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When will the BTX format show up?

M

MH Knights

Gawd
Joined
Mar 25, 2003
Messages
734
I was just wondering when the new BTX form factor (as opposed to the current ATX format) will arrive. From what I've read it will require different components from what ATX uses. If this is true then that is when I will upgrade my machine. Anyone have any info about this?
 
i think its comming out after the socket change of the new gen procs. like 18 monthes or so. not sure, but that is when i think its going to happen. anyone else?
 
According to the Inquirer it'll be "We can expect to see boards available from "Q2, 2004" with a full ramp through 2004 and 2005." I read somewhere else, but can't find the link that ATX will remain the dominant enthusiat format through this year, and will translate to BTX next year. Intel is the one pushing BTX now, if AMD has said anything about their plans I've not read it.

Anandtech has an excellent article about BTX's future. At the every least you'll need a brand new case. There is some question in my mind about the statement about ATX PS fitting the BTX mobos, they have two different pinouts. The .ATX has the standar 20 pins, BTX uses 24. Maybe there will adapters made, if not you'll need a new PS.

I caanot undertsand for the life of me why Intel decided to use a mirror image for the BTX standard which kills all the present cases. They ashould have at least let people use their old cases, but I guess it's all about money.

The biggest changes this year will be the switchover from AGP/PCI to PCI-Express 16x/1x, Intel's transition to the Socket T, and AMDs transition to Socket 939. Unless one major mobo company starts making enthusiast BTX boards this year (say Asus or Abit), I don't expect much to happen with BTX on our end of things this year.
 
Excellent article at TweakTown about BTX.

Interesting quote "A big question I had in investigating the BTX form factor was whether or not the industry is prepared to shift their product lines to BTX power supplies, cases, and motherboards. Intel's answer was a blatant yes. They pointed out to us that manufacturers of cases generally update their case lines yearly, allowing for BTX case introductions to occur the same time BTX motherboards come to the market. In the case of BTX motherboards, Intel is the biggest financial support for most motherboard manufacturers and they will generally do their best to please Intel, with BTX motherboards being a positive way to make Intel happier and possibly increase their advertising funds as an incentive to bring BTX based products to the market quickly.

Emphasis mine, we may be seeing BTX sooner than people, including me think.

One postive thing about BTX will the TOTAL elimination of legacy ports, including PS2.
 
Originally posted by qdemn7
One postive thing about BTX will the TOTAL elimination of legacy ports, including PS2.
Click to expand...
Legacy != bad.

I wouldn't want to connect my keyboard to anything but the PS/2 port. My UPS and ROM burner connect to the COM ports. My printer connects to the LTP port. I'm not going to buy a new UPS and printer and/or use I/O-cards and/or adapters in the name of progress.

Don't attempt to fix what isn't broken and which works at least as good as the proposed replacements.
 
You should start seeing around 2Q 2004. But it will not be fully adopted until 12-18 months. So you can still buy ATX cases.
 
Originally posted by Elledan
Legacy != bad.

I wouldn't want to connect my keyboard to anything but the PS/2 port. My UPS and ROM burner connect to the COM ports. My printer connects to the LTP port. I'm not going to buy a new UPS and printer and/or use I/O-cards and/or adapters in the name of progress.

Don't attempt to fix what isn't broken and which works at least as good as the proposed replacements.
Click to expand...

we dont need 10 different types of crappy ports when all could be done better with USB.... usb is a much better connector and we can forget specifiying com ports for devices... id rather have 12 usb ports on the back of my mobo then 2 usb, 2 ps2, 1 parralell 2 serial...


the elimination of legacy is a good thing. It would have been forced 3 yrs ago.. but now the time has come.
 
ohmy8 is right, I rather have tons of USB even Firewire ports than old legacy crap. When was the last time some body used a serial port or game port???
 
Originally posted by Elledan
Legacy != bad.

I wouldn't want to connect my keyboard to anything but the PS/2 port. My UPS and ROM burner connect to the COM ports. My printer connects to the LTP port. I'm not going to buy a new UPS and printer and/or use I/O-cards and/or adapters in the name of progress.

Don't attempt to fix what isn't broken and which works at least as good as the proposed replacements.
Click to expand...
Well I'm sure they are people who still want to use ISA cards, (and do), but it's called progress. If you don't want it, then no one is putting gun to your head and forcing you to, you willl just have to stock up on your favorite older motherboard that has the features you want. I find it really ironic that on a forum dedicated to overclocking and computer tweaking that these debates are evem occuring.

Hell as far as I'm concerned all the legacy crap can go including floppy drives. I wish I could buy a Socket 939 / PCI-Express / DDR2 / SATA only / Legacy free BTX mobo, case and PS today, instead of having to wait a year.

