I was about to buy a PCI card to give me a com port in the back of my new PC, when I discovered that my MOBO has a COM connector on-board.

Does anyone know how I would buy the back plate and cable to put this connector to use?

(In case you're wondering, it is for my UPS interface, which is the old serial connection.)

If your talking about the back plate of the computer, the one that came with the mobo should have an opening. It's designed specifically for the board. You should be able to either get a cable from the mfg, Radio Shack, or online.

I assume the cable will be a minor issue once I find the backplate connector. What I need is a plate with a port that screws into the back of the computer (I assume like a PCI board). I'm not really sure what to ask for, since I dont need a PCI Serial card, just the serial port and a cable to connect it to the internal connection on the MOBO.

My MOBO does not have a serial connector external, only internal.

Any additional thoughts are appreciated.

Actually any old serial cable from a technician's junk bin or 386/468/Pentium 1 computer found at Goodwill will work. You'e looking for a connector on a ribbon cable joined to a 9-pin d-sub male socket mounted on a slot backplate. This screws into one of the openings behind the PCI slots. These things are pretty ubiquitous. The ATX panel is only for items hard-mounted to the motherboard.

I had this same problem when I needed to console in to an old Cisco router... I just dropped by a local computer shop and they sold me one for $5. The connector on your motherboard is likely a standardized one... don't see you having a problem finding a local one.

Sounds great everyone. Thanks for the info.