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The overall aesthetic of a system unit usually determines the place and role of a PC in a user’s living space. Will it become a “noisy dust collector” in the corner or a centerpiece that enhances creative productivity and pleases the eye? With the emergence and proliferation of chassis with transparent panels, the value of a system unit’s internal tidiness is only growing. Component manufacturers have responded to the demand by offering their vision of streamlining the interior of desktops. It’s hard to say for sure who drove the design of motherboards with backplane cables. It seems that Taiwanese developers started experimenting with this format almost simultaneously. Today we are reviewing an implementation from ASUS. The company offers its own concept of BTF (Back-To-the-Future) system design, which involves getting rid of cables on the motherboard’s working panel, and even the video card’s power cable.
ASUS BTF and Advanced BTF
The major PC motherboard manufacturers are keen to offer their own variants of organizing the system unit. In all cases, the concept of placing the main power and interface connectors on the back of the PCB is the basis. The idea is the result of a patent filed by Maingear back in 2014.
In almost 10 years, Taiwanese developers have turned the idea from theoretical to practical, and have begun to actively implement and improve the original plan.
ASUS also offers its own vision for the development of desktop platforms, embodying it in the BTF (Back To the Future) product line. The developers are confident that this concept will become a classic for desktops in the future. So, BTF’s developments are a kind of harbinger of the future of desktop PCs. Of course, for this to happen, the design with a backside connection must be accepted by the market. Both by manufacturers of related products (primarily cases) and directly by users, who have to pay a little extra for additional convenience and aesthetics.
So, BTF. ASUS engineers are so persistent that while others are timidly trying to implement the simplest implementation of the Back-Connect design, they offer two concepts at once – BTF and Advanced BTF. The first one implies a “classic” motherboard layout for this class with all functional connectors on the back side of the PCB. In this case, of course, you need compatible chassis that have holes in the pallet platform for connecting the appropriate cables.
In turn, the “advanced” version of Advanced BTF, in addition to the connectors on the back of the board, also eliminates the cable for connecting additional power to the video card. For this purpose, a special GC-HPWR power connector is located on the motherboard along the PCI-E x16 axis. The unusual abbreviation simply stands for Graphics Card High-Power (GC-HPWR).
An additional connector allows you to provide a graphics adapter with a power of up to 600 watts. However, as you might guess, this method of power supply requires special versions of video cards equipped with the necessary connector on their side.
The GC-HPWR forms an additional group on the video card PCB that provides duplication of power lines and has gold-plated pads for reliable contact and protection against oxidation.
The presence of appropriate GC-HPWR connectors on the motherboard and video card will allow you to get rid of the annoying power cable that usually spoils the visual picture. Even despite various tricks of the developers with the placement of the 12VHPWR connector, let alone several 8-pin connectors, this “wired structure” remained in the center of attention when looking at the system through the transparent panel.
The current range of ASUS BTF series devices includes TUF GAMING B760M-BTF WIFI and TUF GAMING B760M-BTF WIFI D4 motherboards, as well as the compact mATX chassis ASUS A21.
The TUF GAMING Z790-BTF WiFi and ROG MAXIMUS Z790 HERO BTF cards fully implement the Advanced BTF concept. Among the video cards with an additional connector are the ROG STRIX GeForce RTX 4090 BTF Edition and the TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER BTF White OC Edition 16GB GDDR6X model. As for the chassis, the top platforms offer the flashy ROG Hyperion GR701 BTF Edition, and the externally quite restrained and much more affordable TUF Gaming GT302 ARGB.
These devices are not just concepts, and all of them are already available for sale in Ukraine. Isn’t this a good reason to see how the idea is implemented in practice, to identify features, nuances, and limitations?
PC on the ASUS Advanced BTF platform
For practical testing of the BTF platform, we used a system unit from Artline. The PC was equipped with a TUF GAMING Z790-BTF WiFi board and a video card with a short designation – TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER BTF White OC Edition 16GB GDDR6X. This setup allowed us to fully realize the ideas of Advanced BTF, so let’s see what advantages this format provides.
