Intel's Long Awaited BTX Form Factor
by Purav Sanghani on November 15, 2004 5:31 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Final Thoughts
Instead of an overnight switch akin to what we saw from Intel during the transition from 865 to 915, the move from ATX to BTX will be more of a slow gentle transition. We saw some exciting things in the AOpen/Intel combination today; smaller power supply, no dead heat spots (places in the case that air hangs around with no where to go) and smaller design. Although there are certainly advantages in BTX, no one would realistically expect Intel to force the new form factor down our throats. As Anand mentioned several months ago, "Switching CPU sockets is one thing, but force people to buy all new cases, power supplies and motherboards and you're bound to get some negative response." In the lab, some of us were fairly divided on BTX in general; Anand and I had spent the majority of dinners over the last year debating where the technology fit. When Intel sent us a microBTX board rather than a standard BTX design we were extremely hesitant on what we were ultimately proving here with this analysis.Years of planning, marketing and finally deployment have lead up to today's official release of Intel's first BTX product. Although the BTX solution we looked at today performed poorer than a full ATX desktop, we need to put things in perspective. Our microBTX case and motherboard ran a 3.4GHz Pentium 4 significantly cooler than a microATX case with the same volume, even though the microATX setup had an additional fan. The noise benchmarks further tip the scales in BTX's favor. How is Intel doing it? Aligning the core components into a strict path for airflow to follow while using a slower 120mm fan to "push" air. The internal wiring is reduced in favor of a single 24-pin adaptor, thing SATA cables are used instead of fat PATA ones; things inside the case are just less cluttered.
With the flurry of SFF computers over the last few years, we know smaller computing platforms are necessary. When we saw Shuttle, IWill and FIC designing their own small form factors to produce smaller and smaller desktop PCs, the results become obvious that an industry standard design was long over due. The original goals of BTX have always been to decrease the form factor size and progressively reduce the size of desktop computers in general. MicroBTX isn't the ground floor of the BTX standard, PicoBTX - even smaller than MicroBTX - was planned in the original design of the BTX spec. When we see BTX mature a little more, letting Shuttle or FIC run with the PicoBTX blueprint might really show us some revolutionary computing.
To succinctly put it, the BTX approach to a case/motherboard design is an approach in efficiency. As we saw in our uBTX measurements, there were virtually no dead spots in the case, and these results were obtained with fewer fans. The much larger ATX chassis with several additional fans (including a dedicated CPU heatsink fan) ran cooler, but we could see unused portions of the case. The ATX case used more space and ran louder. Don't forget that additional non-redundant fans increase the failure rate of a computer as well - more moving parts. Now back to the question as to why Intel sent us a microBTX design rather than a full ATX setup. Thermals and noise tests today showed us that a first generation microBTX setup ran slightly hotter - although not as hot as a standard microATX case - while reducing size, fans and noise. This is significant as we will undoubtedly see cases and motherboards moving to smaller designs. Many of us were skeptical for a long time, but after seeing the numbers and realizing Intel's long term plan to reduce the PC footprint, and not just on the OEM side, we can conclude that BTX is not hype. It's obvious why Intel waited for Monday morning to lift their BTX platform - they have a winner on their hands.
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HardwareD00d - Monday, November 15, 2004 - link
Instead of spending all the money to research BTX, Intel should have just made watercooling standard on the Prescott CPU. Apple could have said they stole the idea from them like everything else ;)Omega215D - Monday, November 15, 2004 - link
It looks like Intel needs all the cooling it can get. I found an interesting article at Toms Hardware and here;s the closer about its heat problem "So, should a vendor release a product that is only able to run at its maximum performance under special circumstances? The fastest processors certainly are very exclusive devices, but that should not cause more troubles than necessary. The customer wants products that simply work! Think about that before releasing faster products, Intel." All I can say is wow, because I can remember my P3 866 didn't need all that cooling though now I moved on to AMD.HardwareD00d - Monday, November 15, 2004 - link
It sounds like you can essentially get the same thermal performance from an ATX case by adding 1 additional case fan.At least Intel has decided not to push this new form factor down peoples throats. Honestly, that's what I figured they'd try to do.
Gatak - Monday, November 15, 2004 - link
To have the powersupply and drive bays at the bottom is a good thing. It will keep the temperature more balanced inside the case and also provide more room at the top for cards and for exhaust fans, rather than craming everything up there.Pythias - Monday, November 15, 2004 - link
ROFL #6!!Ecmaster76 - Monday, November 15, 2004 - link
If a retail board showed up to a review with that horrible a component layout, it would be figuratively flogged.I find that the review was somewhat flawed since it failed to see what would happen with a discrete graphics card in the box. If one was used, I didn't spot it in the screenshot of the full ATX or uBTX screeshots, and it wasn't mentioned in the text.
Finally it should be mentioned that many people have theorized that the BTX layout would not work well for the Athlon64's onboard memory controller because of issues with trace layout. I'm no expert, but it does look like it might get a little tight.
ksherman - Monday, November 15, 2004 - link
"Anand's *vacation* work trip to Taipei..."Probably one of the funniest things i have read in one of your reviews.... ;)
raskren - Monday, November 15, 2004 - link
As always, so much Intel backlash, simply because, its Intel.This is how cases should have been done originally. Align all the hot components and put a fan in front and behind them. Makes sense, right?
Current ATX design is "put a fan on every hot item you have". At least that's how my case is.
LoneWolf15 - Monday, November 15, 2004 - link
To me, BTX looks like a winner for only one niche: small form factor business desktops. By that definition, I don't include Shuttle's wonderful SFF PC's which work best for home and HTPC enthusiasts. The microBTX form factor looks great for an office environment where quiet operation is a real plus, as well as power consumption, and since business PC's don't need to be cutting-edge, middle-end processors can be used that don't generate a lot of heat.Tor the enthusiast however, BTX looks like a bust to me, more of an attempt by Intel to throw the market out of whack, specifically AMD's market. Enthusiasts already have case designs meant to exhaust a lot of air and keep systems cool. Many enthusiasts LIKE a little bit larger case so that they have more expansion room, with the exception of their HTPC, and so that they can house a decent power supply for that expansion.
I see HP, Compaq, IBM, and other mainstream business computing giants adopting BTX; it will probably do well in the business market as well as in mass retail, where OEMs would rather make a system with less fans to fail and at cheaper cost. That's a pretty big sector for profit of course, but this form factor, IMO, leaves PC enthusiasts out in the cold.
Beenthere - Monday, November 15, 2004 - link
BTX is obviously NOT a great design. Intel changes sockets, Mobo and other specs periodically to FORCE people to update to their latest crap. Don't expect a rush to BTX. It's another Intel spec unlikely to ever gain foothold...For those who don't already know you can do wonders for ATX case cooling with "managed airflow". By actually directing incoming cool air to the heat sources and isolating the CPU fan from warm air in the case, no one really needs a BTX case and your PC will run much cooler with managed airflow.
While Intel definitely needs a tornado inside a box to cool their defective 90 nano CPUs, the BTX standard is just another Intel marketing scam for all practical purposes.
Just say NO !