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- PueSi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10I hope this works out well, something to make PCs cheaper is always welcome.
- Mohonri, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8So a summary could be:
DTX is a little smaller than uATX and a little bigger than Mini-ITX, which means a lower cost of manufacture (compared to uATX and ATX)
DTX has a 35W TDP for the processor
Processor must be AMD
Everything else (mounting holes, I/O panel, position of expansion slots) is exactly the same as current form factors - ScornForSega, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Agreed. I really don't see what the big deal is. If DTX fits into ATX cases, then what's the difference between getting a DTX mobo or a micro ATX other than a potential savings on the DTX?
Seems like a good idea to me. - TTLKurtis, on 10/12/2007, -3/+11"Most businesses" use Intel because they're bigger than AMD and it's what they know, but Athlon64 kicked Intel's ass all over the place for a good while there.
- Dabellah, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Yea just because AMD's processors didn't need it doesn't mean it wasn't a good idea. It actually works very well creating a consistent airflow that passes by all major key components in the case. If only the ATX standard could be swapped out for BTX, we could all take advantage of it easier than having to purchase certain types of hardware for it to work. Would be nice, but it won't happen.
EDIT: Forgot to mention, they are virtually quiet too as they use 120mm fans as a standard. - DigeratiPrime, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8"uh, isn't AMD the one that cooks to death when you take its heatsink off?"
uh, what doesn't? - EntangledPhysx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I agree, Digerati,
If an AMD cooks with the heatsink taken off, then an Intel chip would be a total nuclear meltdown. - ScornForSega, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5"basically, there's a reason most businesses use intel..."
You're absolutely right... there was a reason. And a lawsuit as well. Apparently Intel didn't like OEMs using AMD chips and threatened to revoke the rebates of the OEMs if they produced any computers based on AMD CPUs. Basically, Intel made sure that if any OEM supplied more PCs based on AMD chips than Intel wanted them to, they'd jack up the price on their Pentium processors to that OEM, which gets passed down to the consumer, which makes the OEM sell less computers.
From the effeciency standpoint, for a long time AMD chips consumed less power. While a 15 or 20w difference doesn't mean a whole hell of a lot to a single user, multiply that by a few hundred or a few thousand (depending on how many computers are in your organization) and the importance grows exponentially. But, the corporate world never really had the choice to move away from Intel.
Anti-trust ftw?!?! - fjc8, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3"uh, what doesn't?"
I read that Pentium 4 processors had auto shut off circuitry to prevent overheating, while AMD chips (at the time) did not. They had to depend on the motherboard's sensors. Just about every retail motherboard BIOS I have used since the Athlon came out. has had a temperature shutoff option, though. - OBKenobi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2That is most likely exactly what it is. The mini-ITX market seems to be expanding with all the focus on media servers and HTPCs these days. Plus mini-PCs can double as a video game emulator, hardware firewall, or p2p client.
Why cripple yourself with proprietary "media centers" from MS and Apple when you can put one together that is a full-fledged PC with no restrictions? AMD might be onto something... - BTime, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Looking at the pictures in the article, I like the footprint used in their display case but they were also using one of the sucky old Micro ATX power supplies. At least manufacturers can use whichever PSU design they want, it's just something I noticed.
- Sedaak, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I like my via all in one silent, but thats an n=1 sample size.....
Full speed ahead for any smaller and cheaper standards! - jetpig, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4kicked it's ass in everything but encoding video and audio. but ya a64 owned up all over the place on the p4. c2d on the other hand owns up all over a64 clock for clock. i'm just curious as to what will be happening when amd releases their new platform. they have a history of not running races. they bowed out on the mhz race and decided that giving better performance per clock was a better idea. worked very well for the axp and a64. now i hear rumors they arne't ognna run the I HAVE MORE CORES race either. multiple cores that are good at certain tasks and get switched on and off depending on need or something of the sort. possibly totally awesome!
- ravenber, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2From reading the aritcle, the target of this is form-factor is for mid to lower-end systems due to the limit on the number of layers of PCB. Given that and the size of the motherboard, it probably wouldn't be the kind of system that you'd want to throw that kind of graphics cards into.
- fuzzynyanko, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Actually the general-purpose FPU on AMD Althon processors is really good.
- davidrools, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2these kind of smart/cost effective innovations are what makes me really like AMD rather than strong arm marketing tactics that Intel has used since pushing Pentiums to mainstream and stopping 486 development (which had a ton of potential at the time)
- HappyScrappy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Article is wrong.
