Tech News

Gigabyte’s Silent Cell GPU Cooling Promises Huge Temp Drops

During our meeting with Gigabyte at Computex, the company brought up their brand-new “Silent Cell” cooling technology which aims to beat out any other passive GPU cooler on the market. Pretty bold claims, but given that the company asked me if I’d be interested in doing a comparison in our labs, I’d have to say they are taking them pretty seriously.

Silent Cell is the company’s latest technology for passive cooling. The first such technology was released in 2004 and was named Silent-Pipe. That was followed-up with Silent-Pipe II in 2005, Silent-Pipe 3 in 2007 and Multi-Core Cooling in 2008. With GPUs hotter than ever, it makes sense that the company would only continue to innovate in this area.

Silent Cell is comprised of a few key features. First is the fact that the base is huge, or “ultra-huge” as Gigabyte tells it, and covers 602% more surface area than typical coolers. I have no idea what their basis for comparison is, however. Judging by the picture below, they’re comparing a mid-range GPU to a high-end, which is a bit misleading.

Added to that, there’s “ultra-thin” layered fins which are poised to dissipate heat far more efficiently than thicker fins, aluminum nodes and of course, three copper heatpipes. Because of this design, the cooler is supposed to spread out the heat far better than typical passive coolers, which tend to have one really noticeable hot-spot. We’ll have to get in one of their new coolers and a competitors to see just how efficient it really is.

Read More Comment (0)

Thermalright Emphasizes Passive Cooling with their R1x

I’m not quite sure what it is, but there seems to be a huge focus on chassis’ at this Computex. Companies who’ve never released such a product before now are, and it’s a bit strange. Is it because they see the need for more selection in the marketplace, or because they know they can do things better? I guess we’ll know once we get some in!

Like Xigmatek and Corsair, Thermalright is also jumping on the chassis bandwagon. For some reason, the R1x (what kind of name is that?) didn’t really impress me from a design standpoint, but I’m willing to wait to see what the final model looks like before forming a real opinion. Like many other chassis on the market, this one features a tool-less design in most areas except for the PCI slots.

Their tool-less method for removing and installing optical drives is actually patented, and though it looks kind of ugly (this IS a prototype though), the functionality is spot on. You simply push the ODD in, push the knob in and turn. Done.

Of course, what was most interesting was the company’s reliance on their passive coolers. Neither the CPU or graphics cards had a fan, so all in all, it should be a rather quiet installation. Except, the company had two fans installed in the bottom, one in the front and two in the top. Seems a little odd to focus on passive cooling with so many chassis fans being used, but it is interesting to look at regardless.

Read More Comment (0)

Xigmatek’s First Chassis Looks to be a Winner

Xigmatek isn’t a company that’s been around too long, three years in fact, but with the products they’ve released so far, they’ve earned the reputation of a company that produces worthwhile products. Their Thor’s Hammer CPU cooler, for example, costs half as much as Thermalright’s Ultra-120, but is claimed to perform just one degree worse. That’s what I like to see.

At Computex, the company was showing off their first-ever chassis, the Midgard, which is set to compete with the likes of the Cooler Master 690 (which we reviewed here). It features a pure-black paint scheme (100% internally as well) with orange on some of the components. Plus, from what I see, it also features a mostly tool-less installation – a big plus.

Though it may just be a mid-tower, it has room for seven 120mm fans for the ultimate in cooling-ability, and includes two with the stock chassis. Even cooler (at least to me), is that the included fans feature orange blades and white LEDS, the latter of which we don’t see often enough. I assume that once the chassis is made available, you can purchase additional copies of the same fan, although I’d expect them to me more expensive than typical models.

The best part of the chassis might be the fact that it’s going to retail for around $75. That’s rather incredible given the robust design and great color scheme. It’s not often that the inside of a chassis has so much attention to detail, even on some higher-end models. The Midgard should become available within the next month or two, and we’ll be sure to get one in to put it through its paces.

Read More Comment (0)

GeIL’s DBT Ensures Long-Lasting Memory

At GeIL’s booth, the company didn’t have a whole lot to show off, but what was easily the most interesting was a wall chock-full of their Black Dragon RAM, all seemingly being stressed. They were showing off what they call DBT, or Die-hard Burn-in Technology, a proprietary setup that allows them to put modules under accelerated stress, to make sure that the customer won’t end up with a faulty product.

