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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.""
However time may prove me wrong on this (hell, I backed Beta vs VHS).
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
there have been few pictures of standard btx boards, if you compare the micro-BTX boards that have been shown to micro-atx the slots are the same (2 memory maybe 2-3 expansion slots) i've actually been able to see a gigabyte BTX system in action with a standard btx board in it, it actually had 4 memory slots, and a PCI-X 16 and 4 PCI-X slots, as well as 2 traditional pci slots. for a grand total of 7 slots... at least iirc... its been a few months. I was worried about it too, until I talked to the gigabyte rep about btx.
Seems like the story is confusing the benchmarks on the 3.8G P4 570J that are linked at the beginning of the BTX review with the BTX review itself.
The BTX is just a PC form factor - it may help your PC run a bit cooler, but it won't make it any faster.
Not only that, but this would have been the best time to introduce a change like that... a whole new formfactor means all new chassis design, just like it means all new motherboard design. There would be no compatibility headaches as long as it was part of the spec.
We'll probably have to wait for CTX now to fix it, if at all. And then, they'd get sued by the folks who've been calling themselves CTX for years and making monitors and OEM systems.
BTX doesn't look like it allows for multi-processor boards. Is intel pusing towards a world where SMP is via multi-core CPUs only?
On purpose or not, it seems pretty short-sighted. What happens when Intel wants the advantages of an integrated memory controller?
Then again, they can just change the spec again and make more money off new boards and chipsets. Ahh, well.
To call this design conservative would be a great insult. There is hardly anything new, nor interesting coming from Intel.
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The boards are still too big. There are still way too many cables and different ports (internally and externally). The CPUs suck ever more power (don't get me started about graphic cards). And the coolers get bigger every year. The BIOS even more settings to ruin ones day.
And when will PCs stop wasting so much enery?! 450 Watts to play a music file and surf the internet
Whatever happened to make things SIMPLER and more efficient?
You know, ATX systems could be designed well, and cooled appropirately... But absolutely nobody is doing so. Actually I think HP might be, but I don't know if their own workstations completely qualify as ATX.
Anyhow, the locations for air intake and output are pretty close to standard, but manufacturers aren't taking advantage of it. CPUs and memory aren't put on a motherboard so they will be in-line with the air intake, and being cooled by the rear exhaust fans, or power supply fan. Instead, it's a hack-fest, with a bunch of fans inside the case, blowing hot air in circles, and hoping the case fans are 10xs more massive then they should need to be, to replenish the whole case with cool air every few seconds.
You can take certain steps on your own, like ducting air from the intake, directly to your CPU, which will cool things down IMMENSELY, but will not help with your RAM, Videocard, etc., which need proper cooling as well.
If you look at old DEC systems, you'll see they already had the cooling thing down to an art. 3 thermal zones, with very slow, quiet, thermo-controlled 80mm fans. They weren't ATX systems, however, and nobody adapted those ideas to PCs.
So, while ATX can be pretty effecient, it isn't happening. If it takes a whole new form-factor to force manufacturers to get it done correctly, then I'm certainly willing to switch. BTX isn't ideal, but it's a big step up.
And you can't say it's only Intel's problem. All processors put off a lot of heat, and with ATX you have to have several very loud fans just to fight against the heat. A better design means cooler, and quieter, whatever processor you use. Sure, maybe Intel will have to ignore the BTX specs on motherboard design where it will hurt them, but that's nothing new. ATX specified that power supply fans should blow air in, not out, but most everyone just ignored that, too.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
Er, spend $20 on a PCI serial and parallel port. The rest of the universe can do without them.
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
Actually, this would be great for IT people.
See, people LOVE to shove their mini-towers back into a corner of their desk where the hot air cannot escape. Generally, I've found they rarely put something blocking it in front.
I know at work, because of the design of our cubes and user habits, we'd be better off having them feed from the back and blow out towards the front instead of the other way around.
You're missing the point completely. The goal was/is to avoid proprietary hardware like the plague. Shuttle = proprietary. ATX and uATX are mostly what people buy. Anything else is a gamble and it will remain so.