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Upgradeability
The FrontX kit comes standard with three 1/8" jack inserts and a game port. The FrontX panel is designed to be modular, and comes with some blanks that can be replaced later with newer FrontX components. FrontX has already released add-ons for USB and serial ports. Even better, you can choose between external connectors and motherboard connectors, further reducing the amount of clutter behind your computer. Future upgrades are planned to allow for monitors, Firewire, parallel ports, and USB 2. Perhaps I'm not up on the spec enough, but I was under the idea that USB 2 was base-hardware compatible with USB, meaning that some equipment, like USB connector cables, would not need to be replaced.
The modularity of the ports also allows you to arrange the connectors as you see fit, or remove them altogether. If, for some reason, you had the need for three serial ports, you could remove the audio jacks and replace them with just serial ports. FrontX even facilitates users who require such a configuration by offering the kit in a bare-bones configuration, and allowing you to order your ports a la carte!
While these new ports are a great start, I can see a much bigger need for others. With the proliferation of 3D accelerators with TV out, RCA and S-VHS ports would be most helpful. Of much greater importance to gamers and technicians alike, however, is PS/2. PS/2, in fact, would make this device ideal for system integrators and server operators like myself, as they'd allow you to run a headless PC with just the Ethernet cable and power in the back. If you needed to diagnose a problem with the system that couldn't be done over the network, just plug in a keyboard, mouse, and monitor. Voila…This would make servicing systems incredibly easy, as they wouldn't have to be disconnected or pulled out to be worked on. Perhaps this can be considered for a future upgrade, I hope!
Also of consideration is the use of a 5.25" bay for this device. The 5.25" drive allows for more connectors in one place, but for some people, a 3.5" bay would be more useful. At my university, for instance, our lab systems have the headphone jack moved to the front of the computer system so that students can use headphones on the computer without pulling the systems away from the wall. The computers were assembled with the headphone jack drilled into the center of a 5.25" bay. This means that a drive bay was totally wasted just for the use of one cable. Since my school's needs were small, they should've gone with a 3.5" bay instead. Similarly, some OEMs may want a feature like this, but only in a 3.5" bay. This could probably be good for FrontX too.
>> Conclusion
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