Hoping someone that knows definitively can confirm the results of a morning of googling (and cussing. And eating chocolate #lockdown_lardo).

USB 3.1 gen 1 and gen 2 have physically different motherboard headers? USB 3.1 gen 1 seems to use a 20 pin header (on the boards I've seen, labelled "USB 3.0") and USB 3.1 gen 2 uses a smaller keyed connecter that looks a little like a cross between a SATA and Lightning (on the boards I've seen, labelled "USB 3.1").

I have taken a shine to the NZXT H210/H510 cases for a PC build - these have front-mounted USB type A "with a USB 3.1 gen 1 internal header", and a USB type C "with a USB 3.1 gen 2 internal header". I want to use a B450 motherboard, but all of the B450-I motherboards easily available here (cough, PB tech) seem to have a single USB 3.1 gen 1 header. So on the NZXT H210 ITX case, I couldn't get both front ports to work even with an adapter.

While none of the fullsize ATX B450 motherboards seem to seem to have native USB 3.1 gen 2 headers either, at least some have dual USB 3.1 internal headers. So I could use a H510 ATX case and have both ports work, although the USB C would require an adapter.

And I think PCIE cards to add USB 3.1 gen 2 are available as well if those are a better option?

I'm not especially worried about the difference in 5 vs 10 Gbps. But would really like to plug in USB accessories to the front port and have them work - I've started to upgrade to things like USB C headsets for notebooks and would be nice to be able to plug those in without further adapters or (shudder) _reaching behind the PC_.

I hope at that makes sense. It took me a long while to get my head around it - what a shambles.