VIA Releases Mini-ITX 2.0, NVIDIA Pleased with PCI-E Support

In case you haven't noticed, VIA has been in the news a lot over the past few months, and for good reason. While they are still best known for their chipsets, they've been branching out into the CPU market, while juggling other ventures as well.

Announced during a press conference was Mini-ITX 2.0, an upgraded spec for the form-factor that was first incorporated about eight years ago... and one that Intel has also just picked up. The new standard has a few decent guidelines, such as requiring HDMI and VGA, 3 audio jacks for 6-channel sound, 1 LAN, 2 S-ATA and 1 P-ATA and also a PCI-Express slot.

Between the new and old, the size of the board itself remains identical. VIA of course had a board on display, using their Nano CPU, but anyone (namely AMD or Intel) is free to license the design.

VIA's Mini-ITX 2.0 and NVIDIA Support

That announcement was of course significant news, but even moreso was the clear effort between NVIDIA and VIA to create a great low-powered and high-performance platform. Using a 1.6GHz Nano along with an 8500 GT from NVIDIA, the system was able to load and play Crysis and BioShock with little issue. They didn't run ultra-smooth, but it was still playable... and we are on the right track.

The 8500 GT is not the most impressive card out there, but for this platform it's very appropriate. It offered perfect 1080p playback, and allowed a decent gameplay experience. The reason they didn't demo with a bigger card was for the simple reason that the GPU needed to be contained without the boundaries of the Mini-ITX board.

Given the performance we've seen and the potential price of the entire setup, this may very well be one heck of an attractive offering once all of the parts are available for purchase. We'll be keeping our eye close on both the latest platform along with VIA's quickly-growing relationship with NVIDIA.

OCZ's First DIY Notebook Out Soon, Other Models En Route

Last month, OCZ announced a brand-new product out of nowhere... a do-it-yourself notebook. As expected, they had just that product on display in their suite at Computex and from what I've seen, it's definitely on the right path.

The initial model, which will launch very shortly, it's built with mainstream users in mind. It's not for hardcore gamers, and likewise not for those who want a very mild notebook. It's for those who want a good notebook that sits right in the middle of the spectrum, and also want the ability to easily upgrade the CPU, RAM and hard drive.

In my post last month, I questioned why the GPU couldn't be swapped out... and I pretty much just answered that question. This notebook is mid-range, so it includes a GPU that doesn't suck, nor rocks. It's right there in the middle, comfortably.

OCZ Technology's DIY 15.4" Notebook

So it would make sense that other models are en route, and that's just the case. When I tried to take pictures of them, I was brutally beat away with a few Fatal1ty-branded modules, so I backed off. However, I can say that the upcoming models will definitely appeal to a wider range of people and allow the flexibility that enthusiasts are after.

For those worried about the complications of choosing the correct components for a DIY notebook, OCZ mentioned that they'd be releasing compatibility lists that would help you in your journey, and no, they will not only feature OCZ, but many other manufacturers as well.

Asetek Believes Quiet PCs Can Still Be Powerful

Asetek is no stranger to many enthusiasts, and it's blatantly obvious that they take cooling very seriously. They became incredibly well-known with their VapoChill phase-change CPU cooler, which is the ultimate in high-end for those overclocking masters who want nothing less than an extreme overclock.

But Asetek's main concern now is providing efficient cooling paired with silent cooling. In their suite they had a few examples of what their goals are all about. In the picture below you'll notice a large gaming machine. It's equipped with an overclocked QX9650 (4.0GHz), four sticks of overclocked RAM and dual 9800GX2s, also overclocked.

Where overclocking is concerned, ridiculous heat is sure to be there. However, when overclocking all this, the need for very efficient cooling is even more important. Add the desire for silence, and it's a whole new ball game.

Asetek's Quiet Bleeding-Edge Gaming PC

Well, the system above, as packed as it was, hovered only around the 45dB mark. The loudest feature of this particular PC is the chipset fan, which happens to be incredibly tiny, but very loud. Without it, Asetek claims that the dB would drop to around 30dB... totally reasonable, especially for an absolute top-of-the-line PC.

There is no real product wrapped around this, although you could purchase all of the parts separately and put one together. They are primarily showing what's possible, and with so many PC boutiques picking up on their technologies, it's very likely that you'll find machines just like this one on the market very soon, if not today.

Intel's G45 Holds Lots of Promise

Intel had a big press conference yesterday to help launch their 4-series chipsets, all of which Rory talked about the other day. Nothing too exciting occurred here, mainly because we've already been well-informed on P45, as evidenced by the fact that we've already posted a review of an ASUS motherboard.

The truth is, P45 isn't really that exciting. It's based on a smaller process and uses less power, but that's about it. G45 on the other hand is a far different story. It's somewhat rare that I become interested in an mATX/SFF-bound chipset, but this one seems to have the right stuff.

The fact G45 does 1080p on the integrated hardware is nice, although that in itself is to be expected nowadays. Like P45, though, it also uses far less power. On stage they were playing a Blu-ray AVC movie (avg 30Mbps) on a mini-ITX board with G45, using an E7200, and the entire system was using only 53W.

AMD has done well with their 780G, but the power consumption is a lot higher there than on an Intel platform. Couple an efficient CPU, chipset and graphics together, and you have one fantastic multi-media machine that happens to be extremely quiet.

We'll be taking a look at G45 in the very near future, but for now, feel free to check out our look at the latest chipsets so you can see all that's new.

Intel's Eric Mentzer holding G45 & MCH10

Intel's next-generation chipset offerings in the mid-range and enterprise-level markets have arrived in the form of three mid-range offerings in Intel's 4-Series of chipsets, including two with integrated graphics. In this article, we'll lay out the differences, and help you understand your new options.

Source: Intel 4-Series Chipsets: G43, G45, P45

June 5th Tech Roundup

• Dell Ultrasharp 2408WFP - HotHardware
• Twintech GeForce 9600GT XXT OC Edition - TweakTown
• Foxconn GeForce 9800 GTX OC 512MB - Benchmark Reviews
• Palit Sonic 9600GSO - Neoseeker

• Super Talent MasterDrive MX 60GB SATA-II SSD - Legit Reviews

• USB 2.0 4 Port KVM Auto Switch - DragonSteelMods
• Razer Mako 2.1 Speaker System - TheTechLounge

• Asus Triton 77 CPU Cooler - Overclockers Club
• CoolIT Freezone Elite CPU Cooler - Hardware Canucks
• Thermaltake DuOrb CPU Cooler - ASE Labs
• CoolIT PURE Water Cooling Kit - ComputerShopper

• Hiper Osiris - Bigbruin
• Sigma Unicorn - OCIA