BTX Form Factor - Will it be accepted?

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HvyMtl

[H]ard|Gawd
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Dec 3, 2003
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Ok, after much ado (apparently, about nothing) Intel claimed that their systems would be switching from the present day ATX form factor to the new BTX.
http://www.anandtech.com/casecooling/showdoc.aspx?i=2276
(for reference)
The announcement for the BTX came around November, 2004.
Yet, I have not seen a BTX case, or motherboard available from the major manufacturers...
not even Intel's own motherboards...
What gives? Wasn't BTX supposed to be the answer to our cooling needs?
Now, there are announcements that AMD will swap over to the BTX format too.
http://anandtech.com/tradeshows/showdoc.aspx?i=2431
To quote Anand:
"Intel’s BTX standard continues to be fairly unsupported by the motherboard manufacturers we’ve met with. The motherboard and case manufacturers that we’ve met with have told us that by the end of this year BTX shipments will account for under 10% of their overall production. By the end of 2006, that figure is expected to rise to anywhere between 15 - 30%. If you’re worried about the transition to BTX, you probably won’t be forced to migrate until 2007 - 2008."
Hmm. In otherwords, this new form factor that was supposed to deal with the impressive heat of the processors, and secondarily, the video cards, won't become available until the end of next year / beginning of the year after. If it does such a "good job" then why has it not been accepted already?
To quote Anand again:
"The move to BTX is an expensive one for case manufacturers; the high costs of re-tooling and producing cases based on a new form factor have kept case manufacturers from embracing the new standard, especially given that ATX seems to be fulfilling users’ needs just fine. The case manufacturers won’t put much time and money behind BTX without widespread BTX motherboard availability, and motherboard manufacturers won’t build BTX boards without widespread case availability. Like many new technologies in the PC industry, BTX presents both manufacturers with the classic chicken and egg scenario."
So, it is very expensive for the industry to swap form factors - I wonder if this was an issue with Baby AT to ATX switch... Since the manufacturers are dragging their feet, then who is to say that some other, better, form factor does not become available before the manufacturers tool up? Who is to say that the ATX form will still be wanted by the mainstream (cheaper to keep it than completely upgrade for both end users and manufacturers.)
What do you think of the new form factor? Do you think it will be a needless update or useful? Do you think ATX will still be around for far longer than expected?
 
HvyMtl said:
[..]
So, it is very expensive for the industry to swap form factors - I wonder if this was an issue with Baby AT to ATX switch...
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If you've ever worked on, or build a (Baby) AT system, you'll know why ATX was accepted relatively rapidly. ATX offered many features, including a better, more versatile PSU, better component placement (no longer the CPU right behind the expansion cards), etc., etc. With the arrival of the first Pentium CPUs, the days of AT were clearly numbered.

[..]
What do you think of the new form factor? Do you think it will be a needless update or useful? Do you think ATX will still be around for far longer than expected?
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When I first heard about BTX, I felt kind of excited, because it sounded like it migh actually improve upon ATX on some points, but this feeling quickly vanished when I learned more about it, and disappeared when I had finished reading the spec.

I still don't see where the claims of improved cooling (aside from the CPU) comes from, and the lack of support for dual processors is disturbing for what is supposed to replace ATX, which supports dual-CPUs without problems.

Now that the P4 is put on lifesupport, and the more efficient, cooler running Pentium M (PIII revisited) has taken its place, I think that even Intel is beginning to doubt its commitment to BTX.
 
Elledan said:
I think that even Intel is beginning to doubt its commitment to BTX.
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they (and amd) sure as hell better question any commitment they have...
BTX provides no sugnifcicant improvments in air flow over ATX.... tests ive seen show 1-2*C better ambient air... to me that is not sugnificant enough for me to just give up the 300+ hours work i have on my PC-75 ATX standard Case...

if anything.... to take care of cooling, the standard needs to be switched to the wATX that Lain-Li (with thier V series) and Silverstone (with their Temjin) where the motherboard is on the reverse side of the case and upside down... if you look at the temjin's they have a wind tunnel designed that flows right over the CPU.... better airflow do you need than that? strait in.. strait out... it dosent get any better

BTX can go to hell... it had damn well better go the way of Rambus... and thats right back where it came from!

Edit: important typo changed
 
Elledan said:
Just like with WTX, eh? ;)
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WTX was never intended as a desktop form factor. It's a multi-CPU server and workstation chassis and it's still around.
 
BTX seems like a waste of space, if they want to do something why don't they put the cpu near the back and take air from a side port then send it out the back?
 
BTX chassis and motherboards have definitely not hit the retail market in a big way yet, but in the ODM sector they are starting to stream in. Dell and HP have a few BTX based systems. Intel has released several BTX motherboards, but still the future is unclear.
 
Personally, I'm not looking foward to BTX just because I don't want to buy a new case and mobo. Based upon what I see, since dell just switched over then BTX will probably be the new form for future motherboards and cases.
 
illgiveumorality said:
BTX seems like a waste of space, if they want to do something why don't they put the cpu near the back and take air from a side port then send it out the back?
Click to expand...
Or at least exhaust the warm air drawn over the HSF outside the case. Some OEM (Dell) systems do exactly this.

If the GPU's fan exhausts outside the case as well, then the biggest sources of heat inside the case have already been eliminated, leaving all of the cool air to cool the rest of the components.

Perhaps some things just make too much sense ;)
 
pxc said:
WTX was never intended as a desktop form factor. It's a multi-CPU server and workstation chassis and it's still around.
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Size and features don't come without a cost, and WTX cases are priced accordingly. Due to the expense, WTX will likely remain for some time only in the high-end market. It will be interesting, though, to see just how quickly WTX systems filter down from the "high end" market Intel is targeting, to the upper end of the consumer market. Intel often tries to focus their latest and greatest technologies only to the highest end of the market, but history has shown that due to the hunger for performance exhibited by many users even in the middle of the range, it doesn't always stay there. :^)
Click to expand...
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/case/formWTX-c.html

Apparently ATX is more versatile than many suggest, as I've never seen a WTX system still in use.
 
It's going to be some time before BTX is even considered as an industry standard muchless "usurp" ATX. Until then Intel is going to continue to give nice discounts to those OEMs that use BTX to help cool their highly inelegant Prescott chips.

Oh why don't they just go with the Pentium M chips instead?! :(
 
purefun65 said:
There are a couple amd based btx boards being previewed at computex!
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Sellouts.


BTX seems novel at best. The cpu cooler seems ridiculous, but I like what BTX can do for SFF. That's really where the market should be for BTX. I'll keep my ATX, thanks!
 
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