Computex 2008 - The Roundup

Date: June 16, 2008 - Author: Rob Williams

In our last Computex article, I am taking a look at a slew of products from a few different companies that had a lot to offer, such as OCZ, Thermaltake, ECS, Gigabyte, Foxconn and others. Included is a look at numerous motherboards, video cards and even some power supplies.

Introduction, OCZ Technology Group

As mentioned in my ASUS article, Computex is easily one of the coolest technology conferences in the world to attend, as many of the companies we deal with on a daily basis are actually HQ'd there. When we go straight to the source, we can see some of the coolest stuff the market currently offers, or at least will offer soon.

You might wonder why there was a delay in such a roundup, and the answer is simple... I spent a few days touring Taiwan after the show, and was not near a computer for more than five minutes per day. Luckily, despite Computex having have happened well over a week ago, the products seen here as still just as cool, so let's get to it.

OCZ Technology Group

Not two years ago, visiting OCZ at any trade event would have meant a few products here and there, but since acquiring both PC Power & Cooling and Hypersonic, their portfolio increased dramatically.

First up were a few new power supplies, but I am not going to pretend for a minute to know what to look for inside to understand the value and quality. One interesting feature was found on the 1200W model, however.

On the back are voltage dials, allowing you to alter the voltage during use on each of the four main rails. What this accomplishes, I'm unsure, but die hard PSU enthusiasts probably will not shun the feature.

Sadly, the acrylic bodies are just for show... and it's really too bad that it's not too safe to employ it on a final product, because it looks fantastic.

OCZ got their start in memory, and that's still their main focus today, so it was no surprise to see some new models on display. Their Flex series recently received an overhaul with the ability to effectively watercool them regardless of your setup. Adapters are included in case you are using tubes that are too large.

There was also some Fatal1ty-branded modules on the table. Who hasn't released branded product for this gamer guru?

Because so many geeks double as extreme athletes, OCZ has come up with the Fortress. Judging by the picture, it's an appropriate name, since it's unlikely that dropping one from a plane would hurt the data too much.

For the life of me I cannot recall the name of this cooler, but I was told it's a very effective design that shaves a few degrees Celsius off any of their current offerings, when paired with an appropriate fan, I'm assuming.

Also shown were two keyboards, which is a step that OCZ was only bound to take at some point in time, so it may as well be now. The keyboards are designed to be affordable, so don't expect huge price tags that some other higher-end keyboards are retailing for. I didn't get to spend much time with these, but so far, so good.

If it's not available already, OCZ will soon be shipping the Neural Impulse Actuator, which you've no doubt been reading about for quite some time. After strapping it around your head and running the quick configurator, you will be able to control most aspects of your games using only your mind. Sure, sounds gimmicky, but after giving it a ten-minute run, I was actually quite impressed.

It works by reading the pressure from your face/head and interpreting the signals to commands that a computer game can understand. Each time you play, you will need to run the calibrator for the most accurate control, and when done, you'll be able to configure certain aspects to your liking.

While playing, biting down lightly moved me forward, while biting down a bit harder made me fire. To rotate my gun, I still had to rely on the mouse, so you can't expect to play a game entirely with the device (and that's to be expected).

Given the suggested retail price, which should be well under $200, it might not appeal to everyone, but it's a great peripheral to toy around with if you want to increase the fun-factor of your game, or are straight-out just dying for something new to try.

Announced just a few weeks ago, OCZ had their DIY notebook on display. This 15.4" offering is designed to target mid-range users... not those who crave bleeding-edge performance. Included with be a 9600 GT, but you can choose your own CPU, memory and hard drive. OCZ will have a compatibility list on their site to let purchasers know what will and what won't work with their new notebook.

This first model won't be the last, either. Two other models were on display, but were not able to be shown here. Both utilize OCZ's own designs, so they should look unlike anything else out there.

Gigabyte

Gigabyte surprisingly didn't have too much new on display, but a few new products are worthy of mention. The most interesting to me personally was their GA-MA790GP ATX AMD motherboard. The 790G chipset includes integrated graphics that can be paired with Hybrid Crossfire, so Gigabyte upped the ante just a bit more.

Incorporated on board is 128MB of DDR3-1333 memory to be used exclusively with the integrated GPU. This will allow very fast memory access, although I'm unsure of real-world performance differences. I'm told they are quite noticeable, but it's hard to judge just from specs only.

How about the GA-EP45 EX, which includes a massive copper heatsink? Again, I was told that the temperature decrease to be seen from this is rather sizable, and with something this large, I won't be quick to discredit that claim.

For both the lower-end and early-adopters market, comes their P45 combo board, which I forget the exact name of. Like the GA-P35C we took a look at last year, this board can use both DDR2 and DDR3 (not at the same time), so you can use your current DDR2 now, and upgrade to DDR3 later if you so desire.

The last product I noticed was an Atom-based microATX board, one that offers a lot of performance in a very small package. The benefits of this system is somewhat obvious... good performance and a low power draw.

It's even capable of displaying 1080p content, so you could truly build an incredibly small HTPC if you wanted to. Most people will prefer more power of course, but this is a good solution for those who believe smaller is better.

