New BTX system

[oldfart]

Hmm. I guess the name threw me. The jpegs are called "terminatorbtx". An inverted ATX design with flow through CPU cooling is a good idea as well.

 

[Zebo]

Originally posted by: oldfart
BTX offers MUCH better/quieter cooling than the ancient ATX which has been around since socket 7 days. BTX has a dedicated heatpath from the front of the case to the rear for the CPU. This is not (easily) possible with ATX design. The CPU heat is is dealt with in a separate thermal zone/path instead of a big heat plenum like ATX is. Its not here yet, so you will have to stay with ATX unless you want to wait for awhile.
BTX pic
BTX pic2
You can see the dedicated airflow path

I'd like to see some evidence of this MUCH better and quieter cooling. How long ATX has been around does'nt prove anything other than it's success so I'm not sure why you would bring that up.


Cooling.
Most good modern ATX cases work the same way as BTX. air comes in the front, passes over mobo and all thier heat producing elements then exits out the back fan(s) and PSU. Most good cases are able to keep the motherboad sensors at or about room temp showing thier cooling is perfectly good, as is, I'm sure, BTX will be.

Noise.
Moving to BTX each componet will still need a HSF like now so low noise is not a factor, it will still be there. And at the same levels since as I noted earlier the good ATXs stay at room temp which is the coolest envrioment BTX could be and the heat sinks and heat sink fans are only as good as the air they are surrouded by. You will also still have case fans, PSU fans, componet fans and processor fans which all make noise.

Third issue is cost to everyone which will ultimatly be absorbed by consumer for this move. The new cases I have to buy is the first cost I'll have to pay which I'm not too happy about since I already have very nice silverstone cases and ANTEC ones costing hundreds and planned to use them..well forever. But I'm sure I can't when all mobo's and cards will eventually be for BTX only. The second cost, every consumer will pay, is the retooling for the case manufactures and the mobo makers to give us BTX which they are not happy about in the first place, and will be passed on to us. Adding a liitle more to every mobo and case.

BTX is far from a done deal. Thier is heavy resistance, for the reasons I noted, and could easily go the way of rambus. In fact intel is the only one pushing for it. See BTX about as popular as SARS in Taiwan and Intel BTX chassis designs cause fury from partners





I've alwasy felt the best case design would square and only have one fan a large 150mm-200mm in the rear. Something lke the antec aria but much larger scale. Drives would be up front with holes/spacing between them for air to enter, then it would pass entirely over the motherboad and componets, next up would be PSU then the fan blowing out. This could eliminate all fans using passive HS is no problem with the static pressure generated by such a large fan and the system would be quieter since it only has one fan and low RPM..

 

[oldfart]

Most good modern ATX cases work the same way as BTX. air comes in the front, passes over mobo ...

That is not the same. BTX has a path for cool air to come in from the front, pass over the CPU and go directly out the back. ATX does not do that at all. The Apple G5, and server cases work the same way. Dedicated heat paths for the CPU.

That inverted ATX form factor is interesting as well.

I set up my system to run a similar cooling method with direct airflow paths. The ATX design is limiting, but you can still do some things that work well.

I have an 80mm Panaflo fan on my CPU with a flexible duct that runs to the lower front intake of my case. This allows the CPU to draw in cool (filtered) air. This also allows one fan to double as an intake and CPU fan.

The heat from the CPU is exhausted by the PS above it (a quiet Fortron with a 120mm fan) and a Panaflo L1A case fan in the normal rear ATX location.

My 9800P is modified with Arctic Cooling Silencer VGA cooler set on the low 1200 RPM setting. This directly exhausts the GPU heat from the system instead of just blowing it back into the case like a typical VGA cooling system.

The Panaflo CPU and case fan are both RPM controlled based on temp by SpeedFan.

This is an almost dead silent system which runs cool and stable.