BTX

BTX, short for Balanced Technology Extended, is a motherboard form factor specification developed by Intel in the mid-2000s as a proposed successor to the ATX standard. The BTX specification defined standard motherboard sizes, mounting points, an I/O panel, and an internal layout designed to improve thermal performance, acoustics, and ease of assembly. It repositioned major heat sources and oriented the power supply to support more efficient cooling and airflow within the chassis, and it standardized connector placement to simplify cable routing.

BTX included several desktop, workstation, and small form factor variants. The design aimed to address heat and noise problems common in high-performance systems and to enable better cooling with newer cases and power supplies. It restructured the internal layout so that airflow could be directed more effectively across critical components, while maintaining compatibility with a range of cooling solutions and peripherals.

Adoption and decline: Introduced in 2004 with support from Intel and various OEMs, BTX never achieved broad market acceptance, and ATX remained dominant. While some manufacturers produced BTX boards and cases for a period, industry momentum did not shift away from ATX. In the late 2000s, Intel reduced active promotion of the standard, and by the 2010s BTX is generally regarded as obsolete. Today, BTX is mainly of historical interest, with surviving examples found in older systems rather than active production.