CeBIT Hannover 2006 (Part 5)
In this next part of our CeBIT Hannover 2006 coverage, we look at products from ASUS, asetek, BenQ, DFI, Highpoint, Intel, Pretec, Promise Technology, Samsung, SiS and Thermaltake.
New ASUS Notebooks
The new W2J notebook is based on the new Intel Napa platform and it comes with an Intel Core Duo processor ranging from T2300 to T2600. Based on the mobile Intel 945PM Express chipset, the notebook is equipped with a 15.4-inch color shine LCD and an ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 256MB graphics chip. There are two models to the W2J, one with an analog TV receiver (W2Jb) and one with DVB-T receiver (W2Jc).
The ASUS W7J is also based on the Intel 945PM Express chipset with an Intel Core Duo processor. Besides having an NVIDIA GeForce Go 7400 graphics chip in the notebook, the W7J also features a 1.3-megapixel web camera as well as an Enhanced Data Rate (EDR) Bluetooth module. EDR technology allows wireless data transfer of up to three times faster than conventional Bluetooth technology.
The ASUS A7J is the bigger brother of the W7J as it comes with a larger 17-inch WXGA+ color shine LCD display. Its features remain the same as the W7J but it has three different models to choose from. One which is a plain vanilla version without any TV tuner (A7J), one with an analog TV tuner (A7Jb) and one with both analog and DVB-T support (A7Jc).
The ASUS V6J is yet another Napa platform based on the Intel 945PM Express chipset. It comes with an Intel Core Duo processor and it's also equipped with an NVIDIA GeForce Go 7400 128MB (with 256MB TurboCache) graphics. The V6J features a large 15-inch zero bright dot TFT LCD display and is an iF Design Award winner.
For great video conferencing capabilities, ASUS offers the W5F that comes with a 180 degrees swivel 1.3-megapixel web camera. This ultra-portable notebook features a 12-inch widescreen display and is based on the Intel 945GM Express chipset with an Intel Core Duo processor.
More ASUS Notebooks
The A8J is yet another new Napa platform based on the Intel 945PM chipset using an Intel Core Duo processor. This 14-inch widescreen notebook comes with an NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600 graphics chip as well as a 1.3-megapixel web camera and an EDR Bluetooth module. However, the A8J has been enhanced with ASUS exclusive Power4 Gear+ technology which gives the notebook about 15-20% longer battery life.
The ASUS W1J is also another Napa platform based on the Intel 945PM Express chipset with an Intel Core Duo processor. This entertainment notebook comes with a 15.4-inch widescreen display comes with a built-in TV tuner for those who desire to be entertained anywhere they go. It also comes with a built-in subwoofer for that extra bass experience.
The ASUS F2J is a business notebook featuring the latest Intel 945PM chipset with an Intel Core Duo processor. It comes with an ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 graphics and security features like TPM 1.2 and biometric fingerprinting. It also features a liquid spill proof keyboard and an exclusive ASUS hard disk drive protect design which keeps the hard disk safe from rough handling.
Similar to the F2J, the ASUS V1J is also a business notebook with security features such as biometric fingerprinting, TPM 1.2 and a liquid spill-proof keyboard. However, the notebook comes with a much more powerful graphics module based on the ATI Mobility Radeon X1600.
The F3J is also another business notebook similar to the F2J except that it features the ASUS Power4 Gear+ technology for up to 20% longer battery life.
New ASUS Motherboards
The new ASUS M2N is based on the NVIDIA MCP55S chipset and it will support the new AMD Socket M2 processors. It comes with SATA 3G RAID, Gigabit Ethernet LAN and high definition on-board audio.
For those who want an SLI solution, the M2N-SLI Deluxe is based on the NVIDIA MCP55P chipset which supports two graphics cards in an SLI configuration at half the bandwidth (x8). The board comes with SATA 3G RAID, IEEE 1394a, Gigabit Ethernet LAN and eight-channel high definition audio.
For something a little bit more powerful, ASUS offers the M2N32-SLI Deluxe which is based on the NVIDIA C51D and MCP55P chipset. It has two PCIe x16 slots for SLI graphics and it also features SATA 3G RAID, dual Gigabit Ethernet LAN, IEEE 1394a and eight-channel high definition audio.
For the ultimate in dual graphics support, the new ASUS M2N32-WS Professional is based on the NVIDIA C51XE and MCP55PXE chipset. Supporting the next generation of AMD Socket M2 processors, the board comes with two full bandwidth PCIe x16 graphics slots, nine SATA 3G RAID ports, dual Gigabit LAN, two PCI-X slots and eight channel on-board high definition audio.
