Computex 2010 Show Coverage - Part 7
In this next episode of our Computex 2010 coverage, we bring you highlights from ASUS, Corsair, Galaxy and Gigabyte booths.
ASUS Booth - Motherboards
ASUS had so much to show, it was almost a tech geek's heaven at the first floor of the Taiwan International Convention Center (TICC) building. Let's kick things off with the motherboards department.
Meet the ASUS ROG motherboard named Immensity! Based on the Intel X58 chipset, this board featured the Lucid Hydra chip and an onboard discrete ATI GPU underneath those immense heatsinks.
Here's the same board stripped of its heatsinks to see all those extra ICs and controllers.
For an extreme motherboard on the AMD side of things, they've got the ASUS Crosshair IV Extreme motherboard for SLI and CrossFire goodness of the 3-way and 4-way kind. We've also previewed this board a few weeks ago, so do check it in our Product Guide.
If you want the very best of features but compacted to microATX size, ASUS has the recently revised and released the ASUS ROG motherboard, Rampage III Gene. Mini size and Max power is its slogan and going by our previous analysis of a Gene mobo, we think it's certainly true. Features include but not limited to the Intel X58 chipset, support for DDR3-2200, ROG Connect, Supreme FX X-Fi II and GameFirst.
This fully self-contained and cooled motherboard is the ASUS AT5IONT-I Deluxe. It's supposedly based on the upcoming Intel Atom D425 or D525 processor paired with the existing Intel NM10 chipset. Since it's using the newer Atom processors, it supports DDR3-800, but only of the SO-DIMM variety because the board is rather cramped. It is also supplemented by NVIDIA's next generation Ion graphics engine and it even claims to have an integrated PSU on the board - eliminating any further adapters. If all of these specs pass are true in the final board revision, it's truly a self-contained board that is fit to take the HTPC crown.
Now for some next generation P67 class boards for the future Intel "Sandy Bridge" processors. Here's the ASUS P8P67D LX mobo - no other details are shared as of now.
Here's a higher-end board, the ASUS P8P67D Evo. Seems like this one supports CrossFire in x8/x8 mode. Surprisingly, IDE support is still present. Shouldn't it have been dead by now? Less components equate to less board cost. IDE add-on cards should be offered as an option instead.
Last but not least, we've the ASUS P8H67D-M, an Intel H67 based chipset in an microATX format.
ASUS Booth - Graphics Cards and Monitors
Spotted at the booth is a pair of Ares cards - "Limited Edition. Unlimited Power", or so goes the slogan. The drool-worthy Ares is made up of dual Radeon HD 5870 GPUs, 4GB of frame buffer, insane cooling with 8 heatpipes, with each 8mm thick, and a powerful fan that boasts over 600% improvement in airflow.
What do you do with all that graphics crunching power? Take advantage of Eyefinity of course! This is one rare demo where 3 of the monitors are running a game in surround while the remaining screens are used for other productivity tasks.
Speaking of screens, there's plenty of new monitors from ASUS for every type needed. This is the ML228H, a 16.5mm slim LED-backlit screen of 21.5 inches in size. Full HD resolution (1920 x 1080), 10,000:1 contrast ratio, 2ms response time, eco mode, swivel and touch controls are some of its features.
This is a cousin to the above monitor, but this 22S1E doubles up as a TV with a built-in tuner. Plenty of I/O ports and dual 3W speakers make this a slim and modern TV monitor consideration.
Feel like having some touch-fun? Then go for the new breed of touch monitors that are slowly but surely coming up. The ASUS VT22 here is a 21.5-inch screen using optical touch technology with multi-touch support. Brightness is only rated for 260 candelas, probably due to the extra touch layer affecting this, but the other features are intact like 1920 x 1080 pixels resolution, 50,000:1 contrast ratio and a 2ms response time.
How about a large 3D-ready monitor? The ASUS PG27H is the first 27-inch 3D-ready monitor. 1920 x 1080 pixels resolution, 120Hz support, compatible with NVIDIA 3D Vision, 400 candelas brightness, 20,000:1 contrast ratio and a 2ms response time. If you don't mind a smaller 23-inch screen size, the VG236H is quite a performer with 100,000:1 contrast ratio with ASUS Color Shine technology.
For professionals, meet the PA246Q, an IPS panel based monitor, 1920 x 1200 pixels resolution, 50,000:1 contrast ratio, 6ms response time, wide color gamut support (Adobe RGB), pivot, swivel, tilt, height adjustment functions and comes with a built-in USB hub and a card reader.