The platform was equipped with a Core i7-14700KF processor (8/16+12; 3.4/5.6 GHz + 2.5/4.3 GHz), which was cooled by the ASUS ROG Ryujin III 360 ARGB liquid system.
The white version of the AIO fits perfectly into the overall interior color scheme of the PC. And in terms of efficiency, the top-of-the-line ASUS SRO raises no questions. In the case of the Core i7-14700KF, it will not be superfluous.
The color scheme was also supported by a dual-channel Kingston FURY Beast RGB DDR5-6000 64 GB RAM kit (2×32 GB, KF560C40BWAK2-64). Until recently, this RAM capacity seemed excessive for gaming configurations. However, according to the recently announced system requirements for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, the ideal system for comfortable piloting should be equipped with 64 GB. Let’s check after the release (November 19, 2024), perhaps the developers are exaggerating.
The system was powered by an ASUS Prime AP-750G modular PSU (750W; 80 Plus Gold) with a 135mm fan and a white top cover. Although the internal zoning of the PC space provides for a separate compartment for the power supply unit, the latter’s appearance is not visible through the transparent side panel. But the owner knows what kind of PSU is in his system, so such little things are important.
And the overall appearance of the system was formed by the ASUS TUF Gaming GT302 ARGB White case. Given the list of components, the use of the white “edition” was a no-brainer. This is an interesting case that we have already seen when testing the platform on Ryzen 7 9700X.
So we can repeat that this is a Midi-Tower with a transparent side panel, excellent overall airflow, and the ability to use motherboards with connectors on the back of the PCB. In general, the case has a rather laconic, strict design with right angles. To cool the internal space, the case is initially equipped with four 140mm fans (AR140) with ARGB backlighting. Three of them are mounted on the front panel, and one is on the rear wall. The removable top cover allows you to fix the three 120/140 mm fans, or install a SRO radiator block up to 360 mm long (in our case) and easily access them for quick maintenance.
A few words about the features of the TUF GAMING Z790-BTF WiFi motherboard. The model complies with the ATX format with typical dimensions of 305×244 mm and is based on the Intel Z790 chipset. It has four memory slots (up to 192 GB, DDR5-7200+), large radiators for VRM elements (18 phases), a PCI-E x16 5.0 slot, four M.2 storage slots with additional cooling, a Wi-Fi 7 module (Intel BE200NGW), a USB Type-C port (USB 3.2 Gen2x2, up to 20 GB/s), and a Realtek ALC1220 audio subsystem. All in all, it’s a gentleman’s package for a board of this level.
What distinguishes this model from devices of a similar class is the already mentioned presence of a special mini-slot GC-HPWR for additional power supply to the video card. The presence of such a connector in no way limits the versatility of the motherboard. Therefore, TUF GAMING Z790-BTF WiFi can be used with both specialized BTF video cards and any graphics adapters without the GC-HPWR “comb”. In the latter case, the additional power will have to be connected by cable using the usual connectors, with the corresponding aesthetic losses, of course.
Another feature of all BTF boards is the actual connectors on the back of the PCB. This is the feature that makes it necessary to use compatible chassis cases that have holes in the chassis tray for connecting the corresponding conductors. Supporting this option does not require any extra effort on the part of the case manufacturer, only an additional manufacturing step to create multiple holes in the metal panel. The compatibility at the mounting level is maintained, without any additional modifications.
PC configuration
- Processor: Intel Core i7-14700KF (8/16+12; 3.4/5.6 GHz + 2.5/4.3 GHz)
- Cooling: ASUS ROG Ryujin III 360 ARGB
- Motherboard: ASUS TUF GAMING Z790-BTF WiFi (Intel Z790, ATX)
- Video card: ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER BTF White OC Edition 16GB GDDR6X
- RAM: Kingston FURY Beast RGB DDR5-6000 64 GB (2×32 GB, KF560C40BWAK2-64)
- Storage device: Kingston FURY Renegade 1 TB (SFYRS/1000G)
- Power supply: ASUS Prime AP-750G (750W; 80 Plus Gold)
- Case: ASUS TUF Gaming GT302 ARGB White
Design features of Advanced BTF
We have already seen platforms that use motherboards with backplane connectors. In this context, BTF offers an identical experience.
