Options

Intel's 'BTX' the lowdown

Unknown
edited February 2004 in Science & Tech
[link=http://www.tweaktown.com]Tweaktown[/link] have been working with Intel over the past month to get an insight into their latest baby, 'Balance Technology Extended', or BTX for short. It's what Intel are calling their upcoming form factor specification which promises to offer better cooling and quieter operation for high performance computing.

[blockquote]Now, as ATX and its closest cousins begin to show its age from the advent of new technologies like Serial ATA and PCI Express, a new form factor is seen as a need by many companies and Intel has the answer - it’s called Balanced Technology eXtended (BTX). BTX, in its basic principle design, is very similar to that of ATX, but there are a slew of changes that can and will be utilized to show that it has the potential to improve the system as a whole in terms of acoustics and heat dissipation.
[/blockquote]
[link=http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=article&dId=611]The full article[/link]

Comments

  • TheSmJTheSmJ
    edited February 2004
    Sounds a lot like what they tried to get ATX to do the first time around (in terms of coling, and compactness). I bet we'll see a BTX 1.1 spec no longer than a year after it's inital release.
  • drasnordrasnor Starship Operator Hawthorne, CA Icrontian
    edited February 2004
    Am I the only one that doesn't like the idea of using the only air intake to cool the CPU, then dumping the air straight from the CPU right onto the graphics card? Also, there's no air moving past the hard drives. I don't know about you, but my hard drives generate a significant amount of heat.

    I don't know what to think about the claim that BTX is designed to fill the small form factor niche. Last time I checked, that niche is already filled quite nicely by ITX, FlexATX, and MicroATX, not to mention LPX (my personal favorite). This business about being a hit with the OEM's is IMHO another load of bull. I _know_ Dell doesn't adhere to the ATX spec when designing their equipment, and I'd wager that many other OEM's don't either. This will quite likely be just another industry standard for them to ignore.

    I'm not seeing enthusiasts jump on this bandwagon either. Where does the radiator for the CPU water block go?

    What was that nasty small form factor back in the day with half the motherboard on a riser? NTX wasn't it? I'm thinking BTX will be in the same category in 4 years.

    -drasnor :fold:
  • TheSmJTheSmJ
    edited February 2004
    Am I the only one that doesn't like the idea of using the only air intake to cool the CPU, then dumping the air straight from the CPU right onto the graphics card? Also,........

    Nope. Hence why I stated the above on all points.

    With the first ATX revision, they tried to cool the CPU with the PSU's fan, which pulled air INTO the case. That lasted about 6 months to a year, after they learned everyone was opening up the "non-user-servicable" PSUs and flipping the fan around.

    This is also why the CPU is directly below the PSU's bottom fan. Could you imagine today's CPU's being cooled by the PSU? HA!
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited February 2004
    The P3 800MHz that came in my Sony was cooled that way. It had this duct over the top of a passive HS. It was crazy lookin.
Sign In or Register to comment.