Embodiments disclosed herein include a printed circuit board (PCB) with a non-uniform thickness and methods of fabricating such PCBs. In an embodiment, the PCB comprises a connector region with a top surface and a bottom surface, and a component region with a top surface and a bottom surface. In an embodiment, the bottom surface of the connector region is coplanar with the bottom surface of the component region. In an embodiment the top surface of the connector region is not coplanar with the top surface of the component region.