Why is atx the most popular form factor

[rob4001]

SLI /crossfire has been dead for a long time sound cards unless you are professional in audio are not necessary. So all those empty unused sci slots adding size to your mboard why is matx and itx not a more popular form factor?

[PC-LAD]

SLI /crossfire has been dead for a long sound cards unless you are professional in audio are not necessary. So all those empty unused sci slots adding size to your mboard why is matx and itx not a more popular form factor?

Well, one - easier water cooling, two - more drive room, three - CaN FiT MoAr RgB

[DanceswithUnix]

They tend to have better VRMs than uATX which gives better reliability.

ITX is expensive and hard to cool well.

[pp05]

Ease of access. More space = better cooling or can accommodate larger array of solutions.

I got the impression that OEM market was mostly m-atx and laptops nowadays at the consumer end.

[kalniel]

As above, I don't think it is the most popular form factor.

[adidan]

m-ATX always been my favourite, no particular reasons - smaller than ATX, bigger than ITX is hardly a reason

[rob4001]

Sorry for digging this up again I still don't get why Matx and Its are not more popular (not talking system builders) ATX cases have become more compact as drive bays have gone but really obviously seems like people want smaller more compact cases. AMD motherboards in matx is all but dead. ITX cost is higher but only due to it not being popular.

I don't understand why case manufactures are obsess with water cooling. I mean a half decent air cooler will do the job of a 240mm water cooler. How big is that i9 9900k market for 5.3ghz overclocks anyway.

[Spreadie]

m-ATX always been my favourite, no particular reasons - smaller than ATX, bigger than ITX is hardly a reason

The last time my main rig was ATX was the X58 setup I bought from you, and that was probably the last time I was serious about watercooling too - twin loops, both with 240mm and 360mm radiators in each.

Since then, everything has been mATX or Mini ITX - I've bounced back and forth between them, but even mATX hasn't been my main rig since the early days of Skylake.

Most of it has been air cooled too - Liquid cooling just hasn't been worth it for mainstream rigs since Sandy/Ivy arrived IMO - the heat density hasn't been there to warrant it. Of course, now we're in the midst of a core-count war, so it may well come back into fashion.

[adidan]

The last time my main rig was ATX was the X58 setup I bought from you, and that was probably the last time I was serious about watercooling too - twin loops, both with 240mm and 360mm radiators in each.

Since then, everything has been mATX or Mini ITX - I've bounced back and forth between them, but even mATX hasn't been my main rig since the early days of Skylake.

Most of it has been air cooled too - Liquid cooling just hasn't been worth it for mainstream rigs since Sandy/Ivy arrived IMO - the heat density hasn't been there to warrant it. Of course, now we're in the midst of a core-count war, so it may well come back into fashion.

Oh that's right, the Asus board wasn't it?

Reminds me I still have my EVGA X58 board boxed upstairs, really should decide what to do with it.

Still on the mATX with my Zen 2 setup, ITX always seems a bit too pricey for my blood at the moment. #tightgit

[Disputes]

i think its more so the fact ATX is the origin of the standard and the oldest as a result. everything is built around that, the varients like MATX and ITX are newer and were only possible due to tech improving. its mostly a compatibility thing. just remember how large IDE connectors were. we had both north and south bridges. all the tooling is there to build for atleast ATX, so its the most popular. nothing inherent makes ATX superior, over any other standard its just the one that the industry has adopted as the primary one to cater for.

[Hasnain]

Personally MATX looks funny to me due to it's small size and I just prefer the standard ATX form. Generally MATX boards also have less inputs and connections on the board itself.

[ACBRAH]

I newly got into PCs as of last month and wondered this myself. I bought an ATX z490 board as I got a insanely good deal on it (damn near free) so had to go with ATX. But I much preferred mATX, purely because ATX cases are massive. Even the most compact of compact cases are of considerable size.

My current case has these dimensions: 40.5 x 25.5 x 45. Absolute mammoth. Kind of wish I could get an mATX but the same £500 ATX build I made would come to £800 in mATX.

[Pob255]

this is a bit of multi level thread necromancy but it is a good question.

mATX seems to fluctuate in popularity quite a bit.
ITX is expensive, not just because it's less popular but also it's more difficult and expensive to fit high end vrm's on them because of the lack of space.
this is one big advantage to mATX you're chopping off just the bottom of the board and with it a bunch of the extras from from the chipset, the upper half of the board is the same as ATX.

With ever greater boosting we're seeing increase cpu power demand making vrm more important even if not ocerclocking, lets face it boost is just dynamic automated overclocking.

I think that the next real battle is going to be over 24pin vs 12VO, this is the new 12volt only motherboard/pus currently in ATX form factor, but I can see the big system companies hp/dell/lenovo pushing for this and a new formfactor to go with it.