ASUS Booth - Notebooks
Let's start off with the extremely sexy and macho looking ASUS-Lamborghini VX7. It's a drop-dead gorgeous replica of the actual car's rear and hood - what more can a petrol-head ask for? Intel Core i7, Intel HM55 chipset, DDR3-1333MHz, 15.6-inch widescreen full HD panel, DVD+Blu-ray combo drive and weighs 3.3kg.
If you thought this was an older notebook, get ready for this - it's an Eee PC ASUS-Lamborghini machine! Nobody saw this coming, but seeing that Acer has a Ferrari themed notebook in this segment, we can understand how this came about. After looking at the VX7, this doesn't look fantastic anymore, but nonetheless, it's still a posh netbook. Feature:- SonicMaster Premium Sound with B&O ICEpower audio technology, Intel Atom D525 with next generation NVIDIA Ion, DDR3 memory, USB 3.0, 12.-inch LED backlit screen (1366 x 786 pixels resolution) and Window 7 Home Premium. Comes in white and black.
Continuing our the bout of outrageous notebooks, here's a souped up entertainment machine, the ASUS NX90. This huge 18.4-inch notebook was designed for excellent entertainment qualities, especially for audio delivery, thanks to ASUS SoundMaster Premium technology. Intel HM55 chipset, Intel Core i7/i5 processor options, 1080p panel, GeForce GT 335M 1GB, dual HDDs, slot-in Blu-ray drive, dual touchpads and USB 3.0.
Here's another look at the ASUS NX90.
Moving on, we've another huge notebook, the G73jh which is inspired by the stealth fighter. Featuring a full matt finish (besides the screen), an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870, good ventilation system, textured palm rest, 8-channle audio, 17.3-inch full HD resolution, dual HDDs with solid state hybrid storage (hard drives accompanied with a 4GB solid state flash) and Blu-ray drive. The smaller 15.6-inch edition called the G53 comes with a 3D-ready 120Hz panel.
There's a new Bamboo in town with the ASUS U33. Features include Intel Core i3/i5 processors, ASUS Super Hybrid Engine, NVIDIA Optimus technology, USB 3.0, GeForce 310M, 13.3-inch LED backlit screen, 1.8kg weight with an 8-cell battery. There's also a non-Bamboo edition U35 with an aluminum chassis and similar specs but is lighter at 1.7kg.
Intel's been the choice for many getting notebooks, but don't discount AMD yet. The ASUS K42 seen here is both a workhorse and a machine for simple personal entertainment. Comes with the choice of Phenom II X3 N830, Turion II X2 P520, Athlon II X2 P320 or AMD V120. Confusing but you have a choice. Common features are AMD RX881 + SB820 chipset, 14-inch widescreen (1366 x 768 pixels resolution), ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470 with 1GB and weighs at a hefty 2.4kg.
Over on the netbook side of things, the Eee PC 1015T is an interesting new netbook based on the AMD platform - an AMD Nile V105, AMD RS880M (embedded with a Radeon HD 4200 graphics core). This is one to keep an eye on, but it will probably take a while seeing that this platform wasn't introduced in Computex officially.
Confusingly, the Eee PC 1015PN is using the new Intel Atom N475, NVIDIA Ion graphics and NVIDIA Optimus technology enabled - quite a big difference from the similarly named 1015T model. Oh and it comes with USB 3.0. There's also a larger 12-inch model called the 1215N with a slightly better Atom D525 processor.
Lastly, we have here is the ASUS Eee Pad EP121. Specs include a 12-inch screen, next generation Intel Atom processor, Windows 7 Home Premium, SSD storage, stereo speakers, 1.3M webcam and HDMI output.
Corsair's Booth
Corsair had this impressive new casing that is in works at the moment - the Graphite 600T. Looking a little like an enlarged mid-tower casing, it almost has the space of a full tower machine.
Inside, it looks cavernous and luxurious too. Notice the huge rubber grommets? They are for cable routing to hide some of the unsightly cables on the other side of the motherboard tray. All the drives are easily installed/removed as required.
Seen here is the other side of the case and almost all the cables can be tucked away here to keep the main area more cable clutter free.
The top of the case here features an extensive array of front panel I/O ports, including a knob to control fan speeds.
After Corsair embarked on offering a pretty easy to use water cooling kit, they went a step ahead to a more mainstream option - air cooling. Here are the A50 and A70 coolers respectively. Overall size looks similar, but the A70 is deeper and houses four 80mm copper direct-contact heatpipes with dual fans 120mm fans versus the A50 which has three of those heatpipes and a single 120mm fan. Both are compatible with a wide variety of current AMD and Intel processors.
We're all familiar with the Airflow RAM cooler, but this one is a new one called the Airflow Pro and comes with some sort of LED light panel. We talked to Corsair product managers and they showed us that the LED light panel reports individual memory chip's loading as well as the whole module's temperature.
