StarTech.com USBMBADAPT 6in USB 2.0 Cable - USB A Female to USB Motherboard 4 Pin Header F/F

Pros: Plugs into your motherboard headers, give you a USB port inside of your case. I used it for a thumb drive to boot my FreeNAS box.

Cons: None.

Pros: -works

Cons: -none

Overall Review: One of my CAD programs requires a USB dongle to be in the computer at all times or it will shut off (it's a licensing thing). This dongle is expensive and hard-to-replace. Now I have it inside of the computer case where it won't get knocked off, damaged, or stolen. Plus now my external USB port that it was in is free! I bought a second one of these adapters and put my wireless keyboard/mouse's wireless dongle into the case too. This lowered their effective range (probably since the case blocks the signal a bit). I ended up deciding to move that dongle back outside of the case. NewEgg shipped both adapters quickly and they arrived in excellent condition.

Pros: Works Looks good

Cons: None

Overall Review: Exactly what I needed. Plugged into motherboard, secured to the case bottom by drilling two holes and running a zip tie around the back end of the plug. I'm running FreeNAS off a flash drive and didn't want it sticking out of my case where it could be pulled out, knocked out, stolen, whatever.

Pros: Fits easily in any case. Works as expected.

Cons: A bit expensive for what it is, especially with shipping. (see other thoughts)

Overall Review: Lets you easily use a spare USB header on your motherboard to have an alternate boot drive at the ready. I installed Ubuntu on it for an alternate drive. Plenty of other ways to use it too (maybe a built-in ready-boost drive, or a work drive for video processing) You could make one of these from a spare USB extension cable (a short one would work just fine) and a spare four pin header connector.

Pros: As with many StarTech products, this product is the only available solution if you need a connection between a USB Type-A cable and a five-pin motherboard USB port.

Cons: There are two problems, reliability and design. With respect to the first, two out of three I bought work fine, but the third does not work. With respect to the second, the motherboard end only has four pins. Anyone who understands USB knows that that rightmost pin is not used, but many potential users of this product may not be so well educated. It would have been much better to have employed a five-pin connector with the rightmost pin being a blank. With only four pins, it is possible to connect it incorrectly, with blown-up USB flash drives being the result.

Overall Review: Motherboard USB 2.0 ports have nine pins in two rows, with the bottom-right position being a blank. Whether you use the top or bottom row is irrelevant, but ensure that you orient the red wire in this product at the very opposite end of the blank.

Pros: Perfect for permanent USB flash drive installs so they aren't hanging out of the system waiting to be broken or lost.

Cons: It can be hooked up backwards if not careful, this could cause damage to motherboard and/or usb device. They could of used a full 10 pin USB header connector to remove this risk, but that would waste the other USB port.

Overall Review: I used this to load PFsense on a flash drive with out the flash drive hanging out the back of the system. I had to be creative mounting it internally, but I'm happy that the flash drive is packed inside the system. You can use two of these per USB header on the motherboard if you needed. Make sure to check the USB header pinout before turning the computer on!

Pros: -Lets you hide any USB device in your case

Cons: -None

Overall Review: -I use one of these to keep a flash drive in my tower that acts as a download/webcache directory, saves writes to my ssd :)

Pros: Works great. You can buy two to use on one full-size motherboard header, but one will work by itself.

Cons: None

Overall Review: These are great, combined with a SATA to USB adapter and a 5.25" SATA drive bay to make an easy internal drive reader.