SUMMARY: We've been working with Intel over the past month to give you all the latest on their new baby - Balance Technology Extended, or BTX for short. It's what Intel are calling their latest form factor specification which promises to offer better cooling and quieter operation for high performance computing. Read on and learn what the future has to offer for the PC!
The Thermal Module, a significant part of improving the sound level and heat dissipation throughout the system that BTX was created to do
The BTX specifications call for a new location for the system processor. The relative position, at a locale close to the top and front of the motherboard, allows for a new way of cooling not only the processor but the highest heat producing components of the system through the use of a "thermal module."
Above, you can look at the different parts of the BTX Thermal Module
The thermal module consists of a duct, seal, heatsink, fan, and clip. The duct encloses the heatsink area and forces the air inducted through the massive fan over the heatsink and processor directly to the upper back of the system in a tower case. After the airflow provides cooling for the processor, it continues through the system to the graphics subsystem, whether it is on a riser card or directly into a PCI Express slot, providing additional cooling to the video card. Supposedly, airflow then trickles throughout the rest of the system to the memory and the various other internal components.
The BTX Form Factor is centralized around heat dissipation of the system processor.
The thermal module of BTX represents how the LGA-775 Prescott will have to be cooled. BTX will more than likely be coming to the market at the same time as the LGA-775 Prescott processors with such a higher heat production. The first motherboards we will see with BTX will probably be high-end solutions that target the wealthiest enthusiasts and workstation systems then as usual we’ll see more affordable systems come onto the scene shortly afterwards.
