550D and EATX Mobos

[jlarimore]

I just put together my dream machine and I ran into the annoying problem where the 550D recessed motherboard area is not quite large enough to accommodate an EATX board without blocking half of the SATA ports. (and is actually putting a small amount of stress on some cables in the top row of ports as well) My RAID plans will force me to use some of the lower row of SATA ports, so just avoiding them is not a long term solution.

 

Other than that I am really happy with the case and would like to keep it if at all possible. So, I am asking: has anyone out there overcome this problem?

 

I found a thread out there mentioning that there were aftermarket SATA cables that fit in the small space available. I imagine they either have really small heads or are angled at 45 degrees or something. Anyone know anything about that? I would really like to try to avoid anything too destructive like cutting an accommodating hole in the metal part of the case. But, I might be prepared to go there if someone has had success doing that.

[WesternDreaming]

its amazing u managed to fit an eatx mobo in the mid tower

but you seem to be losing about 3.5"

 

if you are really thinking of going it this way

i would almost suggest a pciex1 card with some sataIII ports so you dont lose bandwidth

[jlarimore]

You wouldn't believe how tight a fit it is. A piece of paper barely slides between the lower right corner of the motherboard and the bevel of the case. The shame is that if they sacrificed a centimeter of cable management space around the back it would fit with ease.

 

That's a good suggestion. I hadn't thought about that. Are there any disadvantages (speed wise) of running SATA through a PCI Express slot?

[deees]

Too bad you did picked the 650D instead of the 550D, it can easily fit an EATX board. If you're looking for flexible SATA cables, you may want to check out the AKASA pro slim cables.

 

http://imageshack.us/a/img809/4948/capture00333.th.jpg

 

Here they're installed in a 650D, (on a ATX MB):

 

http://imageshack.us/a/img23/2906/capture00347.th.jpg

[jlarimore]

Those cables look promising. The heads look about half the length of the cables I have. I'll probably order a few and see if they do the trick.

 

Do you know if they make a version with a right angle end on one side? (although if they are short enough that probably doesn't matter)

[WesternDreaming]

You wouldn't believe how tight a fit it is. A piece of paper barely slides between the lower right corner of the motherboard and the bevel of the case. The shame is that if they sacrificed a centimeter of cable management space around the back it would fit with ease.

 

That's a good suggestion. I hadn't thought about that. Are there any disadvantages (speed wise) of running SATA through a PCI Express slot?

 

nah,

imo the new sata-x connections will have to be done through the pcie slots

just because the no disadvantages to BW loss

 

try the slims to keep the inside of the case clean, then try a pcie addin card to keep the same connection speeds

[deees]

Those cables look promising. The heads look about half the length of the cables I have. I'll probably order a few and see if they do the trick.

 

Do you know if they make a version with a right angle end on one side? (although if they are short enough that probably doesn't matter)

 

Not to my knowledge, (neither Performance-PCS or AKASA show any on their websites.) You're right; they're probably shorter than most right-angle connectors.

[jlarimore]

Update: The AKASA cables arrived and they fit in both rows of SATA ports. Thank you very much for the suggestion deees. That solved my problem and those cables are nice for airflow.