Computex 2009 - Part 3
We plunge into the heart of the components section at Computex 2009 with this tour of memory, power supply units and chassis manufacturers. Along the way, we popped in at two ATI stalwarts, PowerColor and Sapphire to find out what they have in store.
Andyson's Booth
Andyson is one of the many power supply vendors we saw at Computex and is a growing brand of affordable PSUs.
While its booth is dotted with 80 PLUS Gold banners, this PSU here is only a 80 PLUS Silver rated version (Performance series, 700 - 1kW). Andyson did not have its Gold version at its booth as it is still very new and only recently received its award.
Another Andyson PSU that comes with support for SLI and CrossFireX along with modular cables. Expect its efficiency to be more than 85% and a quiet 135mm fan.
G.Skill's Booth
Yet another memory vendor, G.Skill has its fans among enthusiasts for its aggressively styled memory modules that are aimed at overclockers.
The Trident series here come in dual and triple channel kits with a unique looking memory heatsink.
The PI series consists of the Black and the normal memory modules with the silver heatsink. Predictably, the Black is targeted at more extreme users and comes with lower latency.
G.Skill's fastest memory is its Perfect Storm series, with a dual fan heatsink and memory speeds of up to DDR3-2000 and low latencies of 8-8-8-21. These memory modules are designed for Intel's Core i7 platform, with triple channel kits available.
Besides producing memory modules, a sideline for flash memory manufacturers nowadays are solid state drives and the Falcon SSD here is G.Skill version. It comes with a 64MB memory buffer and available in 64GB, 128GB and 256GB capacities.
Geil's Booth
Geil had its entire range of memory modules on show.
To impress on visitors that its memory modules undergo the strictest of quality checks, Geil brought along its IC testing equipment.
This piece of equipment 'burns' in the memory modules to ensure that there are no manufacturing defects.
One of its newer Green series of memory modules, these DDR3-1333 memory are available in a 2GB density, triple channel kit with a power saving 1.2V voltage drawn when used.
The memory under the Geil Cyclone RAM cooler is its Ultra series, which is DDR3-1800 memory rated at a low 8-8-8-28.
And here's the Cyclone memory cooler, which can show the real time RPM of the cooler fan via a LED display among other information.
In Win's Booth
Among all the booths at Computex, In Win is probably one of the contenders for best creative design as the booth is built around various different themes. We spotted a military themed setup and one that is more feminine.
An external hard drive enclosure like no other. It's made of plastic with a porcelain top. It comes with USB 2.0 and eSATA interfaces. Let's just say it's another reason to take care of your external hard drives.
The appropriately named Wavy is designed for the mini-ITX form factor with an option for two hard drives, a 3.5-inch and a 2.5-inch. It has an internal 120W PSU and one 80mm fan.
The Allure is another desktop chassis that is far away from the typical black, silver and bland chassis from other brands. Featuring a flowery motif, it supports mATX boards and one can install two 5.25-inch external drives and two 3.5-inch internal drives.
Didn't we say earlier that In Win has some interesting items on how to showcase its products?
Here are its military themed products. We say, you stand a good chance of getting flagged for being a member of a rightwing militant group if the authorities find it in your house.
This is the In Win Maelstorm, given the military touch. It's a water cooling ready chassis that supports up to extended ATX motherboards. Up to five chassis fans can be installed.
If you're going the whole military dress up theme, why not consider these Airborne PSUs. Beneath the military markings, you'll find decent, modular cable PSUs that are 80 PLUS certified.
Kingmax's Booth
Our coverage of memory manufacturers continued with a trip to Kingmax's booth.
Kingmax's triple channel kits for the Core i7 goes up to DDR3-2000 and comes in two versions. The heat spreader enhanced ones are obviously for the overclockers.
Kingmax also had other flash based products on show, from USB thumb drives to SD and CF memory cards. Here is its 1.8-inch SSD, which tops out at 256GB.
For the netbooks and notebooks, there's the choice of these smaller mini PCIe based SSD. Capacity however is smaller at 64GB.
PowerColor's Booth
ATI graphics vendor, PowerColor did not have a booth in the main exhibition hall but they did have a presence in one of the meeting rooms instead.
PowerColor will be releasing a green version of the Radeon HD 4770, featuring an all passive heatsink. This is still an engineering prototype, hence the raw feel of the cooling fins.
PowerColor recently released a Radeon HD 4730, which is slightly slower at 700MHz compared to 750MHz on the 4770. The memory clock however is at a higher 3600MHz DDR. This is the card running in PowerColor's demo system.
It's a lull period for graphics and most of the graphics cards on display were not exactly new. What surprised us was that PowerColor actually has dabbled in doing chassis and some of these models were on show. The tall black full tower here (known as Eruption) sports a solid aluminum door though its internal uses SECC steel. It uses a tool-free design for its drive bays.