The DBT is run in a warm room of about 60°C, and regular kits are stressed for at least three hours, at their “stock” settings, whatever they may be. If after three hours the kits haven’t died, they pass the test and are packaged then shipped out. The company said that since they implemented DBT, RMA rates have dropped from 0.5% to 0.1%. Seems small, but given the number of modules the company ships, that saves a lot of money in the long-run.

Also of interest was the company’s Cyclone memory cooler. Unlike most RAM coolers which look boring and  simply stack two or three fans on top of the memory, the Cyclone features a unique design that the company promises is far more efficient than other solutions on the market.

Ideally, the Cyclone should be paired up with heatspreader-equipped RAM, and once installed, the heat will run up to the cooler and dissipate quickly through the numerous fins. This cooler also features only a single fan, and we are promised that it’s near-silent (it was impossible to tell on the show floor). As an added bonus, the fan also features LED text as it spins around, giving you information on your temps and rotational speed. You can also add your own text if you like. The Cyclone is available now, and retails for around $30.

Read More Comment (0)

SilverStone’s Feature-Rich $100 HTPC Chassis

Want to build a powerful HTPC but don’t want it to hog all the room in your TV stand? That’s SilverStone’s goal with the GD04, a new home theater chassis that offers enough of what you need to build the ultimate HTPC, but for a very reasonable price (~$100). And if you don’t mind the front of the chassis being plastic rather than aluminum, you could get it even cheaper (~$80).

One key thing to mention here is that the GD04 isn’t as deep as most HTPC chassis’. Although I don’t have the exact dimensions on-hand, comparing this to other similar chassis’ at the SilverStone booth, I could easily spot the size difference, and this is no doubt going to appeal to many people.

But what about airflow? I had the same question, and apparently SilverStone put in much thought and care into the design, that when fully installed, the GD04’s airflow and efficiency can match that of their full-towers. It’s designed in such a way that it compresses the warm air so that it escapes quicker. The result is a very powerful machine that won’t overheat.

Care was even given to those who want to use extra cards that are not required to be plugged into the motherboard, such as an ASUS Xonar audio card that can be equipped with a daughter card. In that instance, the card would be installed in the back left corner, making accessing it a non-issue.

In the image above, you’ll notice that a full-sized GPU is installed, and apparently there is no limit. I was told virtually any graphics card today will fit, and heat won’t be a real issue. There’s also room for up to three hard drives, so storage isn’t going to be an issue either. Overall, the GD04 impressed me quite a bit, because for $100, it looks good, has a keen design and is small, yet won’t cause your components to overheat. If this thing has a fault, it’s not obvious to me.

Read More Comment (0)

Giving Intel’s ULV Processors a Quick Spin

Earlier this week, we posted about Intel’s upcoming ultra-low voltage mobile processors, which boast some incredible claims. Imagine having a 10″ – 13″ notebook that lasts up to eight hours on a single charge while still retaining reasonable performance to get work done. That’s essentially what Intel is expecting to deliver once products hit the market.

There are a few reason reasons this can be accomplished. First is the fact that these ULV CPUs are not Dual-Core, but rather single (Core 2 Solo). The second reason is the lower voltage, as the name suggests. Third, the overall CPU frequency is also low, and in the case of some of them, even lower than Intel’s own budget Atom processor (though the two can’t be compared).

During my travels, I noticed a few ULV notebooks sitting about at MSI’s booth, so I stopped to give one a quick test drive. I didn’t note the notebook model, but I’d guess it to be a 13″ offering, with the equipped CPU being the Core 2 Solo U3500, a 1.4GHz offering. In the brief time I spent with the notebook, I have to say it felt quite speedy, much more so than I expected. It will take a lot more in-house testing before I can conclude on that, though.

Oddly enough, the notebook I was using didn’t have its power cord blocked (it did have the USB ports blocked), so I was able to give it some quick testing. I loaded up a few applications (Calculator, Solitaire, Chess, Windows Media Player, Internet Explorer, Notepad and Remote Desktop), unplugged the machine and walked away for about 20 minutes.

During that 20 minutes, the notebook wasn’t touched, and none of the applications were actually used. As for the WiFi, although the adapter was active, it wasn’t connected to a network. With all said and done, you can see that with 90% of the battery left, Windows estimated it to be another 5h 25m.

