Electronics Is there demand for ultra-short SATA cable?

As part of the effort to solve heat dissipation problems in our Pico-ITX solution, we are trying to make the internal cables shorter.

All the cables except the SATA data cable can be re-done quite cheaply, but the SATA cable requires a special mold so it's very expensive. Since it's not feasible to invest such amount of money just for 100 pieces, we were wondering whether there is interest in purchasing such cable separately, for your own mods / projects?

This SATA cable is very special - the length is just 35mm (1.37"), the connectors are 90 degrees from both sides and they face each other, so if you rotate the cable 180 degrees, it will look exactly the same (other cables are normally mirrored so if you rotate them, they will look the opposite side).

 

i think the length is good, however having two 90 degree connectors will probably make it less desirable for individual sale, as depending on sata port location on the motherboard the right angle may make it impossible to connect more than one device.
the straight low profile latching connectors with a thinner flat cable might be a good alternative if you want a wider compatibility besides just with your boards / cases.

 

Thanks for the kind feedback! The reason for 90-degrees connectors on both sides is because there is not enough space in the chassis for straight connectors We had to make the chassis exactly 120mm long if we wanted to use our idea of replaceable rear PCI brackets (the PCI bracket length is 120mm) Since the motherboard is 100mm long and the inside of the chassis is therefore around 116mm, we only have about 16mm space from the end of the motherboard till the chassis inside wall, so straight SATA connector just does not fit there

Why both connectors face each other is because we install the hard disk BELOW the motherboard (unlike the majority of Mini-ITX builds where the hard disk is installed above the motherboard). This is because we do not have space above the motherboard since the CPU/chipset heatsink is there. And why the cable itself is round is because you cannot make both sides connectors face each other with flat cable (because otherwise wire 1 will become wire 7, wire 2 will become wire 6 etc. and the cable will just not work or worse even, burn your hard disk/motherboard down )

In the end I decided we will take the cost and order such cables so that our solution buyers enjoy them, even if we lose money on this cable. Maybe some people will become interested in this cable later, or maybe we will come up with more solutions that can use this cable.

 

I've had to mod my own frickin' cables in the past, which is a complete pain in the arse and involves a scalpel, a heat gun, a glue gun, heatshrink and leaves you with a cable that's short but can't be bent properly. If you were selling them, I would buy them, but my demand is pretty small...

 

This is exactly the reason why I want them to be made in the factory. Too expensive, too slow and unsatisfying quality to do it myself (remember I need to make 100+ and not 1 )

I will sell them of course, but only exactly as shown on the photo above. It means your hard disk has probably to be installed below the motherboard. Is this something you would be interested in?

 

I can understand the need for the plugs, one mould is cheaper than several, but do they have to be 35mm long? I personally would order a number of them for present and future builds, depending on the cost.

 

I guess the length can be any size. We need it to be 35mm for our Pico-ITX chassis, but any longer is also fine. What would be your preferred length?

Regarding the price, I think it's $1-$1.50 USA a piece. Does it sound fair to you?

 

Yes. But I need to read all of a post before replying! Didn't realise you were in Israel..
Factor in the cost of shipping, and I suspect the price would probably double? Also, being in the UK, I work in sterling?

 

We pay to our factory in USD so this is the currency we normally quote. 1.5$ is around 0.9 Pound today? Shipping is around $5 for any weight till 200 gram (I still need to check it to be sure, but this is more or less the cost). So order 10 cables, and it's yours for 12 Pound including shipping.

 

That sounds interesting. Don't have any small builds planed right now but for future reference I was thinking of having like a small AMD Atom computer with a touch display in every room, to control lights and media centre if that room have one, in the apartment I plan to buy next year. Strangely enough with the interest and monthly fee the total monthly cost is actually cheaper then renting here in Stockholm So my parents have agreed to help me get a loan to buy if I make it to Uni as a incentive for me to finish my pre uni studies.
Then this kind of cable would be perfect for me since having hard drive behind the motherboard would be perfect
How much would it be in Euros or Swedish SEK for like 10 of them to ship to Sweden?

 

AMD Atom sounds nice I want one too

Around 14 Euro including shipping for 10 cables, but you need to decide on the cable length first. I will be doing 35mm for myself but I imagine people here would need longer cables.

 

You can get a very similar cable from Xbox 360's, used for the optical drive. Not sure how close the dimensions are though, but it's tiny!

 

7cm (2.75") between the connectors.

 

That's too long for our case actually twice as long

 

Ahh thought all was the same length since you where going to get a batch of 100 of them. Well then it got trickier Don't know exactly what lengths I would need but for having a hard drive just behind the motherboard more them 35mm would probably not be needed but perhaps half 35mm and 5 50mm so you could if you wanted to have 2 on top of each others under the motherboard or something. Maybe it would be enough with just 45mm even but might be tricky to mount them properly then so 50mm would probably be better. You could have one SSD main and another 2,5" HDD as memory drive or something similar. 14 € is nothing at all so that's a very good price


Hmm just comparing the picture to the connectors on my motherboard and if the picture you posted exactly like the finished product the disk will go above the motherboard. At least if you have the connectors facing sideways like I have. Or my board have flipped the connectors upside down then other manufacturers. (Have a Asus M3A32-MVP board atm)

 

LOL if we would have to order only 100, I wouldn't even bother to ask here We need between 100 to 500 ourselves, but we have to order 10,000 in order to get them done This is mainly why I was asking here if we can sell some of the excess cables we have to make.

I think 50mm sounds fine. So we can make like 1000 pieces of each: 35mm, 50mm, 65mm, etc.

This is our own cost - we just want to share our excess cables since we do not need that much.

Yes, the photo was from a real cable, and yes, it seems that in your board the cable will go up so you are lucky But boards like yours are more an exception than a rule - for the majority of the boards the cable will go down.

 

Ok then I misinterpreted That's a little bit different then Then I might even take some extra just in case I would need one later on I doubt I can find them any much cheaper then this. Was settling for 10 since I thought you where only selling 100 Just so that others could get too. Then maybe 5 of each perhaps maybe a few more depending on my economy when you start selling and shipping them out

Hmm thought there were a standard on how the connectors are supposed to sit but I guess I was wrong on that It should be though. Well I hope the Atom or whatever platform I choose to build my small computers have the connectors the right way

 

As we have to order all the 10000 cables together, you and other interested have first to decide what sizes you want, and only then we will order. So far you haven't made up your mind yet

The standard is only the SATA connector itself. There is no standard for the way the connector has to be aligned on the motherboard. It can be vertical, horizontal, at the board side, and anything else.

 

Said 5 of each on the length you mentioned 35, 50 and 65mm Though if I get my student loan approved I will buy 10 of each. Will get answer about that in end of April.

 

It's OK - no rush I don't think we will order before the end of April.