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Intel's BTX Form Factor Launched Today
Hack Jandy writes "It's been almost three years in the making, but Intel's BTX form factor finally has some retail products to show for itself. Anandtech has some extremely thorough benchmarks of the new technology and proves that BTX definitely shows an improvement over ATX for the same sized chassis. Anand claims BTX as a design win, "It's obvious why Intel waited for Monday morning to lift their BTX platform - they have a winner on their hands.""
it may be a non starter judging by this article http://techreport.com/onearticle.x/6809
"I've spoken with several sources here on the show floor from motherboard and enclosure makers who have all said the same thing: the BTX form factor is a non-starter on AMD systems. The problem seems to be the relative CPU and DIMM placement; the standard requires placement of DIMM sockets too far from the processor. With the Athlon 64's integrated memory controller, following the BTX spec becomes very difficult. Of course, BTX is Intel's spec, but it is also a proposed industry standard. Motherboard and enclosure makers are worrying out loud about the inventory control and design problems that may be caused by the extended coexistence of the ATX and BTX standards."
Business Voyeur
Gateway's 7200 line uses BTX.
Judging by this image I'd say no. Looks like the same assortment of little twistyfellas.
that's not ENTIRELY true.
BTX also mandates where the CPU and video card sit so they cool more efficiently.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
For what its worth, the BTX board demoed on anandtech was a microBTX form factor -- which might explain the lack of expansion ports.
Grabbed from Koan Computers: BTX - What is it BTX is the new computer case form factor that is replacing the aging ATX form factor. Some highlights of BTX are: BTX stands for Balanced Technology eXtended. BTX is being developed by Intel but will be supported across all platforms. BTX will initially have 3 sizes - BTX, microBTX and picoBTX. BTX is designed from the ground up with noise reduction in mind. PS2 connectors, Serial Ports, and Parallel Ports - all replaced by USB. PCI Express slots instead of AGP, PCI, or ISA. 20pin power supply will remain compatible with ATX, with the addition of 3.3v connectors for Serial ATA.
AnimeNEXT anime convention
It seems that you can almost get something similar for AMD platforms, and existing Intel ones as well. Some new cases flip the mobo upside down in the case and put it at the top, while moving the power supply to the bottom. Obviously not quite as good as a whole re-design like BTX but it seems to help quite a bit.
see: Lian Li PC-V1000 (I think Anand may have a review too)
Yes, they've fixed this. The light and power wires are now bundled together and have a single plug. This is actually mentioned in the article.
We'll probably have to wait for CTX now to fix it, if at all.
Actually, nope. BTX seems to fix this, the article said this:
We also notice that the front panel connections (power/reset buttons, power/HDD activity lights) are also grouped into a single plug to make things easier.
PCI-X is not the same as PCI-Express (PCIe). I'm pretty sure you mean PCIe.
Dan
It's not about doing Intel's homework, but about a design which explicitly allows to design mainboards for Intel processors (after all, the noted BTX problem isn't that Intel didn't design an AMD mainboard for BTX, but that the spec make it close to impossible to design one). And the point of this is that case manufacturers will more likely want to build cases which work for both, than cases which only work for one of them. Which IMHO would give a form factor which at least allows this a competitive advantage.
Basically the form factor is the interface between case and motherboard. Especially it doesn't completely fix the motherboard layout. It does, however, fix the positioning of those components which interact with the surrounding, like PCI slots, and with BTX now also the CPU (due to cooling). It should certainly not restrict motherboard design choices any more than necessary.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
RTFA says yes, they did. The mishmash of led, powerswitch etc cables has been combined into a single plug.
This is not a sig.
A "legacy" case had all the individual knockouts for ports on the back. The only connector location that was standardized was the location of the AT-keyboard (not PS2!) port.
Surely you can't say that you thought that ATX had no advantages over that!
BTX doesn't require PCIe. I didn't know until today that it requires Intel. I'd be shocked if it didn't also accomodate Athlon somehow.
More advanced cooling is strictly necessary. Computers need to become quieter and more efficient if they are to be sold for use in the living room. And that's needed because everyone already has a computer or two in their "office" room. If you want to sell them more, you have to work around this problem.
It's not really a problem to have an AMD cpu with integrated memory controller in the BTX form factor. The AMD cpu would be located more centered to the board and memory slots while being rotated 45 degrees from the Intel cpu orientation.
The AMD design would still meet all the mechanical requirements of the BTX form factor.
Quidquid latine dictum sit altum viditur
idle and full load system power
A system with Athlon64 3500+ uses 85 watts at idle, others take more power at idle.
...than to judge by pictures. The article says there is a single standard connector on the motherboard to replace the myriad of fiddly little jumper-like 2-pin connectors. BTX case makers must terminate the "assortment of little twistyfellas" to this single, standard connector. This means you no longer must decipher the secret code screen-printed onto the board or refer to the "happy-excellent Engrish manual" to figure out where the plugs go and what the proper polarity is to make the LEDs emit light.
The "twistyfellas" won't likely disappear any time soon because case designers may want to place the LEDs in different areas of the case, but at least they all find their way to a single connector now.
Of course, that would mean that the intake is coming from the nasty dust pile behind the system...could lead to a major buildup inside the case.