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Intel's BTX Form Factor Launched Today

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the i'm-losing-track-of-all-these-form-factors dept.

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.""

10 of 201 comments (clear)

  1. Good for Intel... by jaredbpd · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So far, it looks interesting. But I'm curious, it it's inteded competition the AMD64 platform boards, or will AMD have it's own version of BTX in the (near) future?

    1. Re:Good for Intel... by Sv-Manowar · · Score: 5, Informative

      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
  2. BTX cases? Did they finally fix those case wires? by VE3ECM · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I took a look at the article... flipped to the section on the sample AOpen case.

    What I'm curious to know is if these guys FINALLY got rid of those god-awful nests of wires that you have to plug into the mobo for power, HDD LED, etc.

    God, I hate those things. You either have to spend 15 min. reading the Engrish on the mobo manual to try and figure out which is which, or just cross your fingers and hope for the best.

    A molex-type connector (or something along those lines) would make my life a lot easier.

    Anyone know?

  3. Re:Good design, but poor implementation. by Rheagar · · Score: 5, Informative

    For what its worth, the BTX board demoed on anandtech was a microBTX form factor -- which might explain the lack of expansion ports.

  4. most reference boards have been micro or pica-btx by fullmetal55 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  5. Re:Benchmarks? by stratjakt · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

    Only a new paint job and a snazzy window applique can do that!

    --
    I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
  6. In a nutshell by echocharlie · · Score: 5, Informative

    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
  7. I hearby dub thee... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...with your new nickname that the industry will forever recognize...

    ButToX

  8. What about SMP? by ivan256 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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?

  9. Re:BTX cases? Did they finally fix those case wire by BeeRockxs · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.