ATX is the cockroach of PC hardware standards

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This past week, Adam published a look back at the past few decades of PC component history, through the lens of my colleague Gordon Mah Ung’s career. The memories stretch from the mid-1990s (including Gordon in a full suit and tie) to the present day of contests for the slowest benchmark results. And by the end, I could see other people latching on to “change” as the biggest theme throughout.

The visual evidence is there: the move from beige boxes to bright, even obnoxiously colored chassis; shifting case configurations and attitudes toward cable management (oh, for the days when we could shove everything inside and just slap the side panel back on); even the leap to ferocious high core-count processors and screaming-fast graphics cards.

But while others could argue that change has been the constant in computer hardware, I’d instead champion ATX as one of the truest mainstays—and all the evidence of its steady, reliable presence over the past 30 years is right in the video.

In build after build, ATX is there. An over-the-top, ludicrously decked out Dream Machine built by the crew at Maximum PC? ATX. The machine that won the ongoing competition between Gordon and others (including our friend Dr. Ian Cuttress) for the slowest benchmark results in Cinebench R15? Also ATX. And even Gordon’s signature troll build, the “reverse sleeper build” that sported a shiny new case on the outside, and old-as-heck parts on the inside? Yeah, ATX.

Gordon had his bones to pick with ATX—he complained often that ATX was holding back the PC industry. (And I mean often, not just on The Full Nerd when the cameras were rolling.) But in the very next breath, he would then rail against companies like Apple, which has zero issue with (in Gordon’s words) throwing older tech overboard.

I’ve always had a different outlook, largely along the lines of Gordon’s follow-up rant. I’m open to a newer standard that evolves the layout of motherboards, sure. But I view the jump from the AT form factor to ATX more as a practical response, as opposed to just the insatiable hunger for innovation. ATX followed AT after a decade, bringing further improvements to standardization and swappability of parts. But when BTX launched nine years later, arguably “on schedule,” it failed to take.

Not enough innovation, you could argue. But I view it as a sign of what truly motivates leaps in technology, whether the advent of the printing press or desktop-sized personal computers. I also think ATX’s ongoing relevance tells us a lot about the future of the PC. Innovation is a response to a need. As the PC industry has become increasingly more personal, with a far wider spectrum of options to address specific needs, what innovation looks like may continue to become smaller and more subtle. And possibly, it may even become less constant.

In this episode of The Full Nerd…

Willis Lai / Foundry

In this episode of The Full Nerd, Adam Patrick Murray, Brad Chacos, Alaina Yee, and Will Smith talk about Intel being on the ropes, Zen 6’s emergence in the wild, and AI in Windows. To me, I found a lot of commonalities between these topics—they made me extremely contemplative about what innovation in the PC space will look like, because things feel a little…confused.

Also, we got a glimpse into the remarkable details of the decor in Will’s home office. All I can say is: That potato has a butt.

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And if you need more hardware talk during the rest of the week, come join our Discord community—it’s full of cool, laid-back nerds.

This week’s intriguing nerd news

I’m facing a second week in recent months where I’m questioning my deal-hunting skills, but a few technology wins are keeping my spirits up. What currently has me a bit starry-eyed: insanely fast internet. So fast that I’m a little giddy at the thought, even though I may never see it in my neck of the woods.

• I can’t top this data hoarder’s deal-hunting skills: Estate sales can be a good way to pick up useful, interesting, or downright quirky stuff for pretty cheap. But so far, I haven’t encountered any finds on the level of 11 Western Digital 8TB external hard drives for just $360. Man. What a score.

• Turns out you can put a price on nostalgia: $349 bucks is the cost of reliving your best childhood memories—aka getting your hands on a remade Commodore 64, compatible with over 10,000 C64 games and modernized to support HDMI, USB, and Wi-Fi. I hope this works out better than the Analogue 3D. (Not gonna lie, I’m a little worried Analogue won’t survive the tariffs, as they’re absorbing the higher costs.)

• Self-destructing SSDs? Pass. Don’t get me wrong—TeamGroup’s reveal of an SSD that destroys itself with the push of a button got my attention. But look, I’m cheap. Taking a hammer to my drives seems way simpler and costs a lot less. (As does taking them over to a company that has a proper shredder.) Also, if I’m handling data sensitive enough to require instant obliteration…why is it in my home?

• The internet is built on duct tape and string: For systems engineers, DNS probably gives y’all a lot of headaches. I certainly would have one, knowing just how fragile the system is. Or when seeing proof that malware can be casually slipped into DNS records. Fun.

• Linux is winning: Just kidding, it’s still barely a fraction of users on desktop PCs. But it is gaining a little bit of headway in the U.S.—we’ve now reached a milestone of over 5 percent market share.

Gigabyte

• When will 6-cores become default? Well, not just yet: Brad floated the idea during this week’s episode that Zen 6 could shift to six-core CPUs as the baseline. But we’ve also commented multiple times on the show that the budget end isn’t getting much attention. I guess those laments won out, as the hottest chip news this week is AMD’s Ryzen AI 5 330, a four-core, eight-threaded Copilot+ laptop chip.

• Update your Gigabyte motherboard ASAP…if you can: Running an Intel processor? Perhaps one within the range of 8th gen to 11th gen? Is it sitting in a Gigabyte motherboard? Better check pronto if an update is available for it, because a vulnerability that lets attackers bypass Secure Boot was just disclosed. But if yours is too old, you may actually have to upgrade your hardware all together to avoid this security hole. 🙁

• Why not just buy actual gold instead? Look, I know the RTX 4090 has largely held its value. And maybe that’ll extend to the RTX 5090, too. But when I first saw Asus’s RTX 5090 ROG Astral Real Gold Edition (aka the RTX 5090 made with 11 pounds of 24-carat gold), I thought, “Surely investing in actual 24-carat gold bars would be the better call.” I’m a product of my upbringing, which includes very immigrant grandparents.

• I want Japan’s fiber optic internet tech: The land of the fax machine is claiming a record-breaking transmission rate of 127,500GB/s (yes, the big B, so really fast) over a distance of roughly 1,100 miles. Sure, I’d only use such speed to load cat videos instantaneously, but I still want it.

Catch you all next week, when hopefully the hot parts of the world are cooler, and the cold parts are warmer. It’s 62 degrees right now in San Francisco. Also supposed to rain next week. Yup.

Alaina

This newsletter is dedicated to the memory of Gordon Mah Ung, founder and host of The Full Nerd, and executive editor of hardware at PCWorld.