Asus has even given this new kind of motherboard a moniker: BTF. According to its website(Opens in a new window), "BTF" means "Back To (the) Future" for a new era for all PC DIY gamers. The BTF series hides all its connectors on the underside of the motherboard for clean cable management and a minimalist build appearance." The Asus TUF GAMING B760M-BTF WIFI D4 is a micro-ATX board with every cable connector on the back. That includes the CPU/AIO fans, power cables, SATA, and front I/O:
The backside of the TUF GAMING B760M-BTF motherboard. (Image: Asus)
One notable feature is an M.2 SSD port on the back. Though it seems part of the "wire hiding" agenda, Wccftech notes(Opens in a new window) it's also on the non-BTF board. It's just due to the small footprint of the mATX motherboard. The front holds PCIe lanes, two M.2 ports, RAM slots, the chipset heatsink, and the CPU socket. It is incredibly clean, and we'd love to see what it looks like with all the hardware installed.
(Image: Asus)
This isn't Asus's first time trying this. Back in October, it showed off similar motherboards it branded DIY-APE Revolution. At the time, it tried to get case manufacturers such as Lian Li and Cooler Master on board its "revolution." The reason is apparent; these motherboards require a compatible case. As far as we know, that doesn't exist yet. We don't think Asus even has a case that will support this BTF motherboard. All Asus says about that is, "This motherboard is compatible with specific case models." Thanks for the news flash, Asus, but it would be helpful to know which ones it is compatible with. Looking on the Asus website, we don't see anything that's labeled BTF or looks compatible.
This is also not the first hardware designed to hide PC cables. Both MSI and Gigabyte have shown off similar projects in the past. MSI's motherboard was just a prototype and, from our recollection, never came to market. Gigabyte did sell something similar to customers, though. The company's Project Stealth(Opens in a new window) was a cable-hiding DIY PC kit. It included a custom motherboard, chassis, and GPU. Though it is a stealth PC, the lack of options is a big drawback. You can only buy those specific parts, and there are no AMD options for the motherboard or GPU.
Now that Asus has made an official product, it's unclear if other companies will join its revolution. We're not even sure if a single case is compatible with it. We did reach out to an Asus rep and will update this if we get an answer. [Update: Asus says this board is only being sold in China.] We need an ecosystem of cases and a variety of motherboards that offer similar features. On a related note, Corsair's new Shift PSUs would work well with this motherboard. Unlike standard power supplies, its connectors are shifted to the left, facing the motherboard panel.
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