CeBIT 2009 - Part 3
In this episode, we cover MSI's wide range of products with special emphasis going towards their growing notebook lineup, and a handful of network storage vendors such as Netgear, Promise, RaidSonic (Icy Box series), Thecus and Zyxel.
MSI's Booth - X-Slim Notebooks
MSI's Booth @ CeBIT 2009. As you can see, their new notebooks are a big highlight at the show...
...especially the highly awaited X-Slim series.
Here's a closer look at two of them nicely forming an X. The X-Slim series will be available in three main models, the X320, X340 and the X340 Pro. All will be physically identical sporting a 13-inch WXGA screen (1366x768), come with a 4-cell battery and weigh 1.3kg. The difference would be that the X320 would be the more mobile version using the Intel Atom Z530 1.6GHz processor, the newer Intel Poulsbo US15W chipset with GMA500 graphics and will have a 3.5G (HSDPA) radio embedded.
The other two models, the X340 and X340 Pro would be using Intel's new Consumer ULV processors (Core 2 Solo architecture), the SU2700 (1.3GHz) and SU3500 (1.4GHz) respectively along with an Intel GS40 and GS45 chipsets respectively. MSI has made known that WiMAX is a possibility on them with these options made available when the respective target markets are ready with the infrastructure.
Mind you that the X-Slim series are a serious contender to the Macbook Air with similar styling and slimness. These notebooks are 1.98cm at their thickest and just 0.6cm at their thinnest. These notebooks should hit stores around April timeframe.
MSI's Booth - Mini Notebooks Updated
Over on the mini-notebook segment (Wind series), MSI has expanded its portfolio with better-tuned options.
The U115 Hybrid is their proudest highlight here as it is the first notebook to be equipped with both SSD and HDD drives and be able to leverage on either of them as and when required to take advantage of each drive's plus points (SSD for low power and speedier operation, HDD for large storage capacity). This notebook uses the newer X530 Atom processor and the Intel Poulsbo US15W chipset with GMA500 graphics. It claims to have a battery life of 12 hours on Eco mode operation with a 6-cell battery.
Here's the U110 that is similar to the U115 without the hybrid hard drives feature. So this should be a more cost effective option.
The MSI Wind U123 model comes with a slightly more updated design, but uses the older Atom platform and the N280 processor.
MSI's Booth - Gaming & Entertainment Notebooks
Gaming and entertainment notebooks too received their due refreshes. Here's their hot looking GX633. It's a 15.4-inch notebooks with a 1680x1050 resolution screen, runs on an AMD Turion X2 Ultra processor platform and equipped with a GeForce GT 130M 512MB graphics module.
Here's the larger Intel equivalent of the gaming and entertainment series with the GT725. Specs include a 17-inch 1680x1050 resolution screen, Centrino 2 platform and Radeon HD 4850 graphics. Powerful indeed, but just lacks a true 16:9 screen.
Interestingly, that can be found on this new entertainment notebook, the CX600. Specs include a 16-inch 16:9 aspect ratio screen with a 1366x768 resolution support, ATI Radeon HD 4330 graphics engine and a Core 2 Duo processor running on a SiS 672DX platform. Yes we know, the combination of components and providers look really weird, but who knows, it might find its niche.
Here's another entertainment notebook, the EX630. Using an NVIDIA MCP77 MH platform (GeForce 8200 series mGPU), an AMD Turion X2 Ultra processor and an NVIDIA GeForce 9400M GS with Hybrid SLI technology, this notebook is set to deliver smooth video performance on whatever you throw at it and will look good too on its 16-inch 16:9 aspect ratio (1366x768).
MSI's Booth - Desktop AIOs & Nettops
MSI prepped this kitchen setup to showcase just where else their all-in-one systems can be integrated in within the home.
Showcased within is the MSI NetON AP1900 system. It's not a new model, but what's interesting to note is their claim of it being the world's thinnest all-in-one PC. This unit has an 18.5-inch screen, 16: 9 aspect ratio, 1366x786 resolution, 1.3MP webcam, 3W hi-fi speakers, super-slim ODD, 160GB HDD and all of this running onthe original Atom platform with 1GB memory.
