Why was the BTX form factor a failure?

[rs4847]

I was recently given a Dell Dimension 9100 to dispose off, nothing wrong with it apart from HDD failure.

Anyway I was reminded of just how spacious the BTX layout is, I know the reasons for BTX being mainly for the heat dissipation but the layout and access for the other stuff is still much better than ATX.

Don't mind me, I just had to get this random thought out.

[Bonebreaker777]

Some modern towers simulate the shifted orientation of the BTX which I find fascinating.

Are you going to offer the unit for charity or just going to dispose of it as intended, if I may ask?

[wasabi]

It came in at the time of the very worst of the Pentium high wattage but still slow designs, while what consumers were buying was stuff like early Shuttles.

BTX was only really suitable for full tower workstations - never was going to take off in the consumer market. Also Intel were having issues at the time with RDRAM when regular DIMMS were what people wanted.

[Bonebreaker777]

With i810 chipset if remember correctly. What a piece of ... it was. I think the main problem was the patent-troll in disguise, Rambus.

I only had a chance once to work with a PC with RDRAM (I am fairly certain was the only model ever in our village).

[jimbouk]

On the other end of the scale I'm still mourning the demise of mini-DTX, it seemed to be perfect for small but still upgradeable computers.

[Bonebreaker777]

There are some DTX left (support both from case manufacturers as well as motherboard makers). But it's painfully few.

[razer121]

hm i actually still own a btx case...still brand new in its box! such a shame as it is a nice full size media center style case...will one day make a few adjustments and make it atx friendly

I too was unhappy about BTX not pulling through, but we are not the makings just the payers