While not quite the 8 hours I was hoping for, there’s a few things to bear in mind. First is the fact that each configuration is going to be different, and tweaked differently. Then there’s the fact that the WiFi adapter was active, and not disabled, and also the that I had multiple applications open hogging the memory. With what I saw here, I’d be very willing to believe that under light loads, this notebook could last 8 hours.

Still, for a typical scenario where one works while on the go, 8 hours doesn’t look too likely. The upside is the fact that if these notebooks are as affordable as Intel claims, then being able to pick up a 13″ notebook that lasts six hours on a single charge is simply amazing. The 12″ HP dv2 I just picked up that lasts three hours is looking a wee bit outdated.

Read More Comment (0)

NVIDIA Shows Off ION-based Devices, Including Pegatron IPP7A-CP

By now, you should know what NVIDIA’s ION platform is all about. Simply put, it’s a platform that utilizes Intel’s Atom processor, but pairs it with NVIDIA’s ION GPU for better graphics support, which would improve HD playback and very light gaming. As you’d expect, between ION and Tegra, NVIDIA had a lot to show off, and I have to say, I like what I saw, but I’ll talk about Tegra later.

What impressed me the most ION-wise was the IPP7A-CP from Pegatron, as it was easily the smallest ION solution on display, and as a result, the most impressive. Just two months ago, Acer announced their ION-based AspireRevo, and when I first saw it, I was impressed. After all, it was a small build, yet offered so much functionality.

After taking a look at the Pegatron offering, the AspireRevo looks a little bit embarrassing, as you can see in the below photo. In a rough estimation, the IPP7A-CP is about 2.5x less the volume of the AspireRevo, but by taking a look in the back, you’ll still see a wide-array of connectivity options.

I’m not sure if this couldn’t be done with the straight Atom-based platform (using Intel’s on-board graphics rather than NVIDIA’s), but the fact that we have a rather powerful little machine in a form-factor this small is truly incredible. With the included GPU, you could actually take advantage of HD playback… just imagine this thing next to the TV! No word on release date, but hopefully we won’t have to wait too long.

Read More Comment (0)

Intel Talks Lynnfield, Arrandale, Teases with 8-Core Processor

There’s no such thing as leaving a meeting with Intel uninformed, so we have a lot of interesting things to report regarding the company’s upcoming technologies. First is Lynnfield, the “value” version of Core i7 tentatively called “Core i5”. It features a similar underlying architecture as Nehalem, but drops such luxuries as triple-channel memory and the QPI bus (in lieu of DMI).

Interestingly enough though, Lynnfield also enhances something found on Core i7, Turbo. On Nehalem, Turbo would affect the first or second core (if you don’t know what Turbo is, refer to our article here), but with a proper workload on Lynnfield, you can actually see Turbo affect all cores, which would result in a boost that would actually be noticeable. We’ll talk more about this nearer to the launch date.

Next up is Arrandale, the mobile version of Nehalem due out later this year. This mPGA-989-based processor has the same underlying architecture as Core i7, but utilizes a dual-channel IMC and contains less cache. Aside from the obvious performance boost over Penryn-based CPUs, Arrandale will offer both 4MB of Cache and HyperThreading… perfect for mobile workstations.

As for power draw while mobile, we’ll have to see. Nehalem’s advanced power states are sure going to have to work overtime to sustain a decent battery-life on any equipped notebook.

Westmere was discussed briefly, but given that the launch is still a ways away, Intel wouldn’t divulge too much information. One interesting point mentioned, which I didn’t realize before, is that Westmere will be using the same socket, LGA-1156, as Lynnfield. So if you have a PC with a CPU/GPU hybrid Westmere, you could upgrade to Lynnfield without issue, as the pin layout supports the change.

Before the meeting concluded, Intel’s performance guru Francois Piednoel opened up a small card to show off an Octal-Core processor, presumably based on Nehalem. As the card opened, MC Hammer’s “Can’t Touch This” immediately began playing. Nice.

June 4th Update (21:44 CST): The mobile part we saw was not Arrandale, but rather Clarksfield. Thanks to Intel for pointing this out and apologies for the confusion.

Read More Comment (0)

Thermaltake Shows Off Unique Level 10 Chassis

The Level 10 chassis from Thermaltake has become one of the worst-kept secrets in tech. It was originally leaked on a few blogs a few months ago, and then showed off at CeBIT. Refinements have been made since then, and the company took the opportunity to officially unveil the unique chassis at Computex, and so far, it seems to be well-received.

