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Day 3 was actually quite busy for me with the first half of the day being dedicated to finishing off my official meeting schedule and the rest of the time making new contacts and checking out some of the random gear you find on the show floor.
Speaking of random gear I spotted this little gem in the morning and had to stop in to get more details. This tower cooler is a hybrid design with a standard heatpipe cooler flanking an integrated waterblock. The company claims that it will dissipate up to 500 watts and can be run in single or dual mode configurations.
My first real meeting was with Patriot who showed a variety of new products from NAS boxes and media players to some high speed SSD drives. The memory modules shown here are only a concept (including the name) but will likely be how we buy our memory kits for the LGA2011 platform.
Coolermaster has a better booth this year that was showcasing not only their main products but the storm gaming series as well. Many of the products I saw where simply the final version of what was shown at CES including this new cooler called the Project S600. This is a 6 heatpipe design with a rotated base. The heatsink won't have any fancy shrouds like the V6GT but is quite decorative.
This has got to be one of the coolest fans I have ever seen. A couple years ago Silverstone introduced the air penetrator fan that converted the cone of air that exits the fan into a more vertical column. To do this they added a bunch of veins to the fan but required a more powerful fan to make it work. Well Noctura has one something similar but has engineered this fan to be extremely silent and powerful at the same time. The veins help direct airflow into a vertical column and to battle harmonic distortion they have been positioned the veins at varying degrees around the center axis.
G.Skill had a variety of memory products on display including these CAS6 Flare modules running at 2000Mhz. Given that Bulldozer is just around the corner we'll be once again looking at DDR3 but with timings and speeds set for AMD.
G.Skill also had a live overclocking show with 4 famous overclockers all benching ASUS motherboards.
To finish off the day I left the Nangang hall and headed back to the Grand Hyatt and Hall 1 to meet with some new people. The first stop was at the Zalman suite to check out their new coolers and this rather beefy aluminum case. The construction is from thick aluminum plates that have been bent to form 2 "L"s. The pieces are then assembled to create the outer box.
Inside the case you'll find some solid aluminum hard drive mounts that turned out to be anodized blue.
This is a prototype case and currently has no channels for cable routing and a considerable amount of wasted space so when the case does come to market you can expect it to look a little different.
I stopped by the Foxconn suite the day before the show opened and totally forgot to grab a pic of their Quantum Force X79 motherboard. The board looks similar to the Bloodrage in terms of PCI Express layout but I have been told that the final version will feature a revised design that will also support Triple SLI and Crossfire configurations. I wasn't able to get the board down from the wall but I hope to have better photos in the next couple of months.
Multi monitor configurations are not as popular this Computex this year but I did catch this at the Gigabyte booth. Can you imagine playing Angry Birds on 5 24" monitors?
Only one day left, my feet will be happy to know that. ^^
Booth Babe Photos from Day 3
Patriot girls handing out pens and other assorted branded gear.
The second day of any major trade show is usually when the most of the mingling gets done since the major show announcements have been done, and generally speaking there are more people wandering around. I try to plan meetings with my top supporters on day 2 and 3 so to avoid any schedule conflicts with the aforementioned show announcement commitments and to also give me time to figure out where everyone is located since being late to a meeting is often worse than not showing up at all.
My first stop was to the ASUS booth, I didn't setup any formal meeting with them but wanted to at least check out the latest ROG gear and see the latest 990FX board they had on display. The board here is a Crosshair Formula supporting triple cards and features a rather traditional PWM (based on the look of things)
The Intel booth was directly across from ASUS and almost always has a huge display of motherboard designs using the latest chipset. While I was there getting photos for the X79 motherboard gallery I noticed this AIO setup and started asking questions. The rep claims that these AIO systems all feature touch screen monitors and come with very unique and compact cooling solutions unlike what they had been using previously.
An interesting fact is that while there is some marketing money behind the new Touch BIOS interfaces from Gigabyte and MSI they both admit that AIO systems like this are the primary driver behind the new BIOS interfaces given that most enthusiasts are comfortable using the system bios and rarely have access to a touch screen monitor.
A hot item found at the MSI booth was this new Twin Frozer cooler that would change color as the ambient temperature started to rise. The demo here featured the video card in a cooling restricted enclosure. When the internal temperature reached 45c both fans changed from the normal deep blue color to almost completely white.
