Intel's Long Awaited BTX Form Factor
by Purav Sanghani on November 15, 2004 5:31 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Noise Testing ATX, BTX
Besides the thermal advantages Intel claims BTX to have over ATX, Intel also states that BTX systems will produce much lower sound levels then ATX systems. We can see this as being true since our BTX evaluation kit includes the AOpen B300 which has zero case fans. The only cooling equipment in this BTX system is the thermal module which adjusts its speed according to the overall temperature of the system and the power supply. In turn, the only hardware producing any sound in the system would be the thermal module and the power supply.As we measured the sound levels of the AOpen B300, we noticed that as the Pentium 550's temperature rose from 62 to 63 degrees, the fan speed increased from 1400rpm to 1700 rpm. We realized that the heat sink fan was overcompensating for the increase of 1 degree to bring the temperature back down to a stable level.
We see that the uBTX AOpen B300 combined with Intel's thermal module and FSP power supply produced an extremely quiet 41dB of sound compared to the ATX D.Vine 5 and uATX TT-501. The D.Vine 5 had dual 60mm fans at the back while the TT-501 actually had two 80mm fans at its rear that produced the extra 9-10dB along with the CPU heatsink fans and power supplies.
The low sound levels of the BTX system came at a price of slightly higher temperatures through the case. Is the point of BTX to eliminate case fans entirely or just reduce them to keep a positive balance between thermal and sound levels? If a 80mm or even a 60mm fan is placed at the back of the chassis directly in line with the CPU thermal module, the air flow will be increased having a greater cooling effect on the components while still keeping sound levels to a minimum.
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stephenbrooks - Monday, November 15, 2004 - link
Do you think if you connect the power to the fans the other way around you can get air to flow in from the front and come out of the back instead?SolarWind - Monday, November 15, 2004 - link
Actually, I like how they moved the processor towards the front of the case. This way the processor isn't in the path of hot air rising from the video card.Also, having the video card flipped over means that high performance heat sinks on the video card won't block a PCI/PCI Express slot.
DeeTees - Monday, November 15, 2004 - link
Your right, I would have sworn that I saw that mess inside of a Packard-Bell. At least they have not yet started using custom fasteners that you need a special tool to replace or upgrade components. (?)quanta - Monday, November 15, 2004 - link
BTX may deliver overall cooler temperature per volume of space, but what about all the hot air that was used to cool the CPU? Wouldn't the hot exhaust cook the video card and bridge controller, limiting overclocking potentials? Temperature aside, having air intake in front of the case reduces usable drive spaces that would be used for fan controllers. If I were designing BTX, I would put CPU on top corner, and a curved 'casing' that would route exhaust to top blowhole.PuravSanghani - Monday, November 15, 2004 - link
#42: Actually it us just these micrBTX cases that do not have rear exhausts...so far. We may see case manufacturers employing case fans as soon as BTX becomes a mainstream form factor.At Computex this past year, we did see some companies like Enlight (http://www.anandtech.com/casecooling/showdoc.aspx?... show off some mid tower cases which did have room to add extra case fans. We still have a lot to look forward to concerning the new form factor.
skunkbuster - Monday, November 15, 2004 - link
it would have been nice to have a rear exhaust...bob661 - Monday, November 15, 2004 - link
Man those P4's sure do run hot. 63C WITH the BTX case. My A64 runs at 36C inside the ancient ATX case. I'm still running the OEM CPU cooler and oh about 6 case fans. :-)Cygni - Monday, November 15, 2004 - link
Looks like BTX is going to work out for Dell and HP... but I dont think its going to have much effect for the enthusiast and self built markets. Seems to me that its going to be at its best in mBTX situations, but full BTX seems ho-hum. I guess its just more crap i gotta buy next time i upgrade. BTX mobo, BTX case, DDR2, SATA HD, PCI-Ex video card, new CPU... they really havent left anything for me to KEEP during a P4 to P4 upgrade. Me no likey.vedin - Monday, November 15, 2004 - link
Where am I supposed to put a window and neon light in that case? Hmm?Spinne - Monday, November 15, 2004 - link
I don't see what the problem is with BTX cases. The design layout, atleast for Intel processors makes a lot of sense as far as thermal regulation goes. Channeled airflow on ATX cases is a niche market, and the fact that there are no standards means that you can't be assured of compatibilty across motherboard solutions. You really don't want to have spent money on a new mobo and case only to find that a lousy capacitor prevents you from using channeled airflow. Also, there's no reason why a manufacturer can't place additional fans in a BTX case to cool the case further. Remember, cases are not upgraded as regularly as the actual hardware, so one always has the option of moving to BTX at one's lesuire. I dunno about you guys, but I live in a college dorm, and the smaller my case footprint is, the happier I am, especially if it's a full form-factor case.