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Gateway's BTX

I

Impulse

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Apr 5, 2001
Messages
10,232
Now, I may be confused here but... Is it me or are the Gateway BTX system pics on the front page not exactly... BTX? I thought the point of the new BTX spec was to move the processor to the lower-most area of the motherboard and have the PCI cards at the top, no?

I don't see much change on this new Gateway other than the obvious reversal of the side of the case that the mobo sits on, the processor is still however only mid-way down the mobo and only slightly closer to the edge than on many current ATX mobos...

The shroud system on the processor is nothing new, many OEMs have had similar setups for years, only differnece is it's blowing cool air here (since it points towards the front of the case) rather than sucking hot air out... which when it comes down to it may not be any better depending on the design of the HSF used with it (whether it's one that you use with a fan blowing on it or sucking away from it).

Maybe I just misunderstood the essentials of the BTX spec or something, doesn't look like that radical a change... /shrug
 
Same here, Ithought that the CPU was to be located at the bottom and the expansions at the top, somebody correct us if we are wrong please.
 
no broadband right now to check, however the heat coming off the video card going directly out the exhaust looks like good functionality.
 
....look at the hard drive. It's essentially in a "box" underneath the big air duct. Not much air flow there, I'll bet. Doesn't look like a good place for a hard drive that runs warm.....:confused:

B.B.S.
 
BlindedByScience said:
....look at the hard drive. It's essentially in a "box" underneath the big air duct. Not much air flow there, I'll bet. Doesn't look like a good place for a hard drive that runs warm.....:confused:

B.B.S.
Click to expand...
Then you misunderstood the BTX spec.

The real point of the BTX spec is to keep the CPU as cool as possible, meanwhile increasing the case temperature to totally absurd levels, leaving many dead air spots and causing early component failure. Except for the CPU of course, which will stay nicely below 40 C (60 C if it's a Prescott).

Call it the last-ditch effort from Intel to keep its latest CPUs from committing thermal suicide.
 
I would hope there is a fan in front of those HDDs, but I don't see one. :(

If there was one there, it would clean up that dead spot, and also help direct the heat from the video card further away from CPU. The way it looks now, the video heat will rise up into (near) the HSF as well as out the exhaust. Also, the RAM looks to be in a dead air zone, and it's right above all the main heat producing components...

Meh, ATX looks better overall... Be interesting to take some temp. measurements off of the different components and compare them to an ATX machine same hardware (if there are ATX/BTX version of the same board).

edit: is this Gateway's case design around BTX, or the standard case layout for BTX? I recall it looking a little different in the case layout from the specs a while back.
 
the only case fan is the 120mm on the back. Lots of dead air in there.
 
Maybe someone can correct me here, but I thinking there are two, one under the green shroud and one in the back. Otherwise, WTF does that shroud do?
 
I took one apart at work, there is only one fan, the shroud is only there to help create more suction in that area.

I'll see if I can take some more detailed pics at work tommorow.
 
my friend works at BB, he was like 'dude you gotta see this we got some new boxen with pciE and a64 and like watercooling or sumthin'. i was like 'i call bs', but we went on down the next day. wrong on 2 of 3, of course. it's one of these, an intel box with pciE and a shroud.

so the moral of the story is, he's an idiot. but what will joe consumer think of this? "d00d buy +h4+!" oh well, some people will never learn.

it's a better-than-it-could-have-been design, but not the best. and the obvious play for incompatibility from intel is a desperate measure.
 
Sad... Enthuasist add fans and create lots of flow, and still have hot systems. They are adding more heat (prescott) and reducing overall cooling.

The real point of the BTX spec is to keep the CPU as cool as possible, meanwhile increasing the case temperature to totally absurd levels, leaving many dead air spots and causing early component failure.
Click to expand...
This is sad, and I'm beginning to think it's true...
 
There is a watercooled PC there but it's by Sony and technically its a heat pipe and not true water cooling but it sounds leet to normal consumers.
 
I went into work tonight and took a quick look at the BTX and I was wrong. There are 2 120mm fans in it, one in the fron and one in the back. I could of sworn the one we took apart only had one 120mm fan in it though.

btx1.jpg

Pic of the SATA HDD
btx2.jpg

PCIe ATI video card
btx3.jpg

Front 120mm fan, I took this pic to show that the air has to come up under the front case to be sucked up and passed over the CPU
btx5.jpg

BTX power connector, looks a lot like the ATX one just slightly longer, 1 or 2 more rows.

If you want to see any other parts close up, just ask and I can try and take them tommorow. Hopefully one will be returned again so I can disect it.
 
That changes things a lot. With 2 120s in the front and 1 in the back, this looks like a decent design. The RAM seems to be in the worse spot with that shroud blocking some of the air for the CPU, but maybe the draw from the psu would cool it enough.

However, how different is this than ATX? I mean it's mirrored so it's on the other side of the case. But if I look at an ATX board and compare the other differences... The CPU is pushed to the middle of the board and the ram is at the top of the board, video cards now point up. Couldn't they just shuffle these componets around a litte, make room so the video card manufacturers can flip their designs? Then the only design change would be video cards, not cases, and mobos.

:confused:
 
Well this is OEM too, they have tighter restrictions on heat output (they know whats in the system, and your not OCing). There is also room for 2 in the front. :)

I'm also ignoring the benefits of the extra power to the mobo for BTX...
 
Phoenix86 said:
edit: is this Gateway's case design around BTX, or the standard case layout for BTX? I recall it looking a little different in the case layout from the specs a while back.
Click to expand...
It's Gateway's take on it, which is pretty close to the standard design... I don't think it helps that much overall tho, it does limit how much you can mod the case since the dead spots are harder to incorporate into the general air flow (or maybe I just lack creativity, seems easier w/ATX tho), and the only real big change is moving the processor slightly to the center/front where it can be one of the first components that receives cool air. Obviously Intel's processors were the main driving force behind this...

Only way it could turn out better than ATX in general is if people or case manufacturers come up with some particular mods that "compartmentalize" the insides of the computer so you can cool certain areas seperately a-la-Apple's G5. Otherwise no matter how you mod it the incoming air is always gonna touch the processor first and is always gonna arrive the memory, PSU, and video card slighly hotter than it would in an ATX case. There's also the need for two intakes no matter what given how the HDDs are placed.
 
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