Why does the bATX form factor exist?

[iamdarkyoshi]

[From the LGA775 era at least] Dell's optiplex towers, some of HP's workstations, and probably many others use the bATX motherboard. If you havent seen what a bATX board looks like, here is a bATX board and standard mATX board next to each other, bATX on the top.

 

Instead of putting the expansion slots under the IO, they are above it (and then the board is usually put on the other side of the case)

 

This results in the inabillity to install dual slot videocards in the top slot, which is often the ONLY PCIe 16x slot!

 

Why? I mean putting the CPU towards the front of the board means that you can get air to it easier, but why not leave it there? Why flip everything?

 

If they made the pcie slot go on the other side of the expansion slot area, you could install dual or even triple slot cards without any issues!

 

Anyone care to explain this nonsense?

[thekeemo]

Quote

• Low-profile – With the push for ever-smaller systems, a redesigned backplane that shaves inches off height requirements is a benefit to system integrators and enterprises who use rack mounts or blade servers.
• Thermal design – The BTX layout establishes a straighter path of airflow with fewer obstacles, resulting in better overall cooling capabilities. There is no dedicated CPU fan – instead, a large 12 cm case fan is mounted, drawing its air directly from outside the computer and cooling the CPU through an airduct. Another distinct feature of BTX is the vertical mounting of the motherboard on the left-hand side. This results in the graphics card heatsink or fan facing upwards, rather than in the direction of the adjacent expansion card.
• Structural design – The BTX standard specifies different locations for hardware mounting points, thereby reducing latency between key components and also reduces the physical strain imposed on the motherboard by heat sinks, capacitors and other components dealing with electrical and thermal regulation. For example, the Northbridge and Southbridge chips are located near each other and to the hardware they control like CPU, RAM and expansion ports (PS/2, USB, LPT etc.)

 

[SLAYR]

Because the people have to order the oem motherboards when one breaks, so the oem gets the money.

[FirstArmada]

BTX was created as a successor to ATX but never caught on

[NumLock21]

BTX was created to improve air flow to all the components like how those ram slots are positioned. Unlike ATX where the ram acts like a wall, blocking the CPU from getting cool air that's drawn in by the front intake fans.