Intel's Long Awaited BTX Form Factor
by Purav Sanghani on November 15, 2004 5:31 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
Examining BTX cont'd
The D915GMH is essentially a microBTX version of our D915GUX motherboard with a few functional differences on top of the obvious BTX design. When we first laid eyes on the D915GMH the first thing we noticed was the arrangement of the CPU socket, Northbridge, and Southbridge. The CPU socket is placed at the front of the motherboard with the Northbridge behind it slightly to the left and the Southbridge behind the Northbridge directly in line with the CPU socket. Each is positioned on a diagonal which we assume will improve air flow around all three chips. Since these components are three of the hottest running components in a PC it made sense to position them in line from front to back and we expect fans to be placed in that same linear arrangement.A design that revolves so much around irregularly placed components was slightly unusual for us to see. Although software dictates the exact routing of all the traces from component to component, its very obvious that some very complicated math went into assuring each bridge and component was placed correctly. The fact that almost nothing seems to be at a right angle is a little overwhelming at first.
The IDE and Floppy ribbon headers were separated on the board. We found this to be inefficient, especially for the floppy drive, since they are on opposite sides of the system. Though not as important nowadays since SATA drives are moving into mainstream PCs, those who would like to use floppy drives are left with only the option of using a lengthy rounded cable. Since the AOpen/Intel combination we received today looks more like an OEM design than something we would typically buy and assemble from NewEgg, problems with the floppy cable placement shouldn't be a huge issue.
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There are 4 DDR memory sockets which are placed at the far left edge of the board. Keep in mind our D915GMH runs on DDR2, but other than design layout that is the only major difference between our microATX and microBTX motherboards.
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The PCIe x16 slot is positioned about 3 inches from the rightmost edge of the D915GMH. Since the AOpen B300 is a half height case a riser card is included for the PCIe x16 slot. This allows the VGA card to be mounted towards the center of the motherboard to keep it inline with the CPU and chipset.
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L3p3rM355i4h - Thursday, February 10, 2005 - link
Seems to be good for the OEM market, but what about us people who *actually* care about computers? Front exhuaust has to be the stupidest thing ever. Why was it so hard just to reverse the layout, so it would be atleast somewhat compatable with the current ATX standard.And the guy/gal who made up the "ATX II" standard, maybe you should contact AMD or someone. They might be interested.
EthernaL - Friday, May 19, 2006 - link
What if I really LIKE my BIG ATX tower?Maybe I have temperature problems in summer... maybe is not all the efficient that could be but I really love this design and I don't want to move to a small design and I don't want to buy the whole thing again.
Another nice thing with the computers we currently have is the possibility to give our friends/relatives old pieces once we upgrade our computer (my sister's computer is build that way :P )
So, again, another decission based ONLY on money without thinking in what we (the users) want or need. Thanks Intel, I hate you more than ever, and if you 'force us' to move to that technology I hope your business will go bankrupt.
IntelUser2000 - Sunday, November 21, 2004 - link
"From the picture we see the flow of air pushed back through the CPU thermal module towards the Northbridge, Southbridge, and VGA card. As this air flows around the CPU, it warms up, as we can see from the red areas to the left and right of the CPU. This warm air then flows over the Northbridge and seems to cool as it travels further back in the chassis. At the left we see the channel of air flowing to the left over the memory and out through the PSU. The channel on the right flows straight back to the VGA card and out through groups of holes in the back of the case."Well doesn't look like to me that hot air comes out front.
MadAd - Friday, November 19, 2004 - link
One question im having in my mind is how big of a paintbrush will i need to get inbetween those fins - talk about a dust trap.At least a majority of atx heatsink designs have easy to clean fins, and boy do they need cleaning sometimes, this is going to be worse.
Cue the repair calls in years to come, $50 an hour for removing wads of the customers cat/dog/children from around the cooler after the safety backoff system renders the machine temporatily gonadless.
epiv - Thursday, November 18, 2004 - link
Intel can and should make BTX backward and forward compeitable with ATX so we can decide if a new BTX case and PSU is worth the money.I am a poor student and I already spend money on a good case and PSU. My case should be able to handle more heat than a regular BTX case. I really hope I will not have to get a new case and PSU when I upgrade my computer.
trikster2 - Wednesday, November 17, 2004 - link
facts? I actually own the silverstone version of the oppus case, so I am actually speaking from experience. Vertical vs horizontal lowprofile vs full height has a lot to do with heat disapation
Myrandex - Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - link
I wonder how BTX had a NDA because Gateway has been selling BTX computers at best buy for over a month at leastCygni - Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - link
Dont you bring facts into this, Kris! Trikster2 doesnt want any of that!KristopherKubicki - Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - link
trikster2: The Opus case was chosen because it was the same volume as the mBTX case. I don't really see how a mATX tower and an mBTX case are going to differ significantly.Kristopher
ceefka - Tuesday, November 16, 2004 - link
How can this possibly translate into lower cost for end users? Thank you, Intel.I am also disappointed by Intel's approach. Uhm, we have a hot CPU; let's make a cooler case!
Since they invented this in their own backyard without creating a wide support it looks like an ego-trip.