Not sure why you'd want the SATA ports at 90 degrees to the board (if I'm reading this right) - there's potential for them to block expansion cards and it makes cable management much more difficult. I guess it depends on your case to a certain extent but I've never felt the need to remove a board from a case to insert SATA cables into a board with "front-facing" or right angled ports, whatever it's easiest to call them.
My motherboard has the SATA ports sideways on the motherboard; that is, when the board is laid flat, the ports are horizontal on the side. I think this is the newer convention compared to the older approach where the ports are facing upwards straight out from the board.
In my case, (pun intended) there is barely enough clearance to plug them in at all, thanks to the drive cage. I suspect the case was not designed with this convention in mind. Many newer cases are, thankfully, and leave some clearance where those side-out SATA connectors usually are.