Monday, June 3rd 2024
GIGABYTE Debuts its Own Backside Connectivity Motherboard Standard: the Stealth
GIGABYTE at the 2024 Computex debuted its own standard of motherboards with backside I/O (i.e. ports and connectors located on the reverse side of the PCB). GIGABYTE is calling this brand extension "Stealth." It rivals ASUS BTF and MSI Project Zero. One of the first products to implement it is an AMD Socket AM5 motherboard, the B650E AORUS Stealth Ice. Besides backside connectors, a large shroud dominates the board in such a way that only the CPU cooler, memory, and the graphics card stick out. GIGABYTE is claiming bragging rights to this being the world's first white PCB motherboard with backside connectivity (BSC). Given that most case manufacturers are getting friendly with BSC, and are carving out huge cutouts in their motherboard trays for broad compatibility with all proprietary BSC standards, the GIGABYTE Stealth should be generally compatible with these cases.
21 Comments on GIGABYTE Debuts its Own Backside Connectivity Motherboard Standard: the Stealth
Also, there stil is a need for fan headers on top of the board. For AIO, CPU fan, and case fans. Current designs requires the cables to be routed back to the front of the board.
Personally, I still advocate for wireless controll of say fans. And no guys, not battery driven fans or anything silly. Just a BT connected fan, that communicate fan control by BT. And RGB by some BT like control. Wish leaves us with only power to be supplied to the parts, like fans and so on. That removes the need for internal USB header, and all fan headers. There will be no need for any RGB header. Just saying. Innovation.
Or...is it?
If they're going this route, they should move the GPU slot to the bottom and put it on a daughter board, so no more need for riser cables to mount our GPUs upright
Well, not quite, since they barely make cases like those now.
So by the time I build my next personal rig later this year, it will be just like my current desktop space: NO WIRES, oh yea :D
edgeup.asus.com/2024/introducing-btf-an-easy-clean-approach-to-pc-building-that-keeps-the-cables-out-of-sight/
uk.msi.com/news/detail/MSI-Unveils-PROJECT-ZERO-Series-for-Cleaner--More-Attractive--and-User-Friendly-PCs-142978
As far as BSC connectors, go, this is probably Maingear's MG-RC standard.
As a reminder, Maingear patented their version of the rear connection system as MG-RC and was working to push it as a new standard, and eventually got MSI and Gigabyte to sign on to it along with some support from Phanteks and others for cases and peripherals. They might have just been a boutique PC builder and seller, but they managed to get two major mobo makers to commit to its standard.
Meanwhile, ASUS brought out a very similar design under BTF (Back to The Future), and got CoolerMaster, Thermaltake, SilverStone, Corsair, and InWin (among others) to sign on to their version of a new design standard and develop cases and peripherals that would capitalize on ASUS' design. In competition to Maingear, there's the fact that Origin PC is now owned by Corsair too, so they too could start pushing ASUS' BTF standard through their boutique shop in the same way.
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Currently, we have 3 of the 4 main consumer oriented mobo makers pushing some version of this new "power connectors at the rear" standard, which are 90% the same externally except for ASUS' version including a high-power connector to power GPUs compared to Maingear's standard. All that's left of the notable brand mobo makers not pushing for rear connections is AsRock, and which one it might start adopting is the question.
There's also a possibility that ASUS and Maingear join up and we get the "AMG-RC" or "MG-BTF" standard. But thus far, no word on what path component makers will ultimately go towards. Ideally, ASUS' BTF is nicer given the integration of high-power connections directly to the GPU completely eliminating the need for visible cables to the GPU, but it would require more of a shift from GPU makers to integrate the power delivery into the PCB and double up on card variants until it becomes mainstream enough. Also, there's the issue with having to make new risers that accomodate the integrated power too.
With higher-end GPUs, this would mean the connector(s) would hang over the edge of the motherboard, making a rear connection simples. Lian-Li just announced exactly this, running from a USB dongle. It also works with the latest iteration of their Strimer RGB cables.
www.techpowerup.com/323376/lian-li-brings-new-hydroshift-lcd-aio-cooler-new-uni-fan-fans-and-new-strimer-cables-to-computex-2024
Did no one at lian-li ever heard of kiss?