Intel's Long Awaited BTX Form Factor
by Purav Sanghani on November 15, 2004 5:31 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Thermals Micro ATX (uATX)
Our first assumption of miniATX cases was that due to the smaller size, air could be circulated in and out quicker than larger cases with smaller and less fans. We tested our D915GUX ATX motherboard and Pentium 550 CPU in the TT-501 microATX chassis from Opus Technologies. Opus Technologies does not have as many products on its list as other big name manufacturers like Thermaltake or SilverStone, but it does have a few tower cases and power supplies with unique features. We had a chance to look at their titanium plated MT-200 mid tower chassis in April which did not disappoint us with its performance.The TT-501 is also a unique case with various features that take away the blandness we usually find in value prices chassis. It has plenty of room for expansion for its size. With two 3-1/2" drive bays, and two 5-1/4" drive bays as well as an area at the bottom to mount a floppy drive or flash memory card reader it is ready to compete even with some mid tower cases. Things may seem a bit cramped when the case is packed with hardware, though. The TT-501 is about 13" in width by 15" in depth and about 6" in height when laid on its side. Since this is meant to be a mini tower chassis we will stand it upright for our benchmarks.
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The temperatures of the ambient air throughout the TT-501 are generally higher than we had expected them to be. We can see from the overlay that the warmest region of the system is around the CPU, Northbridge, and PCIe VGA card. What we did not expect was how hot these temperatures would be in those areas. Let's see if the temperatures of the components themselves can tell us something more.
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It is obvious the TT-501 is not the best in cooling performance. Though it has two 80mm fans mounted at the back of the case it is not enough to circulate air in and out efficiently. An extra fan on the left side panel of the case may have helped exhaust some of the warm air from various areas.
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L3p3rM355i4h - Thursday, February 10, 2005 - link
Seems to be good for the OEM market, but what about us people who *actually* care about computers? Front exhuaust has to be the stupidest thing ever. Why was it so hard just to reverse the layout, so it would be atleast somewhat compatable with the current ATX standard.And the guy/gal who made up the "ATX II" standard, maybe you should contact AMD or someone. They might be interested.
EthernaL - Friday, May 19, 2006 - link
What if I really LIKE my BIG ATX tower?Maybe I have temperature problems in summer... maybe is not all the efficient that could be but I really love this design and I don't want to move to a small design and I don't want to buy the whole thing again.
Another nice thing with the computers we currently have is the possibility to give our friends/relatives old pieces once we upgrade our computer (my sister's computer is build that way :P )
So, again, another decission based ONLY on money without thinking in what we (the users) want or need. Thanks Intel, I hate you more than ever, and if you 'force us' to move to that technology I hope your business will go bankrupt.
IntelUser2000 - Sunday, November 21, 2004 - link
"From the picture we see the flow of air pushed back through the CPU thermal module towards the Northbridge, Southbridge, and VGA card. As this air flows around the CPU, it warms up, as we can see from the red areas to the left and right of the CPU. This warm air then flows over the Northbridge and seems to cool as it travels further back in the chassis. At the left we see the channel of air flowing to the left over the memory and out through the PSU. The channel on the right flows straight back to the VGA card and out through groups of holes in the back of the case."Well doesn't look like to me that hot air comes out front.
MadAd - Friday, November 19, 2004 - link
One question im having in my mind is how big of a paintbrush will i need to get inbetween those fins - talk about a dust trap.At least a majority of atx heatsink designs have easy to clean fins, and boy do they need cleaning sometimes, this is going to be worse.
Cue the repair calls in years to come, $50 an hour for removing wads of the customers cat/dog/children from around the cooler after the safety backoff system renders the machine temporatily gonadless.
epiv - Thursday, November 18, 2004 - link
Intel can and should make BTX backward and forward compeitable with ATX so we can decide if a new BTX case and PSU is worth the money.I am a poor student and I already spend money on a good case and PSU. My case should be able to handle more heat than a regular BTX case. I really hope I will not have to get a new case and PSU when I upgrade my computer.
trikster2 - Wednesday, November 17, 2004 - link
facts? I actually own the silverstone version of the oppus case, so I am actually speaking from experience. Vertical vs horizontal lowprofile vs full height has a lot to do with heat disapation
Myrandex - Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - link
I wonder how BTX had a NDA because Gateway has been selling BTX computers at best buy for over a month at leastCygni - Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - link
Dont you bring facts into this, Kris! Trikster2 doesnt want any of that!KristopherKubicki - Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - link
trikster2: The Opus case was chosen because it was the same volume as the mBTX case. I don't really see how a mATX tower and an mBTX case are going to differ significantly.Kristopher
ceefka - Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - link
How can this possibly translate into lower cost for end users? Thank you, Intel.I am also disappointed by Intel's approach. Uhm, we have a hot CPU; let's make a cooler case!
Since they invented this in their own backyard without creating a wide support it looks like an ego-trip.