CES 2007: Part 1

Tagan has becoming well known for their power supplies over the past few months, but they have a few extra product lines as well including cases, unique keyboards and enclosures. We are not sure of the model, but the center case is the one that really caught our eye. Like Silverstones TJ07, this cases main panel is one piece, so no hard edges. It’s also made of aluminum and proved to be quite strong. Other bonuses include the sheer size… this thing is massive. Their case line is called A+ and from what we’ve seen, they may be worthy of paying attention to.

Although it seems kind of simple, WidgetStation is another product that drew us in. It’s a small device that can sit on your desk and display widgets. As I said.. simple. These do not inter operate with widgets in Windows Vista, but there will be a large selection to choose from. If you are a developer and know HTML and Javascript, you can even code your own. What I liked about the product the most is the display.. incredibly sharp. This is one toy that would look great on any desk. Sadly, I was unable to find out an SRP.

It’s not a surprise that newer PC systems require big power supplies. While 400W a few years ago offered a lot of headroom, newer high-end systems shouldn’t be run on anything less than 1000W. So what’s next? 2000W, that’s what. A few companies have 2KW supplies announced, but the one that stood out the most was OCZs since it’s completely external. Along with that fact, it’s huge.

Seriously huge, but great looking at the same time. Is 2000W overkill? Of course it is. All four of the PC’s in my room no doubt don’t even touch 1200W combined at full load, let alone a single rig. As far as I am aware, a single wall socket is not even able to handle more than ~1500W, so how does this power supply do it? You guessed it right. This supply requires two power cords to be plugged in, on -different- circuit breakers.

I’m a camera geek, so I was excited to see a lot of new innovations regarding this market. Since my Nikon D80 uses SD cards, I am always waiting for something bigger to come out. Do I need something bigger? That’s not the point! Patriot had a brand new 16GB SDHC Class 6 card on display, which is simply incredible. Toshiba and Ultra have 8GB SDHC cards, but Patriot took it a step further. I will have to admit, I wasn’t even sure 16GB would be possible so soon, since SDHC technology only arose recently.

Of course, there are two negatives to this card, but the positive is obvious. First, this is an SDHC card, and thanks to the higher density it will result in a slower write speed. But, it’s a Class 6 card which is the highest SDHC standard available, which equates to 6MB/s. Another downside is the price I’m sure. I was not told an SRP, but current 16GB Compact Flash cards range in the $1,000 range, so we’ll have to wait and see if this SD will be just as high.