AMD's DTX Form Factor: Smaller PCs for Everyone?
by Anand Lal Shimpi on October 22, 2007 1:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
The Reference Platform
Why are we even talking about DTX today? AMD sent us its first DTX reference platform, showing us that actual progress had been made on the standard since its announcement at CES in 2007.
The system uses a reference AMD 690G DTX motherboard, AMD Athlon X2 BE-2350 (45W Athlon 64 X2 running at 2.1GHz), 1GB of DDR2 memory, with a standard 3.5" hard drive, slim form factor DVD drive and a 250W power supply.
The system itself is quite compact, albeit not particularly stylish. It works and we already know how the Athlon X2 BE-2350 performs so there are no complaints there.
With a power supply fan and CPU fan running, it's reasonably quiet but obviously not silent. AMD mentioned that the prototype chassis we received was missing a vent over the power supply and thus would be louder than normal. We noticed that during usage the fans spun up to a level too high for use in a quiet HTPC environment. AMD cautioned us against drawing any conclusions based on this prototype's performance, and we tend to agree (although that does mean that the reference design is good for little more than some nice pictures).
The removable flap covers the DVD drive, but isn't hinged, it just comes off...thankfully this is a prototype
A micro ATX motherboard (left) vs. DTX platform (right)
Obviously the performance of the reference design doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things, it's really a question of how well the designs that hit the market in the future fare.
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kyp275 - Monday, October 22, 2007 - link
In that case, I do agree with you. Miniaturization will happen, but unless there's a large market demand for it, it's not going to happen fast.and ultimately price is a big factor, and that's where the chicken-or-egg lies: price won't come down until there's a wide adaptation of the standard, but said adaptation won't happen 'til the price comes down.
IMO in this particular case it requires a whole lot of manufacturers taking the plunge together across multiple devices and standards, and I don't see that happening any time soon, if ever.
sprockkets - Tuesday, October 23, 2007 - link
I'm looking forward to having the first SSD built on the motherboard, say 16GB for the OS. Making a diskless system will be way easier.chrispyski - Monday, October 22, 2007 - link
Yup, thats precisely where the problem with BTX & DTX lies. If your gonna do some heavy gaming and need upgradability, then you have to go with ATX or at least mATX. But if all you want to do is some word processing and web, then laptops become more prevalent for their small size.DTX will have some hills to climb, no doubt. But eventually this could become a very good HTPC platform.
themadmilkman - Monday, October 22, 2007 - link
I was about to say the same thing. For a general use PC, ie email, web surfing, maybe the occasional flash-based game, a tiny PC like that makes perfect sense. But for people who jam 2 video cards, a sound card, RAID, etc., into a case space becomes a priority fast.Bluestealth - Monday, October 22, 2007 - link
Its it really necessary?There is also flexATX(Part of the mATX spec) which is almost as small as mini-DTX, and that isn't doing so great.
I feel that AMD is trying to solve a problem that isn't there.
Most of the users looking for smaller systems than pico-btx are businesses wanting to deploy terminals. For that use, mini-ITX is big enough.
sprockkets - Monday, October 22, 2007 - link
Would have built a BTX system using a pico or whatever the small form factor board is. But, try looking for such a case. There are none, with only one motherboard from Intel.Had Intel not been an ass and flipped all the slots around, and had the same setup of the fan and the same arrangement of the processor and such exhaust through the back, more people may have liked it. All that hot air that comes out of that duct system of theirs just went into the case, only to be exhausted by the power supply.
OEMs built systems around BTX because, "Well, it came out from Intel, and since they are the leader, we have to use it and market it as a feature." Then they said how it makes the system quieter. Hmmm..., OEMs had problems with this since when? They custom make all there stuff.
In any case, for the prototype case, when you say there was a vent missing from the power supply, can you say where? In the picture covering the system, is that also where it intakes air? Can't see any holes for the CPU fan.
Wonder if they should not have used a Shuttle XPC format instead of this one, still using a laptop cd drive to decrease size.
Shame also too there are no laptop cd drives yet that use SATA.
madgegafford1 - Friday, July 8, 2016 - link
Thoughtful writing . I was fascinated by the analysis ! Does someone know where my assistant could possibly grab a blank a form example to work with ?