As things stand now, until Socket 939 or Socket T, PCI-E and DDR2 become available on one board, I'm not buying a new mobo. I'm perfectlly happy with my A7N8X Deluxe v2.0 / Barton 2500 / Radeon 9700. I see plently of people running older systems than mine, so I'm in no hurry to upgrade until I can do a real upgrade.
 
Legacy free mobo's are great untill its hit F6 and insert a floppy into drive A: to load your SATA drivers.
Then without a floppy your in catch 22.

Luck.....:D
 
The floppy doesn't have to reside in the system all the time. You can keep one in the closet and pull it out everytime you need to setup raid.
 
Originally posted by Tigerbiten
Legacy free mobo's are great untill its hit F6 and insert a floppy into drive A: to load your SATA drivers.
Then without a floppy your in catch 22.

Luck.....:D
Click to expand...
dude. what's the internet for? what's a dvd/cdrom drive for? to me, windows is freaking legacy and needs to go. same as the ISA comparison analogy above. then again, all this is opinion. I'd be very happy with a row of 10 firewire 800 ports, a digital out, and two gigE ports. but that's not gonna happen anytime soon. nor is the addoption of BTX. intel will push hard for it, and be successful with the big guns. they worship intel for the extra 2 cents discount on processors. but you'll still be able to buy ATX/PCI/what you're calling legacy for a long while. much longer time than the "standard" geek upgrade time period. i seriously wouldn't worry about it
 
Originally posted by qdemn7
Well I'm sure they are people who still want to use ISA cards, (and do), but it's called progress. If you don't want it, then no one is putting gun to your head and forcing you to, you willl just have to stock up on your favorite older motherboard that has the features you want. I find it really ironic that on a forum dedicated to overclocking and computer tweaking that these debates are evem occuring.
Click to expand...
As far as I'm concerned, it are only the unwashed masses who flock to the 'latest, greatest', irrespective of whether or not it is really 'better'. And even then theory is no match for real life.

Hell as far as I'm concerned all the legacy crap can go including floppy drives. I wish I could buy a Socket 939 / PCI-Express / DDR2 / SATA only / Legacy free BTX mobo, case and PS today, instead of having to wait a year.
Click to expand...
You want to talk about legacy? Hell, the entire x86-platform is the very embodiment of 'legacy'. Realize that today's Athlon XP/64, Opteron and P4 CPUs are backwards compatible with friggin' 8086 CPUs, for crying out loud. 8 registers, of which only four are general-purpose, an API which restrict the programmer of x86-systems and make life in general unnecessarily difficult. As far as I'm concerned, it's time to get rid of the whole A20-gate issue, 'real' and 'protected' mode, and while we're at it, dump the entire x86 API.

Believe me, 'legacy' ports are the least of your concerns when talking about the x86-platform.
 
i don't like the BTX format at all, sure the layout of the components will allow better
cooling. But why did they have to change the side the motherboard goes on in the
case? Now if you want a window on your case you'll have to have you computer
on the left side of your desk if you want to see the inside. Computer on left side =
using you left hand for putting disks in you drive.

Yea i know its trivial, but i'm anal and don't care for change.
 
Originally posted by Elledan
You want to talk about legacy? Hell, the entire x86-platform is the very embodiment of 'legacy'. Realize that today's Athlon XP/64, Opteron and P4 CPUs are backwards compatible with friggin' 8086 CPUs, for crying out loud. 8 registers, of which only four are general-purpose, an API which restrict the programmer of x86-systems and make life in general unnecessarily difficult. As far as I'm concerned, it's time to get rid of the whole A20-gate issue, 'real' and 'protected' mode, and while we're at it, dump the entire x86 API.
Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly. Time to eschew the 20year old design and start basing code on a new architecture. Losing legacy ports is a start, but sometimes you just gotta drop things at the basic level too.
 
Originally posted by mcryptic
i don't like the BTX format at all, sure the layout of the components will allow better
cooling. But why did they have to change the side the motherboard goes on in the
case? Now if you want a window on your case you'll have to have you computer
on the left side of your desk if you want to see the inside. Computer on left side =
using you left hand for putting disks in you drive.

Yea i know its trivial, but i'm anal and don't care for change.
Click to expand...

I completly agree, I won't be switching till I HAVE to. I'd have to move my whole desk differently and hell I just don't want to have it on my left side.
 
Originally posted by mustang_steve
My thoughts exactly. Time to eschew the 20year old design and start basing code on a new architecture. Losing legacy ports is a start, but sometimes you just gotta drop things at the basic level too.
Click to expand...
PPC && Alpha && SPARC > x86.

I could care less about the ports on the mainboard, as long as they work as intended (and no, USB does _not_ work for a lot of things).

4 GP registers... heh, does that sound like a joke or what? :)
 
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