Foxconn

In a world where the likes of ASUS, DFI, Gigabyte and others reign supreme where overclocking is concerned, Foxconn might not be one of the first companies to come to mind, understandably. They are looking to quickly change that, however, and I have little doubt they will if their boards perform and overclock as well as they look.

The Avenger was the first board I looked at. Despite being P45-based (which supports Crossfire at 8x), Foxconn included a special chip here, located between the dual PCI-E slots, that re-enable Crossfire in 16x speeds. I've been told (by another company) that such a chip would cost around $15 to implement, so this does of course add some overhead to the price of the board.

The board is clearly targeted for enthusiasts though. Included on the board are countless status LEDs that give you updates to the health of the system. Included also is a front panel that allows you some control and information of your system, although I somehow didn't manage to grab a shot of it, so I can't recall exactly.

The board will retail for over $300, which is high for a P45-based offering, but expected of something so feature-packed.

If there was any doubt that Foxconn wanted to become known as a company to offer ultimate overclocking boards, this component here pretty much confirms it. Once it's installed, it will allow you the ability to use exotic cooling, such as dry ice. I am sure there will be more to it than that, but the manual is sure to explain it to some degree.

Some pro overclockers on hand.

It's not all about overclocking, though. Also on-hand was a new DigitalLife series board, which, when released, will include both a front media panel and also a remote control, to help add to the usefulness of your HTPC. So far, the DigitalLife series seems to focus on AMD processors, since they seem to be the general choice for such systems today.

Another out-of-the-ordinary trend I noticed was companies throwing chipsets designed mostly for HTPC use, on a full ATX board. We didn't see that with G35, but we are now seeing it with G45, such as with the example below.

Besides the board's kick-ass color scheme, the G45 chipset allows for dual GPUs in Crossfire mode (8x) and also includes onboard video, thanks specifically to that chipset.

DFI

When Techgage first came to life in early 2005, DFI was the enthusiasts' choice for motherboards. They offered insane overclocking abilities and looked fantastic... all at the same time.

Due to a lackluster press relations department, DFI's popularity simmered down quite a bit after the AMD 939 days, but recently, things have begun to shape back up. Oskar Wu still never sleeps, which means that the BIOS' you receive with your board is the best it can be.

The company had numerous boards on display, which all were similar in design to other boards on the market, except with the lovingly neutered BIOS', of course. DFI has always done board design well, and these were no exception. I am incredibly intrigued by the Black PCB / Green Components color scheme, and wouldn't mind having one of those in my own rig.

I'll let the boards all speak for themselves.

An Intel P45 chipset on an mATX motherboard? Keen!

MSI

Whew. We've been online for three years now, and have yet to take a look at an MSI product. That will change soon, because they have some great-looking products on the horizon. I've always been intrigued by MSI's board designs, because they use very unique heatsinks, while other brands tend to stick to tried and true (and potentially bland) styles.

For those who have DDR2 now, but might want DDR3 later, the P458D might be for you. Unlike most of the competition, they allow you to use a full 8GB of either DDR2 or DDR3 (that's assuming 2GB modules), rather than 4GB of DDR3 and 8GB of DDR2.

Like many others, MSI gave their 9600 GT's some special coolers. It was a common theme all throughout Computex, and I assume it's because the 9600 GT is a killer GPU, but also comes in at an affordable price.

Next up, some Thermaltake action.

Thermaltake

Thermaltake... is huge. So at each event, they always have a slew of product to show off, and Computex was no exception. Many new coolers were on display, as well as their new chassis'. Once again, I'll let this lot of images explain themselves.

Sorry in advance for the ridiculous picture quality. For reasons unknown to me, I had thought setting to a high ISO setting would be a good idea at one point, and then forgot to change it back before taking these photos.

Finally, on the next page we'll take a quick look at a few other cool things from companies that didn't have enough to fill a page.

Leftovers...

ECS might not have had a lot on display that grabbed my attention, but this passively-cooled 8800 GT card from NVIDIA did. I often wondered why no one created such a thing, especially since it's not a card that runs that hot. Surely, if a 9600 GT could be passively cooled, then the 8800 GT, which isn't too much faster, could be as well.

I'll admit, the cooler design itself isn't that great-looking, but that comes with the territory of passive coolers. Silence comes first, and looks come nowhere at all. It's nice to have this option, though, especially if you are running an HTPC, and happen to have room for a taller-than-normal video card.

I'm no power supply enthusiast, but the color and design of these look great. Unless the design is a subtle hint that these PSUs are bound to blow up your machine... I'm not sure. These are from In Win, and I'm unsure when they'll become available.

I have been a huge fan of Zalman's 9700 CPU cooler since it first came out, so my interest was piqued when I saw the brand-new 9900 on the shelf. It's a bit larger in design and now is split into two sections, to accommodate a center fan. Looks sharp.

That about wraps up our Computex coverage, and yes, it took us a while to get this far, but we admit it! For a little more coverage, please check out our news posts from a few weeks ago, where I took a brief look at Asetek's hardcore yet silent machine and also VIAs latest miniITX spec.

Stay tuned as we'll be taking a look at a few products shown in this article in the near future. We'll also be attending a few cool events this summer that we'll be reporting from, so check back often.

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