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  • Computex 2008 Day 1
  • Computex 2008 Day 1

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    Asus Cont.

    Asus Cooling
    Along with actual hardware Asus makes a line of CPU coolers which are designed to be good performers with excellent acoustics.  They achieve this by using heatpipe technology and rather large fans. 

    One of the coolers even featured 8mm heatpipes for better cooling capacity.
    Asus Sound Cards
    Sound cards are one of those things that has taken a back burner in terms of innovation but Asus has gone to great lengths to try and rejuvenate the sound card market with some very interesting products.
    Asus Motherboards
    Of course the main reason we’re at the Asus boot was to see what new motherboards they have on display. 

    There are basically two "major" innovations that Asus has intergraded into their enthusiast motherboard line, the first is a 16 phase mosfet power supply, the mosfets are dynamically controlled so that under load all 16 phases will become active and when the system is in standby mode or idle only 4 phases will be active.  This dramatically cuts down on power consumption and doubles as a great way to get more power to your processors when its needed most. 

    The second innovation is a modular motherboard cooling option.  All of the new motherboard coolers come with configurable radiators.  Including a waterblock, tall and short coolers, and the ability to completely remove it if you want.
    The top 2 motherboards are a P45 (the Maximus II), and a nVidia 790i (Striker II).  The Rampage Extreme shown below is an X48 and features the advanced voltage controls.
    The Asus Rampage Extreme is very configurable including some buttons under the last PCI slot for use in dynamic overclocking.  In fact there is a tiny joystick for changing the various voltages even after the system has booted.