ATX vs. BTX

[Flixster]

First of all, let me say this is hands down the most informative, helpful site on PC building I've ever seen. I plan on purchasing hardware for my new system in February of '08, and stumbled across some new tech that made me curious.

While comparing a system I am putting together against a top of the line Dell, I noticed the motherboard used in their newest machines is BTX format. According to the 5 minutes of time I had to look into this before leaving for work, I saw that BTX boards are supposed to be more streamlined for cooling, and also offer better support for USB 2.0, along with other connection types.

I'm just curious if this is a Dual Core/Quad Core scenario, meaning it would be nice to have, but you won't really benefit from it for a few years. Any thoughts? And thank you for your time.

[Jamie Nixx]

Go for an ATX board, BTX boards are extremely rare and not as good as ATX boards.

If you google ATX Vs BTX they were phased out a while ago.

Good idea, never caught on.

[Flixster]

Thank you kindly. I just figured since Dell was using BTX in their newest 720s (H2C), that they were on to something. I guess not. ;)

[Jamie Nixx]

Dell like to think they are special, they are not, they make very average computers lol.

[jleonard711]

You DEFINITELY want to go with an ATX board. I think the main reason Dell uses them in most of their PC's is precisely related to what Jamie said - that they are rare and hard to find. This means that when you buy a Dell PC and you have the motherboard go out, you'r stuck trying to find a replacement BTX board and you'll probably just end up having to buy it from Dell. If they made their PC's with ATX boards then you could just go out and by any old board and replace it, and then they wouldn't be making any residual money off of you. I had this happen to my in my Dell e510 - the mobo went out, and I couldn't find any decent BTX boards anywhere, and the case it was in would only accept a BTX board so I was screwed. Dell offered to sell me one for the low, low price of $200 (YEAH RIGHT!), so I just decided to gut the PC and throw the parts into a new case along with a new ATX board.

In short, stay FAR FAR FAR away from BTX boards! And Dell for that matter! You can build a PC for 1/2 what Dell charges, and you can make sure it's built with top-notch parts from top to bottom and not just a few nice parts and the rest junk like Dell does.

[Jamie Nixx]

If you ever have a BTX mobo go out on a Dell your screwed, 3 year warranty, yeah right, thats why in some of their computers they use BTX boards, for one thing, even if you have a warranty, you still have to pay Dell a surcharge because they are so hard to source, and that can be anywhere from $50 to $200.

Dell are n00bs who don't know anything about computers, how and why most importantly, they got so famous really does baffle me, they make average computers, and don't get me started on their gaming computers, we could be here a long time while i tear them a new a-hole on how bad and overpiced they really are XD.