THG Article - Either Way ATX or BTX Cases

[CoolCountDracula]

hi,

i saw some really bad design things on those new btx mother boards.

1.) the btx motherboards are having their ide, sata and power connection directly in the path of the air flow. if they move the power connector towards the psu and drive connections towards the other end or towards the drive cage it wudnt restrict the air flow.

2.) the air tunnel for cpu isnt that great a idea. it stops the cooling of elements around the cpu. also hot air from the cpu blows over to graphics and north and south bridge.

3.) ram get next to no cooling unless there are more fans.

4.) btx cabinets support unusually high number of fans. Y is that.

 

[mpjesse]

1.) the btx motherboards are having their ide, sata and power connection directly in the path of the air flow. if they move the power connector towards the psu and drive connections towards the other end or towards the drive cage it wudnt restrict the air flow.

All of the BTX boards i've seen have IDE and SATA ports situated away from the cooling tunnel.

the air tunnel for cpu isnt that great a idea. it stops the cooling of elements around the cpu. also hot air from the cpu blows over to graphics and north and south bridge.

All the cases in this review had case fans on either the side or the front to cool other parts of the board such as graphics cards and chipsets. The CPU tunnel fan wasn't the only one. Not sure if you noticed that or not...

4.) btx cabinets support unusually high number of fans. Y is that.

Simple: componenets are getting hotter and hotter. Case fans are going to become a necessary "evil" on all PC's eventually.

-mpjesse

 

[Crashman]

BTX is Intel's way of fixing their CPU problem, rather than fixing their CPU!

 

[CoolCountDracula]

1.) the btx motherboards are having their ide, sata and power connection directly in the path of the air flow. if they move the power connector towards the psu and drive connections towards the other end or towards the drive cage it wudnt restrict the air flow.

All of the BTX boards i've seen have IDE and SATA ports situated away from the cooling tunnel.

if u look at thg's article u will c the ide/sata/power connections damn smack in the middle of tunnel. look closely.

the air tunnel for cpu isnt that great a idea. it stops the cooling of elements around the cpu. also hot air from the cpu blows over to graphics and north and south bridge.

All the cases in this review had case fans on either the side or the front to cool other parts of the board such as graphics cards and chipsets. The CPU tunnel fan wasn't the only one. Not sure if you noticed that or not...

exactly my point y is there a fan just for the cpu which cud cool other components as well. and also all the hot air from the cpu will blow on to other components on the mb which will heat up from this as well.

4.) btx cabinets support unusually high number of fans. Y is that.

Simple: componenets are getting hotter and hotter. Case fans are going to become a necessary "evil" on all PC's eventually.

-mpjesse

exatly my point instead of actully improving things they added a whole lot of fans to cool each thing individually which cud have been cooled nicely if it hadnt been for a bad air flow.

cpu shud always be the last thing to be cooled.

two plus points in the whole btx design i c is
1.) graphics card getting some space to cool off rather than being suffocated by other pci cards.

2.) psu is a decent distance from the cpu (two of the hottest things in a computer besides a graphics card)

i totally agree with crashman. its intels usual way to fix things. make up new and fancy (but not actually good) stuff and gain bucks till its inherent flaws show up.

 

[Crashman]

Actually the power supply SHOULD be next to the CPU, as it cools the CPU!

Eh? A hot component cooling the CPU? Yes!

A properly designed power supply in an ATX enclosure will have the intake located above the CPU, to draw warm air away from the CPU and blow it out the back of the power supply.

Isn't that what exhaust fans are for? Yes, but with a 120mm fan on the bottom of your power supply you might not even NEED and exhaust fan on the case. I've found this to be true with most high-end systems, so the low end stuff need not be concerned.

Of course having a slow 120mm fan drawing air up into the power supply and ANOTHER slow 120mm fan draw air out the back of the case is ideal! Quiet, high airflow.