If you don't like SLI, then ASUS offers a CrossFire solution with the new M2R32-MVP Deluxe. Based on the new ATI CrossFire Xpress 3200 with the ULi M1575, this board comes with two full bandwidth PCIe x16 graphics slots as well as SATA 3G RAID, dual Gigabit Ethernet LAN, IEEE 1394a and eight-channel high definition audio.
Even More ASUS Motherboards
The M2V is a VIA chipset solution for the Socket M2 platform. Based on the VIA K8T890 paired with the VT8237A, this basic board supports SATA 3G RAID, Gigabit Ethernet LAN and high definition audio.
The M2NPV-VM is an integrated graphics solution for the new Socket M2 platform. Based on the NVIDIA GeForce 6150 chipset, the board offers integrated graphics with DVI-D and analog RGB output interfaces. It also comes with SATA 3G RAID, Gigabit Ethernet LAN and IEEE 1394a support.
The ASUS N4L-VM DH is a digital home micro-ATX board based on the Intel 945GT paired with the ICH7M-DH. The board supports mobile Socket 479 Intel Core Duo processors and it features Gigabit Ethernet LAN, IEEE 1394a and eight channel high definition audio.
The ASUS P5B Deluxe is based on the upcoming Intel P965 chipset supporting the soon to be introduced Conroe family of processors. The board comes with SATA 3G RAID, dual Gigabit Ethernet LAN, IEEE 1394a and eight-channel high definition audio.
The P5B-VM is a micro-ATX board based on the Intel G965 paired with the ICH8. It features four SATA 3G ports, Gigabit Ethernet LAN and eight channel high definition audio.
Other Products from ASUS
ASUS makes coolers too and the new Silent Knight promises even better cooling with low noise output. This full copper cooler which weighs only 595g features six heat pipes and a 2800RPM fan.
Another cooler made for gaming enthusiasts is the Silent Square Pro. Also with six heat pipes and a 2800RPM fan, this cooler comes with a drive bay for fan speed control.
The ASUS My Cinema-EC3000 express card is a TV tuner capable of allowing your notebook to watch and record your favorite digital (DVB-T) TV programs. It's based on the new PCI Express interface, so only new Sonoma and Napa based notebooks would support this device.
The My Cinema-EC3000 Hybrid features an analog TV and a DVB-T receiver. It also has ASUS' Splendid technology which gives users better quality analog TV pictures.
For even more flexible entertainment on the go, the ASUS My Cinema U3000 is a USB-based TV tuner device which lets you watch DVB-T broadcasts. It also comes with a remote controller for those in the habit of channel surfing.
Miscellaneous Sightings at ASUS' Booth
ASUS now manufactures more than just LCD displays, but LCD TVs as well. This large 42-inch widescreen TV boasts of a 1200:1 contrast ratio and a 176 degrees viewing angle. Using their own Splendid video engine, the TLW42001 features two HDMI inputs for high definition videos.
ASUS is joining the Blu-Ray camp with this new Blu-Ray internal drive for the PC. It burns single (25GB) and double layer (50GB) Blu-Ray discs and it will also support burning of DVD+R and DVD-R discs. For now, the drive supports burning of BD-R and BD-RE discs at 2x.
If you don't want a red Ferrari notebook, then ASUS might just thrill you with their yellow Lamborghini notebook. This exclusive notebook is designed by Lamborghini and we don't think it needs further introduction.
Looks like visitors to ASUS's booth were a little more interested in the sports car than the notebook.
OK, enough of the car already. Here's a closer look at the Lamborghini designed notebook.
RAID Cards from Highpoint and Promise Technology
The new RocketRAID 2300 is based on the PCIe x1 interface and it offers four internal SATA II channels. It is capable of setting up RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10 arrays and it's great for those who want a simple plug and play controller for their desktop or workstation PC.
The new RocketRAID 2322 features two external mini SAS connectors for use with external storage enclosures like the Highpoint X4. The RocketRAID 2322 supports the PCIe x4 interface and each mini SAS connector will support four hard disk drives. The card supports RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 and JBOD configurations.
Here's a closer look at the mini SAS connectors on the RocketRAID 2322.
Promise Technology also showcased their new SuperTrak EX16350 RAID card which supports up to sixteen SATA 3G hard disk drives using four multi-lane connectors. The SuperTrak EX16350 is a hardware-assisted RAID controller using an Intel IOP331 XScale I/O processor and it comes with 256MB of ECC DDR memory. The card supports RAID levels 0, 1, 5, 6, 10 and 50.
