Computex 2004: BTX at the Show
by Anand Lal Shimpi on June 2, 2004 7:17 AM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
It used to be that Computex was spread across three different halls in or around the Taipei World Trade Center. Recently however a fourth hall was added, thanks to Computex's growth among other factors. For those of you that are curious, the halls themselves are all within walking distance of one another, but the walk seems much longer thanks to Taipei's incredible humidity.
This year the weather seems to be much milder than normal, making the journey better than normal, but still a tiring one. The halls are thankfully better air conditioned this time around, so at least your arrival at the halls is more welcoming than not. The majority of our coverage has been from Hall 2, since that's where most of the motherboard guys are located. But there are still a few gems to be found in the other halls, as we found out today.
...but even more interesting exhibits were at Hall 4
When we first went around the show floor we were severely disappointed with the lack of BTX motherboards and platforms being presented. After complaining about it to Intel, we were directed to their technology showcase here at Computex. It was at Intel's showcase in Hall 4 where we found all of the missing BTX boards and systems we'd been looking for.
For those of you interested in BTX, this part of our coverage is definitely for you.
Be sure to also read our other Computex coverage:
Computex 2004 Early Bird Coverage: NV45 in the Flesh, New Chipsets, BTX boards and more...
Computex 2004: More NV45 Information
Computex 2004: NV45 Mystery Solved
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CrystalBay - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link
The shuttles' seem to be the most intrigueing of the bunch.jliechty - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link
Anybody remember WTX? (*crickets chirping*) ... well, I don't suppose many would. Anyway, Intel was behind that also, and heck, some people even _liked_ it - and look where it is(n't) today. I'm not saying that's what will happen to BTX, but I'm certainly not going to be an early adopter here.Dasterdly - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link
BTX is a small step considering how long we've been using ATX (20+ yrs!).There's no cooling at the bottom for the expansion cards and they are still mounted flat, trapping heat under them.
Intel is still fiddling around with this seems like it's not happening.
It's almost time for upgrading for me I dont want to wait another year for BTX and Im not buying another ATX based system.
Cygni - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link
Ive hated BTX since day 1. Its just completly un-needed in my eyes, even for a prescott. I see no reason for BTX to even exist.ZobarStyl - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link
The hate is simple...they want to change everything and the only semi-decent reason they have for it is improved cooling. The idea that all of our mobos and cases will be rendered obsolete by Intel for cooling reasons is frankly quite stupid; the only cases that have real trouble cooling are those lousy Dell/HP boxes that don't even have a single 80mm in them...changing the whole factor to facilitate even crappier designs by OEMs isn't exactly good news to me. Personally I think BTX would be good to implement only in SFF if indeed the cooling is beneficial...since pretty much every SFF case has a custom mobo it wouldn't affect the end user very much. However for those of us who love the ATX cases we plopped down so much money for, we'd like to keep putting new mobos in, thanks but no thanks Intel. Why not champion some effective standard of water cooling if you are worried so much about your flamethrowing Prescotts? Frankly I hope AMD and all the manufacturers completely ignore this and let it die rather than let Intel use its monopoly to push the industry into some silly, unfinished standard.tfranzese - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link
I must agree. Aside from some vague explaining of the BTX delima which has yet to be finalized by Intel there was a lot of good pics in there and descriptions.mcveigh - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link
great pics, clear explanations.....this is why I love Anandtech :)tfranzese - Wednesday, June 2, 2004 - link
I wish you guys did more investigating. The Inquirer gives much more reason for the hate behind BTX.http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=16294