Tips 4 pc

Special attention is required when attaching the front panel connectors from the computer case to the desktop motherboard. If you get it wrong you can easily  damage your components. This is especially true when you are connecting a motherboard to a computer chassis or case that was not made for each other.

ATX motherboard design guide specification is a 9-pin front chassis header. The picture below shows the 9-pin front panel header, with the 10th pin missing. It is always best to refer to your motherboards manual, however if you haven’t got it, this can be very handy. Newer motherboards are now labelled and it is very clear where the wires are to be connected. It will have things like PWR, HDD LED, RESET SW, PWR SW.

Front Panel Header connection Intel Power LED 9-pin

Here is a simple table showing where to connect the Hard drive LED, Power LED, Reset Switch, and the Power switch. For example the Hard drive LED will clip on to pin number and pin number three. It does not touch pin two or four. To connect the power LED it gets clipped on to pin two and four.
Description Pins

Hard Drive LED                  1 – 3

Power LED                           2 – 4

Reset Switch                       5 – 7

Power ON (Power SW)    6 – 8