A broader view of the SuperTrak EX16350 supporting an array of 16 hard disk drives.
Promise Technology also displayed their new SATA300 TX4302 card which supports two internal SATA devices and two external SATA devices. This PCI based card supports current SATA 3G drives as well as NCQ and TCQ.
SiS' Booth
SiS demonstrated a working sample of their new SiS662 chipset for the Intel Pentium 4 platform. It comes with integrated Mirage 1 graphics and it's meant to be a budget desktop integrated solution for the office and home. The chipset will support a maximum front side bus of 800MHz, two DDR2-667 DIMMs of up to 2GB and one PCIe x16 graphics interface.
On the AMD platform, SiS has the SiS770 chipset which supports all of AMD's processors including the new Socket M2. It is also an integrated solution which comes with Mirage 3 graphics and an external PCIe x16 graphics interface for those who want to upgrade their graphics at a later stage.
Surprisingly, SiS is now entering the memory module market with a full range of memory modules for desktops and notebooks. According to SiS, these are targeted at OEM customers and not so much for retail although there might be plans to go into the retail channel later.
The SiS Eagle-2 embedded platform features the SiS741CX north bridge with the SiS966 south bridge. This embedded platform supports the AMD Geode NX processors and it comes with one PCIe x1 slot and two SATA ports. Now, just where would you find such a product?
These Samsung displays actually contain SiS' embedded solutions (such as the Eagle-2) and these are kiosk type smart displays that provide interactive menus.
For those who do not know yet, SiS actually manufactures this I/O controller (for USB, SATA, Ethernet and audio) for the Xbox 360.
Pretec's Booth
The Pretec i-Disk Touch is a USB 2.0 Flash drive that comes with a biometric fingerprint detection which protects your data from unauthorized access. It comes with capacities ranging from 512MB to 4GB.
Here's another biometric Flash drive implementation known as the i-Disk Connect.
CompactFlash cards are getting bigger this year with the introduction of this 12GB card.
The i-Disk Diamond is the world's smallest USB drive with capacities up to 1GB and it fits into key chains or other wearable accessories.
The i-Disk Diamond does not come with the usual USB connector but just a bare USB interface found at the back of the disk.
Besides CF cards getting larger in capacities, expect to see faster high capacity SD cards too.
New Products from DFI and BenQ
The C51PV-AM2 Infinity is DFI's new Socket M2 motherboard based on the NVIDIA GeForce 6150 chipset. The board comes with integrated graphics with both D-sub and DVI ports, one Gigabit Ethernet LAN port, four SATA 3G ports, IEEE 1394a ports and eight-channel high definition audio.
The new DFI LP UT MCP55-D2R is a gamer's board designed for SLI graphics. Based on the NVIDIA C51D and MCP55P chipset, the board offers support for the new Socket M2 processors and two PCIe x16 graphics slots. The board uses 100% Japanese capacitors for the best in reliability as well as featuring DFI's unique Karajan eight-channel audio. The board comes with eight SATA 3G RAID ports, dual Gigabit LAN ports and IEEE 1394a support.
For ATI CrossFire fans, DFI has the LP UT CFX3200-DR board based on the new ATI CrossFire Xpress 3200 paired with the ULi M1575. The board offers two PCIe x16 graphics slots, dual Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports, eight SATA ports, IEEE 1394a support and DFI's eight-channel Karajan audio. However, this board is based on the Socket 939 platform.
BenQ's upcoming BW1000 Blu-ray writer which writes BD-R and BD-RW discs at 2x. It will also support writing to DVD+/-R discs at 12x, DVD+/-R DL discs at 4x, DVD+RW discs at 8x, DVD-RW discs at 6x, CD-R at 32x and CD-RW at 24x. It reads BDs at 2x, DVDs at 16x and CDs at 48x.
BenQ also has an external Blu-ray drive.
BenQ has always focused a lot on the design of their products and here, we see the FP93V which complements the Apple iMac mini. This 19-inch LCD monitor with 8ms response time is a winner of the iF product design award.
New Thermaltake Products
The new Thermaltake Aguila mid-sized tower case features 120mm front and rear intake exhaust fans as well as a total of 11 drive bays. There are five 5.25-inch external bays, two 3.5-inch external bays and four 3.5-inch internal bays. The casing is upgradeable to support BTX motherboards using an optional BTX upgrade kit.
