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ATX, BTX. What's the diff?

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kevineugenius

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Dec 9, 2006
Messages
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Basically my question is thus: I want to buy a motherboard from a Dell XPS 710, which it says is a BTX mobo. I have an Alienware Aurora case, which I remember had tons of little mounting holes all over the place that I didn't use when installing my ATX motherboard. So, if I bought said motherboard, what problems might I encounter? Is there a different case I can buy to overcome the problems?
 
BTX is basically a mirror image of ATX, with the RAM slots running parallel to and close to the top edge of the motherboard.

Unless your case is reversible, you won't be able to use a BTX mobo in an ATX case. The reason you had extra holes is probably because a) they're meant for mounting some specialized heatsink/waterblock to the motherboard tray, or b) they're from another form factor that is very similar to ATX, like microATX (which has some mounting holes not present in ATX).

 
So, the cases with the PSU on the bottom and the mobo mounted to the right side panel instead of the left side are BTX cases? I guess the PSU doesn't have to be on the bottom, but the motherboard is mounted completely upside-down/reverse of what ATX ones look like?
 
kevineugenius said:
So, the cases with the PSU on the bottom and the mobo mounted to the right side panel instead of the left side are BTX cases? I guess the PSU doesn't have to be on the bottom, but the motherboard is mounted completely upside-down/reverse of what ATX ones look like?
Click to expand...
Not necessarily. See, when you look at an ATX board, the CPU socket is on top, the ports are at the top left, and the slots are all on the bottom half. If you look at a BTX board, the CPU socket is on top and the expansion slots are on the bottom half, but the ports are on the top right. Now a case can have the motherboard oriented with the ports up and slots down or vice versa, or with the PSU at the top or at the bottom, for both ATX and BTX.
 
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