Another cool feature specific to this cooler is a 30 second startup process that would reverse the twin fans to pull dust from the heatsink. The process is similar to how some systems will power the case fans at 100% during the POST process but will spin the fans backwards.
We have started doing more memory reviews since the release of Sandy Bridge and have made a point to see what some of the other vendors have been doing. Team Group does not have many system memory products for the hardware enthusiast but does split the lineups into several SKUs to address every segment and speed. Pictured here is a new heatspreader design for DDR3 desktop systems, the new design is rather low profile and appears to be no taller than a standard GSKIll RipjawsX. (I'll have to try and get a better photo)
Gigabyte was the last stop for the day and unlike most mfgs they like to do things a little different and separate their VIP section from the main booth on the show floor, and by separate I mean its off the show grounds and in Taipei 101. At CES Gigabyte announced the new G1 Killer line of gaming motherboards which, at the time, only encompassed the X58 chipset. Their plan is to extend the G1 Killer brand to include a gaming motherboard in each chipset release and further distinguish the various UD products from the specialized ones.
Pictured here is the P67 G1 Killer edition with all of the same styling and features found on the current G1 Killer boards.
The last item we looked at is this GTX 580 Super Overclock video card. The card features loading level LEDs on the back of the card and a 10+2 digital PWM for maximum overclocking power. I didn't realize this before but the Super Overclock editions are quite different from the regular Overclock versions and feature a dual mode/bios switch and voltage read points, both of which are helpful when supercooling with LN2.
This concludes the Day 2 highlight coverage. With any luck Day 3 will go live around the same time tomorrow which will also finish off my official meeting schedule leaving more time to build up the Booth Babe gallery.
Booth Babe Photos from Day 2
ECS dancing girl(s)
MSI Babe
The first day of Computex is usually pretty crazy and you learn where everything is an attempt to traverse the crowds of people, however this year is a little different, instead of rushing around and pushing people out of the way it was an easy stroll down any of the hallways.
Dare I say, attendance is down?
Despite the lack of normal show goers there is plenty to see and I started my trek at Hall 1 (the main building) and then migrated to the Grand Hyatt Hotel for my first meeting with EVGA. The highlighted item in their suite was the famed, and anticipated, P67 FTW board. This board comes with the Classified configuration featuring 5 PCI Express video card slots and the NF200 chip.
Several memory companies are in the Grand Hyatt including OCZ (who we'll be checking in with later this week) and Corsair.
Corsair announced a bunch of new products this week including an upgrade to their liquid cooling system and these new Low Profile and Low Voltage Vengeance memory modules. You'll notice right away that the heatspreader has been drastically reduced to the standard module height and features 3 different color schemes.
The white modules also feature an impressive 1.35v operating voltage making them the lowest voltage modules I have seen.
After the Grand Hyatt it was time to head on over to the main component show at Nangang. As some of you may remember from last year's coverage Nangang is where you will find all of the memory and motherboard makers (that follow the "rules") and is a plethora of random walking discovery.
To keep things simple I walked the floor to find where my future meetings would most likely be and to check out some of the displays. Silverstone was my first stop and had this Prototype monster of a case on display. The purpose of this case is to finally unleash the power of multiple graphics system without having to resort to expensive watercooling setups or limit yourself to what the motherboard mfg has given to you.
Keep in mind this is a Prototype chassis design and not really for gaming but rather hardcore workstation systems where graphics performance is at a premium
Sapphire doesn't have booth on the show floor but rather a meeting room where they can meet with customers and concentrate more on selling their products than simply showing them off. I was told they are working on an X79 based motherboard but were extremely proud of this 990X based motherboard that features an nVidia NF200 chip.
Yep NF200, this will be a board to watch.
MSI also had some motherboards on display which brings us to our first X79 caught on film. The motherboard features onboard overclocking buttons which also seems to be a common theme with all of the recent enthusiast level motherboards.
That wraps up the Computex Day 1 Mini write-up. I had every intention to do live updates from the show floor but ran into issues getting WiFi access and discovered a major lack of convenient places to sit down and work.
Booth Babe Photo of Day 1
The Thermaltake girls dancing group
It is Computex time and I have once again braved the friendly, and often Pepsi-less skies, to check out the largest computer show in asia. Typically I like to land the day before the show starts so I can have some time to get adjusted and attend some of the pre-show activities. The day prior also allows me to get reacquainted with friends and plan out the weekly social agenda. Sadly this year was a little different and instead of that I decided to go for a walk around town.