The Armor LCS is a super tower casing with built-in liquid cooling system which includes a CPU waterblock (for both Intel and AMD sockets), a radiator with two 120mm fans, a DC12V water pump and tank and transparent UV cables. The case comes with one 120mm rear exhaust fan and a 90mm top exhaust fan for cooling of other components within the casing. There are a total of 15 bays in the Armor LCS, with four 5.25-inch external bays, one 3.5-inch external bay and ten 3.5-inch internal hard disk drive bays.
The Kandalf LCS is similar to the Armor LCS since it too comes with its own liquid cooling system. With this super tower case, you'll get a CPU waterblock (supporting both AMD and Intel sockets), a large radiator with three 120mm fans, a DC12V water pump with tank and transparent UV tubes. The chassis comes with a 120mm and 90mm rear exhaust fans and a 90mm top exhaust fan. The Kandalf LCS comes with nine 5.25-inch external bays, two 3.5-inch external bays and six 3.5-inch internal bays.
The Thermaltake Mozart Tx is their latest monster chassis measuring 330mm x 330mm x 730mm. The casing comes with five 120mm front intake fans, five 120mm rear exhaust fans and one 80mm rear exhaust fan. The case supports two motherboards, with the primary portion supporting ATX, micro-ATX, BTX, micro-BTX, nano-BTX and pico-BTX boards. The secondary portion supports a mini-ITX board. The case comes with one 7-inch drive bay, five 5.25-inch external bays, one 3.5-inch external bay and six 3.5-inch internal bays. The 7-inch bay is made exclusively for the optional Thermaltake 7-inch LCD monitor.
This is the primary portion of the casing which is on the left side. It supports larger motherboards.
Over on the right side, you'll find a mini-ITX board which is its secondary portion.
Other Goodies at Thermaltake
The new Mini Typhoon supports processors with TDP of up to 130W and it features a full copper heatsink with six heat pipes. It comes with a 92mm fan that spins at 2200RPM and emitting only about 18dBA of noise. Hmm and we thought typhoons were supposed to be noisy!
The orb days are back with the new Thermaltake Blue Orb II. This extremely quiet cooler (rated at only 17dBA) supports both AMD and Intel sockets.
New full tower cases from Thermaltake known as Eureka.
The Orchestra external fanless water-cooling radiator.
The Tribe VX is also another external water-cooling radiator system but it comes with two 120mm fans on the radiator for enhanced cooling.
The Tide Water plus is built for water cooling of SLI or CrossFire systems as it comes with two VGA copper waterblocks.
World's Firsts by Samsung
The world's first mobile phone with a 10-megapixel digital camera belongs to Samsung's SCH-B600.
The Samsung SGH-i310 is the world's first mobile phone with a 8GB hard disk drive.
Samsung took gaming to a new level with this gaming phone with dual slide feature. Another world's first here.
The Samsung SPH-M8000 is the world's first WiMAX enabled smartphone with a download rate of up to 3Mbps and an upload rate of 1Mbps. It is based on Windows Mobile for Pocket PC.
Samsung demonstrates WiMAX connectivity with the PC through this PCMCIA card.
Samsung demonstrates UWB (Ultra Wide Band) technology with their new UWB phone. UWB allows short range and high-speed data transmission between devices similar to Bluetooth but at a much higher data rate.
asetek's Booth
asetek showcased their new WaterChill Micro cooling solution which comes with a built-in water tank and pump on the cooling block. A viable solution for small form factor PCs.
A close-up of the waterblock with the integrated pump.
The new WaterChill Xternal radiator.
The WaterChill Xternal is an extension of their award winning WaterChill kit.
Fancy overclocking your Pentium 4 to beyond 5GHz? asetek shows how it is done using their VapoChill Lightspeed cooling.
Here's the CPU-Z and temperature readings of the Dream Machine 2006.
Intel's Booth
Intel showcased all of their partner's latest 965 and Xeon motherboards.
Visitors to Intel will always be entertained.
Healthcare has always been an important initiative at Intel and they believe that technology would serve to improve the lives of people.
Intel Viiv technology brings PCs closer to the living room.
An Intel Viiv enabled PC which is no larger than the Mac mini.
Intel also has interests in cooling technology and we saw what could be a mass adopted water-cooling solution. The cooling block comes with an internal pump and it's connected directly to a radiator.
Intel demonstrated their new water-cooling technology in an actual gaming machine.
Intel is not only innovating the home and office space but is also extending its technological expertise in motor racing. As the official corporate partner of BMW Sauber F1 Team, they have featured a full replica of the new BMW Sauber F1.06 and other related technology to highlight how Intel is driving the future of F1 racing.
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