Diff in USB 3.0 Port on front or back of Computer?

My System is a Dell Precision Tower 5810 running Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit.

I have a couple of older WD My Book Essential External 2 TB Hard Drives.
This is the WD Drive before the current My Book came out.

When I connect either WD My Book Essential External 2 TB Hard Drives to the 1 USB 3.0 Port on the front of the Tower, my System does not recognize that it is attached.

When I instead connect it to either of the 3 USB 2.0 Ports on the front of the Tower, my System does recognize that it is attached.

WD told me to try a USB 3.0 Port on the back of the Tower.

I did that & Viola, my System now recognizes that it is attached.

Since the WD My Book Essential External Hard Drives do support USB 3.0 I would of course rather use a USB 3.0 Port for the additional speed.
But, there are only 3 USB 3.0 Ports on the back of the Tower and I use all three (2 Monitors and the UPS).
I had to disconnect my UPS to be able to use that USB 3.0 Port.

I researched my problem and there seems to be conflicting opinions as to whether or not it matters if you use a USB 3.0 Port on the front or the back.

USB ports located on the back of a tower belong to the Motherboard itself while ports on the front belong to the computer’s case and connected to the Motherboard. Because of this, front ports do not perform as well since they use a bridged connection.