MSI @ Computex 2008
MSI's booth is certainly bigger this year with more products than ever. Catch their latest products here in our complete coverage of MSI's booth at Computex 2008.
We'll Start With Motherboards
The new Nangang Hall is where MSI planted its entire line-up of products at this year's Computex. Their booth is not only bigger this year, but there were definitely more products on display. Although we were treated to usual products such as motherboards, graphics cards and notebooks, we were also introduced to other line of products such as industrial PC systems and even car entertainment systems.
So, as a start, we'll begin with MSI's latest range of motherboards based on new chipsets from Intel and AMD.
The new MSI P45D3 Platinum is based on the Intel P45 Express chipset and it features MSI's Dr. MOS generation 2 technology. It uses the Circu-Pipe 2 cooling solution and it comes with with four DDR3 DIMM slots, two PCI Express graphics slots for CrossFire setup and up to nine SATA ports (eight internal and one eSATA).
The MSI G45 Platinum is an integrated graphics full ATX motherboard that features Circu-Pipe 2 cooling and Dr. MOS technology. The board supports DDR2-1200 and comes equipped with a PCIe graphics slot for future needs.
This latest MSI board features up to eight memory slots. Known as the MSI P4S8D, the P45 based board will come with support for both DDR2 and DDR3 memory, ensuring great future upgradability. As with most MSI boards, it will feature their latest Dr. MOS technology as well as Circu-Pipe 2 Lite cooling solution.
This latest MSI board features up to eight memory slots. Known as the MSI P4S8D, the P45 based board will come with support for both DDR2 and DDR3 memory, ensuring great future upgradability. As with most MSI boards, it will feature their latest Dr. MOS technology as well as Circu-Pipe 2 Lite cooling solution.
The MSI G43M2 is a micro-ATX board based on the Intel G43 integrated graphics chipset. Equipped with the latest Intel GMA X4500 graphics, this board is built to handle HD video as well as less demanding games.
The MSI G45M is a slightly better version of the G43M2 although the board's features were mostly the same. Unlike the G43M2, the G45M comes with four DDR2 DIMM slots and is fully equipped with solid capacitors.
More Intel P45 Boards
The MSI P45 Neo3 is yet another no-frills board for the budget seeker. Unlike the P45 Neo, this board features a two-phase power supply for the chipset, thus giving users better overclockability. Besides that, the board also comes fully decked with solid capacitors for better reliability.
If you think that the P45 Neo3 would be the best board in the Neo series, you think wrong. The P45 Neo2 is possibly the most well equipped in the series with Dr. MOS technology, Circu-Pipe 2 Lite cooling, two PCIe graphics slots and two-phase power supply on both memory and chipset subsystems.
The MSI K9A2GX-Digital is based on the highly anticipated AMD 790GX integrated graphics chipset. Touted to enable a new hybrid CrossFire mode, the board will come with two additional PCIe graphics slots. Besides that, the board will feature a five-phase PWM power supply for the CPU and two built-in graphics ports, namely analog VGA and DVI.
MSI's Dr. MOS technology demonstration showing temperature readings of the power transistors on MSI's motherboard as compared to its competitor.
Temperature reading of the power transistors on MSI's motherboard.
Temperature reading of the power transistors on competitor's motherboard.
MSI's Premium Boards
The MSI P45 Platinum motherboard is a slightly more premium board in its Intel P45 series. It comes with Dr. MOS technology, GreenPower technology (for better power savings), Circu-Pipe 2 cooling, two-phase power supply on chipset and memory, two PCIe graphics slots and up to nine SATA ports (eight internal and one eSATA).
The MSI X48 Platinum is one of MSI's premium offerings based on the Intel X48 chipset. Packed with MSI's GreenPower technology which provides dual-channel four-phase PWM and the Circu-Pipe cooling design, this board should provide overclockers and enthusiasts with all that they need to get their system running at high speed. Besides that, the board also features four PCIe x16 graphics slots for quad CrossFireX, plug-and-play hardware RAID, DDR3-1800 support and eight SATA II ports (six internal and two eSATA).
The MSI X48C Platinum is based on the Intel X48 chipset. The difference is that the 'C' variant only features up to two PCIe x16 graphics slots and a hybrid DDR2/DDR3 design. It comes with four DDR3 slots that support up to DDR3-1800 and two DDR2 slots that support up to DDR2-1066 memory.
The MSI P45 Diamond is yet another premium board for overclockers. Featuring Intel's P45 chipset, ten SATA II ports (eight internal and two eSATA), DDR3-1600 slots, Creative SB X-Fi Extreme PCIe audio card and dual Gigabit LAN ports, the board is also equipped with a water cooling block on the north bridge. This gives overclockers the convenience to integrate water cooling devices with the motherboard.
MSI's Wind Series
MSI's latest and most talked about Wind Notebook featuring the latest Intel Atom processor. The Wind notebook is actually known as a netbook, the kind of product that gives users great mobility and battery life while enabling internet connectivity and general computing purposes.
Another color option for MSI's Wind Notebook.
... and another for the girls.
The MSI Wind Board is part of the Wind series featuring the Intel Atom processor. It features a built-in Intel Atom 230 processor clocked at 1.6GHz. The board is based on the Intel 945GC chipset paired with the Intel ICH7 southbridge. It also comes with basic connectivity such as 100Mbps LAN, two SATA II ports, six USB 2.0 ports and HD audio output.
