1934a or USB - how to tell?

drevan

Solid State Member
Messages
8
Hi,

well I bought the hardware and am most of the way through the build, but hit a stall in attaching the cable from the case-integrated firewire/usb to the mobo. I don't know if the cable is 1934a or USB and I saw a statement in the mobo instructions that says plugging in USB to 1934 can damage mobo.

I've looked around for a little while, but haven't found anything clear on this.

The case is NZXT phantom, the mobo is ASUS P8P67 and this concerns...oen of these two came with a blue adapter that plugs into the USB2.0 ports on the mobo...

hope my issue is clear, TIA.
 
it won't be 1934, but 1394, got a little bit of dyslexia there dont'cha? ;)

Firewire or 1394 is easily distinguishable on the external connector by how it looks compared to USB. USB is usually flat and rectangular, and Firewire is more of an oval, or "wide" oval, and you can clearly see the pins on the inside.

Here's a photo for reference:
http://www.techiesouls.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/usb_firewire.jpg

As for the internal headers, which is what I think your main question was about, is a little different.

USB connectors are usually blue, as you noted. They can also be white or black, depending on who makes the board.

Firewire headers are often orange / orangish red, and are placed further "back" on the motherboard. USB headers will typically be placed closer to the "front" of the board, near the front panel connectors and hard drive / SATA connectors.
Firewire will also be labeled either "Firewire" or "1394a" (the "a" standing for the interface standard).
As can be seen here:
Firewire usb headers image by K404 on Photobucket

Edit: Found a good image of your motherboard (ASUS P8P67) and there's no actual 1394 header on the board, but there IS a port on the back, which is on the "Red tower" and is the second connector UP from the mainboard between the top two USB ports and the bottom eSATA plug.
 
the difference is pretty clear.

USB (Rectangular)
usb3.jpg


Firewire/IEEE 1394 (irregular hexagonal)
firewire400.jpg
 
When I checked the specs of the board, there wasn't even an option for 1394 connectivity outside of the connector on the rear, so probably not.

No idea what is up with that photo, but it should be noted that Firewire handles voltages differently than USB, and you can indeed fry them if you connect them to the wrong headers, etc.
 
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