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BTX (form factor)

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BTX form factor motherboard inside a Dell Dimension E520.

BTX (for Balanced Technology Extended) is a form factor for PC motherboards, originally slated to be the replacement for the aging ATX motherboard form factor in late 2004 and early 2005. It has been designed to alleviate some of the issues that arose from using newer technologies (which often demand more power and create more heat) on motherboards compliant with the circa-1996 ATX specification. The ATX and BTX standards were both proposed by Intel. Intel's decision to refocus on low-power CPUs, after suffering scaling and thermal issues with the Pentium 4, has added some doubt to the future of the form factor. The first company to implement BTX was Gateway Inc, followed by Dell. Although not marketed as such, Apple's Mac Pro utilizes the BTX design as well. However, future development of BTX retail products by Intel was canceled in September 2006.[1]

Enhancements

  • Low-profile - With the push for ever-smaller systems, a redesigned backplane that shaves inches off height requirements is a benefit to system integrators and enterprises who use rack mounts or blade servers.
  • Thermal design - The BTX layout establishes a straighter path of airflow with fewer obstacles, resulting in better overall cooling capabilities. A distinct feature of BTX is the vertical mounting of the motherboard on the left-hand side. This results in the graphics card heatsink or fan facing upwards, rather than in the direction of the adjacent expansion card.
  • Structural design - The BTX standard specifies different locations for hardware mounting points, thereby reducing latency between devices and also reduces the physical strain imposed on the motherboard by heat sinks, capacitors and other components dealing with electrical and thermal regulation. For example, the Northbridge and Southbridge chips are located near each other and to the hardware they control.

Compatibility with ATX products

The BTX form factor is largely incompatible with the ATX form factor. The only area where this doesn't fully apply is in power supply support. ATX power supplies can be used with regular or full-sized BTX motherboards. Neither the power connectors nor the direction of airflow from the power supply fan has been changed.

Documentation

  1. ^ BTX development cancelled
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