What's happened to BTX

Last year Intel announced, BTX, the follow-=on to the ATX form factor.

For example, http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1876

What has happened to BTX? Has it been dropped? Has it been delayed? Is it
already happening?

"Franklin" <franklin_lo@mail.com> wrote in message
news:9568CA91D2F7031E75@130.133.1.4...
> Last year Intel announced, BTX, the follow-=on to the ATX form factor.
>
> For example, http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1876
>
> What has happened to BTX? Has it been dropped? Has it been delayed? Is
> it
> already happening?

What's the rush? Nothing really changes, except that the mainboard is
essentially flipped upside down. There are lots of little changes in BTX,
but nothing that couldn't have easily have been incorporated into
TX. -Dave

"Dave C." wrote:
>
> "Franklin" <franklin_lo@mail.com> wrote in message
> news:9568CA91D2F7031E75@130.133.1.4...
> > Last year Intel announced, BTX, the follow-=on to the ATX form factor.
> >
> > For example, http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1876
> >
> > What has happened to BTX? Has it been dropped? Has it been delayed? Is
> > it
> > already happening?
>
> What's the rush? Nothing really changes, except that the mainboard is
> essentially flipped upside down. There are lots of little changes in BTX,
> but nothing that couldn't have easily have been incorporated into
> TX. -Dave

I hope that it will result in smaller PC cases. The height of a fairly
standard ATX case is determined by the length of the mboard plus the height
of the PSU. This results in a front with space for 2x3.5" + 4x5.25" units.
Anybody installed 2 floppy drives, 2 CD-ROMS and 2 DVD drives?

The depth of the ATX case is determined by width of the ATX server version
of the mboard plus the depth of the drive units since they don't overlay the
motherboard. As a result, my new PC is the size of a large travel suitcase :-)
But never mind, it all look impressive (compared to my old AT). I understand
that the BTX will be rather similar to the old AT!

Franklin wrote:

> What has happened to BTX? Has it been dropped? Has it been delayed? Is it
> already happening?

It's pretty much DOA. Case makers and motherboard makers are not getting
onboard. There's nothing wrong with ATX, and AMD has proven that CPU's
don't have to run at the temperature of the sun, despite Intel's claims
otherwise, the extra cooling benefit is moot at this point.

On Sat, 18 Sep 2004 19:54:48 +0100, Franklin <franklin_lo@mail.com>
wrote:

| Last year Intel announced, BTX, the follow-=on to the ATX form factor.
|
| For example, http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1876
|
| What has happened to BTX? Has it been dropped? Has it been delayed? Is it
| already happening?

Nothing official yet, but it wouldn't be the first thing to be
cancelled due to lack of interest. ;-)

Larc



§§§ - Change planet to earth to reply by email - §§§

Franklin's log on stardate 18 ruj 2004

> What has happened to BTX? Has it been dropped? Has it been delayed?
> Is it already happening?

I saw an IBM ThinkCentre with 915G chipset and it has several interesting
things implemented, but I'm not very impressed. Some things are improved
to improve cooling efficiency but everything else is, to say the least,
strange. Perhaps bigger difference will be noticed on brand boards, but
until that time, as I said, not very promising. I can send you some
pictures, if you wish.


--
Prvo smo pili Stock. Kada je nestalo Stocka, presli smo na Vlahov. Kada je
nestalo Vlahova, presli smo na pivu. Kada je nestalo pive, presli smo na
Islam...

"Johannes H Andersen" <johs@ezouvwnmzusxsizefitterzxursaxzoe.com> wrote in
message news:414C8D2A.64CCD2D0@ezouvwnmzusxsizefitterzxursaxzoe.com...
>
>
> "Dave C." wrote:
>>
>> "Franklin" <franklin_lo@mail.com> wrote in message
>> news:9568CA91D2F7031E75@130.133.1.4...
>> > Last year Intel announced, BTX, the follow-=on to the ATX form factor.
>> >
>> > For example, http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1876
>> >
>> > What has happened to BTX? Has it been dropped? Has it been delayed?
>> > Is
>> > it
>> > already happening?
>>
>> What's the rush? Nothing really changes, except that the mainboard is
>> essentially flipped upside down. There are lots of little changes in
>> BTX,
>> but nothing that couldn't have easily have been incorporated into
>> ATX. -Dave
>
> I hope that it will result in smaller PC cases.

It's supposed to allow for smaller PC cases. But if you read more about it,
you realize that the same small sizes could be achieved in ATX boards if you
were to cut off all the expansion slots. Essentially, that's what the
smallest BTX board is . . . it's just a board with no expansion slots (or
hardly any). -Dave

On Sat, 18 Sep 2004 19:31:50 GMT, Johannes H Andersen
<johs@ezouvwnmzusxsizefitterzxursaxzoe.com> wrote:


>I hope that it will result in smaller PC cases. The height of a fairly
>standard ATX case is determined by the length of the mboard plus the height
>of the PSU. This results in a front with space for 2x3.5" + 4x5.25" units.
>Anybody installed 2 floppy drives, 2 CD-ROMS and 2 DVD drives?

If the cases got smaller, the only dimension I wouldn't want
smaller is the height. Anything but a full tower will
usually fit under a desk, and if it's ON the desk, what
difference does it make how tall unless you have very low
flying aircraft?

It is very easy to use all the bays you mention.

For example, 2 optical drives, a front bay fan controller,
and a removable hard drive, fill the external 5.25".
External 3.5 can easily be filled with a floppy and flash
card reader. So, there isn't even room for 3 optical drives
for some people unless the case is a full tower.

On Sat, 18 Sep 2004 17:02:10 -0400, "Dave C."
<mdupre@sff.net> wrote:


>It's supposed to allow for smaller PC cases. But if you read more about it,
>you realize that the same small sizes could be achieved in ATX boards if you
>were to cut off all the expansion slots. Essentially, that's what the
>smallest BTX board is . . . it's just a board with no expansion slots (or
>hardly any). -Dave
>

Mostly it looks like it just puts more airflow past Intel's
CPUs, which they already knew would exceed 100W.

> Last year Intel announced, BTX, the follow-=on to the ATX form factor.
>
> For example, http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1876
>
> What has happened to BTX? Has it been dropped? Has it been delayed? Is
it
> already happening?

Gateway in the US has just started shipping BTX format PC units.

I don't see what the all fuss is all about, ATX and mATX is fine, why change
something that works well? It's not that difficult to build a cool and quiet
PC utilizing the fastest processor from either AMD or Intel.

--
Regards,
Tony. (tony.cue(at)tiscali.co.uk)

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