Intel's Long Awaited BTX Form Factor
by Purav Sanghani on November 15, 2004 5:31 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Impact of BTX, Launch Schedule
Today we saw a microBTX board and an innovative AOpen case with all the BTX trimmings, but what did Intel plan in the long run for BTX? Obviously, today is an NDA launch so don't expect BTX motherboards and cases to start filling the shelves at Fry's tommorow. Furthermore, don't expect ATX to suddenly disappear while BTX becomes the new overnight standard stranding us ATXers in an upgrade dead end.According to Intel roadmaps, Intel's desktop motherboard business prospects ATX and BTX boards for H1'05. Glenwood, Intel's Alderwood (925X/E) successor, will feature Intel motherboards designed on ATX, BTX, uATX and uBTX! Keep in mind, this is Intel's motherboard lineup, and traditionally Tier I motherboard manufacturers follow suit very closely, but that doesn't have to be the case. Looking further down the roadmap, we see only ATX/uATX motherboards for the lower performance Lakeport-P chipset, with one uBTX motherboard similar to the one we saw today. Lakeport-G chipsets are not completely planned yet, but the roadmap shows one ATX, one uATX, one uBTX and one pBTX (pico BTX) board on the horizon. You may recall from our Computex 2004 show coverage that the majority of BTX motherboards on display were actually picoBTX motherboards. Given that picoBTX boards are smaller than microATX boards, we would not be too surprised if pBTX builds its own niche very quickly.
However, one thing we haven't touched on with BTX concerns Intel's new "East Fork" push. Anand's
Let us also not forget AMD needs to jump onto the BTX bandwagon in order for case and power supply manufacturers to migrate to the new standard. Power supply manufacturers have it slightly easier; virtually every 24 pin server ATX or BTX capable power supply comes with a 20 pin step down converter. For this corner we can effectively proclaim BTX power supplies backwards compatible with ATX and BTX motherboards.
Case manufacturers have things a little more difficult. Obviously, without AMD's support BTX will not become a universal standard and the burden to manufacturer two different form factors rests on the shoulders of case manufacturers. For larger case manufacturers like AOpen that do a lot of OEM work anyway, this will not be a huge deal. However, don't be surprised if smaller case companies start trending more towards ATX or BTX in a similar manner to small motherboard manufacturers that tend to focus mostly on Intel or AMD motherboards.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
77 Comments
View All Comments
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.