Cooler Master on Thursday announced a handy adapter that has the potential to make cable management a little easier on some builds. It's a simple thing—a 90-degree adapter for the main 24-pin ATX connector—and in my opinion it should be a standard feature of all power supplies.
It's not a standard inclusion, which means you have to plug the main ATX connector straight into the 24-pin connector on your motherboard and then bend the protruding cables to wherever you want them to go. For a clean layout, this often means into a cutout directly behind or near the connector so you can route the cables behind the motherboard tray.
Cooler Master's adapter offers a flatter, cleaner alternative. Have a look:
It's the same concept as right-angle SATA plugs, which made more sense when SATA connectors typically faced upward (unlike as shown in the picture above). Main ATX power connectors are too big and unwieldy to face outward as most SATA connectors do nowadays.
Cooler Master is not the first to think up a right-angle 24-pin PSU cable adapter. You can find generic ones on places like Amazon and MNPCTech for around $10. If you want a name brand adapter, though, Cooler Master is the only one I'm aware of that exists at the moment.
In addition to the standard adapter, Cooler Master is offering a version with built-in capacitors, though it's upfront about it being a "negligible" difference.
"The basic version is just the adapter. It’s plug and play and ready to be added to a system out of the box. The higher end version, which is also plug and play, comes with built in capacitors to ensure stable output. While the effects of this accessory on stability and efficiency are negligible, any added obstacle between the original power source and output destination can have some level of effect on the power supply unit’s overall performance. To combat these negative effects, Cooler Master has created a special version with extra capacitors built into the adapter to safeguard against any performance loss," Cooler Master says.
You can find the basic version selling for €14.95 and the higher-end version for €19.95 at Cooler Master's web store in Europe. They're not yet available in the company's US web store, but should be soon.
Now if only someone would do the same for the EPS12V connectors that sit in the top-left corner of most motherboards. Getting cables connected to those can be far more difficult than the main 24-pin connector. Especially when some modern boards need not one but two EPS12V connections! Case in point:
