BTX Form Factor
- Thread starter Will Nave
- Start date
That's a good question..
I haven't heard much about them for awhile, but as far as I know, it would require a new tower. Since the BTX are supposed to be made in three seperate sizes, I would assume that one would fit your current case size.
Hopefully we will find out more about them soon..
I haven't heard much about them for awhile, but as far as I know, it would require a new tower. Since the BTX are supposed to be made in three seperate sizes, I would assume that one would fit your current case size.
Hopefully we will find out more about them soon..
Aye, so am I. I have never built a SFFPC before, but BTX looks like it would be a great start.
We will start learning a lot more about it soon hopefully.
We will start learning a lot more about it soon hopefully.
D
Ducceus
Guest
Hey Rob , are you Deathspawner on lineage.warcry.com ?? i got a link to here from greever 
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fussnfeathers
E.M.I.
Gateway, Dell, and Alienware all have BTX systems on the market. Falcon is toying with one. The mobos just aren't available on the open market yet.
Jakal
Tech Monkey
From what I've seen BTX looks exactly like ATX just upside-down. That would put today's cards fan up giving you some eye candy if you have a window. I wouldn't say the motherboards aren't available, considering you can use your current one just swapped. No, that's not the standard form factor for BTX motherboards but you can do it. It wouldn't work for the new A8n32-Sli because of the heat-pipe design, but most any other board would do fine in a btx style. If installed like that you would need a case with a window on the right side instead of on the left, as most are now. It's really not a big change just something new that people haven't become accustomed to yet. I like ATX just fine and I'm pretty sure it's here for a good long while.
fussnfeathers
E.M.I.
Actually, it's quite a bit more than just being upside-down. One, the processor is toward the middle of the mobo, rather than closer to the top. The proc is also relocated to the front edge of the mobo, closer to the intake fans, rather than toward the rear as on ATX boards.
The PCIe slots are on the opposite end of the mobo (if you look at the quasi-BTX cases that use ATX mobos, the slots are at the top of the board when installed, BTX mobos move them to the other end, so they're once again on the bottom).
Power connections are also relocated to the top edge of the board, rather than a middle-ish location like most current ATX boards.
It's not just a case of turning an ATX mobo upside down and calling it BTX, it's a complete layout redesign.
The PCIe slots are on the opposite end of the mobo (if you look at the quasi-BTX cases that use ATX mobos, the slots are at the top of the board when installed, BTX mobos move them to the other end, so they're once again on the bottom).
Power connections are also relocated to the top edge of the board, rather than a middle-ish location like most current ATX boards.
It's not just a case of turning an ATX mobo upside down and calling it BTX, it's a complete layout redesign.
Jakal
Tech Monkey
Yeah that's the standard BTX style. It's an improvement over using a regular ATX board turned around. I was just saying that you can do it. I really don't know why BTX was even created. It really doesn't offer an improvement over ATX, as far as design goes. I'd rather have my cards "fan up", but when you stop to think, the cooler air is at the bottom of the case. It may catch on though, I don't know. It'll be nice to see what progresses.
fussnfeathers
E.M.I.
Jakal said:
The major part of the design is moving cabling from the middle of the board to the upper and lower edges, and aligning the hotter power capacitors with the proc. The BTX design standard calls for a "wind tunnel" across the proc and hottest mobo componenets, completely unobstructed by connecting cables, northbridge fans, etc etc.
As far as the vid card fans go, you're right, cooler air is at the bottom, and in a pure BTX setup, so are the PCIe vid cards. Pointing the fans upwards puts the airflow over the vid card HSF squarely in the middle of the intake fan flow, rather than below it with a solid PCIe card between the fan and the cool airflow. As it stands now, your PCIe or AGP card is mounted below the intake fans, and upside down. All the vid card HSF is taking in is recycled hot case air. By turning the card upside down, and putting an intake fan directly above the HSF............
Jakal
Tech Monkey
Not in a Thermaltake Armor case with a Zalman 9500 and an Arctic Cooler 5 .
I can see that as a positive, though. Anything that increases airflow through the case is an improvement. The setup I have stays cool. The Zalman blows right over the caps being exhausted by the 120mm, 80mm, and psu fans. Like I said. It'll be interesting to see what progresses.
. I can see that as a positive, though. Anything that increases airflow through the case is an improvement. The setup I have stays cool. The Zalman blows right over the caps being exhausted by the 120mm, 80mm, and psu fans. Like I said. It'll be interesting to see what progresses.
fussnfeathers
E.M.I.
I want one of those cases. That's my next biggish upgrade, really. I'm still using a $40 generic mid-tower "x-window" case with the cheese slicer edges. Actually, it's not half bad for airflow, I'm just too crowded in there now. It's low on the list of priorities, though........since my CD burner just crapped the bed last night.
liqnit
E.M.I.
my guess the BTX will take it part if intel will decide to male it a fact .
when it decide that from now on all intel chipset will require the manufacturer to use BTX .
when that happens it will make it very popular and probably AMD will join after some time.
like the DDR2 - AMD joined when the market is ready
when it decide that from now on all intel chipset will require the manufacturer to use BTX .
when that happens it will make it very popular and probably AMD will join after some time.
like the DDR2 - AMD joined when the market is ready