This is not the first time I have gone on "walk about" in Taipei but is one of the rare times I could do so without getting rained on given that June is the height of Monsoon season.
These shots are of a typical street scene near Taipei 101. There are very few places in the world where you can get a view like this and see the road drift off into nothing.
Taipei seems to be in the middle of another construction boom. On the way from the airport you can see a bunch of pillars being built which appears to be the start of a new raised highway system. I also noticed that the empty lot across from my hotel now has a completed building on it complete with an adjoining park.
Near Taipei 101 you'll find a shopping center called NewYork NewYork where you can buy clothes and even get a halfway decent meal. It would seem the mall wasn't quite big enough and is now being completely remodeled with two additional floors.
This is more weird than anything but you will find many McDonald's locations in two level buildings, this is a popular hangout for those looking to get out of the sun. (I resisted the urge.)
Taipei is quite an amazing city and it is really difficult to capture with only a few photos. With some luck I'll be able to get some more to show you.
Sandy Bridge systems have been "the thing" to talk about since the processor was released early this year. The events since then have been interesting to say the least, with amazing performance that bests some of the top 1366 Core i7 processors to the B2 revision chipset recall that basically stopped Sandy Bridge in its tracks.
The good news is that thanks to the Intel recall, and the efforts from the top motherboard makers in the business, the existing B2 motherboards have all been replaced by B3 revision parts giving the end users exactly what they need to get the most from their systems.
But what, there's more!
Yes as the title indicates current H67 and P67 motherboards are getting a little competition, please welcome the Intel Z68 chipset for LGA 1155 processors!
The Intel Z68 is a very strange chipset in that it combines the overclocking features of the P67 and graphical features of the H67 into a single chipset. They have also added some key technologies that help differentiate it from the versions and make it better at the same time.
In this preview we'll be looking at the Gigabyte offering and what makes the GA-Z68X-UD7-B3 different from the P67 version.
Starting with the Gigabyte Z68X features:
Gigabyte Touch BIOS - Touch BIOS is a Windows application that allows you to change things in the system BIOS without actually accessing the BIOS during boot. As enthusiasts we are a little skeptical with the control Touch BIOS gives you so be sure to check out our opinions of this during the review.
Intel Smart Response - Smart Response is a data caching option that works on the hardware level to speed up traditional hard drives by adding a small SSD to your storage subsystem. So far the benchmarks claim a 4x performance gain over a single HDD system.
Lucid Virtu - Virtu is a software extension that should allow you to use the onboard graphics capability of Sandy Bridge in conjunction with a discrete graphics card on select Z68 motherboards. The idea here is that you use your discrete graphics card when you're gaming but then switch that device off when operating in 2D mode or when the system goes to sleep. The main goal here is to save power and reduce heat output.
Driver MOSFETs - Seems hard to believe but not all Gigabyte motherboards come with, or use, Driver MOSFETs in their PWM designs. That is changing with Z68 as all of the boards in the lineup will have Driver MOSFETs onboard.
Visually the Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD7-B3 is identical to the GA-P67A-UD7-B3 and features many of the same technologies including the nVidia NF200 chip for 3-way video card support and the famed 24phase Digital PWM! This monster uses the same power distribution technology found on the UD9 and does wonders for high frequency overclocking stability.
Unlike with the initial P67 and H67 rollout only a few motherboard makers will be releasing Z68 designs and right now Gigabyte has one of the few that will have 80% of their motherboard stock available to buy at launch time.
Here is a breakdown of the current Z68 Gigabyte motherboard offerings.
Discrete Graphics Option
Z68X-UD7-B3
Z68X-UD5-B3
Z68X-UD4-B3
Z68X-UD3P-B3
Z68X-UD3-B3
Z68A-D3-B3
Integrated Graphics Options
Z68X-UD3H-B3
Z68X-D3H-B3
Z68X-UD2H-B3
Z68X-D2H-B3
For more information on the various motherboards and their specific features please check the Gigabyte website.
http://www.gigabyte.com/microsite/279/i ... odels.html
We will be doing a full review of the new Z68A-UD7 in the coming weeks so stay tuned.
