You ever have one of those moments where you find yourself saying “I wish this or that thing existed…” only to have someone chime in and tell you that it does, in fact, exist? Well I just had a similar moment, except it was the other half of my brain that jumped in and said “have you ever checked to see if it does exist?”. Sure enough, after a quick search on Amazon I found out that the item I was dreaming of was an actual thing and I could just order it for $9.99 with same day shipping. Well I’ll be damned…
What was that item you ask? Well it happened to be a USB Header Extension for my motherboard. For years I’ve accumlated different USB expansion cards or drives that include all sorts of SD card slots and even some older media formats. But I’ve never really ended up using them because my case uses two USB headers on my motherboard, one for the front set of ports, and one for a set of ports on the back. That usually is all of the headers on a motherboard, except for one Asus board I had which came with 3. So for the most part these devices have lived in a drawer.
Today I had ran into yet another need for one of these USB headers, it was a new Ubit WiFi/Bluetooth card that I bought which requires a cable being connected to the USB header in order for the bluetooth to work. This was something I was not aware of when I ordered it, or I probably would have ordered another device, but now that I had it I was faced with the dilemma of if I should return it or just give up the 2 USB ports at the back of my desktop as the only thing currently plugged in there was a bluetooth dongle anyways. But alas, a third option existed! And now I can not only get my WiFi/Bluetooth combo card working but I can potentially add a lot more to the front of my case if I get one of the multi port extenders.
I can’t believe this has existed all this time, and was so cheap, and I had no idea. It’s just something I’ve never encountered on any of the hundreds of computers I’ve worked with in my life time. But sure enough, if there’s a need for something, a solution probably already exists!
A seasoned Senior Solutions Architect with 18 years of experience in technology design and implementation. Renowned for innovative solutions and strategic insights, he excels in driving complex projects to success. Outside work, he is a passionate fisherman and fish keeper, specializing in planted tanks.