Why is the ATX form factor still around?

mozirry

Senior member
Sep 18, 2006
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Why is the ATX form factor still around?

I think, now I might be wrong, that my old 486DX2 box from the early 90's could still fit my brand new socket 939 motherboard, more or less.

Why? We have advanced so far in microprocessor technology, why haven't we advanced the board substantially that we stick them into?

ATX-Micro is non-existant (what 8-12 inch video card can you stick on that thing, along with giant CPUfan?), so basically there is only the ATX standard.
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In a world where standards are constantly changing, why has the standard ATX form survived for so long?

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Are there any radical experiments going on to possibly change this? It's not like we are changing to hybrid cars here, needing a huge infrastructure to mount the change.




I was thinking maybe the following will happen in the future:

1. Different shaped motherboards. Could we perhaps make the flat motherboard move curved, helping airflow in crucial areas instead of having it blast over a huge wasteland?
Or maybe a cone shape so that the air "tornado's from the bottom at a point up towards the top.

2. Also, why is the motherboard the largest component of a computer? Why not just make the CPU and Video Card gigantic with a smaller bridge between them?

3. Why house everything in one box? Sure its more convenient, but imagine the heat tradeoffs if we were able to cool each device seperate of its neighbor.
You could possibly use two low powered fans efficiently for each major heating device instead of 2 - 4 massive fans cooling the entire case in a mediocre fashion.
 

hellokeith

Golden Member
Nov 12, 2004
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Gateway was pushing BTX for a while, unsure if they are still. Like anything else.. why is 32bit still around.. why is x86 still around. The answer: money. People are moaning and whining because of the moderate upgrades needed to run Vista. Imagine if Vista was 64 bit only. Imagine if Core 2 Duo Intel boards were BTX only. Yes it might advance the cause of technological improvements, but at the cost of compatibility/upgradeability which means big time money loss and customer dissatisfaction.
 

Aluvus

Platinum Member
Apr 27, 2006
2,913
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Originally posted by: mozirry
Why is the ATX form factor still around?

I think, now I might be wrong, that my old 486DX2 box from the early 90's could still fit my brand new socket 939 motherboard, more or less.

Why? We have advanced so far in microprocessor technology, why haven't we advanced the board substantially that we stick them into?

ATX-Micro is non-existant (what 8-12 inch video card can you stick on that thing, along with giant CPUfan?), so basically there is only the ATX standard.
--------

In a world where standards are constantly changing, why has the standard ATX form survived for so long?

Intel stands behind ATX. And it is readily available. There is a huge installed base of ATX equipment now, which makes the market resistant to moving to any other standard. It's hard to compete with the economies of scale available with ATX parts.

And largely, there's not much motive to change. Intel had a bit of a problem a while ago that led to them pushing BTX, but ultimately they found a better solution (more efficient processors). Other than the desire for smaller systems (which is a niche market) and issues of video card cooling (which flare up every once in a while), ATX has fairly few drawbacks.

Are there any radical experiments going on to possibly change this? It's not like we are changing to hybrid cars here, needing a huge infrastructure to mount the change.

AMD recently announced their new DTX form factor, and VIA just announced their extremely small Pico-ITX format. DTX has a moderate chance because it's largely compatible with ATX stuff, Pico-ITX is likely to be another niche small form factor.

1. Different shaped motherboards. Could we perhaps make the flat motherboard move curved, helping airflow in crucial areas instead of having it blast over a huge wasteland?
Or maybe a cone shape so that the air "tornado's from the bottom at a point up towards the top.

Motherboards are flat because it's cheaper and easier to make, cheaper and easier to ship, and easier to route traces on. The assembly and soldering process used for these boards is not really ammenable to anything but a flat plane.

2. Also, why is the motherboard the largest component of a computer? Why not just make the CPU and Video Card gigantic with a smaller bridge between them?

The motherboard houses a great deal of power regulation and interfacing hardware. There is a general trend toward integrating more into the processor, which may keep gradually chipping away at the significance of the motherboard. But motherboards are large in part because of all the connectors and slots they have. Pico-ITX, for instance, manages such tiny motherboards partly because most I/O is relegated to tiny headers.

3. Why house everything in one box? Sure its more convenient, but imagine the heat tradeoffs if we were able to cool each device seperate of its neighbor.
You could possibly use two low powered fans efficiently for each major heating device instead of 2 - 4 massive fans cooling the entire case in a mediocre fashion.

Convenience, portability, and safety (more boxes = more cords between them to trip over and unplug) are all major factors. There have been some attempts to move the pwoer supply outside the case (either for heat, as with SevenTeam's unit, or for size as with Shuttle's Zen), and external video is becoming reasonably practical for some applications.

But the biggest issue is that sending high-frequency signals in between boxes is difficult. Much easier to route a high-speed signal through the motherboard (where you can do things to protect it and you can model the effects of its environment) than through a cable (which is exposed to all kinds of interference, physical harm, and other issues). And the shorter the distance that signal has to travel, the better.
 

mozirry

Senior member
Sep 18, 2006
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I remember saying that and not buying a floppy for my last build and needed it in order to load the stupid RAID drivers.

Not that I needed raid anyway
 

Cogman

Lifer
Sep 19, 2000
10,283
134
106
Why not? How would you improve on the ATX standard? As far as things go, it has proven to be a solid model capable of supporting high speed systems, so where is the reason to change?
 

Joemonkey

Diamond Member
Mar 3, 2001
8,859
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Originally posted by: mozirry
I remember saying that and not buying a floppy for my last build and needed it in order to load the stupid RAID drivers.

Not that I needed raid anyway

slipstream the drivers into the CD silly...
 

irishScott

Lifer
Oct 10, 2006
21,562
3
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Originally posted by: Zolty
Originally posted by: Skotty
I'm just glad floppy drives are finally dying off.

amen to that

lol not entirely. I bought a USB floppy drive for my notebook. It's come in handy a few times (troubleshooting).
 

Pwnbroker

Senior member
Feb 9, 2007
245
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Most new motherboards should support USB as a floppy alternative. My AM2 Gigabyte board does. It has a bios option for legacy usb support or something to that effect. Although, Gigabyte support keeps driving that I need a floppy drive to install my RAID drivers, it's not true.
 

firewolfsm

Golden Member
Oct 16, 2005
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If they just flipped the video card so it's facing the rest of the components heat would be so much easier to remove.
 

nexgenbuilder

Senior member
Jan 26, 2007
215
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Originally posted by: mozirry
I remember saying that and not buying a floppy for my last build and needed it in order to load the stupid RAID drivers.

Not that I needed raid anyway

This is true. It seems that floppy drives have died off and I also didnt think that I would need one. Oh i regret that. lol. This is exactly how people are treating the issue of changing motherboard form factors.
But hopefully, there better be a major change in size in the next five years.
 

zmaster

Senior member
May 22, 2005
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Originally posted by: irishScott
Originally posted by: Zolty
Originally posted by: Skotty
I'm just glad floppy drives are finally dying off.

amen to that

lol not entirely. I bought a USB floppy drive for my notebook. It's come in handy a few times (troubleshooting).

At least in my case IDE is dying...recently made my system fully SATA. Thats right hdd and dvd burner are both sata. Floppy's...I removed those from my system last year
 

Matt1970

Lifer
Mar 19, 2007
12,320
3
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It's all in timing. There have been plenty of technologies and designs that were better, more efficient and cheaper, but just came out at the wrong time and never took off.