You'll note that the newer hard drives have surface mount connectors for the
power and signal cables.  It has been my experience that these are durbale and
reliable despite only being supported by the board, but they *look* fragile, and
I'm always afraid that the insertion or removal may cause enough stress to
fracture something.  So from a consumer standpoint, I know I would probably lean
towards a product that looks and feels sturdy rather than one that does not.

But it really does depend on the connector.  Obviously the force needed to
insert and remove a connector will generally be less than the force needed to
break the solder joints holding the connector to the board, however, is that
still going to be less than the stress needed to fracture the board or any
traces on it, or flex it enough to pop some other items off the board?  You can
always get surface mount connectors which have levers for removing the
connector, such as the DIMM memory modules for the newer motherboards.

In other words, we can't give you a good idea until you give us more detail.
What kind of board is it (multilayer, single, double sided, etc) and what kind
of connections must you provide (number of connections, amperage, etc)

-Adam

Anne Ogborn wrote:
>
> ok - I've gotten my board down to where
> I can make it totally surface mount if not
> for the connectors. The manufacturer is
> encouraging me to bite the bullet and
> use through hole connectors.
>
> What's people's experience with SMT connectors?
>
> --
> Anniepoo
> Need loco motors?
> http://www.idiom.com/~anniepoo/depot/motors.html