SATA: To the side or straight down?

[Ketchup]

I am very happy with the design of my Asus Sabertooth, EXCEPT the SATA ports. What is so wrong with up/down? Even with a huge case like mine, the connections are much more difficult than they should be.

How about you?

 

[Puffnstuff]

I prefer facing to the side (towards the front of the case) which makes connecting easier to me with peripherals installed on the board. Ultimately I'd like to see the sata ports pawned off to a sub-connector of some sort mounted in the case on the drive bays keeping the sata cables as short as possible to eliminate clutter. I think that a new standard should be developed to accomplish this task and that a single cable akin to a usb 3 ribbon should be used to connect the mb with the drive bays. Things would be so much simpler if we just inserted our hd/ssd's into a slot rather than mounting them in a carrier.

 

[Charlie98]

In my desktop, they face out, but with the GPU right on top of them, I have to make sure the SATA cables don't hit the fans. Because the clearances are fairly tight, I usually have to pull the GPU if I'm going to do anything drastic with my drive cables... it's just easier that way.

In my game rig, they face sideways (towards the front) and while that keeps the cables away from the GPU fan, I can't get my finger in behind the GPU to release the SATA catch... and have to pull the GPU.

I do prefer the aesthetics and cable management of the side-facing ports, however, I just wish they could line them singly along the mobo edge (although I understand why they can't.)

 

[Elixer]

I think they need to redesign the ATX form factor, it is way too dated, and you got companies trying to stick ports where they shouldn't be, or shouldn't be facing.

Maybe in another 10 years, we will have something new.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I hate sideways connectors too, it's always awkward to get the cables in once the motherboard is installed. If building a new system I always plug the required cables first then install the board, and hope they don't come loose.

 

[Puffnstuff]

If you were using a small cramped case I could understand where sideways could present a problem, however in my haf 932 there's plenty of room to access them.

 

[Ketchup]

I think they need to redesign the ATX form factor, it is way too dated, and you got companies trying to stick ports where they shouldn't be, or shouldn't be facing.

Maybe in another 10 years, we will have something new.

Agreed, but I will be surprised if it every happens. BTX was good, and look where it is today?

 

[Dahak]

I prefer facing to the side (towards the front of the case) which makes connecting easier to me with peripherals installed on the board. Ultimately I'd like to see the sata ports pawned off to a sub-connector of some sort mounted in the case on the drive bays keeping the sata cables as short as possible to eliminate clutter. I think that a new standard should be developed to accomplish this task and that a single cable akin to a usb 3 ribbon should be used to connect the mb with the drive bays. Things would be so much simpler if we just inserted our hd/ssd's into a slot rather than mounting them in a carrier.

You are pretty much talking about the hdd backplanes as implemented in the servers..

the only downside is that it would be hard to get all case mfgs to settle on one design standard and then how to do sata->backplane cable as well

 

[MustISO]

I've got motherboards with both types, I prefer up facing but I don't mind the front edge ports as long as they're in a good spot. My MSI mobo has them right under where the GPU is so I have to remove the GPU to plug/un-plug a cable.

 

[PliotronX]

After owning a side ported board, I can safely say no sir, I don't like 'em. It's not as clean to have them sticking straight out, but manipulating them for upgrades/swaps after the build is far easier.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

It just depends on the case and cable routing. Sideways ones are better if you have holes in your motherboard tray and are routing cables behind that to hide them.

Also, in the Fractal Node 804, where the motherboard is on the starboard half of the case and the HDDs are all stored to port, same kind of thing - the sideways connectors would decrease the bend radius and hopefully be good mojo for the cables.

Other cases? Not so much.

Just depends.

 

[Pandasaurus]

You are pretty much talking about the hdd backplanes as implemented in the servers..

the only downside is that it would be hard to get all case mfgs to settle on one design standard and then how to do sata->backplane cable as well

The required design standards already exist. The connector is the same. The cable is more or less a standard (there are some variations, but for the most part, they're all the same). The design of the backplane itself doesn't really matter as long as the drive connectors are in the right place. To my knowledge, the only thing stopping you from implementing this right now is the motherboard. Even then, you still could, you'd just need to use individual cables for each port on the backplane (which defeats the purpose of the backplane, in this instance).