This wasn’t an inexpensive chassis for Thermaltake to produce, and one reason for that is the tight collaboration between Tt and BMW Group DesignworksUSA. Such a relationship can’t be cheap, but the result seems to be well worth it, because Level 10 is truly unlike anything before it.

It’s made unique because each portion of your computer is separated from another, and careful thought was given to isolate heat in key areas and direct airflow properly. Thermaltake says that overclockers should have no limitations with this design, so despite it being designed so strangely, the cooling-ability is supposedly top-notch.

To install components, each portion of the chassis swings open, like you can see here, which makes placing whatever you need in there a simple process. the most difficult part might be the wiring, but once done, the entire install will be unbelievably clean… as you’d expect from such a design.

Thermaltake will be building 1,000 of these $700 chassis’ to kick things off, and if they sell as well as they hope they will, they’ll continue to produce them until demand dies down.

Read More Comment (0)

ASUS Offers Elegant External Blu-ray Drive

Although technologies such as solid-state storage have taken up a large portion of space around the various booths, Blu-ray is another that can be found all over the place. Even modest notebooks are starting to carry the capability for Blu-ray playback, and I’m all for it. It’s nice to be able to plug a notebook into your TV and watch HD content… nothing at all wrong with ultra-portable HD content.

With such focus on Blu-ray, it’s no surprise to see certain manufacturers showing off external drives, and one such company is ASUS. The SBC-04D1S-U (?!) is easily one of the best-looking external BD-ROM models on the market, and after having a quick look, I’ve decided that I want one. Oh, how I want one.

As you can see in the image below, the device (right) is not much bigger than the drive door, and looks entirely elegant with its glossy black finish and background blue LED (which can be turned off should you want to watch a movie with no distraction). The best part? It’s USB-based, so it can be used pretty-well anywhere.

Aside from reading Blu-rays, it also writes them, believe it or not, in addition to having the ability to take advantage of most things DVD and CD. Overall, it’s a great all-around drive that looks good, is affordable (~$199 USD, so I’m told) and is very portable. The nicest feature is knowing that you’re not tied to only one PC, but any you come in contact with. These are available now, although I’ve been unable to spot them myself. If you have, let us know in the thread!

Read More Comment (0)

OCZ Packs 1TB into a 3.5″ Form-Factor

If you guessed that there would be a lot of SSD talk at Computex, you’d be spot on. The number of companies showing off their own solid-state products seems limitless, although OCZ is one of the few who showed something a wee bit different. One of the biggest complaints (aside from the price) about SSDs is with regards to density, but with their Colossus, that issue is gone.

Though still a work-in-progress, the Colossus shares the identical form-factor as a standard mechanical hard drive, but inside are two 500GB SSDs in RAID 0, for incredible speed. Their achievement so far has been 265MB/s read, but their ultimate goal is to see the exact same for the write speed. Alright, you can start drooling.

As it stands now, the drive features a <0.2ms seek time and weighs 400gm. So what about the company’s much-anticipated Z-Drive? For those who want mind-boggling speed, that’s the only choice, although right now it’s hard to find in stock. That should change shortly. Initial stock didn’t live up to the company’s expectations, so they must be tweaked (and thankfully so for such an expensive product).

In talking to a few different SSD vendors at the show, the overall consensus is that PCI-E SSDs are the future, not S-ATA-based offerings. The reasoning is clear… the speed potential of such drives is incredible, and equipped with such a drive removes a major bottleneck in your computing. It will take a long while for that to become a standard, however, but it should be worth the wait.

Read More Comment (0)

Computex, Girls, i7-975, Girls, GO OC 09 & Girls

Just in case you missed it, we published a whack of content over the past few days which you should definitely check out. First is our Computex 2009 coverage article, which is actively-updated as we are able to post news about what we see at the show. Due to not feeling well, I haven’t been able to keep it as up-to-date over the past day as I’d like, but I’ll soon be adding a bunch of news items to the pile.

For those interested in overclocking, don’t miss our full run-down of the GO OC 09 final, which took place on the 36th floor of the famous Taipei 101. The room was crowded, but the event went down without a hitch, and once again, USA took the crown to remain the world champions!

