akasa AK-ICR-08 Interconnect 3.5" Drive Bay Data Panel

Nice Looking Useful Device.
The Akasa AK-ICR-08 is a nice touch to any 3.5" bay. It may not appear obvious to some people as to what do I want with 5 USB ports on the front of my tower case for, when I have loads on the back. Well for myself it was a must I must say, as I'm forever plugging in mobile phones, flash drives, wireless dongles, and so on, and it saves me having to get behind my desk all the time to plug such devices into my PC. It also comes with a firewire for use with digital camcorders, and a S-ATA port for external S-ATA drives. My particular PC tower case only had 2 USB ports on the front, hence the reason for my purchase.
Excellent and efficient item
I bought this since it was cheap and allowed for 5 more USB ports.

The drive itself is as fast as you would expect, boasting standard transfer rates than a normal motherboard USB port. A good thing about this product is that the USB ports are vertically positioned, allowing for thick USB sticks (like the Kingston DataTraveller G3) without contact.

The first 4 USB ports from the left are powered by the 4-pin molex connector. These are the ones to use if one wishes to use an external harddrive or another USB device that requires additional power to function.

The far right USB port, 5th from left, is a "pass through usb" which is powered by the USB header on the motherboard itself. This port is suitable, of course, for typical USB sticks and USB devices that require little power.

The only problem I encountered was actually attaching the device; it requires a 3.5" bay, and mine are all 5.25". I had to bodge one of my SSD fast transfer bays to...
Great device - but don't fall foul of the molex!
In principle, this is a great idea. I needed the eSATA connection mainly and wanted the front mounting, rather than purchasing a PCI card. It was easy to install the device, until I came to connect the PSU. This data panel comes with a dual male/female molex power connector. So, don't do what I did and only see the female connector!

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