SATA Express: why are new motherboards still including them?

[dmoney1980]

Seriously! New 1170 and all x99 motherboards have them and I don't really know why. Are Intel and their board partners obligated to include them? They take up space and serve no purpose, along with driving up manufacturing costs.

Edit: to make matters worse, itx boards include them too! What a waste of PCB space!

 

[Deders]

I guess it doesn't hurt too much if those ports can be used as regular Sata.

 

[master_shake_]

sata express is the future man!

you know we have at least zero devices now but soon.

lol.

i agree what a pathetic standard.

 

[Imp]

My board from 2009 has them... I haven't figured out if they're powered or not and which enclosure works with them. So I just got a random USB 3 external drive.

 

[master_shake_]

i think you are talking about e-sata.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yeah, eSATA isn't SATAe. A mobo from 2009 wouldn't have SATAe.

 

[zir_blazer]

I hate SATA Express. Using them means either: Wasting PCIe Lanes, or having to add a PCIe switch to be able to reroute them to some other more important feature, in which case you can't use both simultaneously, besides complicating Motherboard topology.
I would stop adding them, since they will probabily never be used. High end SSDs can also saturate SATA Express, so not using M.2/U.2 4x 3.0 is a suicidal choice.