Yes wrote:
I have an Antec 300 Illusion case. There are two USB 2.0 connector
ports on the front. I'm thinking that I may want to upgrade them to
USB 3.0.

Has anyone upgraded USB 2 ports on a chassis to USB 3? I'd like to get
some idea of what would need to be done. I could, of course, add a USB
3.0 hub instead, but it'd be nice to keep down the amount of clutter on
my desk.

Thanks,

John

Since you want your new USB3 ports on the
front, you will need a USB 5.25" tray for the
front of the computer, plus the extension cable
that leads to a 20 pin header on a USB3 add-in
PCI Express card.

This is a picture of a USB3 card and chip, where
the chip supports four USB3 ports. The bandwidth
is shared, so if all ports are used at the same
time, the bandwidth on each is 1/4 of 5Gbits/sec.
They refuse to make all the ports internal ones,
and by buying a four port card, we get two
internal ports to use.

https://cc.cnetcontent.com/inlinecon...f/original.jpg

Now, on the part facing you, are two connectors.

The SATA 15p on the left, optionally provides
+5V power to the ports. Even though a PCIe card
has 3.3V and 12V pins on the edge card, it's still
able to deliver a small amount of DC power as +5V
to the ports on its own. Adding the SATA 15p increases
the total amps available. Most likely, you could
only "charge stuff" via this port, while the
computer is running. If you plan on running
really heavy loads on the ports, connect up
a SATA 15p for additional power.

The connector on the right, is the internal
wiring header. The USB3 defacto standard is a
20 pin header carrying two USB3 ports. The
actual USB3 connector has 9 contacts, and the
tenth contact could be an extra ground or something.
The 20 pin "pin header" has room for two USB3
interfaces. The normal practice in the industry,
is to use one pin location as a "key" so the
connector cannot be installed wrong. So if one
pin is missing or blocked, that's its purpose,
to provide keying for alignment.

Now, on the front of the computer, we need something
like this, only the "tray version".

https://www.amazon.com/Kingwin-Split.../dp/B010NTIGNU

That's a female USB3 20 pin internal, to two USB3
nine pin connectors. The cable on that one,
is delightfully short.

One problem is, the "extra margin" designs. They want
to throw a hub chip into the tray, so they can raise the
price. So as soon as you see four ports on a tray, there's
an extra hub in the path. It uses one of the ports on
the 20 pin, and forks that to four connectors.

https://www.amazon.com/4-Ports-Metal...dp/B013QSTWIS/

This one is cheap, but still isn't a tray mount. This looks
like "good starting materials" for a home-brew tray design.

https://www.amazon.com/MMNNE-20-pin-.../dp/B01MXGQZFI

I'd probably make a fake tray with a chunk of plywood
and a couple computer case sliders, then bolt that
crap bracket to the front of it.

Note that the bracket in that case, does have two
screws. And if you remove the bracket, you'll find
an assembly that can be bolted to a sheet metal
tray you assemble yourself. For example, I have
a metalwork "nibbling tool" I got at RadioShack
years ago, which can be used to cut nice clean
rectangular holes in bodywork aluminum. So I could
make a clean looking tray solution with stuff in
the shop.

Paul