Computex 2004: BTX at the Show
by Anand Lal Shimpi on June 2, 2004 7:17 AM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
Remember the 4-pin fan header from before? Here's another pic:
What makes the 4-pin fan headers so interesting? They allow for linear fan speed control. Currently fans can only be adjusted in steps, e.g. running at 800RPM, 1500RPM or 3000RPM. The problem with this situation is that there's an abrupt increase in fan speed and thus fan noise. What these new 4-pin fan headers will allow is a linear increase in fan speed, so the fan speed and noise increases are much more gradual. Unfortunately the fan controllers that will enable this linear functionality are not yet ready and they won't be for another quarter or so.
Taking a page from the BTX spec, Shuttle's 925X system has a thermal module that is used to cool the CPU. We've taken the cover off of the front of the module for better visibility:
Here's where Shuttle's solution differs from BTX; the BTX spec calls for cool air to be brought in from the front of the case to cool the CPU, then flow over the chipset and finally by the GPU before exiting the system. Shuttle rotated the thermal module so that it pulls in cool air from the sides and exhausts it out the opposite side. The downside is that the chipset doesn't get any cool air running over it, but the benefit is that it will reduce the ambient temperature of the case.
Although you still open the chassis using thumbscrews, Shuttle has moved to a screw-less design for the hard drives:
The top of the chassis is big enough to hold two drives, and is wired for SATA power/data cables already; the idea is to use the top bays for RAID, cooled by the two fans we saw earlier. The two plastic rails you see in the picture above snap into either side of a hard drive, then snap into place on the chassis itself. The installation process is quite simple.
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CrystalBay - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link
The shuttles' seem to be the most intrigueing of the bunch.jliechty - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link
Anybody remember WTX? (*crickets chirping*) ... well, I don't suppose many would. Anyway, Intel was behind that also, and heck, some people even _liked_ it - and look where it is(n't) today. I'm not saying that's what will happen to BTX, but I'm certainly not going to be an early adopter here.Dasterdly - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link
BTX is a small step considering how long we've been using ATX (20+ yrs!).There's no cooling at the bottom for the expansion cards and they are still mounted flat, trapping heat under them.
Intel is still fiddling around with this seems like it's not happening.
It's almost time for upgrading for me I dont want to wait another year for BTX and Im not buying another ATX based system.
Cygni - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link
Ive hated BTX since day 1. Its just completly un-needed in my eyes, even for a prescott. I see no reason for BTX to even exist.ZobarStyl - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link
The hate is simple...they want to change everything and the only semi-decent reason they have for it is improved cooling. The idea that all of our mobos and cases will be rendered obsolete by Intel for cooling reasons is frankly quite stupid; the only cases that have real trouble cooling are those lousy Dell/HP boxes that don't even have a single 80mm in them...changing the whole factor to facilitate even crappier designs by OEMs isn't exactly good news to me. Personally I think BTX would be good to implement only in SFF if indeed the cooling is beneficial...since pretty much every SFF case has a custom mobo it wouldn't affect the end user very much. However for those of us who love the ATX cases we plopped down so much money for, we'd like to keep putting new mobos in, thanks but no thanks Intel. Why not champion some effective standard of water cooling if you are worried so much about your flamethrowing Prescotts? Frankly I hope AMD and all the manufacturers completely ignore this and let it die rather than let Intel use its monopoly to push the industry into some silly, unfinished standard.tfranzese - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link
I must agree. Aside from some vague explaining of the BTX delima which has yet to be finalized by Intel there was a lot of good pics in there and descriptions.mcveigh - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link
great pics, clear explanations.....this is why I love Anandtech :)tfranzese - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link
I wish you guys did more investigating. The Inquirer gives much more reason for the hate behind BTX.http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=16294