Talk:ATX

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The article claimed that ATX will eventually be replaced by BTX. While this is Intel's intention, their plans don't seem to be going very well so unless you've got a crystal ball, I think it's a little unresonable to makes this claim

Contents

[edit] The advance of atx power connectors

The atx form factor was created in 1995 and completely out ran the ordinary at supply.The atx was a solution to all the disadvantages and problems that were caused by the at power supply.The atx power supply has a switch in the back to make sure that no power is flowing to the motherboard and this is also a safety precaution.

[edit] wikified

Doesnt this need to be wikified? And isnt it a stub?

[edit] more

what about explaining what something like "atx 12V v1.2" means etc. Great start but could do with more

I'd certainly love to see a bit more info on power supplies, etc. I see PSUs described as "PSII ATX" or "PSIII", and have no idea what this means :) Steved424 09:51, 4 February 2006 (UTC)
And I see things like "ATX 2.2" when picking out a PSU, and I don't know what that means. --BennyD 23:41, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Baby AT and PS/2

I am positive that some of the Intel motherboards, perhaps OEM-only models, had PS/2 ports. Perhaps even back to 486 times. The majority of PS/2 on Baby AT boards came on a bracket, however. --Swaaye 02:09, 8 July 2006 (UTC)

PS/2 mouse ports were seen on quite a few (i think less than half though) of baby AT machines on a bracket but i don't think i've ever seen one that didn't have 5 pin din keyboard port. I have seen some (pre ATX) big brand machines with two PS/2 ports but i don't think they were baby AT form factor. Plugwash 22:05, 8 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Corrected btx link

Updated link for BTX since the page has been moved. -- RND  T  C  17:33, 27 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Extended ATX

Anyone up for making an article or section on Extended ATX? Jay Kana 14:40, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Old Power supply pictured

The I think a picture of a power supply with the new 6 pin PCIE connector and without the 3 pin fan connector (new power supply fans are not controlled by the motherboard) should replace the one currently listed.

[edit] Airflow

I believe there are ATX power supplies with different airflows:

  • From top to front (fan)
  • From back to front (fan)
  • From front to top (fan) to CPU

Would this warrant a discussion?

In the older ATX specs, the power supply was designed to actually take air *into* the case and exhaust it onto the CPU. When processor power dissapation became so great that they required their own CPU coolers, the issue became moot and power supply airflow direction changed to exhaust the case. N Yo FACE 00:34, 23 April 2007 (UTC)
Around the turn of the century I made it my standard practice to flip over the fans of all ATX systems I worked on so the power supply exhausted air from the case. If the CPU didn't have a fan, I installed one. Internal openings on the power supply, other than for the fan, got blocked with aluminum foil "flue tape". The measured results were around a 10 degree Fahrenheit reduction in temperature inside the case. With higher performance CPUs (that already had a large CPU heatsink and fan) the temperature difference could be felt on the outside of the case. The backwards airflow power supply was a stupid idea from the beginning- perhaps it made some sense with the CPUs at the *start* of the ATX design process, but the concept wasn't practical with the CPUs being used when the ATX standard was finalized.
Some OEM systems compensated for the back-asswards power supply fan by mounting a large duct over the CPU heatsink- with a 4" exhaust fan. Flipping both fans around resulted in lower case temperatures. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Bizzybody (talk • contribs) 02:09, August 20, 2007 (UTC).

[edit] New Formfactor: DTX

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=36833 Released by AMD. --Satsuki 06:43, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Shorting a power supply

FTA: Because the ATX PSU uses the motherboard's power switch, turning on the power in situations that do not utilize an ATX motherboard is possible by shorting the green wire from the ATX connector to any black wire on the connector (or ground). This trick allows easy re-use of an old PC power supply.

I've heard that this can be very dangerous (as well as fatal to your hardware). Can anyone clarify? Nemilar 01:19, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

No shorting a psu in this manner is one of the main ways to add a second psu for the purpose of running the highest end graphics cards or water cooling units

[[User:Mdogma]10:40, 8, Mar 07]

I'd think it highly unlikely this would be dangerous but you have to be carefull about underloading if you don't want to damage stuff. Some PSUs start to lose regulation if certain rails (mainly the 5V rail afaict) are not sufficiantly loaded. Plugwash 21:12, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Display bug

When i [hide] the menu 'Contents', the first picture and the [edit] link don't move, but the text and the second image do. So there is a bad mix (Firefox 1.5 Win XP SP2)

[edit] Five power supply designs, or seven?

The article says "The ATX form factor has had five main power supply designs throughout its lifetime" but the list that follows has seven entries, because of the three variants of the ATX12V. This is a bit confusing. I'm moving the EPS12V up one position, so that the three ATX12Vs are in a row, and indenting the list before the ATX12V 2.0 and 2.2.

This is probably not the best solution, maybe someone has a better idea. — Graf Bobby 09:45, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Extended ATX?

Can't find any info for that, the Form Factor used by AMD Quad FX platform as in ASUS L1N64-WS Pro, where is the infor for that, besides a redirection from Extended ATX to ATX?

[edit] What a crappy specification

every revision has a different PSU connectors, not every case manufacturer states which ATX revision they use, and even when they claim the case should come with ATX 2.0 PSU (24+4), it comes with another, old one (20+4). And Asus states in the manual that the motherboard won't even boot without ATX 2.0 supply. of course all these cases are "just ATX" :-( QuestPC 19:45, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

ATX 2.0 isnt the same as ATX12V 2.0. The latter is described in this Wikipedia page. ATX 2.0 is older, and probably has just 20 pins. http://www.pcguide.com/ref/power/sup/partsMotherboard-c.html That page describes old ATX, and says that "their" revision is ATX 2.03, which means ATX 2.0 is even older. I agree, this is confusing, especially if the people in the business trying to sell things dont know what theyre talking about >:( 81.232.32.135 15:06, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Another form factor

My old motherboard MSI MS-6309, a part of my old Fujitsu Siemens computer, has another form factor, not documented here. It is 304 mm high, just like ATX, but 192 mm wide. Quite confusing! The power supply connector is an ordinary "old ATX" connector, with a single 20-pin connector. What do you think it is? ;-) 81.232.32.135 14:58, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Tabs, the unforeseen connector issue

PSUs with 24-pin connectors typically have an enlarged tab that is centered across the 24-pins (and is therefore off-center in a 20-pin socket). This introduces an unexpected large bulk on that side of the power connector. This can make it impossible to plug into some older motherboards because of the placement of capacitors or other objects near the socket. One example is the Abit NF7-S2. If you are buying a PSU for an older system you need to be aware of this. Unfortunately the most cost-effective solution (old, good PSUs aren't any cheaper than new ones, if you can even find them) is probably to buy a 24-20 pin adapter. Even though an adapter is technically unnecessary, the 20-pin plug on the adapter will usually have the original skinny tab. You can also cut the tab off but doing this will void warranties. Ham Pastrami 10:24, 7 November 2007 (UTC)