Front Panel advice
 

I think I'm going to be ordering a ASUS Xonar Essence STX and was wondering if anyone had some advice on a front panel for it.
Any knobs can't stick out too far as my Antec box has a closing cover on it.

Sorry I am little confused by your question, the sound card has a connection for your case front audio AC97 cable, it should be no problem running this cable from your front pannel or top pannel to your sound card.

The sound quality is much better if you plug your headphones or speakers directly into the sound card though, unless you need very quick access to a jack you should not really use front audio regularly.

AdoP,
I was hoping for a 5 1/4" panel with volume control, balance, etc.
A headphone jack is important, as the back of the computer will not really be accessible.
That's bad news that the front panel headphone jack will not be as good as the one on the card, as that's the one I'll have to use :-(

The STX doesn't come with e 5 1/4" front panel.. some creative cards do.. maybe auzentech as well

That being said, you really want to avoid using the front panel if at all.. the wires used to connect are cheap, unshielded and will absorb a lot of EMI noise and thus give you a hiss/hum that you can notice when its quiet and it'll get worse when your hard drive starts reading/writing, etc.

Good information,and to think for how many years I have
been using the front jacks.