Balanced Technology eXtended (BTX) Form Factor - The Future of Cases & Motherboards
by Anand Lal Shimpi on September 18, 2003 12:34 PM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Three different BTX sizes
Much like the multiple sizes of ATX (micro, flex, etc...), the BTX form factor allows for multiple versions of the form factor. In terms of motherboard sizes, there are three types: picoBTX, microBTX and regular BTX.
Although the board pictures below are obviously not to scale (the BTX board is clearly larger than the picoBTX board), the idea is to show you the difference in expansion slots between the boards.
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8.0" x 10.5" |
up to 10.4" x 10.5" |
up to 12.8" x 10.5" |
The picoBTX standard can support either one or two expansion slots and has four mounting holes. PicoBTX cases will probably have one 3.5" and one 5.25" drive bay.
The microBTX standard, which most are expecting to be the more popular of the three, has support for four expansion slots and has seven mounting holes. MicroBTX cases will feature one 3.5" bay and up to two 5.25" bays.
Finally we have the regular sized BTX, supporting up to a full 7 expansion slots and mounts to the case using 10 mounting screws. Regular BTX cases will be more like the mid-tower ATX cases we have today, supporting 3+ 3.5" bays and 3+ 5.25" bays.
The BTX standard allows for two case heights - Type I and Type II. Type I cases are 3.98" in height and can use normal expansion cards, while Type II cases are for small form factor designs and are 3.0" in height. Expansion cards would either use risers or be low profile in a Type II case.
The rear of a microBTX case, you can see the circular heatsink in the thermal module.
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Anonymous User - Friday, September 19, 2003 - link
Would it not be easier to pull the air into the case over the cpu front he side of the case via a funal? This is exaclty what some case manufacturs are doing for the current micro ATX cases.Anonymous User - Friday, September 19, 2003 - link
What about HARD DRIVES??? Where the heck are they going to fit 4 HDD and a couple DVD/CD drives? In that little tiny space labeled "drives"?!?! And what about keeping them cool?? They are going to cook!
Anonymous User - Thursday, September 18, 2003 - link
Bad idea.Like eating baked beans on a bus trip!
Anonymous User - Thursday, September 18, 2003 - link
This is #31 again.Is it me or are the dimensions of the microBTX case shown at the bottom of page 5 comparable to a regular ATX case, as far as height and width? Using the dimensions of the microBTX board shown on page 3, rotated and stretched to fit the mounting holes, I appears the case on page 5 appears to be 24" x 15". That doesn't seem very "micro" compared to exisiting mATX cases. That's about the same height and slightly shorter width as my current ATX tower. I guess that's why Intel thinks that the microBTX format will be the most popular, although only 4 expansion slots would suck.
#33, I'm assuming that a full BTX case (unlike the microBTX case shown in the photos) would allow for more drives at the top. Additionally, it might be possible to mount a hard drive cage behind the PCI slots at the bottom of the case, just like on some ATX cases.
Anonymous User - Thursday, September 18, 2003 - link
all i can say about the btx case is..um.. WHERE do the hdds go ??
doesn't seem there is even a spot to put them to me, and the btx case seem to be a tadd small, i have 3 cdrom drives and 6 ( yes i typed 6 ) hdds in my inwill q500 case.. with the BTX case.. WHERE i'm i going to put these ???
the ps2 ports should stay for a while longer, a buch of friends just upgraded their comps, some even got new keyboards and mice, while most of the mice are usb ( see logitechs Mx500) i don't think any of them bout usb capable keyboards, the serial and printer ports can go, p2s ports should stay, maybe update them and take them off the isa bus, or give them a direct connection to the southbridge
Anonymous User - Thursday, September 18, 2003 - link
As the owner of an ibm 300pl model 6862 I say,DUH, this is just a reversed NLX. What a bunch of
@#$%^&*. The industry losers are trying to get us to shell out more money because they don't have any real performance gains and nothing very exciting to offer.
Anonymous User - Thursday, September 18, 2003 - link
#29, this is just a mirror image of the old ATX boards, except the CPU and memory have switched places. If you look at the microBTX picture at the top of page 3, rotate it 90 degrees clockwise, and superimpose it on the photo at the bottom of page 5, you'll see that BTX is almost exactly a mirror image of ATX.As far as the rest of the comments people have made, I strongly agree that there should be a front panel connection for at least the basic switches and LEDs (power, reset, HDD). I hate having to plugin all those stupid little connectors.
As far as legacy-free goes, it's about damn time. Good riddance to PS/2, serial, and parallel (hopefully eventually floppy too). USB mice and keyboards are dirt cheap and most printers have been USB for years. USB keys are better than floppies and newer mothrboards cna boot from them just like floppies. The reason the Abit MAX series is so expensive is because they cram a lot of features into them and engineer them well, not because they are legacy-free. If someone made a basic board without all the legacy ports, it probably would be cheaper (at least for them to make, passing on those savings to the consumer is another story). To these legacy connectors, I say don't let the door hit you on the way out!
Anonymous User - Thursday, September 18, 2003 - link
1) At least standardize the lead from the front panel array. Ya know, have a lead for lcd, power, reset, etc.. like a mini-ide cable comming off the motherboard. Let the case makers then make the matching connectors on their end.2) Re-survey the computing market. I highly doubt there is a huge market for small ugly quiet pc's. But who knows? Personally, I'd prefer a even bigger pc than what I have today, with much more room for stuff. Like 4 hard drives and a few cd and dvd recorders. Plus maybe a TV and radio tuner..etc..
sandorski - Thursday, September 18, 2003 - link
I'm confused as all hell. Is this just the mirror image of ATX or do the card slots go ontop and the cpu on the bottom like the graphic(unlike the pics of the cases)suggests? Were the cases upside down?Anonymous User - Thursday, September 18, 2003 - link
The Intel or Andantech guys must've just gotten drunk and built their own prototype case backwards!!As long as the form factor for the P9 P10 ATX plug onto the motherboard doesn't change we can still use flex or 1U power supplies to plug into these drunk engineering boards. There is this thing you call "backwards compatible" please someone that made up this idea read up on it.