[quintessenceanx]

This is probably basic, but I am building my first computer and I am somewhat confused. My problem relates to connecting the chassis mic/speaker jacks and USB ports to the motherboard. The motherboard is an Asus and I have this chassis. The chassis didn't come with a manual, and the only manual I've been able to find online is an ever-so-informative document that states little more than the fact the product exists.

My first concern in the USB connectors. There are two USB ports in the front, and each has a set of four connectors attached: ground, D+, D-, and VCC. When I look at the mobo manual these do not match the names on the diagram, save for the ground. The diagram uses +5 V, _P7 +/-, _P8+, ground, and NC. I am not sure what is supposed to go where?

My second concern is the mic/speaker jacks. The cables are again labelled differently from the mobo. The mobo has a 4 pin CD connector, a 4 pin AUX speaker connector, and a front panel audio connector. Since I am using the front panel audio connector I will include the labels from the diagram: BLINE_OUT_L/R, NC, Line out_L/R, +5VA, MICPWR, AGND, and MIC2. The cables I have for these are Speaker In L/R, Return L/R, MIC BIAS, MIC OUT, and Ground.

On a somewhat minor note I also have a firewire port in the front, and the mobo manual states not to put the 1394 cables in where the USBs' should be going. I have not seen the 1394 cables coming out of that region, the only other cable coming from the front (besides the speaker batch and the USB batches) is something that connects to one of the power supply cables. I am assuming since there is a warning that the USB cables must look similar to the 1394's, but I don't see any that support this?

In case there is any confusion, all cables with x/y are two different cables (for instance there is a Speaker in L and a Speaker in R, not one Speaker in L/R).

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Lookin further on the Asus website i found the manual for it here.

http://support.asus....amp;model=A8N5X

Looking thru the 116 page manual it shows that there are 3 USB connectors on the bottom of the motherboard. It also shows there is NO firewire connectors so you will not be able to use the firewire port. If your front panel usb connectors have only 4 wires plug them into the Mb connectors with the red wire going to the vcc (or +5v).If you were looking at the Mb with the backpanel to your left the red wire goes to the left also. Do not worry if you have a extra pin next to the black ground wire on the Mb. This is an extra ground wire as some USB connectors have 5 wires with the last 2 as ground wires. If you have single connectors for each wire they should be plugged in in this order. VCC, - wire, +wire, ground. The wires in order should be red, white, green black.

To hook up the front audio you will probably only use the lineout L & R for the headphones plug which is usually only a 2 wire rca type connector. The mic wires used wil be the, mic pwr to the mic bias, ground to ground, and micout to mic2. You may have to switch the wires around to get it to work.

SRX660

[SRX660]

Lookin further on the Asus website i found the manual for it here.

http://support.asus....amp;model=A8N5X

Looking thru the 116 page manual it shows that there are 3 USB connectors on the bottom of the motherboard. It also shows there is NO firewire connectors so you will not be able to use the firewire port. If your front panel usb connectors have only 4 wires plug them into the Mb connectors with the red wire going to the vcc (or +5v).If you were looking at the Mb with the backpanel to your left the red wire goes to the left also. Do not worry if you have a extra pin next to the black ground wire on the Mb. This is an extra ground wire as some USB connectors have 5 wires with the last 2 as ground wires. If you have single connectors for each wire they should be plugged in in this order. VCC, - wire, +wire, ground. The wires in order should be red, white, green black.

To hook up the front audio you will probably only use the lineout L & R for the headphones plug which is usually only a 2 wire rca type connector. The mic wires used wil be the, mic pwr to the mic bias, ground to ground, and micout to mic2. You may have to switch the wires around to get it to work.

SRX660

[quintessenceanx]

Thank you for the response!

Alright I understand most of what to do with the USB connectors, but should I connect them to the "top" or "bottom" row? For instance one row is labeled: +5V, P8-, P8+, and GND while the other is +5V, P7-, P7+, GND. Does it not matter which is which? Or does the pair of USB connections go to one port anyway so one will be on "top" and the other on the "bottom"?

For the audio, should I be plugging the Speaker connectors into the line out, or the Returns into the line out?

[Neil Jones]

It usually doesn't matter which is on "top" or "bottom" providing you use all four connectors either all on "top" or all on the "bottom". That is to say, don't mix them up. If the wires are four colours (white, black, green and red) then plug them in Red, White, Green, Black, where black is next to the missing pin on one line. Repeat for the other line and have them in tandem; two blacks one on top of each others, etc.

As to the front panel audio: The connectors on your case with the two extra little connectors hanging off of them have to go either side of the missing pin. AGND in the diagram in the manual should go to your cable marked as Ground. Your MICOUT should go to your MIC2 connector on the board, which then leaves the other connector to go to where it says +5VA.

Try that out; if the pins are wired up wrongly, there just won't be any sound at all from the speakers connected to your green socket on the back of the board. If you get some sound but only out of one speaker for example, you can usually work out which connection is wrong. When you can pan your volume in the control panel (that is, only limit to playing out of one speaker) with good results, your connections are correct.