Red = heavily loaded / high temperature, Orange = moderately loaded / moderate temperature, Green = light loading / cool temperatures. Note that only the middle two columns are relegated to memory module temperature; the other LEDs are present to represent each and ever one of the memory ICs on the module and to report their activity level. If you've a good side panel window, this feature looks like it will be sought after.
Note that the Airflow Pro works only with Corsair's Dominator series of memory modules. And even then, it should be within a year old - because anything older will not have the interface present on the module's side for monitoring and reporting by the Airflow Pro module. Seen here is the connectivity we're talking about that's required for this function.
SandForce processors for SSD solutions are sprouting up in various vendor solutions and Corsair has that incorporated into their Force series. Shown here is the highest capacity variant at 240GB.
The AX1200 will soon be Corsair's highest rated PSU at 1.2KW.
Galaxy's Booth
Following the innovative Galaxy GeForce GTX 470 GC edition, Galaxy has duplicated this design for the new GeForce GTX 465 SKU too.
How about a custom cooled GeForce GTX 480? Galaxy has that in its pipeline too - stay tuned!
And here's an unbelievably thin single-slot GeForce GTX 470 card from Galaxy. It looks and sounds impossible, but it's almost finished product, which means we'll have dibs on this in due time. We'll find out how it fares then.
This is the Galaxy Magic Box HD and as its description says so, it's a real-time monitoring and overclockng aid for your GPU.
Also on show were two prototype cards. The first is this card which houses a GeForce GTX 470 GPU as well as a GeForce GT 240 secondary GPU whose function is solely to double up as a dedicated PhysX processor. If market demand is right, Galaxy has a card ready for deployment in due time.
The other proto unit is the Galaxy GeForce GTX 470 Dual. The presence of dual GX 470 GPUs on a single PCB isn't as staggering as wondering what its cooling solution would be like but that's something we can't find out for now.
Gigabyte's Booth - Part 1
Mobos, graphics cards and notebooks are the order of the day at Gigabyte's vast showcase. Sadly not much was shown on upcoming products.
There are however enough new stuff and we'll start off with this H55 mobo which comes in a Mini-ITX format. Other features are similar to those of its bigger counterparts.
Here we have the very same board being demonstrated on its versatility and its prowess along with the new K-SKU processors in cranking up performance to rival its bigger counterparts. Lian-Li's spider chassis lends its hands in this demo setup.
For the AMD users, the AMD 870 chipset is one of the more affordable side of things. This GA-870A-UD3 motherboard takes advantage of the standard ATX format to spread its features evenly, including packing dual PEG slots that work at x8 interface speeds each. Unlike some other competing boards, this AMD 870 chipset is paired with a SB850 Southbridge to support SATA 6Gbps, while NEC provides USB 3.0 and Gigabyte boosting the power output of the USB ports by three times as well.
Gigabyte's take of the new GeForce GTX 465 - thankfully it bears their own custom cooler which should fare a lot better than the reference model.
Gigabyte's Booth - Part 2
Based on the Radeon HD 5770 GPU, this is the Super Overclock edition. Going by the obscure model number GV-R577SO-1GD, it's clocked at a rather high 900MHz at the core. But beyond good performance, this dual-slot card brings with it superior cooling, Ultra Durable components promise by Gigabyte and their very own OC Guru software.
This full sized passively cooled graphics card is the GV-R575SL-1GI, a Radeon HD 5750 GPU based card with Gigabyte's famous Silent-cell cooling design. Be sure to have good ventilation as this could be one of the highest performing passive cards in the market.
Wonder what's driving these 6 monitors? Obviously it's an Eyefinity based solution...
It's actually a Phenom II X6 processor on the 890FXA-UD7 motherboard with four Radeon HD 5870 graphics cards run in CrossFireX, each with 2GB of memory. Mind boggling.
We're all familiar the old Gigabyte Booktop netbook. Here's the much larger M1405 brother which is also a Booktop class of notebooks.
The Booktop notebook relies upon this dock to give it external graphics and more ports.
Here's a much newer Gigabyte notebook, the Q1447N. Based on the mobile version of the Core i3 and i5 processors, its has a simple design but weighs a little heavy at 2.5kg. Specs include a 14-inch (1366 x 768 pixels resolution), Intel H55M chipset, GeForce 310M GPU and an option to go with a 3.5G HSDPA module.
Gigabyte too has a 3D solution to address this growing demand. The Gigabyte Q1585N can handle up to a Core i7 processor, comes with a GeForce GT 335 GPU, a 15.6-inch WXGA screen which can show polarized images and only requires a simple an inexpensive polarized glasses to enjoy 3D.
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