This however is their brand new all-in-one system, the Wind Top series. This model here is the AE2010 and is equipped with a 20-inch screen, 16: 9 aspect ratio, 1600x900 resolution, 1.3MP webcam, 3W hi-fi speakers, super-slim ODD, 320GB HDD, and is using an AMD 780G platform with a an Athlon 2650e 1.5GHz processor. Windows Vista Home Premium is standard on these machines. Available in 19-inch, 22-inch models, and on Intel platforms too.
Here we take a look at the 22-inch Wind Top AE2200 model. It comes equipped with an Intel Core 2 Duo E5400 processor, Intel G45 platform, 2GB DDR2, 320GB HDD, super-slim ODD with Blu-ray option, a 1080p 16:9 widescreen panel, 802.11b/g/n WiFI, TV Tuner option and dual 5W hi-fi speakers. Interestingly, it has MXM support for upgraded graphics performance later (albeit this option is kind of limited seeing you can't get it off the shelf).
Here we have two simple nettop machines. The CD130 model comes with a dual-core Atom 330 processor and 2GB memory while the DC100's more petite 1.5-litre box contains the original Atom N270 processor and 1GB of RAM.
On the right, we've an interesting little DE200 nettop box. Using an Intel Celeron M 550 2GHz processor, it's able to deliver high performance Blu-ray playback support thanks to its choice of a NVIDIA GeForce 9400 mGPU. Also has a 160GB HDD, 2GB RAM, 802.11n WiFi and is loaded with Windows Vista Home Premium.
MSI's Booth - Motherboards
Recently launched is this MSI X58 Pro motherboard, a more cost effective version of the Eclipse. It drops SLI support and the hardware audio cad, reduces SATA storage ports and a less elaborate cooling.
Going to the other extreme is this Eclipse Plus motherboard. It one-ups the original Eclipse with quad PEG slots, foregoes the IDE controller for even more SATA ports for a total of 10 onboard and further two eSATA ports.
Furthermore, the Eclipse Plus has a special OC switch and an OC Dial for tuning performance on the fly. Wicked!
And here's their next generation Intel P55 motherboard, the G7P55-DC. What we can notice and confirm are dual Gigabit LAN ports, FireWire and has analog VGA output (Core i5 processors have on-chip graphics).
This is a higher-end P55 motherboard, the G9P55-DC. It has an additional open-ended PCIe X4 slot, more SATA ports, a secondary chipset of unknown purpose at the moment, bundled with a hardware audio card and foregoes the VGA output for perhaps digital video outputs.
MSI's Booth - Graphics & Server Boards
This is probably the most elite GeForce GTX 260 possibly available. Sporting a dual-fan design, this highly overclocked N260GTX Lightning is the world's first 10-phase power design for a single-GPU graphics card. Marketed as military-grade design, it has 1.8GB of GDDR3 memory (double the normal) and even has a monitoring panel known as AirForce panel. Furthermore, it has native HDMI outputs and has an LED display readout on the fans showing its temperature and fan speed in real-time. Truly an over-the-top GeForce GTX 260 for your consideration.
This is the AiForce monitoring panel.
This is the MSI Fire40, the first first Atom-based network security appliance 1U barebones server. Specs include an Atom 230 or 330 processor, four Gigabit LAN ports, up to 2GB memory, two SATA drives and a 220W PSU.
For more performance in a thermally constrained environment, this PM-102-A2 barebones server uses a Centrino 2 platform utilizing a mobile Core 2 Duo processor.
This is the MSI 5500 Master-S8M and is based on the Intel 5500 chipset to support the new Nehalem based dual Xeon 5500 series processors.
These are the specs of the MSI 5500 Master-S8M.
To get up to four of the Nehalem-class Xeon 5500 series processors up and running, MSI has this barebones 28-inch 1U rackmount server, the X2-111-A8M. Take note that this isn't a native quad-socket board, but two Intel 5500 chipset based boards. Now that's an interesting solution while Intel is still validating quad-socket Xeon 7000 series Nehalem class processors. With 24 DDR3 DIMM slots on this server, it supports both registered an unregistered memory for a total of 196GB. It also supports up to eight SATA II 2.5-inch HDD (four per board), dual PEG riser slots, quad Gigabit LAN ports, eight USB 2.0 ports, two Infiniband ports and a 1KW PSU to support it all.
