[Gamerlicious]

I have a Gateway GT 5028 that I am putting into a new case. It has a Foxconn C51GU01 Motherboard. On Gateway's website it lists it as this:
#Form Factor uBTX 4-layer
# Dimensions: 10.4 × 10.5 inches

So it's a BTX mobo? Most cases I saw on newegg were for ATX. I was told on another website that a medium ATX case would work, but I'm not too sure about that. The ATX boards on newegg say 12.0" x 9.6" and the microATX say 9.6" x 9.6".
Gateway's website says mine is 10.4" × 10.5"
You sure that will fit in a medium ATX case?
What's the difference between ATX and BTX anyway?
And I was also wondering about upgrading my PSU. Do BTX boards use the same kind of PSU? I don't really want to get a case/PSU combo because they come with crappy PSUs. I was going to buy a case and PSU seperate.

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BTX is slightly larger than MicroATX (which is usually 9.6 inches by 9.6 inches, give or take a few tenths) so basically any ATX case should be able to fit it. Quite a lot have it marked out by the little holes where the standoffs are which slots fit for BTX, but they may not match depending on where the standoffs are on your board. But generally you should be able to get it into a new case and be able to hold it securely.

The longer distance is usually lengthways (ie going behind where the hard drive would sit) so it would be strongly suggested you asking to look inside the case and measure it up to see if anything important is going to be obscured by anything else in the case. Or just take your board in and ask to see how it would look in a case. Most shops should oblige if you say you'll take the case when you know how it'll look inside.

As for the PSU - BTX is the name of the form-factor (ATX, MicroATX, etc) and has no relation to any PSU device or how it connects or anything like that.

[Neil Jones]

BTX is slightly larger than MicroATX (which is usually 9.6 inches by 9.6 inches, give or take a few tenths) so basically any ATX case should be able to fit it. Quite a lot have it marked out by the little holes where the standoffs are which slots fit for BTX, but they may not match depending on where the standoffs are on your board. But generally you should be able to get it into a new case and be able to hold it securely.

The longer distance is usually lengthways (ie going behind where the hard drive would sit) so it would be strongly suggested you asking to look inside the case and measure it up to see if anything important is going to be obscured by anything else in the case. Or just take your board in and ask to see how it would look in a case. Most shops should oblige if you say you'll take the case when you know how it'll look inside.

As for the PSU - BTX is the name of the form-factor (ATX, MicroATX, etc) and has no relation to any PSU device or how it connects or anything like that.

[Gamerlicious]

Ok, thanks.

[Gamerlicious]

I see that there are BTX cases on newegg, but they are ugly.

[Gamerlicious]

The PSUs on newegg are divided into ATX/BTX/Micro ATX too...
You sure it doesn't matter if I buy an ATX case and PSU?
Why do they make the different kinds if they work with eachother anyway?

[Neil Jones]

Quote from a website:

BTX - The Basics

Just in case you were told otherwise, the BTX form factor is largely incompatible with the ATX form factor - the only area where this doesn't fully apply is in power supply support, as you can use ATX power supplies with BTX motherboards (more on this later).

...

BTX Cases and Power Supplies

As we mentioned at the start of this article, the BTX standard specifies the same motherboard connectors as we saw with ATX - meaning that ATX power supplies could be used in BTX cases and with BTX motherboards. The vast majority of ATX power supplies will not fit in micro and definitely not in picoBTX cases, but using them in a full sized BTX tower is a possibility.

Therefore, if the case has appropriate holes for standoffs that match your board (this is what you really need to check if nothing else) then an ATX case (and any ATX power supply) will work just fine.

Whether BTX ultimately takes hold in the way that ATX did remains to be seen, though some may say that it's dead in the water as three years on, ATX continues to dominate.

(quotes on this page have come from the article at http://www.anandtech...doc.html?i=1876 and subsequent pages.)

There's also more details on the Wiki:
http://en.wikipedia....BTX_(computers)

Edited by Neil Jones, 11 July 2006 - 04:19 PM.