AMD DTX Small Form Factor System Sneak Peek

[malware]

Today AMD provided more details and a specific design example of the DTX small form-factor standard. Back in January of this year at the Consumer Electronics Show, AMD first revealed their plans for the DTX open industry standard for small form factor computers. This HotHardware article showcases a prototype system built on a low power AMD Athlon 64 BE-2350 processor and 690G chipset motherboard with integrated graphics.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Fuse-Wire]

how big (dimension wise) is this, and weight, that thing looks tiny!!

 

[Helvetica]

This is cool, but I don't like the integrated graphics part. Someone just needs to invent a PCI-E angle so you can install a graphics card perpendicular to the mobo.

 

[jydie]

According to the article, the system they tested only used 84 watts under load!!!! That is impressive. Being able to buy all the components and put together a DTX system is something I look forward to. I love Micro-ATX motherboards, but they are a little to large to put together a "true" SFF system.

It will be interesting to see where this goes.

 

[bassmasta]

if someone were to get a pci ribbon, they could get a long-ass card to sit perpendicular to the board

 

[jydie]

if someone were to get a pci ribbon, they could get a long-ass card to sit perpendicular to the board

Dang, that is a great idea!!! If it caught on, you may eventually see external (plug-in) type video cards... which could be cooled and powered outside of the case... much like the external hard drives and DVD drives.

 

[Deleted member 24505]

you can get a pci-e extender ribbon cable.

 

[zekrahminator]

Yeah, I seriously hope that this DTX specification catches on, I'm tired of paying $16 shipping for every case I order off of Newegg . I just seriously hope that we can find a lot of DTX power supplies. That's the one thing that really keeps me away from Micro-ATX when doing budget builds, is that I can't find a power supply that will fit .

 

[rhythmeister]

This is cool, but I don't like the integrated graphics part. Someone just needs to invent a PCI-E angle so you can install a graphics card perpendicular to the mobo.

I believe Silverstone sell such an item!

 

[Mandown]

Can someone tell me what is good about a DTX other than low priced, it just seems like there would be so little space for improvement and to me wouldn't be worth it at all.

 

[KennyT772]

These are designed for the integrated market, aka Offices, Government, average home users (Internet and Flash games), Schools, Carputers, etc. The average dualcore rig consumes around 150w idle and 300w load. These right here idle and load at 68/84. A more than 1/2 cut in idle use (99.99% of runtime for most computers). That is a world of difference in total power bill over the parts lifetime, not to mention thats less energy being converted into heat.

Take the computer lab im in currently at school, we have ~30 Dell ITX celeron socket 478 2.0ghz pcs. The lab is usually 5 to 10 degrees F hotter than the rest of the school, and thats just from the computers running at idle.

This will never be an enthusiest designed pc, so theres a reason there isnt a 90 degree riser bracket for full hight cards. They will never be used in these systems even if you could! Again these are not for us, they are for low end work for years in perfectly stock operation. No extra ram ever added, no extra hard drives, no extra anything. They will be used until they die just as the ITX Dell's and HP's before them (except cheaper).

 

[TUngsten]

They'd be great for a studio apartment in Manhattan

 

[Mandown]

I see now, that explains why doom 95 was so popular when i was in high school. lol though i wouldn't mind having that low power cpu.

 

[jydie]

This will never be an enthusiest designed pc, so theres a reason there isnt a 90 degree riser bracket for full hight cards. They will never be used in these systems even if you could! Again these are not for us, they are for low end work for years in perfectly stock operation. No extra ram ever added, no extra hard drives, no extra anything. They will be used until they die just as the ITX Dell's and HP's before them (except cheaper).

According to the description, the thing that separates these from other SFF systems is that the enthusiest will be able to buy separate components and assemble the PC... and thus, allow upgrades in the future. Now, I agree that you will not be running any kind of high end video card on this, but the system should be able to do most anything outside of gaming. I would love to have a system like this at home... one that I could just leave on 24/7 and have quick and easy access to the internet, DVD burning, word processor and spreadsheet, etc. I use my gaming system for that stuff now... but it uses a LOT more then 84 watts.

 

[15th Warlock]

That would make for a sweet media center PC to have right next to your TV on a living room

 

[WarEagleAU]

About time they started rolling these out. With my new pay rate and new job, Im planning on buying alot more computer parts.

 

[ktr]

huh, the size is just a wee bigger than mini-itx. And you can get mini-itx for a core 2 duo.

 

[Mussels]

This is cool, but I don't like the integrated graphics part. Someone just needs to invent a PCI-E angle so you can install a graphics card perpendicular to the mobo.

i've seen then online, they DO exist.

According to the article, the system they tested only used 84 watts under load!!!! That is impressive. Being able to buy all the components and put together a DTX system is something I look forward to. I love Micro-ATX motherboards, but they are a little to large to put together a "true" SFF system.

It will be interesting to see where this goes.

i've got AM2 systems that use 50-70W at load, 3800+ x2 35W models, and everything onboard.

my concern is just how small its gunna be - if we're stuck with onboard, even media systems could get hampered without some good add-in cards.