BTX was created to reduce cost, not to cool hotter ships. An ATX system with a good number of fans cools better than a BTX system. But a BTX system can be made with only one or two fans in the entire system and will cool itself sufficiently and cheaply.
We have BTX Dells at work, and they're very quiet, and the interior layout is fantastic and uses few parts, keeping cost down.
Additionally, the article implies Intel forces their customers to adopt standards like BTX. Does the writer not notice that over 80% of machines sold today are still not BTX? Intel pushed the "legacy free PC" 6 years ago, and it was not adopted because there was no market for it.
This article is full of opinion and slant and doens't do a good job actually explaining the material. - lostradamus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Clearly you haven't tried BTX then.
- lostradamus, on 10/12/2007, -4/+5I heart BTX.
- afx1, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Efficiency ftw
- musbou, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3This could become a direct competitor to the Mini-ITX standard and motherboards from VIA.
Mini-ITX is great and all, but i believe it has a lot of problems (partially because of VIA). - Giga, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@lostradamus
I have tried BTX, and won't be going that way again. Have _you_ tried BTX?
http://www.silverstonetek.com/products-lc15.htm
http://www.intel.com/products/motherboard/dg965mq/index.htm
Superior cooling? My northbridge chipset sits at 70*C idle and the graphics card (7600GS) sits at 80*C idle and there is no room to upgrade the coolers (room temp ~20*C). The system is just as noisy as my old generic ATX case with midrange Zalman cooling.
@Dabellah below
"EDIT: Forgot to mention, they are virtually quiet too as they use 120mm fans as a standard."
A 120mm fan wouldn't fit in the case even if you took a crowbar to it... - OBKenobi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1[quote]I agree, Digerati,
If an AMD cooks with the heatsink taken off, then an Intel chip would be a total nuclear meltdown.[/quote]
Remember this?
http://www.everythingusb.com/usb_pentium_1_cup_warmer.html
That's a Pentium 1, a P4 Prescott has got to be able to fry an egg. - mabhatter, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1while BTX may be the future of massive cases, it doesn't address stuff already out there.... I'd bet most of AMD's market is the upgrade/DIY segment... reusing cases Matters to those people. Intel makes stuff primarily for PC OEMs first. BTX is really cool.. it fixes much of what's wrong with ATX in terms of cooling "zones" and better placement of parts on the motherboard. For most Diggers though, it's another one of those things that means throwing out tons of investment for a "feature change"... DTX also addresses some of the issues with mini/micro cases getting smaller.. as most component OEMs STILL have crappy support for small size cases and boards... hopefully this will push "small PCs" into local shops everywhere... finally! without having to buy the "canned" SFF that's basically a barebones "store" PC from Shuttle, Asus, etc...
- mabhatter, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1in a matter of speaking Intel did have the slightly better FPU... which matters squat for office apps and web browsing... AMD had the faster processor hands down with Athlon 64 for a good 3 year run! Intel finally got back on top with a crazy streak though with core duo. But other posters are correct, AMD suffers mostly from the "intel only" OEMs... AMDs in business class computers are almost always in the "low-cost" segments with the crap parts making them look "cheap" to those used to the old days of AMD playing catchup... that kind of kept the stigma alive... then Intel got the "premium" treatment... and Everybody wants the premium brand, right... no "second best" here. That and Dell took so very long to start selling them!!!
- frozengold, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0In my experience the main source of heat in a modern system is not the CPU (any more) but the graphics card. And given that AMD seem to be moving towards combining the graphics and CPU into a single chip (via the ATi acquisition) surely they'd want a motherboard that encouraged MORE airflow?
- handrail, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0well, while the creation of BTX was not solely for cooling, temperature issues definitely played a role in their creation. even wikipedia lists more reasons:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BTX_motherboard
his article has some opinions regarding AMD and their future use of the board. keep in mind too that this is a REPORT from AMD themselves, so obviously it is going to be slanted towards the AMD side of things. i don't read that the article is implying that intel is forcing anything on anyone. in fact, it reads more like they worked specifically with dell because dell had the capacity to retool their motherboard layouts with relative ease and they were willing to do so...not unlike how Apple is working with Cingular/AT&T to develop new cellular services for the iPhone. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -12/+4uh, isn't AMD the one that cooks to death when you take its heatsink off? and isn't AMD popular because they assume you'll buy one to play games, and therefore need its memory pipelines, but not a very good FPU?
basically, there's a reason most businesses use intel... - Vulpes, on 10/12/2007, -21/+3Format wars spark up and fade shortly afterwards. What is the point of fixing something that isn't broken? ATX has been good to us for nearly a decade and there isn't a point in changing.
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