Yes, er, John wrote:

I have an ASUS M4A89GTD PRO USB3 mobo. It has two USB 3 ports and an
eSATA connector on the back side of the case plus USB and SATA
connectors on the mobo.

The reason for my question is that 1. it's difficult for me to reach
the USB 3 ports on the back of the case, 2. the USB 3 device I have has
a short cable (say 6 inches) which makes it awkward to plug in and use
given my pc's location and 3. I didn't know what upgrading the chassis'
existing USB 2 connectors to USB 3.0 might entail. If the upgrading of
a USB 2 port on the front to a USB 3 port were only a matter of getting
a new set of wiring suitable for USB 3, then that would be tempting to
do. On the other hand, I've seen external hubs that plug into the
external USB 3 connector and have an external AC/DC power brick to
provide the power for more USB 3 devices. I could accommodate that if
need be.

At the moment, I'm rather shell shocked and not particularly looking
forward to messing around the wiring inside my pc. As many of the
regulars here know, I had a severe problem in early May involving my
PSU when I tried to add on another HD to my pc. After all was said and
done, I lost two of my three hard drives (drive C:\ still works), lost
my DVD burner drive, lost the internal fan at the top of the case,
replaced the PSU and, after several weeks dealing with two DOA HD
drives, received one that works. All in all, I feel a bit down and
jinxed at the moment, particularly facing the task to reconstruct
several data files.

Other replies pointed out some alternatives such as an internal hub
fitting into a drive bay. That idea had not crossed my mind. Ditto,
the cable suggestion from Paul.

My mobo has PCI-e slots on it that are not usable due to the location
of the graphics card. When I moved the graphics card from its existing
position to the other same type slot on the mobo, I chickened out. The
graphics card was immediately above the PSU fan (the PSU is mounted at
the bottom of the chassis), and the distance between the card and the
PSU fan looked very narrow. I was worried about air circulation and
possible overheating of the graphics card.

A USB3 hub connected to the backpanel USB3 port would be easiest;
however, all devices connected to that hub will share its bandwidth. If
only one device is active on the hub at a time then it gets full
bandwidth; else, multiple devices will contend for use of the one USB
port to which the hub is connected.

There are passive USB hubs (no external power) but those are only for
USB2 devices and then only for low-power USB2 devices (or 1 high-power
USB2 device - but then you don't need the hub for 1 device). Powered
USB hubs don't rely on the +5V power from the USB port on the PC to
share amongst multiple devices. With USB3 you definitely need a powered
USB3 hub, and make sure the output amperage will support ALL of the
ports on the hub. Multiple the number of ports on the USB3 hub by 0.9A,
and the power adapter should output that, or more. If the hub has 4
USB3 ports then the power adapter should output 3.6A minimum. Of
course, with a powered hub, you have the hub sitting somewhere outside
the PC's case along with a USB3 cable and power cord from the hub to add
to a speghetti mess of cables and boxes strewn from the PC case.

https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/M4...pecifications/
The only USB3 connections are the backpanel ports. No mobo headers for
USB3 connections. To have more internal USB3 connections, you need to
add a USB3 daughtercard, and preferrably one with an internal USB3 port
(to go to a drive bay USB hub).

The other choice (than an external powered USB3 hub) is to get a USB3
daughtercard to plug into a PCI-e slot (*if* you have an unused one or
willing to sacrifice some other card to usurp its slot) that has an
internal USB3 connector. In an empty drive bay, you install a USB hub
(which will often include a card reader). The wiring to the card is for
power (a 4-pin Molex connector where likely you need a Y-adapter unless
you have a free Molex connector from the PSU) and the USB3 cable from
the card's internal connector to the back of the drive bay USB hub. For
this setup, you need: 1 unused PCI-e card slot in the mobo (that is not
obstructed by, say, a video card or the card would obstruct airflow into
a video card for its fans), 1 unused drive bay, a USB3 cable from card
to drive hub (some hubs come with the cable), and possibly a Molex
Y-adapter cable. This would give you 2, or more, backpanel USB3 ports
along with 2 frontside USB3 ports. You would have to determine if the
drive bay USB hub would be within reach of the shorty cable from your
USB3 device; however, it's not likely a permanent cable, so you could
use a longer USB3 cable from the device to a backpanel USB3 port.

Since the mobo has an eSATA port, maybe you could use that. If the
external USB-attached drive is a pre-built, you're stuck with the ports
(interfaces) that the vendor gave you for that model. If you built the
external drive yourself (got a drive, put it into a case), you could get
a drive case that has both USB3 and eSATA ports. Then you could attach
the external drive to the eSATA port on the backpanel.

Of all the solutions, easiest is using a powered USB3 hub; however, all
active devices on that hub will contend for sharing the bandwidth.
Whether sharing bandwidth is an issue depends on when you use the
devices attached to the USB hub.