Acer Predator Orion 3000 PO3-640-UA91 Case/fan upgrade

Hello,

I just bought this PC in December and was looking to add the Noctua NH-U9S CPU cooler as several other threads have mentioned this helps quite a bit. In that process I went down a rabbit hole and now I'm considering case and fan replacements. Based on other threads it appears the current motherboard will fit a mid-size case with ATX compatibility, so the plan is

Corsair 4000X RGB series case - includes three SP120 RGB fans and Corsair Lighting Node Core
Corsair SP120 RGB fan x 3 to replace Acer fans and just run all items through iCue if needed
EnLabs 10 port Fan hub - since motherboard only has two system fan headers.

The only issue I've found is the Corsair Lightning Node requires a USB 2.0 header and from what I see this motherboard doesn't have one. I see a Front USB header but it does not have pins for some reason. Does anyone know if this is purposely empty? Worst case scenario could I use an IDC 5 male to USB 2.0 to connect the Lighting Node to a USB on the back panel? Any help/guidance would be appreciated and apologies if this has been covered before.

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Image of motherboard F_USB with no Pins

This diagram was on a thread for PO3-640-ER11, couldn't find a thread with reference to PO3-640-UA91 they appear to be the same board.

[Edited the thread to add model name to the title]

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NeoGeo

@DaveR0503

I used to connect my AIO to my motherboard, as i didn't have any 2.0 connectors on the board either and it works perfectly

https://akasa.co.uk/search.php?seed=AK-CBUB36-30BK

i then converted the front panel 3.1 connector to a 3.0 for the front panel USBs , as i don't use the ssd bay type c connection

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B083S6WLHV

EDIT : Just noticed your board may not have a USB 3.0 connector , you could get a usb 2.0 pci card put it into ( 18 ) PCIE1X1

billsey

The 2.0 vs 3.0 thing doesn't make any difference, when they say USB 2.0 they really mean 'or higher' since they only require meeting the 2.0 spec.

Orion_chacious

Someone posted a picture of the above image without the red/blue marks ( I made these marks ), and I used this to purchase an NVME SSD for my computer I bought with this motherboard, confident that it would fit based on the diagram. In my haste I glazed over the fact that #8 ( which is the only one that's empty on mine ), also said 2242 slot. I proceeded to open the side panel of my case and install the SSD ( 2280 ), when I shockingly figured out that it would not fit on the first screw hole ( Blue circle on my edited picture, I'm guessing that's the 2242 part of it ). Sorry for the prolonged message and all of the parantheses, anyway I was wondering, I can't see good so I'm having trouble, is the silver part featured in the red circle ( above the one in the blue circle ) something to unscrew and screw in once you have the drive installed? I immediately stopped what I was doing because it felt like a capacitor or something like that, and was worried I would mess something up, I didn't want to try to unscrew it as if it was a capacitor it wouldn't take much force to pop it off. I realize this is off topic, from the fan upgrade but this is where I found this picture and was hoping you guys were familair with it.

chugzilla

i hate to assume anything but it sure looks like they are the same or very similar and its def a screw hole, the 2280 drive is longer so that would make sense to me lol

StevenGen

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1188779#Comment_1188779

The red circled screw hole is for M.2 2280mm M.2 SSD PCIe 3 x4 type drives, the PO3-640 desktop has provisions for 2x M.2 2280mm M.2 SSD drives at #8 and #20 in the diagram. Don't worry about the blue circled 2242mm screw hole as both of these drives use the same M.2 port of your PO3-640 mobo at #8 only and not at #20!

The 2280mm PCIe 3 x4 M.2 drive you need to fit on this mobo should be the fastest PCIe 3 x4 drives like the WD SN750 Black or the Samsung 970 Plus PCIe 3 x4 drives as they are the quickest and best drives for this desktop to perform at its peak.

The below caption is from the PO3-640s SG and specs of the screw for the M.2 red circled screw hole, if you don't have this screw included with this desktop then these are the screw specs: