News ROG X670E Crosshair Extreme Rocks All-New Gen 5 M.2 SSD Riser Card

This should be the future moving forward, free up mobo space, add more PCI-E x16 slots (full electrical) and let users customize their storage, sound, and networking peripherals.
 
So a flush M.2 mount with heatsink and small fan was a bad idea?

Yeah, for 4 & more M.2 you'll need to step up the size of the motherboard.

Some next-gen MATX motherboards only have 2 PCIe slots because of flush mount M.2... And yes, the 2x PCIe slots includes the graphics one, so you only get one PCIe slot if you have a dGPU.

And high-end consumer motherboards started to move to E-ATX just 2-3 years ago because of the increased M.2 slots and the extra amount of integrated goodies.

Not to mention the move to ATX12VO were the motherboard will require more space to have the extra voltage conversion.
 
With everything needing risers, substantial power and more extreme cooling, I think the next logical step is to redesign the traditional desktop tower/case.

This didn't need a riser. This could easily be a 16x PCIe card. If it needs more power, an SATA or Molex would be just fine. That's how video cards used to be before they got their own dedicated connectors.

Proprietary interfaces is a huge step in the wrong direction. We buy Asus or others specifically because we don't want Apple.
 
This didn't need a riser. This could easily be a 16x PCIe card. If it needs more power, an SATA or Molex would be just fine. That's how video cards used to be before they got their own dedicated connectors.

Proprietary interfaces is a huge step in the wrong direction. We buy Asus or others specifically because we don't want Apple.

I don't disagree, remember when phones all had different power adapters? That's where we'd be heading with proprietary adapters and cables.

Irregardless, I think it's time that traditional rectangular cases be redesigned and optimized for modern PC components. We are try so hard to optimize PCs cooling in a case design from the 80s. Something less conventional will undoubtedly make cooling easier and more efficient.