Completing the Wind series, we have the MSI Wind PC which is also based on the Intel Atom processor. Known as a nettop, it's a low power general purpose computer suitable for basic use. The lack of a need for active cooling for the processor would also mean that this PC would be suitable for use even in the library.
HWZ Sets Up A Windy Demo
At this year's Computex, HardwareZone cooked up a demo product at MSI's booth using their latest Wind Boards. The concept was really to demonstrate the low power consumption of Intel's Atom processor and at the same time, show how MSI's latest motherboards could help bring general computing to the masses without burning a hole in their pocket.
In the demonstration, we took an old 210W power supply from an old PC and attempted to use it to power three Wind Boards at the same time. In order to do that, we custom made a cable that allowed us to split the 20-pin ATX cable three ways.
At MSI's booth, you'll see each of the Wind Boards running different HD videos (simulating typical usage loads) and a power meter connected to the mains indicating total power consumption of the system at no more than 95W. That's right, it's consuming less than a single high power incandescent light bulb.
The entire demo unit during setup.
We used this old 210W power supply which we pulled out of an old PC.
The Intel Atom processor which is no larger than a Singapore 50 cents coin.
The completed demo unit at MSI's booth.
MSI's Graphics Cards
The MSI N9600GT Hybrid Freezer graphics card is based on the NVIDIA 9600GT chip. The cooler is a specially designed heatsink with as many as four heatpipes integrated with a large fan. The hybrid freezer card comes with a built-in sensor that detects the GPU temperature and load, such that if it's being used in 2D mode, the fan will not spin and cooling will be done passively through the heatpipes and large heatsink. In 3D mode, the fan will kick in to help improve cooling.
The MSI N9600GT Diamond 2G is yet another Hybrid Freezer graphics card with MSI's proprietary Dr. MOS technology embedded into the card. It promises cooler and lower power consumption. At the same time, the card also boasts a whopping 2GB DDR3 frame buffer and a turbo button for 'on-the-fly' overclocking.
Known as the RX3850 Hybrid Freezer 512M, this is yet another graphics card featuring the hybrid cooling technology. The card is based on the ATI Radeon HD 3850 chip and it comes equipped with MSI's DOT Express technology for the overclockers.
The new RX3850 Zilent 512M is based on the ATI Radeon HD 3850 GPU and it features a two-slot Zalman silent cooler.
The NX8800GT Zilent 1G is another graphics card offering from MSI that comes with the Zalman cooler. Based on the NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT, the card is also equipped with 1GB worth of DDR3 memory.
The MSI RX3850-T2D1GE-OC/D2 is based on the ATI Radeon HD 3850 GPU and is equipped with a huge 1GB frame buffer. It features MSI's DOT Express technology which enables overclockers to increase the performance of the graphics card through dynamic overclocking.
MSI demonstrated their new N9800GTX HydroGen graphics card which comes equipped with an all-copper water cooling block.
MSI's Upcoming Notebooks
The MSI EX300 is an entertainment notebook featuring an HDMI output powered by an ATI Radeon HD 3450. The notebook comes with a 13.3-inch WXGA screen, DDR2-667/800 up to 4GB, fingerprint recognition and a webcam. It is based on the next generation Centrino 2 platform.
The MSI PR420 is a business notebook based on Intel's next generation integrated graphics platform. It comes with a larger 14.1-inch WXGA LCD screen, a fingerprint scanner for added security and a webcam.
The MSI PR621 is a larger version of their Centrino 2 based business notebooks. It comes equipped with a big 15.4-inch WXGA LCD screen, an independent numeric keypad, webcam, fingerprint security and an eSATA port.
The PR601 is yet another business notebook based on the Intel Centrino 2 platform. It comes with a webcam, an independent numeric keypad, a large 15.4-inch WXGA LCD screen and a 3-in-1 card reader.
The MSI GX720 is the next generation gamer's notebook featuring a large 17-inch WSXGA LCD screen. It comes equipped with an NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT graphics, 4.1-channel speaker system (with built-in subwoofer), HDMI output, eSATA port and turbo overclocking function.
The MSI EX720 is a large screen entertainment notebook based on NVIDIA's GeForce 9400M GS graphics. It comes with a 2.1-channel speaker system with built-in subwoofer, HDMI port for output into HDTVs and an eSATA port.
Go Places With MSI
Finally, before we end our full coverage of MSI at Computex, we'll look at some of their new line-up of products for car owners.
This year, MSI introduced a new range of navigational products for car owners. The MSI PND features a large ultra-wide 5-inch touch screen which uses the SiRF Atlas 3 chip. It comes equipped with 2GB NAND Flash and 64MB SDRAM. It also playback multimedia files as well.
Another notable product for car owners is the FunStar Professional Server. It's a car entertainment media server that can support up to 12 passengers and it supports playback of various files. It also features a removable disk to allow users to constantly update new content.
Another personal navigation device from MSI featuring voice navigation and real time traffic information via its built-in TMC module. This gadget comes with a 4.3-inch TFT touch screen with configurable on-board NAND Flash ROM of up to 2GB. It is also equipped with Bluetooth for hands-free mode operation.
A car retrofitted with MSI's car entertainment system.
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