All function and power cables are connected to connectors on the back of the PCB. In addition to the aesthetic appeal of such a solution, it is also very convenient during assembly. In the current case, the case is equipped with additional clamps and fasteners to organize the conductors.
Advanced BTF compliance requires an additional GC-HPWR connector on the board, which is capable of delivering up to 600 watts of power to the video card. How is this power generated on the motherboard connector? The solution is obvious. On the back of the PCB there are 12VHPWR connectors and three 8-pin PCI-E connectors. If the unit has a PSU with a new standard conductor, only it is connected, if the unit has only PCI-E lines (6+2), then only these connectors are connected. The proximity of these connectors to the GC-HPWR does not require a long power bus run.
As for the video card, the technical characteristics of the ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER BTF White OC Edition 16GB GDDR6X actually do not differ from the regular version of the TUF line. A feature of the BTF modification is the presence of a GC-HPWR connector with large contact pads.
At the same time, it’s important to note that this video card doesn’t have the usual connectors for connecting additional power. Therefore, it can only be used in conjunction with a motherboard equipped with a GC-HPWR connector. Therefore, there is no question of universality here. Theoretically, additional adapters from GC-HPWR to 12VHPWR may appear, but even in this case there is no guarantee that the GC-HPWR connector will not prevent you from installing a BTF video card in a regular board.
The presence of a functional “comb” in general significantly improves the reliability of fixing the graphics adapter in the PCI-E x16 slot, allowing you to do without an additional support bracket.
As for the absence of an additional power cable, you immediately notice this fact when looking at a PC. In the presence of a liquid processor cooling system, the coolant hoses remain an element of visual “disorder”, but on the other hand, they aesthetically fill the internal space of the case, eliminating the formation of voids and the appearance of incomplete technological composition.
Performance, heating and energy consumption
The performance of a PC based on a Core i7-14700KF processor and a GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER 16 GB graphics card is no longer a surprise. The use of BTF components in the system has certain peculiarities of power connection, but this does not affect the speed performance of the platform.
At the time of writing, the motherboard was available with BIOS version 1663, which included Intel microcode 0x129 to improve the stability of 13th/14th generation Core chips. The latest update (0x12B) was announced, but the corresponding firmware was still available on the manufacturer’s website.
When testing PC performance using Cinebench R23 in multi-threaded mode, we evaluated the platform’s performance under the maximum computing load on the CPU. In such conditions, all productive processor cores operated at 5100 MHz, while energy-efficient ones accelerated to 4100 MHz. The supply voltage is 1.22 V.
The CPU temperature was kept at 80C, which is an excellent result for a Core i7-14700KF. This is not without the help of ASUS ROG Ryujin III 360 ARGB.
Under load, the chip’s power consumption averaged ~250 W, with peak values of 280 W.
The diagram shows the average and minimum frames per second in 1440p games with the maximum graphics quality settings (except RT). For a platform with GeForce RTX 4070 TI SUPER, this is a typical mode in which the video card provides a very comfortable level of performance.
Analyzing the performance of the video card during a gaming session, we note a very moderate level of heating of the elements. The temperature of the GPU rose to 66C on average, and that of the memory chips to 76C. This is due to both the efficient cooler of the GPU cooler itself and good general ventilation of the case. Under heavy load, ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER BTF White OC Edition consumed up to 302 watts of power.
As for the overall level of PC power consumption during gaming, a lot depends on the specific project. In our case, the average figures varied between 425 and 570 watts. Therefore, the use of a 750W power supply unit in the system is quite justified.
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