Netgear's Booth
Netgear's Booth
This is one of Netgear's newest products, a 3G mobile broadband router (MBR624GU). Just plug in a compatible 3G USB modem to it and you can create an instant WiFi hotspot anywhere. Also usable in your car with a universal car power adapter.
Dual-band Wireless-N router isn't new, but this RangeMax model WNDR3700 router also comes with a Gigabit switch and a USB port for networked storage too. If you need all the possible functionality and features from a Netgear home router, this is it.
The Netgear Digital Entertainer Elite EVA9000 is an MCE device that can handle 1080p content playback (up to 40Mbps) from your source and even has HD upconversion to 1080p. Also supports streaming from Internet sources and can easily add on an optional hard drive for media storage on the MCE itself. Supports all major file formats and has all the required analog and digital output ports (including HDMI).
Netgear's Internet TV Player first seen during CES 2009 is a great gadget to have for your living room to watch video content streamed from various reputable sites such as BBC, CNN, ESPN and even from YouTube, Yahoo Videos and much more. Hooking up to your existing home network seamlessly, it doesn't require any other software installation. Just plug in the Ethernet cable and hook up to your TV and you're done. The provided remote helps you navigate and get your entertainment fix.
Promise Technology's Booth
Promise Technology's Booth had a variety of server appliances for show in-line with their portfolio and for this trade show.
However what interested us was their range of NAS devices. Only the middle one is new though - the SmartStor NS4600. It looks identical to the NS4300 boxes that flank it, but the NS4600 is more than just a NAS, it's also a digital media server and that's new from Promise.
Inside is similar, four hard drives of 1TB size support and RAID 0, 1, 5, 5+spare, 10 configuration options. Externally, a new eSATA connection can help expand up the NS4600's capacity or other synchronization needs, while the standard twin USB 2.0 ports and a Gigabit Ethernet port serve its usual connectivity purposes. The media server portion of the device support UPNP, DLNA standards and even has file download support from E-donkey and Bit Torrent. A special feature that not many media servers have yet adopted is mobile device remote access such as sharing content to and fro your iPod Touch or iPhone for example.
RaidSonic's Booth
RaidSonic owns the Icy Box brand of products and while they had several minor product updates, there was one that caught our attention.
Disk performance too will be improved over its predecessor, the NAS4220.
Thecus' Booth
Thecus had two main unreleased products that they were ready to share with us.
This is the Thecus N5500, a SOHO/SME-level NAS device.
It betters its N5200 predecessor with a speedier purpose-built Intel IOP processor at its core, RAID 6 support, supports XFS, EXT3 and ZFS file systems, is iSCSI ready, has dual Gigabit LAN ports for link aggregation with 802.3ad, load balance and fail over support. Expected availability in the month of May.
This the Thecus N0204 miniNAS. It's a rather small 2.5-inch dual-bay NAS device.
RAID levels 0, 1 and JBOD supported, as to be expected from a two-bay device. Hot Plug/Hot Swap compatible and supports Wireless LAN with a dongle.
Zyxel's Booth
Zyxel's Booth had a lot of corporate level networking equipment to showcase for infrastructure strengthening or expansion.
We were naturally more interested in the smaller scale devices such as this NSA-220 Plus, as Zyxel calls it, a central digital media library. This dual-bay device supporting a maximum of 3TB storage in total, is DLNA 1.5 certified, has auto photo/video upload functions to YouTube/Flickr if you so wish to do so, automatic downloading from BT, HTTP or FTP, and a built-in RSS server/client fro auto-uploads and status updates.
Here's a PowerLine Ethernet Multiplug Center (PLA-491). It is HomePlug AV compliant and supports transmission rates up to 200Mbps, has a four-port 10/100Mbps Ethernet for multiple powerline connections and a Home Plug instant encryption feature (toggled via a button).
They've also got WiMAX equipment ready. Here's hoping to a faster certification and adoption worldwide, else we'll all still be dreaming of WiMAX even past 2010.
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