IDF 07 SF: Walking The Show Floor

It doesn’t seem all that long ago that the original DDR was reigning supreme in performance. With that time long gone and DDR2 now the norm, DDR3 is now starting to make its way into enthusiast PCs everywhere. If you remember, Intel was the largest pusher of DDR2 into the mainstream and it shouldn’t come to any surprise that Intel again is leading the charge of DDR3.

Forget what you have read about DDR3 being incredibly expensive and at the same time, not offering any real performance increases over DDR2. Actually, don’t forget that, because it’s still 100% true. But regardless of what anyone thinks, DDR3 is here to stay and eventually, it will be in everyone’s PCs.

To show off their latest lines of DDR3 memory, all the big players were at IDF, touting the advantages of their memory over the competitions. Look for more on DDR3 advancements in the coming months from our resident memory guru, Rob.

While everyone had a good showing on the DDR3 front, there were 2 companies that really stood out. The first being Super Talent with their new Project X line of enthusiast RAM, cooled with an aggressive new heat spreader. Looking quite similar to Corsair’s Dominator line or memory, Super Talent’s Project X sticks look good while offering solid cooling properties.

The second company to catch our eye was Qimonda. With their performance geared Aeneon DDR3, the Qimonda X-Tune memory is apparently a strong overclocker but until we get a set in house to test, we will just say that they are a good looking kit of RAM.

Everyone and their brother by now have seen the HP Blackbird 002. With it’s exceptionally slick chassis, and gamer worthy specs, the Blackbird is one of those PCs that most anyone wants. It’s kind of like the Alienware PCs when they were first available. Sporting the latest in available hardware, the Blackbird 002 keeps its components cool with the help of a custom Asetek cooler.

Long known for their Vapochill line of phase change coolers, Asetek has also been manufacturing incredible water kits as well. With their experience in designing water kits, it is Asetek that has provided HP with the goods to keep the Bird’s temps in check. Unlike their other products, Asetek is focusing on OEMs with this kind of setup and with HP, they have found a very popular home.

We stole a few minutes from the Asetek representatives to get their take on the coolers and what else they have to offer, either in retail channels or in OEM builds. From the looks of the HP’s system, they are certainly on the right track.

Along with their water blocks, Asetek has manufactured memory cooling as well. Designed to look like a stock cooler, the Asetek device sits around the attached water block, using a fan to cool the video memory.

There you have it. Not only did we bring you coverage on Penryn, Skulltrail and X38, but also information on what is happening just outside the world of Intel.

From the looks of things, DDR3 is here to stay and it’s only a matter of time before we are all using it in our personal PCs. On the cooling front, Asetek is doing wonderful things in the OEM market and with a little luck; we will be evaluating one of their personal kits shortly. With all that said, we begin our countdown to IDF ’08.

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