When will we see motherboards with SSD sockets?

[The Sauce]

Any rumors about this? I want to plug an SSD right into the mobo like a memory stick. Why bother mounting these things in the case and running cables? They are small, light, and they don't vibrate.

 

[Colt45]

I don't see the advantage, unless it's PCI-E x4 or something, and plugs in a pci slot.. which i suppose will happen sooner or later.

 

[The Sauce]

Don't see the advantage? You mean you enjoy buying 2.5" to 3.5" adapters separately and mounting the drives in them, then mounting the adapter in a case with screws, then running wires? When you could just plug it into a slot on the mobo like DDR and be done? Really?

 

[bobross419]

Don't see the advantage? You mean you enjoy buying 2.5" to 3.5" adapters separately and mounting the drives in them, then mounting the adapter in a case with screws, then running wires? When you could just plug it into a slot on the mobo like DDR and be done? Really?

Why not just get a shorty 2-3" SATA cable and let the drive rest on the bottom of the case? Use a piece of doublesided tape and you're gold...

 

[Kassem]

Why not just get a shorty 2-3" SATA cable and let the drive rest on the bottom of the case? Use a piece of doublesided tape and you're gold...

eh, just doesnt feel right.



//edit

haha omg lurker

 

[Fayd]

Any rumors about this? I want to plug an SSD right into the mobo like a memory stick. Why bother mounting these things in the case and running cables? They are small, light, and they don't vibrate.

look at a motherboard.

do you see any free space on it?

 

[Kassem]

look at a motherboard.

do you see any free space on it?

MacroATX, bro.

 

[Fayd]

6.5 years of lurking to post in THIS thread?

 

[soccerballtux]

6.5 years of lurking to post in THIS thread?

lol

 

[shabby]

Mobo's already have these sockets, they're called sata headers, you just need a cable to connect the two...

 

[Blain]

Any rumors about this? I want to plug an SSD right into the mobo like a memory stick. Why bother mounting these things in the case and running cables? They are small, light, and they don't vibrate.

Even though they don't vibrate, they still have a bit of weight.
Most ATX MBs are mounted vertically, which would have the SSD hanging without any support except the socket they're plugged into.
The law of gravity would be acting against the SSD.

 

[corkyg]

Not only space is generally nopt available on the mobo, but you would be creating an additional heat problem. SATA connections are too easy to be a barrier to installation. There are several HDD slot trays - just stick the SSD on any convenient one - no need for mechanical adapters. Think Velcro.

 

[soccerballtux]

I want to say something but NDA's are a 5 letter word that starts with a b.

 

[Red Squirrel]

This could be pretty cool but think the main issue is the weight. If motherboards were always mounted horizontally this would be better.

Though I'm actually starting to see horizontally computer setups make a come back, especially in corporate IT. There's also servers that are often horizontal but I can't imagine using a SSD on a server, well maybe for the OS/swap.

 

[Miramonti]

Why not just get a shorty 2-3" SATA cable and let the drive rest on the bottom of the case? Use a piece of doublesided tape and you're gold...

This was actually a good point, and you had to go and ruin it with an answer like this. Let's just say I'd hate to see how you treat car repairs.

There should be a quick and easy way to pop these in and out, and as soon as they become the norm in computer sales, I'm sure there will be more focus on making this happen. Over the long run it will save some time/money on building computers and repairing them, which is what large manufacturers want.

 

[The Sauce]

look at a motherboard.

do you see any free space on it?

Was there any free space on mobos before USB? 1394? On-board Raid? Etc... They make room to add features. And since Northbridge is eventually going away, there you go.

 

[Fayd]

Was there any free space on mobos before USB? 1394? On-board Raid? Etc... They make room to add features. And since Northbridge is eventually going away, there you go.

USB and 1394 are on the back panel. their controllers are generally integrated with the north bridge. (i think...)

onboard raid is always integrated with the south bridge. SATA ports on a mobo are a given, and IDE ports and floppy ports are going the way of the dodo to make room for other things.

in all, SSD's wont fit on a mobo for a LOOOONNNNGGG time. not that there's even any need/want for them to.

if you're realllly interested in it, there's some mini motherboards that have integrated sockets for flash memory on them.... but that's certainly not the performance you're looking for.

 

[biostud]

PCIe SSD storage already exists, but at premium prices

 

[Blain]

The PCIe SSD card write speeds are pretty sad.

Get on the Auto Notify list for this one instead.

 

[bobross419]

I doubt this will ever happen. Look at some of the older dell USFF computers like the Optiplex SX260 and SX270 - They used laptop drives which only require a single connector running from the motherboard instead of an IDE cable + Power cable. If a giant like Dell never got them directly on the motherboard I'd think its pretty safe to say that we won't see this happen with the SSD drives.

To the above poster that was referring to ease of swapping for component manufacturers, the only companies that would have to worry about it are the biggies like Dell, HP, etc. They make more use of case design to allow for easy parts swaps than redesigning the motherboard.

If it ever did happen it would most likely be mounted on the edge of the mobo with a 90 degree plug so that the SSD sat parallel to the mobo instead of sticking out perpendicularly (like a video card does). This would allow for a ledge to be put on the mobo tray to keep the SSD from having to put all it's wait on the socket.

 

[RebateMonger]

Onboard SSD sounds nice, but I don't think it'll happen. The reason is that there's no way to predict how many drives will be attached. There could be one or there could be four. So there will STILL be a need to mount drives off-motherboard. Since there'll need to be a drive mounting area, might as well mount that single SSD there, too.

 

[soccerballtux]

don't worry it's definitely coming

 

[The Sauce]

The PCIe SSD card write speeds are pretty sad.

Get on the Auto Notify list for this one instead.

There we go! Now THAT'S what I'm talkin about. A little pricey but nice to see that it's out there.

 

[mpilchfamily]

I don't think directly mounting an SSD to the motherboard is the answer. I think case design needs to incorperate SSD drive bays. With SSDs becoming cheaper and there storage not advancing as fast as many would like. People will have the need to mount more then one or 2 drives. Causeing them to run out of motherboard space and PCI-e slots rather fast. Its much easier to add onother SATA controler and 4 to 8 more SATA connectors to the motherboard. then trying to expand the board to have more PCI-e slots or to incoperate some sort of SSD headers.

 

[The Sauce]

I don't think directly mounting an SSD to the motherboard is the answer. I think case design needs to incorperate SSD drive bays. With SSDs becoming cheaper and there storage not advancing as fast as many would like. People will have the need to mount more then one or 2 drives. Causeing them to run out of motherboard space and PCI-e slots rather fast. Its much easier to add onother SATA controler and 4 to 8 more SATA connectors to the motherboard. then trying to expand the board to have more PCI-e slots or to incoperate some sort of SSD headers.

We I think that for the forseeable future people will only have one SSD for the OS and standard HDDs for data storage. One SSD on the mobo wouldn't be that bad.