Front Panel Multifunction Bay with Abit AN7 Recommendation

Hi All:

I'm a relative novice building computers. However, I just built my first
computer this past month and I really enjoyed the experience. I had an old
ATX case that I still like, gutted it of the old components, and bought an
Abit AN7 mobo, AMD 3200+, 1 GB dual-channel memory, SATA drive. Anyway, I've
really enjoyed it as a learning experience and the computer performance is
wonderful.

I do use my computer for a lot of things and one of the things I want to use
this computer primarily for is as a multimedia creation and entertainment
center. I have a 128MB nVidia 5200 video card with TV out, TV/video capture
card, no additional audio card - all connected to my A/V system. I have a
DVD multiformat burner and CD burner. Everything is working well. But now I
want to put in the last component for ease of use: a front panel
multifunction bay for easy access with IEEE1394 devices like my digital
camcorder, card readers for various digital components like digital cameras,
and lastly, but least important, basic audio I/O jacks.

I would really appreciate a recommendation as I've never owned one of these
devices and just learning about the capabilities. I've been looking at
newegg.com at various products. I think I know what the AN7 is capable of
supporting, but I would like some clarification.

It appears to me that the AN7 can additionally support the following:

1. 2 USB 2.0 ports through the FP-USB1 connector, which can support a
multifunction bay with card readers (1 USB connection) and an additional USB
front panel access port. Is this correct?

2. 1 IEEE 1394 firewire port from the front panel via the FP-1394-1
connector.

3. The audio connectors totally confuse me. From the user manual, it seems
that the connector FP-Audio1 will support EITHER front panel audio jacks OR
rear panel jacks dependent upon how it is jumpered. Is this correct? I
currently use the rear panel jacks to connect to my desktop speakers and my
A/V system, but I'd like front panel access also. Is this possible?

Considering all this, is there a front panel multifunction bay which match
the capabilities of the AN7 that anyone would recommend? I don't want to
overbuy (buying a device with more ports than the mobo will support);
however, I would like to buy and use all the mobo capabilities I can connect
to a device.

I was looking at the Koutech F7209-B although the Koutech F7210-B seems to
be a newer model with the same ports and additional SATA ports. (I like the
black device also as my case is solid black. However, I do have a slick
sliding panel that covers the bays so it doesn't have to be black.) My
problem with these devices is that they seem to have A LOT of superfluous
ports the AN7 can't support (2 IEEE1394, 3 USB, not sure about the audio
jacks), not to mention they are relatively expensive although not terribly
so. Any other recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

OK, sorry I've been long-winded. Hopefully, someone can clarify my questions
and help with a recommendation.

Thanks in advance.

Pete

P.S. I will also be posting this at the forums at www.abit-usa.com and
www.motherboards.org.

http://www.frontx.com

"Sid Joyner" wrote in message
...
Hi All:
Considering all this, is there a front panel multifunction bay which match
the capabilities of the AN7 that anyone would recommend? I don't want to
overbuy (buying a device with more ports than the mobo will support);
however, I would like to buy and use all the mobo capabilities I can
connect
to a device.