DIY-APE is working towards its next-generation BTF 3.0 PC design, which takes motherboard back-side cable management to the next level.
DIY-APE, The Pioneer Behind Back-side Motherboard Designs, Is Now Detailing Its Next-Gen BTF 3.0 PC Design, Further Simplifying the DIY PC Ecosystem
Earlier this year, DIY-APE presented its upcoming 50-Pin connector for the latest BTF 3.0 motherboards. This singular connector was designed to support BTF PSUs, requiring no need for additional cables from the PSU for the motherboard and graphics card power delivery.
With this new design, the PSU had to be positioned next to the connector, which meant it would only work with BTF 3.0-compatible cases, but the company has now detailed that it isn't the case entirely.
But just to recap, the backside connector design was first introduced by DIY-APE several years ago, and the company has worked towards refining the DIY PC design for years. Things weren't easy for DIY-APE, since the PC industry is vast and the backside connector integration required changes to designs that've been standard for years.
Despite that, the company worked with major vendors such as ASUS, MSI, Maxsun, Colorful, Yeston, Gigabyte, and several PSU, Case, and Cooler manufacturers to kick start the BTF era, and we have started seeing PC manufacturers adopt this design. Products that comply with the BTF design are out on retail and DIY builders have a lot of backside or BTF options to select from. So the next step for DIY-APE is to refine the BTF ecosystem for the future of DIY PC builders.
With BTF 3.0, DIY-APE wants to introduce the following changes:
- Gold Finger Power Supply Graphics Card
- Hidden Power Supply Graphics Card
- Short Tube Water Cooling
- Gold Finger Power Supply
- Side-Insertion Interface Power Supply
- Backside IO Interface Motherboard
- Gold Finger Backside IO Interface Motherboard
- Backside IO Interface Case
DIY-APE's initial goal for BTF 3.0 was quite ambitious, moving all power and IO interfaces on the motherboard to a single unified connector. However, they looked at the existing nature of DIY PCs, deciding to retain compatibility with BTF 2.0 and non-BTF standards.
For this, the company has developed the new 50-pin power connector, which is based on the ATX3.0 and ATX 3.1 standards, and instead of simply moving the power connectors to the backside, has all the power needs of the motherboards and their components, primarily the CPU and the GPU, handled by this single port. The 50-pin cable is built around a similar design to the CRPS PSUs, which are designed for server environments and can handle high-intensity loads for prolonged use periods.
The 50-pin power cable is rated at up to 2145W, and can deliver up to 1680W to the CPU and GPU alone. That is enough to feed the needs of modern-day PC hardware, such as an RTX 5090 and a top-end Ryzen or Intel CPU.
But for those PCs that are still running a non-BTF 3.0 PSU, the company has also designed a BTX adapter board which features a 24-pin connector, two EPS 8-pin CPU power ports, and an additional 12VHPWR connector for the GPU. The BTF 3.0 motherboards will also carry two 4-pin power inputs for SATA devices.
For GPUs, DIY-APE already has a GC_HPWR slot like the ones used by ASUS that can enable over 1000W of power. For BTF 3.0, DIY-APE wants to enable the use of this slot for non-BTF graphics cards. This is to be achieved using a modular adapter that connects to the 16-pin interface on the GPU and uses a GC-HPWR connector on the other end.
The next hurdle for DIY-APE is to unify the IO interfaces of the motherboard to a single connector. This will require changes to existing PC cases and motherboards, but with BTF 3.0, the company will design a new backside connector that comes with an easy-to-use adapter that connects USB ports, & connectors for the chassis. This comes in two versions, an extended and a simple adapter. DIY-APE hopes that in the future, motherboard and case manufacturers will work towards a single unified adapter for all IO ports.
Another component of the BTF 3.0 DIY PC ecosystem will be the use of short-tube AIO cooling solutions, which feature shorter length tubes that look nice and tidy. DIY-APE also highlights better management for RGB fans and LED:
- The case comes equipped with power and RGB hubs or 1-to-N splitter cables matching the number of fan slots.
- The case includes dedicated routing paths for fan power and RGB cables.
- Fan power and RGB cables are pre-installed at the factory.
- Each fan slot has a reserved set of power and RGB female connectors nearby.
As a proof of concept, DIY-APE demonstrates the BTF 3.0 DIY PC design using pre-release Colorful hardware, which combines a BTF 3.0 PSU with a 50-pin connector to a BTF 3.0-compatible motherboard, and a BTF 3.0-compatible graphics card.
The design looks very neat and cable-free, and goes off to show how the next generation of DIY PCs will be built. We look forward to new updates from DIY-APE on the BTF 3.0 ecosystem and how other manufacturers utilize this methodology to offer DIY-friendly hardware to consumers.
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