SPCR

Its time to build a new PC but what happened to BTX?
I hear Intel dropped it and see little mention of it even here.
What happened to the cooling/noise improvements?
Any direct ATX/BTX comparisons? i'd still consider it.

p.s. i'm hearing BTX isn't as relevant since PC cooling and noise has become a priority.
um..wouldn't that make it MORE relevant?

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/atx ... 87-19.html

Tons of links on Tomshardware. Surf 'til your heart is content.

BTX was an Intel-promoted standard that never caught on due to several factors. The main factor was the high cost to MB manufacturers to redesign the well-understood ATX standard. The direct as well as hidden costs were too much, especially since the primary driver for the re-design was the ill-fated Prescott toaster cpu that killed off the Pentium brand and quite a few careers at Intel. After all, AMD chips didn't need the optimized airflow path of BTX and neither did the Pentium M architecture. So the Pentium M derivative "Core" became king and and the king summarily executed NetBurst and its progeny the BTX.

Ironically, imagine if AMD promoted BTX with Intel and that support allowed Netburst to survive for a while under BTX...Intel may have continued down the NetBurst path long enough for another AMD die shrink and the competitive landscape perhaps would be very different today.

Hi,

This is a moot question, I think. Can you even find all the bits and pieces for a BTX system -- and if you could, I doubt it would be better than the best ATX systems.

fwki wrote:BTX was an Intel-promoted standard that never caught on due to several factors. The main factor was the high cost to MB manufacturers to redesign the well-understood ATX standard. The direct as well as hidden costs were too much, especially since the primary driver for the re-design was the ill-fated Prescott toaster cpu that killed off the Pentium brand and quite a few careers at Intel. After all, AMD chips didn't need the optimized airflow path of BTX and neither did the Pentium M architecture. So the Pentium M derivative "Core" became king and and the king summarily executed NetBurst and its progeny the BTX.

Ironically, imagine if AMD promoted BTX with Intel and that support allowed Netburst to survive for a while under BTX...Intel may have continued down the NetBurst path long enough for another AMD die shrink and the competitive landscape perhaps would be very different today.

i still wonder though why it didnt catch on with cooling enthusiasts since it was/is more efficient according to a couple older articles -
so i was looking for some hard numbers. I noticed SPCR cases are still ATX.
Do you think it because of compatability or did BTX not offer much improvement.

On a side note, I really don't like the way Intel tried to muscle AMD out of the picture with BTX compatability issues but, if its better i'd still look at it.
There are quite a few BTX mobos out there last time i checked.

I believe that some BTX cases were converted to inverted ATX cases once BTX waned, such as the Lian Li A05. The Lian Li PC-767 (http://www.silverpcs.com/product_info.p ... e25e392ec3) still has BTX mounting holes, but you'd have to find the optional BTX back plate.

A BTX laid-out motherboard just provides more advantageous cooling (considering the limited space) IN A BTX CASE! There is no cooling benefit of a BTX motherboard over ATX in a regular ATX case. You might as well go for an ATX board.