Computex 2004: BTX at the Show
by Anand Lal Shimpi on June 2, 2004 7:17 AM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
Shuttle also had a 915 SFF on display, although this one used their current modified ATX form factor:
The brushed black aluminum front panel was a bit more classy than the shiny black face of the 925X unit.
The SFF itself uses a 90mm fan to keep those Prescotts cool. You can see the fan compared to the older 80mm unit below:
Larger fans: Shuttle's 915 system (right) employs a larger 90mm fan as you can see above
In order to keep Prescott cool Shuttle also significantly improved the efficiency of their heatpipe cooler:
The unit you see here is even more efficient than the one in the 925X platform, it's most likely the highest efficiency heatpipe that Shuttle will ever build without changing designs.
28 Comments
View All Comments
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