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New BTX Form Factor Announced At IDF

Posted by timothy on from the why-does-factor-follow-form dept.

xyote writes "A new motherboard form factor was announced at IDF today. See Google News for various press stories on it (how's that for up to date links?). Also, go here for the actual BTX specs."

7 of 269 comments (clear)

  1. New Form Factor, and Easy to break! by -Grover · · Score: 5, Insightful
    From here
    A new technology available from Intel in mid-2004, will help to simplify home networking by including a wireless access point and router functionality as an embedded feature of the PC to help minimize the need for external equipment or cables to build a small home network.

    Maybe I'm just pessimistic, but does anyone want to take a stab at how long it takes for this to turn into a problem?
    1. Re:New Form Factor, and Easy to break! by -Grover · · Score: 3, Insightful

      My issue is just with this portion
      "to build a small home network"

      I don't know how much work you do for friends/family, but I can forsee this causing alot of problems. People setting up a wireless home network without closing it off properly (which let's face it, is not in Joe User's 1 page install instructions) can be a pretty big problem.

      Broadcasting wireless home network + shared drives - Mac Address Filtering = Bad.

      I know I don't want to clean up that mess, or tell someone "Sorry bub, you got torn into and there isn't anything I can do about it."

  2. On/Off dead, welcome to standby by msgmonkey · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Much like a TV. That's what Intel/MS wants to do, make the PC into a "proper" consumer device.

  3. New shape means a new case. by d60b9y · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Can't read the specs, they seem to be slashdotted, how did that happen... Of course, the main thing that happens when a new form factor comes out is that everybody who wants to upgrade their motherboard needs to upgrade their case as well which means a nice fat pay-cheque for the the beige box builders... That, more than any technical reason, will probably drive the uptake of BTX.

  4. Re:On off button by msgmonkey · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In answer to your question about avoiding rebooting even when the power is down, most likely to be "suspend to disk". Memory contents are copied to a part of the hard disk when you turn "off" and restored if the machine loses power.

    The problem with suspend to disk is that you have to store the "state" of any adapters so that they can be restored too when power is restored. Your add-on adapters need to support this feature otherwise it just wont work, the spec has been out for a while but I'm not sure how well it has been implemented up to now.

  5. What we really need by stratjakt · · Score: 5, Insightful

    is not another desktop form factor.

    This is just a neato way to make your old case and PSU obsolete come next upgrade. Hooray!

    At least BabyAT to ATX made some sense, in that it generally relocated the hotter CPUs next to PSU fans, etc...

    What we need is a common laptop form factor. I want to be able to buy an empty laptop chassis/lcd, my own mobo, drive, etc, etc an put one together... While possible, its a major hoof in the noots right now. I want to build a laptop with a trackball and full sized keyboard and not one of those useless touchpads or thumbsticks. I dont care if it's 8 inches wider than Dells junk.

    Etc etc

    --
    I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
    1. Re:What we really need by Zathrus · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This is just a neato way to make your old case and PSU obsolete come next upgrade. Hooray!

      Glad you RTFA.

      The PS is identical - same connectors (as long as you have the newer PS w/ the 4-pin 12V connector), same lines, etc.

      Doesn't look like the case needs to change either, although I haven't looked into the nitty gritty details of the mounting holes (appear to be the same at first glance) or volumetric zones (which look interesting; my first glance doesn't show any problems with cases that follow the true ATX spec and don't try to provide side vent holes for the CPU).

      At least BabyAT to ATX made some sense, in that it generally relocated the hotter CPUs next to PSU fans, etc...

      The ATX form factor made no sense at all when it was first released. Which is why it was revised quickly to make up for the utterly braindead ideas in it. The original spec called for the power supply to pull air inward and vent onto the CPU. So you had a huge heat source (the PS) sucking in cool air and then blowing the now warmed air onto an even warmer part of the case that desperately needs cooling (the CPU). The ATX 1.03 spec quickly remedied that and reversed the airflow of the PS back outwards.

      Now you "merely" have one huge heat source (the CPU) located right between two other huge heat sources (PS and video). Yeah, that makes "sense".

      Not to mention issues with putting this into a small form factor case where there is inadequate specs on maximum heights for components.

      I won't even touch the laptop suggestion... other posters have done it justice already.