For those looking for a new ultra-high-end processor, we also posted our look at Intel’s latest Core i7, the 975 Extreme Edition. A little bit more than a simple speed bump, Intel did well to remind the world that they are still offering the fastest processors out there.

Oh, all you care about is the above image, I get it. As I mentioned in a news item last week, we’re working hard to deliver more than just the obvious coverage. To help take you guys to Computex with us, we’re giving a behind-the-scenes look at how things go down, in and outside of the show. There are also many pictures of booth babes, and all of those can be found in the thread, so check ’em out!

Read More Comment (0)

Gigabyte Breaths New Life Into AGP

We all know of the song “that never ends”, and that’s immediately what I think of when I see an AGP graphics card. Despite the fact that the slot-type has been long ousted, some companies refuse to let go, and in reality, there has got to still be demand for such cards, which I find entirely interesting.

Here at Computex, Gigabyte is showing off a brand-new ATI Radeon HD 4650 AGP card, designed for those with old machines who either want a recent offering, or simply have the need to get a new card for whatever reason. As a mainstream graphics chip, the performance wouldn’t be up to par with what we see with mid-range PCI-E cards, but at least the option is there for those who need it.

The card is available right now, although I’m unsure of the pricing. Like ATI’s other 4000-series offerings, this card supports DirectX 10.1 and OpenGL 2.1, has 1GB of GDDR2 onboard, and also features HDMI and DVI connectors. Oh, and for some reason, it also supports CrossFireX. Try and figure that one out!

Read More Comment (0)

Corsair’s Obsidian 800D Brings Many Unique Features to the Table

Just earlier, I mentioned that Corsair has been branching out quite a bit over the years with their products, and while memory is still their bread and butter, they’re still actively supplementing that with various other products, such as cooling and power supplies. First shown at CeBIT, the Obsidian 800D is the company’s first chassis, and what a chassis it is…

It’s a rare occurrence when a company releases a new product-type for the first time and it become something incredible, but where the Obsidian is concerned, the only thing I can think of is “kick-ass”. I’m in no way a chassis guy, and I tend to be one of those who couldn’t care less about what’s holding my components, but even I want one of these… big time.

First key feature is the size. This thing is massive, and as a result, “airflow issues” is a term that will suddenly cease from your vocabulary. It doesn’t matter if you want an incredibly robust water-cooling setup… you’re still going to have superb airflow. There’s a lot more to the chassis than just the size though, and really, a simple news post wouldn’t allow me to touch all of the features.

One of my favorite features are the rubber grommits that fill the “cable holes”… the holes that you will run your cables through from behind the motherboard area out to where you need to plug them in. Seems simple, but this does an unbelievable job of keeping things looking clean. It was noted by Corsair that some people from other meetings asked why the PC wasn’t even complete… and it was simply because the cabling was kept so clean.

Then there’s the unbelievable care given to water-cooling… which I won’t even touch. Just take a look at this picture to get an idea of what I’m talking about. There’s much more to mention, but for the sake of time, we’ll have to leave the rest to our review upon the product’s release. As it stands, the chassis is set to retail for around $300, and though high, it brings a lot to the table compared to other $300 chassis’ on the market.

Read More Comment (0)

Intel Thrives to be Small, Enable Ultra-Thin Notebooks

Bigger may be better in some cases, but where our microchips are concerned, the opposite is true. Intel is one company to fully believe this, and they made it increasingly clear that their goals are to deliver small yet performance-efficient chips to help make notebooks even smaller, but still desirable. We’ve made mention of these in our news before, but a lot more information was given today.

In the launch of four new ULV processors, Intel stated that it’s cool to be thin, and as I mentioned in a posting earlier today, computers are not only being designed around functionality nowadays, but also style. It’s not fashionable to lug around a 10lb offering, but a sleek 4lbs notebook can be, if done right.

Processors that draw low power also tend to lack performance, and these CPUs aren’t going to break that mold. However, it’s Intel’s and many other’s ideas that most people who use a notebook on the go use it for simpler purposes, such as e-mail and writing. So in a scenario like that, how great it would be to have a 10″ – 12″ notebook that lasts close to 7 hours? It’s been claimed that these new CPUs can make it happen.

In addition to the new processors, Intel also introduced the GS40 Express mobile chipset, which is required for these new CPUs to make use of their full power-saving potential. But it also enables robust HD playback (hopefully) and also native HDMI… a nice bonus. Past those features, Intel also touted WiMax as having grown vastly in popularity in the past year, and a new “My WiFi” technology for notebooks that will allow you to set up your machine as a wireless hub, for use with other PCs or peripherals.

