PCI Express but not BTX ?!?!?!?!?

TheDuke

Hi guys,

I embarkt on the quest for a new machine and tnx to all th great board guys am making allot of head way.

But one thing that pussels me is the PCI Express.

This is a brand new point to point PC bus which on paper makes brilliant sense - but all I can find is PCI Express Graphic cards whilst I can not find a single BTX mother board?????????

Can anyone explain this - so is an ATX board with PCI Express slot like a and PCI -e light?

Thanks for all the help in advance,

The Duke : ))

Venom

Intel are the only ones pushing BTX as the new standard due to better chip cooling over an ATX board. AMD however get no benefit from a BTX board and are not pushing the new format at all. Also the fact that board, PSU and case manufacturers tend not to move onto a new format until there is a demand and consumers wont buy until there is a need and its all adds up to a very good possibility that BTX is already dead in the water.

I havent heard any valid reason that a pci-e slot will work better on a BTX board over a ATX one.

TheDuke

all adds up to a very good possibility that BTX is already dead in the water

interresting... like so many attempts before.. anyone remember the VLB slot

Thanks for that m8... I spent a quite some time on intel and intel realted sites to get my head arround what it is and probably swollowed a PR bug on the way ...

given that the hype started end 2003 and there is still nothing big about btx... I'd say you are probably spot on...

airetam_storm

BTXdoes make good advance over ATX as only one fan is needed to keep thewhole system breezy
How come this doesnt benefit AMD?

Venom

airetam_storm wrote:

BTXdoes make good advance over ATX as only one fan is needed to keep thewhole system breezy
How come this doesnt benefit AMD?

Link to that info please?

astrofool

within a couple years, all new systems will be btx. The AT/ATX changeover took years as well.

In the long run, both chip makers will benefit from it, its not something to worry about right now though.

VLB slot failed because the PCI slot succeeded, both were to replace ISA (which they did after about years and years of boards shipping with both ISA and PCI). They were both invented for the same reason, just PCI became dominant, and is nothing really to do with the BTX situation, unless someone decided to make a competing standard.

TheDuke

anyone know when BTX will become established - even a guess?

Seems to be a little divergance of opinions here ...

Venom

TheDuke wrote:

anyone know when BTX will become established - even a guess?

Seems to be a little divergance of opinions here ...

While I cant predict the future the facts at the moment don't look to rosey for BTX. While BTX may be the dogs bollocks in cooling, AMD don't need it as there chips can run much hotter than Intel chips, case manufactures have been very slow to pick it up and motherboard makers have been even slower.

This is not even taking into account the amount of users who dont want to have to have the extra cost of a new psu and case to go on top of gfx card,mobo,chip and ram when upgrading to the latestes gear. A semi decent psu and case will add €2-300 on top of your other upgrades that most users would rather spend that extra cash on better chips,mobos and video cards.

netman

while an average btx system has better thermal management than an average atx system, you can get pretty much the same thing with a decent atx case like the lian-li for example.

astrofool

AMD's future chips will be hotter than intel's current ones. When BTX happens, it'll happen, there'll be a long changeover period like there was between AT and ATX.

OfflerCrocGod

BTX may not be as big as Intel hopes because they have patented a key cooling aspect of it and that means Intel will afto be payed for every single case made......fat chance Intel!, AMD will either stay ATX ( it works perfectly fine even for prescotts ) or go their own way. We'll see by the end of next year, so TheDuke are you gonna wait that long? Just build yourself a nice system based on DDR-2 and PCI-e ( standards that are going somewhere ) and maybe BTX will begin replacing ATX next year or then again maybe not.

TheDuke

they have patented a key cooling aspect of it

hmmmm.... sounds like Apple's success story here ...

so TheDuke are you gonna wait that long?

I kinda get the jist of it now...

I supposed my phobia everytime I go for a big system upgrade is that there is like something really cool just arround the corner and I bought my stuff 5mins before it came out...

so ATX is cool... I'll go with that..

tnx guys

OfflerCrocGod

TheDuke wrote:

I supposed my phobia everytime I go for a big system upgrade is that there is like something really cool just arround the corner and I bought my stuff 5mins before it came out...

That's not the best outlook for buying PCs because there are new thing coming out constantly and if you keep on waiting for The Next Big Thing you will never get a new PC built