Any sign of DTX?

[jimbouk]

AMD have put forward a new standard for motherboards of very similar size to shuttle ones, hopefully these will make it into the mainstream and be cheaper than the mini-itx boards. There doesn't seem to be much info about them except the DTX website and news items from when it was announced.

I was just pondering about modding an old apricot 386 I have, the mini-itx boards are far too expensive for what you get and micro-atx just a bit large I think.

Does anyone have any info on these? They're another step down from mATX, going from 4 to 2 slots, and there's a shorter mini-dtx spec as well. There's a couple of pics of one in a Silverstone case on theinquirer.net and vr-zone.com but not that much more info around.

So I open the floor to the Hexus mob. Any info/rumours/new pics please feed me Release date and some specs of real boards would be most exciting, I really hope these make it into individuals' hands and become as available as mATX boards!

[staffsMike]

I'd never heard of these but they look really good Lots better than mini-ITX which I dont think I would ever buy.

[jamespetts]

What's so bad about mini-ITX?

[staffsMike]

It's OK..but afaik it doesn't offer the flexability micro ATX (and most likely this DTX) does. Also upgrading seems limited.

It wasn't an attack on ITX itself im sure people find good uses for it but I dont think I could.

[Funkstar]

upgrading is always going to be limited on a board of that size.

The most common use for MiniITX is VIA Epia systems which don't allow the CPU to be replaced. However, you do get more feature rich boards from Commell, DFI and Jetway.

http://linitx.com/index.php?cPath=12

for some examples

[jimbouk]

Also the price/performance ratio is very poor. With a AMD X2 costing around £55 and a decent mATX board for the same or less, spending £100+ on just a mini-ITX board for a pentium M or upto £200 for a chip with performance similar to a K7 is just silly for your average Joe. Yes mini-ITX boards have there uses, but they struggle to replace a 'normal' computer.

I don't know why mini-ITX didn't become more mainstream, I guess the requirements were a bit limiting (which is what DTX hopes to avoid). Maybe there just wasn't enough room for a standard CPU socket so intel and amd weren't really interested.

[kalniel]

DTX looks really good, I can't wait for them to get a bit more coverage really.

[Funkstar]

would be good if the SFF manufacturers (shuttle etc.) adopted DTX as a platform standard so you could actually upgrade them without having to ditch the case every time. Or mix and match a board to a case like you can with normal systems.

[dave87]

That looks fairly similar to the motherboard in the AOpen EZ18 I've got that has a screwed motherboard. I was thinking of putting a 1ghz C7 or C3 in it and using it as a file server...This could be a better option. Any word on availability?

[jamespetts]

Well, mini-ITX is indeed designed for quite specialist uses: embedded systems, PC-based PVRs, thin clients, secondary computers. It is also rather excellent for delightfully wacky case mods that see computers inside soccer balls, humidors, clocks and waffle irons. They are also rather good for making compact, silent PCs where performance is not an issue. Between them, that is a substantial market, although not quite as mainstream as ATX.

I imagine that the DTX idea is to create a smaller form-factor computer (without PATA, serial/parallel ports/floppy drives/PS/2 ports, etc.) that is reasonably powerful and suited to the average home or office user (although, actually, most office users would probably be better off with mini-ITX boards: think reduced power consumption and space-hogging multiplied by hundreds; it is not as if performance is important for most office PCs). The bulky ATX/BTX would then be reserved for the hardcore power users who don't mind relatively loud fans and a large case, and for servers.

[jimbouk]

Well they'll coming soon, but it's looking consumer product focused rather than normal computers:
Gigabyte Announces First DTX Motherboard

Hopefully some other manufacturers will come up with something better...