Installing an NVME SSD drive will get a lot easier on Asus’s newest motherboards. The company is killing off the tiny screws needed to bolt the storage drives to the M.2 slot.
Instead, Asus has a new “Q-Latch” system, which can lock the NVME SSD drive in place with a twist of your hand; no screwdriver needed. The vendor provided a glimpse of it on Monday in a video on social media.
It’s a simple but welcome change. An NVMe SSD drive is a must if you want to super-charge your PC’s storage speeds, but they can be annoying to install due to those tiny screws.
The screws often fall out of place, and then roll into some crevice in your motherboard or PC case. It’s also easy to lose the remaining screws and standoffs, which can prevent you from installing another NVME SSD drive until you find them or buy a replacement.
Asus decided to fix the situation with the new latch system, which is also built directly on the motherboard, removing the need to store any remaining tiny screws. That said, the latches seem to be made out of plastic, so we aren’t sure how durable they are. But the approach promises to simplify the installation process.
The company plans on using the latch system on the upcoming Z590 motherboards for Intel’s 11th-generation “Rocket Lake” Core CPUs, which are expected to arrive next month.
Reddit users are pointing out other latch systems have been in use for NVME SSDs, but only for enterprise systems. Why motherboard makers didn’t bring this idea to consumer devices sooner, we don’t know. But we hope other vendors jump on board.
