Motherboard manufacturers are trying to solve possibly the most annoying thing about building a PC.
Cable management. Three of the largest companies that crank out motherboards,
ASUS, MSI, and Gigabyte all now offer boards
that place most internal connectors on the back of the PCB with the idea being
to let you build a PC with few to no cables showing.
But hold on a sec, why exactly did it take so long
for these companies to bring this to market? I mean the first American patent was filed back in 2011.
The answer is not only that there wasn't yet broad support from hardware manufacturers,
but also that the priorities of the PCI DIY community
weren't quite the same as they are now. Let's start by talking about those priorities.
It really wasn't all that long ago that building or just buying a PC was primarily a means to an end.
You wanted to accomplish something specific on a PC, play a game, make a video call,
re-derive calculus, whatever. So you built something in an opaque beige box
that could accomplish that task, and there was a good chance you didn't care too much
about how it looked. But as the years went on, laptops, tablets,
and smartphones became able to handle more and more functions
that used to be the sole domain of desktop PCs,
meaning that a larger proportion of the remaining desktop PC community was made up of enthusiasts
who cared more than the average person about not just how their PC performed, but how it looked.
During that time, PC aesthetics evolved gradually.
Cases with Windows didn't start becoming common until the early to mid-2000s.
We didn't see cable management grommets until around 2010,
and RGB didn't hit it big until the mid-2010s.
And of course, modern social media platforms that allow hardware manufacturers to easily get the pulse
of the community haven't been around for very long. But since they took off, it's been clear
from social media feedback that aesthetics have only increased in importance for PC enthusiasts.
We haven't proved that RGB makes things faster yet, but we'll get there.
And there's an additional benefit aside from aesthetics. Connectors on the rear mean that you won't have to worry
about negotiating your way into tight spaces created by other components once you're ready
to connect your cables. The eight-pin EPS connector is notoriously tricky.
Manufacturers are hoping that not only will rear connectors
look better, but they'll also serve as a more builder-friendly option to those folks
who are interested in PC DIY, but intimidated about taking the plunge.
And there are more of those people out there than you might think.
So that brings us to actually getting this idea to market.
How did we get there? Although Manegear filed a patent for the rear connector concept in 2011,
which other companies now license, it wasn't until 2019 that ASUS showed us a rear motherboard
connector on their concept Prime Utopia board.
Gigabyte then became the first major motherboard brand to bring a rear connector motherboard to market in 2022
with Project Stealth, followed by MSI's Project Zero
in 2023, and ASUS's BTF in 2024.
And since the primary concern here is aesthetics, some boards also include shrouds
that hide the unsightly solder marks that are now on the front of the board.
But hold everything. How the heck does this work, considering that most cases don't have the correct holes
in the motherboard tray to plug in cables at the back? Unsurprisingly, you're gonna need a new compatible case
for these new motherboards to work. Gigabyte collaborated with Manegear
to make a case for its Project Stealth products, while MSI and ASUS both make their own cases now,
and also collaborate with outside case manufacturers in order to ensure you can actually hide all your cables
without having to take a Dremel to your existing case. Unless you want to.
I mean, it's fun. And in case you were wondering why these manufacturers
can't just design the motherboard so the rear connectors poke out of the existing cutouts
for CPU coolers, there are just too many electronics
already in that area for such a solution to be practical.
Although the current lack of an open standard for rear connectors means you'll have to ensure
that the case you want is specifically compatible with the particular motherboard brand you want,
this may not end up mattering too much in the long term. Lots of niceties that we're used to,
such as right angled SATA connectors, top mounted radiators, and the various RGB ecosystems
don't have official standards defining them, but they enjoy widespread support and interoperability.
So if rear connectors end up being in high demand from consumers, you can bet that there will be plenty
of compatible boards and cases to choose from. But a possible wrinkle is how to handle the pesky fact
that most graphics cards require extra power cables
that connect to the top of the card. Oh no.
For now, limited solutions exist. Gigabyte sells special cards that feature a connector
on the bottom closer to the PCI express contacts,
while ASUS sells cards with an extra smaller set
of contacts for power that work with compatible ASUS motherboards.
While this limits which graphics cards you can use to get that totally clean look inside your case,
the hope is that more cards will adopt solutions such as these as time goes on.
And the fact that ASUS, Gigabyte, and MSI, also all manufactured graphics cards and cases
means they also have the ability to push these rear connector ecosystems forward,
even if a particular outside company isn't interested.
But is any of this really a good idea? Well, other than a small amount of increased costs
to begin with due to these companies having to tweak their manufacturing slightly,
there aren't really any major drawbacks to rear mounting connectors.
But even with these benefits, only time will tell if this new connector paradigm will emerge
as a widespread alternative to traditional cable routing.
And I know how much some of you like seeing that sweet RGB spaghetti every time you fire up your rig.
So we'll have to see. And you know what I like to see is you coming to the end of this video.
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