  "-" or "ground" wires are typically black or white, and all the others should be colored, so just make sure you orient the connectors the right way.


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## vnhill1981 (Dec 26, 2011)

Jstn7477 said:


> USB 3.0 connectors have 9 pins each and thus USB 2.0 connectors do not support the USB 3.0 standard. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USB_3.0_A_Buchse_13.jpg
> 
> You do not need to connect the front panel audio connector if you are not using the case's front ports. For the front panel button and lights, I usually cut up the proprietary block connector and attach the individual pairs to the respective spots on the motherboard.



OK, in reference to the front panel. I believe I am following you. I can remove the wires from the connector and connect them straight to the pins (they each have a little brass fitting on the end of them that should slide onto the pins). Would you think that RED/Black (closest wire to the red one) would be main power. Blue/Black (closest to the blue wire) would be the blue LED. Yellow/Black (closest to the yellow wire) would be the amber/yellow LED. This seems to make sense going by wire color. What do you think.


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## theJesus (Dec 26, 2011)

Red/black is power, I'll have to check on the others

edit:  hmm, actually I just looked at mine and red/black is HDD LED, blue/black is power LED, amber/black is power switch, and purple/black is reset switch

I don't think everybody uses the same colors though, but you can just trace them


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## vnhill1981 (Dec 26, 2011)

For the audio, I believe if I am looking at it right. Port1 L, Port1 R, Port2 L, and Port2 R are interchangeable. Meaning as long as I hook up 1 red wire and 1 white wire form each port then this should work. Meaning red and white from headphone wires go into Port1L and Port1 R. Red and white from Mic wires go to Port2 L and Port2 R. I believe GND is gonna be the double black wires that are connected to 1 pin. This leaves me with 3 wires; 2 green and 1 more black. Now I don't know where these wires go, but it makes sense that the green wire from the headphones would go into the SENSE1_RETUR slot because the headphones wires go into Port1 L and R. The green wire from the Mic would go into SENSE2_RETUR for the same reason. This would leave me with 1 black wire and SENSE_SEND and PRESENCE# slots still open. Comments?


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## vnhill1981 (Dec 26, 2011)

theJesus said:


> Red/black is power, I'll have to check on the others
> 
> edit:  hmm, actually I just looked at mine and red/black is HDD LED, blue/black is power LED, amber/black is power switch, and purple/black is reset switch
> 
> I don't think everybody uses the same colors though, but you can just trace them



Thanks. I just traced mine and found out that what I had was correct.
Red/Black = Power
Blue/Black = Blue LED
Yellow/Black = Yellow LED

So simple, who would've thought 
1 problem solve, now just got the audio to go.


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## JrRacinFan (Dec 26, 2011)

I would skip the front audio unless you use a headset on a regular basis.


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## vnhill1981 (Dec 26, 2011)

JrRacinFan said:


> I would skip the front audio unless you use a headset on a regular basis.



Probably will, was just going to try and hook everything up I could. Maybe to much of a PITA.


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## theJesus (Dec 26, 2011)

Trust me, you won't miss the front audio.  I ran for years without any front panel connections except two wires hanging out that I'd short together when I wanted to turn the PC on or off and it never bothered me


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## mediasorcerer (Dec 26, 2011)

You can switch the front panel audio to either hd or ac97 through the bios just as an afternote[pretty sure its the front anyway], i know cos i have xact same board as you.p8z68m pro.


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## theJesus (Dec 26, 2011)

Right.  It'll default to HD and that's what you should want to use anyways.


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## mediasorcerer (Dec 26, 2011)

hey i just noticed on my board, it only has two wires connected on the bottom right connectors as in the diagram, red and black and this is the onboard speaker[ie beep beep when turning on etc]

the front panel audio is to the left/bottom of the board[below the last pcie slot], its marked as -aafp-[its to the left of the  5 blue internal usb ports]

the blue usb ports on the rear panel are the usb 3 ports [below the esata-2 of them], the rest that are internal-[5 blue ones] and the external  black- are usb 2 only.

if you need a better explanation than this i shall endeavour to provide upon request, i can take a foto and post to if needed.

id say that the 10 pin u mentioned just goes str8 onto the system panel connector?


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