Looking for ways to address the growing needs for smaller, sleeker and cooler PCs? According to leading IT infrastructure distributor, Axiz, users may want to consider Balanced Technology Extended (BTX) products. BTX is the next generation in PC system design and enables users to strike a better balance in thermal management, system size, shape and acoustics - all of which are critical attributes of innovative desktop PCs for the digital home and office.
"BTX has unique, scalable system form factors, enables platforms to run more quietly, handles high-performance applications and meets the lower price points demanded by digital home and office markets," says David Ah-Tow, desktop chassis and HDD product manager at Axiz.
He also says BTX addresses these requirements by using standard components at reduced costs compared to custom solutions or its predecessor platform, Advanced Technology Extended (ATX).
According to Ah-Tow, the current industry standard, ATX was introduced in 1995. "As technology has evolved, new challenges have arisen that are increasingly difficult for ATX to fulfil. The BTX form factor specification was developed as an evolutionary step to the ATX form factor and is expected to replace ATX as the industry standard."
BTX provides an improved motherboard layout and chassis design that delivers improved airflow to high power components. The only fan of a PC assembled into a BTX chassis is found in the CPU`s thermal module cooling unit. This single 80mm fan not only aids in the extraction of the heat generated by the CPU, but also dispels the air horizontally to the rear of the chassis. As the air is dispelled, it automatically draws up the air heated up by the RAM and display card.
"In-line air-flow is also key to the BTX design in terms of dispelling heated internal air," indicates Ah-Tow.
Details of BTX design benefits include:
* Scalability - BTX chassis, board, power supply and thermal module parts with standard interface definitions are available in a range of sizes. Many different combinations of BTX-compliant elements have been demonstrated, resulting in Slim Tower, Slim Desktop, Small Form Factor, Cube, Mini-Tower, Desktop and Entertainment PC system profiles.
* Improved thermal performance compared to ATX - BTX places high-power components in-line, allowing them to be cooled with the same high velocity, low temperature airflow that travels from the front of the system to the rear panel. In BTX-compliant systems, critical processor voltage regulation components and the processor socket now have improved heat transfer due to increase of airflow in the area.
* Improved acoustic performance compared to ATX - BTX is designed to offer lower airflow impedance, allowing for reduced total fan count, lower fan speeds and, as a result, lower acoustic levels.
* Improved motherboard design - BTX layout allows more room for processor power delivery routing and reduces routing complexity for the memory controller for memory from the I/O controller to rear panel I/O. The thermal benefits provided to the processor voltage regulation allows for designs with fewer components.
* Improved structure integrity - BTX introduces a standard Support and Retention Module (SRM) concept, which reduces the probability of failures from mechanical shock and vibration, and increases long-term reliability testing.
* Cost benefit - BTX layout offers low temperature, high velocity airflow for simple, less costly heatsink technologies. The standard elements replace custom elements for compact system design.
For more information on BTX, please visit the BTX Channel Resource Centre at www.intel.com/go/BTX.
Share
