EPOX EP-BX3, Manual, Page: 12 / 68

Introduction EP-BX3
Page 1-6
EP-BX3 Form-Factor
The EP-BX3 is designed with ATX form factor - the latest industry standard of
chassis. The ATX form factor is essentially a Baby-AT baseboard rotated 90
degrees within the chassis enclosure and a new mounting configuration for the power
supply. With these changes the processor is relocated away from the expansion slots,
allowing them all to hold full length add-in cards. ATX defines a double height
aperture to the rear of the chassis which can be used to host a wide range of
onboard I/O. Only the size and position of this aperture is defined, allowing PC
manufacturers to add new I/O features (e.g.; TV input, TV output, joystick, modem,
LAN, audio, etc.) to systems. This will help systems integrators differentiate their
products in the marketplace, and better meet your needs.
•
By integrating more I/O down onto the board and better positioning the hard
drive and floppy connectors material cost of cables and add-in cards is reduced.
•
By reducing the number of cables and components in the system, manufacturing
time and inventory holding costs are reduced and reliability will increase.
•
By using an optimized power supply, it's possible to reduce cooling costs and
lower acoustical noise. An ATX power supply, which has a side-mounted fan,
allows direct cooling of the processor and add-in cards making a secondary fan
or active heatsink unnecessary in most system applications.
Full length
slots
Expandable I/O
5 1/4"
Bay
3 1/2"
Bay
Figure 2: Summary of ATX chassis features
CPU located near
Power Supply
Single chassis
fan for
system
ATX
Power
Sup-
ply
ATX power
connector
Floppy / IDE
connectors
close to
peripheral
bays
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