Seasonic's Booth
The Seasonic X series is rated for 80 PLUS Gold and Seasonic claims it is the first high power multiple-output PSU to receive the certification. Models are for the 650W and 750W, with Japanese solid capacitors and a modular cable management design. It's not available at the moment and will only be launched later this year.
The Seasonic S12E Bronze is as its name suggest, 80 PLUS Bronze, with up to 88% efficiency. This model will also be released later this year.
It's 80 PLUS Silver for the Seasonic S12D, which has a very silent 120mm fan from Sanyo Dekki. Again, it's not available now but should be available in retail soon.
Patriot's Booth
And onwards to yet another memory brand. This time, the booth of Patriot.
Patriot puts the G series as one step lower than its top Viper series. It's for the more budget conscious enthusiasts who nevertheless crave memory modules that can overclock decently. The maximum speed for this series (available in DDR2 and DDR3) is DDR3-1600.
The second generation of the Viper series, the Viper II is available in triple channel kits (2GB per stick) and goes up to DDR3-2000 with 8-8-8-24 latencies.
Patriot's USB flash drive series has the Magnum, which is now up to 128GB with speeds of up to 210x.
But the ultimate USB flash drive from Patriot is the Xporter Midas. It starts from 128GB and best of all, has a fast transfer rate thanks to the presence of its eSATA interface. That also explains its bulk.
As usual, we find Patriot boasting its own SSD, with the higher end model known as the Torqx. Like some others, it has a 64MB buffer and up to 256GB capacity. Top read speeds are up to 260MB/s for the 128/256GB versions.
The company also has a NAS unit on display, with support for up to 3TB with two hard drive bays. RAID 0, 1 and JBOD is supported, with a built-in Bittorrent client and other features like file and print server.
Sapphire's Booth
Sapphire was showing off its top Radeon HD 4890 graphics card in CrossFireX mode. The model used was the Vapor-X edition, which comes with the Vapor-X cooler that makes use of vapor chamber cooling technology for quiet and cool performance.
A 2GB version of the Vapor-X Radeon HD 4870.
This lengthy dual Radeon HD 4850X2 GPU is based on Sapphire's own design. Besides the dual fans, it also has four DVI outputs.
Sapphire also sells ATI's workstation class graphics cards and this is a CAD/CAM demo system.
Sapphire also has its own FirePSU power supplies which are optimized for workstation and servers. These are 80 PLUS Bronze and Silver certified units with EPS 12V support and modular cable management.
The entire FirePSU range, from 625W to a whopping 1250W. The most efficient members are the 850 and 1050W models, where are 80 PLUS Silver.
SilverStone's Booth - Part 1
SilverStone put its enthusiast oriented Raven 2 chassis in the spotlight at its rather large booth.
The new Raven 2 looks even deeper (or longer) than before. The front bezel has also been changed. The concept remains the same however, with the expansion cards 'hanging' vertically when installed in the chassis.
In case you needed a picture to remind you, this is how the interior of the Raven 2 looks like. It's a different way of orienting the components and it does seem like more convenient for users to access their systems' outputs.
Another of SilverStone's newest products here at Computex is this Fortress series chassis, the FT02. It has an unibody aluminum frame and is targeted at premium users who require both capacity and desire silence. Not to mention that it looks and feels pretty good.
The hot-swappable hard drive bays in the FT02. Notice the padding at the front of the drive bays to reduce noise.
You could say this is the 'Raven' for more discerning users as it uses a similar design approach. But it's more about comfort and silence than looking aggressive. Look at the three large but quiet fans at the bottom and the huge capacity for internal drives.
The side panels for the FT02 are also padded to keep the noise within the chassis.
SilverStone's Booth - Part 2
Designed for OEMs and enthusiasts who are thinking of an Intel Atom system, the mini-ITX SilverStone ML03 fits the bill with its small footprint and aluminum chassis.
You can fit a slim optical drive and a 2.5-inch hard drive into the ML03.
The Grandia GD04 is meant for the serious HTPC enthusiast and while it may look nondescript externally, the internal may surprise you as it did us.
This chassis comes with three large, quiet system fans that generate excellent airflow and ensures that the air passes through the casing quickly. So while it may look crowded, we can attest to that, from touching the ventilated sides.
Those who uses audio cards that come with additional modules that require PCI brackets, SilverStone has created a special space here above the PSU for these modules. This means you don't have to sacrifice a PCI slot for them.
A combo storage drive bay module from SilverStone, featuring USB 3.0 compatible ports. We haven't yet seen a motherboard that supports USB 3.0 however.
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