m55plus-s3g front panel sound connectors???

Strutter1982 wrote:
> I have the GA-M55Plus-S3G board that has front panel sound connection
> for 8 channel sound, but my case has plugs for 6 channel sound, so is
> there a way to make it work?
> all the plugs are individual, not one solid connector if that helps?
>
> Strut

The F_AUDIO connector on the motherboard, has headphone and microphone
connections. Normally, computer cases would connect to that internal
header on the motherboard. Many computer cases only have a headphone
and microphone jack on the front of the case, which mates perfectly
with the F_AUDIO header.

Your motherboard has a rear audio stack, with six connectors. Four of
those connectors would be used for 8 channel sound. Using just three
of those connectors would give 6 channel sound (as long as the audio chip
software supports that mode of operation - switching the driver to the
right mode, means the right surround signals are calculated). For any
desired audio configuration, it is important that the software supports
the configuration. Some audio equipment, has a connector config that
won't necessarily work with the computer.

You will need a way to bring the audio connections from the rear stacks,
so they interface to some front mounted connectors. My best guess is,
doing this would be a real DIY project, involving a soldering iron, and some
stuff you might find at Radio Shack. The cabling on your computer
case, if it supports three jacks, has no where to connect to your
motherboard, that I can see. Only the back of the computer
has the necessary interface.

If you want a nice solution, which is plug and play, this site can help.
Using this stuff, means the current connectors on the front of your
computer case, will not be used. This gear allows installing a completely
new set of front jacks.

http://www.frontx.com/order1.html

To bring three connectors from the back of the computer, to the front,
you would need three of these. The CPX090 features muting, and two output
jacks. You plug the green end into the stack on the back of the computer.
The tiny undecorated jack, is affixed to the back of the computer (drill
hole in chassis and use retention nut to hold in place), and
becomes the new "back jack". The jack with the fancy plastic, goes on the
front of the computer. For each jack on the front of the computer, where
a plug is installed, the jack on the back of the computer would be muted.
That allows a stereo system connected to the back of the computer, to
be muted when you've made connections to the front. Typically, that is
used for single jack setups, for headphones. It doesn't make too much
sense for 5.1 or 7.1 sound systems (because you would normally just
leave those connected). So whether this option is necessary, is up to
you. (For the sake of completeness, I'd probably buy four of these,
so the whole 7.1 can be brought forward. No sense of only doing three
quarters of the job and needing to fix it later.)

http://www.frontx.com/cpx090.html

For more static configurations, you could use three of these. These allow a
rear jack signal, to be mounted on the front of the computer. There is no
muting feature with these, and you no longer have (convenient) access to
audio from the rear of the computer.

http://www.frontx.com/cpx090_2.html

You also need to buy one of these, and this is installed in a 5 1/4"
drive bay. Remove three of the small plastic pieces on the front, then
slide the three jack assemblies into place. This will be your new front
access for the necessary signals.

http://www.frontx.com/cpx088.html

HTH,
Paul