Mother Board Form Factors

To do system board upgrades & provide better recommendations to clients, technicians need to know their form factors.

1. AT Form Factor - Advanced Technology

i. Invented by IBM in the early 1980's
ii. Around 12" wide * 13" deep
iii. Only designed to handle keyboard and monitor, lack of external ports required.

 2.     ATX Form Factor - Advanced Technology Extended

i. Designed by INTEL in 1995
ii. Around 12" * 9.6" in size
iii. Built-in double high external I/O connector panel, hence external ports can be located directly on the board
iv. Single main keyed internal power supply connector, hence the power connector is easy to plug & can't be installed incorrectly.
v. Relocated CPU & memory next to the power supply which improved airflow cooling. Also reduced the interference with any bus expansion cards.
vi. Relocated internal I/O connectors for the hard drives & the floppy drives near the drive bays to shorten the cables required to connect.
vii. Micro ATX form factor has 9.6 " * 9.6" in size. (Introduced on 1997)
viii. Flex ATX form factor (smallest of ATX motherboard) has 9.0" * 7.5" size. (Introduced on 1999)

3.     ITX Form Factor - Information Technology Extended

i. Developed by VIA technologies on 2001.
ii. 8.5" *7.5" in size
iii. Mini- ITX introduced in 2002 and 6.7" * 6.7"
iv. The processor on a mini ITX board is permanently soldered, so the future processor upgrades are impossible.
v. There is no provision to replace ON board video with AGP video card.

4. NLX Form Factor - New Low Profile Extended

  i.   NLX was developed by Intel & IBM in 1999.

  ii.  10" * 8" to 13.6" to 9"

  iii. Same as LPX but interchangeability of components easier.

  iv. Production of NLX motherboards is mostly stopped.

5. BTX Form Factor - Balance Technology Extended

  i.    Developed by Intel in 2004.

  ii.   All heat generating components are lined up between air intake vents & power supply's exhaust           fan, hence the CPU & other components can be cooled easily by passive heat sinks reducing               the requirements of cooling fans.

6. LPX Form Factor - Low Profile Extended

   i.   Semi-proprietary design developed by Western Digital in 1987.

   ii.  Expansion cards are plugged in parallel to Motherboard, which enabled to the reduced height of          slimline PCs.

   

The other system board form factors are  XT, WTX, DTX, HPTX, EEATX & other proprietary designs.