Computex Taipei 2006 - Part 3
For Part 3 of our coverage of Computex Taipei 2006, we bring you updates from FIC, GECUBE, MSI, and Jetway. There was also some commotion over at Foxconn, so we decided to have a look.
Fox Hunt @ Foxconn
Back at Foxconn's booth, it is the calm before the storm as Foxconn is one of the global sponsors for the KODE5 gaming tournament and today just happens to be the finals.
KODE5 Counter-Strike 1.6 live finals played and broadcasted from Foxconn's booth at Computex for the KODE5 Fox Hunt all girls CS tourney.
Three man (uh! girl) teams going head to head on Counter-Strike 1.6. On the left we have team S.O.S.
And to the right, team cyzak3n.
Not only is Foxconn poised to move into the high-end market with enthusiast motherboards and graphics cards, getting involved with global gaming circles is also part of their new 'EnterGaming Evolution' focus. We guessed that drowning out their product displays must also be a tactic to get us focused on them gaming girls too.
FIC's Booth
FIC's booth was cosily done up to simulate a swanky living room interior to complement the lifestyle consumer electronic devices they were showcasing.
Here's the world's first dual-mode handset that's completely IEEE 802.11b compliant and able to use both SIP and Skype VoIP networks to make and receive phone calls without paying expensive fees.
Claimed to be the world's smallest MoDT (Mobile on Desktop), the FIC GE2 is designed to be a discrete digital home platform and Media Center PC. Like many of such products these days, the GE2 adheres to strict Intel Viiv platform specifications, which means it should be both user and media content friendly.
A look at the connectors available on the GE2.
Targeting at entertainment for the entire family and also built to Intel Viiv specifications is the FIC Spectra entertainment PC. You'll agree however, that the styling is anything but PC-like.
As with choices, one does not always have to stick strictly to one option. On the other side of the coin is AMD's Live! Technology and the Spectra-T above goes to show that the specifications laid out by both chip giants can result in slim entertainment PCs.
PicoBTX is backbone for the FIC Sunbird which apart from having a small footprint and quiet 26dB operational levels is also designed to support Intel vPro for improved security, energy efficiency, and better manageability.
Dialogue
A rather exotic brand you might not have heard of is Dialogue Flybook and what you see here is the V33i tablet-style notebook. Amazing about it is that it swings both the ways of 802.11g and tri-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE.
Dialogue's vision of an "Airline Friendly" notebook was materialized in the form of the Flybook VM notebook. Its unique hinge design allows users to easily manipulate the 12-inch widescreen LCD in highly confined spaces.
Dialogue's setup to showcase the flexibility of its Flybook VM.
GECUBE
GECUBE made full use of Computex 2006 to launch its new DVB100 Portable DVB-T TV. In countries with Digital Video Broadcasting - Terrestrial (NTSC and PAL), the DVB100 gives users absolute freedom in watching TV wirelessly. In addition, it's also a Portable Media Player (PMP) supporting JPEG, MP3, AAC, MPEG2, MPEG4, DivX, and XviD.
GECUBE also took the opportunity to showcase its wireless media player called Medialink, which supports MP3, WMA, JPEG, MPEG2, MPEG4, DivX, XviD, and WMV9 formats.
Jetway's Booth
Jetway's booth was filled mainly with AMD motherboards, IC solutions, and some sample units.
such as the 7950GX2 in Quad SLI configuration.
A close-up at how the cards are connected together.
One of two motherboards that caught our attention was the Jetway 939GT5-SLI. This gives users 10 USB 2.0 ports, 2 x PCI-E x16 slots, Gigabit LAN, 4 x ATA-133 IDE slots, and 4 x SATA2 jacks.
MSI (Part 1)
As usual, MSI is out in full force at this year's Computex.
Occupying a good portion of booth space are several MSI barebone systems.
The slim Axis 945GM barebone system was designed for Intel dual-core processors. It uses Intel 945GM chipset and its vital statistics are 335 x 98 x 363mm (W x H x D).
An all-in-one LCD PC, the MSI Crystal 945 comes assembled with a 17-inch TFT, high-definition stereo speakers, and supports either Intel Pentium 4, Pentium D or Celeron D processor.
MSI has put together a 64-bit Media Center PC in the form of its Media Live barebone system. Flavors of AMD processors it supports include Athlon 64 X2, Athlon 64, and Sempron. At the back is a host of connectors you would normally expect from any good Media Center PC.
The slim MSI MegaPlayer P500 uses built-in memory ranging from a low of 128MB to 1GB. It features a 1.8-inch color LCD that can be used to display photos and videos and it's compatible with MP3, WMA, WAV, JPEG, and BMP files. There's even a built-in FM Radio capable of storing 30 of your favourite stations.
MSI (Part 2)
Just as slim as the P500 is the P520. Only the design separates the two models.
While it may have won iF Product Design Award earlier this year, the MegaPlayer 540 is not just a shallow beauty. Support for major music, photo, and video files means the all-in-one player is one serious performer as well.
Offered in either 20GB or 30GB and with a beautiful 3.5-inch TFT LCD panel for displaying all popular video formats available for downloads today, the Mega View 588 is one highly competent mobile multimedia handheld that is as good, if not better than many competing models.
Ergonomically designed for users to enjoy wireless stereo music from any audio source is the FS320 Bluetooth stereo headset/audio transmitter. Built around Bluetooth specification v1.2, the tiny unit supports A2DP and AVRCP profiles.
Also supporting A2DP Bluetooth profile for wireless stereo audio is the FS530 Bluetooth stereo speaker/headset unit. Unique about this mobile system is that the headset unit can be detached and used as a stand-alone Bluetooth headset when required.
MSI's way of making sure visitors will not miss a single motherboard the company has in retail channel.
MSI (Part 3)
All production graphic cards are on display as well.
Engineered around the latest Intel 965 chipset family (codenamed "Broadwater") is the MSI G965MB-DH motherboard for consumer-oriented entertainment systems, which is further evident by its support for Intel Viiv technology.
Geared more for conventional desktop systems is the P965E Neo which supports up to 8GB of dual-channel DDR2-800 memory.
Beef up the P965E Neo with MSI's D.O.T.3 Express and Dual CoreCell technology and the end result is the P965 Platinum motherboard.
Catering to performance office desktop systems is the Q965M motherboard. Based on the new Intel Q965 chipset, this board supports up to 4GB of dual-channel DDR2-800 memory and 7.1-channel HD audio.
Upping the performance from the Q965M is the Q965M-DO. This allows 8GB of DDR2 800 memory modules to be installed and has Intel PRO Gigabit LAN onboard.
MSI (Part 4) & Others
In yet another exclusive partnership with MSI, www.hardwarezone.com is proud to bring you our humble demo of powering 2 complete desktop systems with just 1 PSU.
No gimmicks whatsoever; what you see here are two complete Intel P965 + Intel Core 2 Duo systems running at 2.66GHz and powered by just one PSU!
NVIDIA 7950GX2 is the latest darling for extreme gaming performance and MSI is one of several big names to have production units ready for retail.
Sparkle also displayed their very own 7950GX2 offering.
A quick and easy way to transform your PC into a high-definition home theatre is to get yourself a PixelView PV-CH7315 video card with HDMI output. One catch though, you'll need to have a motherboard running Intel G965 chip.
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