All in all, not a bad showing on the mobile front from Intel. Decently-sized notebooks that last 7 hours? Sign me up.

Read More Comment (0)

EVGA’s Swivel Dual Monitor to be Released Soon

As I found out first-hand this past CES, EVGA is very interested in branching out to cater to markets other than PC gamers, and that was obvious with the launch of their PCoIP. That product allows you to literally place your beastly machine somewhere far from where you plan to sit your monitor, and you can still use it via your home network. The product is currently very expensive, but it’s certainly going to please anyone who picks one up (imagine playing your high-end games but  have no computer in front of you… pure silence).

At Computex, the company was showing off something that they originally had on display at CES 2008. I’m not quite sure of the name, but it gives new meaning to “dual display”. Two modestly-sized monitors are placed side by side, and swivel to your liking – you can even turn one over completely. If you go that route, the picture will automatically flip to orient itself properly.

The purpose for the product is likely very specific, although for gamers, there’s little doubt some titles could support the unique displays if someone, or some developer decided to design something. EVGA’s primary audience in mind is business folk, especially those in the financial sector – one where it’s not at all rare to have 6 displays at your desk.

It may seem a bit odd, but this product will actually cost less than the PCoIP product mentioned above. At $649, it’s still going to be sold only to those with a specific reason for a purchase, although I’m very interested to see just where it will go upon release. The resolution (1440×900) will be another limiting factor at the moment for some, but EVGA stated that larger models are being considered, and whether they come to fruition will likely depend on how well these initial units sell. The current model should become available within the next month.

Read More Comment (0)

Gigabyte’s Upcoming Software Makes Good Use of the BIOS

Out of all the motherboard vendors, the company who seems to care most about bundled software would have to be Gigabyte. While some others release software that’s entirely clunky and not fun to use, Gigabyte tries to refine theirs as much as possible, in order to make them both look good, and easy to use. Such new software was shown off at Computex, and I have to say, if it’s not all entirely useful, it is at least interesting.

A new software bundle in some upcoming motherboards is called Ultra6, and it’s comprised of Smart DualBIOS, QuickBoost, QuickBoot, Recorder and TimeLock. One of the more interesting of the bunch would have to be DualBIOS. For this feature, Gigabyte expanded the physical size of the BIOS to about 16MB, in order to allow users to save additional information within.

What kind of information may change over time, but the demo they had gave an example of saving your collection of passwords. For example, when using the feature, you could type in your passwords and also the site names for each, then save it to the BIOS. If you happen to forget a password later on, you can use this feature and input the master password in order to see whatever is stored. This will undoubtedly be a niche feature, but it’s neat nonetheless.

Then there is Recorder, which acts as a system logger. Here, the software can record a variety of information, including what was done on your PC recently, such as copying files to a thumb drive. We also have Recovery, which is set to compete with such technologies as Time Machine from Apple. If this software works well, it would prove to be a great addition to Gigabyte’s boards.

There’s also QuickBoot, which somehow improves both the boot speed of the POST process and also the Windows’ loading. Aside from these, there were other software tools shown, such as updated and worthwhile overclocking tools, and we’ll be sure to take a look at all of them when they hit upcoming P55 and revised X58 motherboards.

Read More Comment (0)

NZXT Has Numerous Chassis’ En Route, New Fan Controllers

When I arrived for our meeting with NZXT at Computex, I was greeted with the fact that they had a lot to show off. That sounded great. Then I was told that none of it could be photographed… so, no, that white image below is a joke and not your monitor going funky.

What I can say though, is that NZXT has a lot of new products en route, and some are quite interesting. As we found out in our Beta review last week, NZXT is a company who values budget-oriented consumers, and they believe that people shouldn’t have to spend a huge sum of money to get a decent chassis. While the Beta retails for around ~$50, you can expect to see an even lesser-expensive chassis soon (~$40).

One thing I found interesting about NZXT’s line-up is that they literally have a chassis for every price-range. Things start out at $40, then there’s a model for each multiple of $10, up to around $150, they have a different chassis. It’s really cool to have such a wide product range, and makes picking out a model quite easy for the regular consumer.

Thanks to the overall good reception for the company’s fan controller, Sentry LX, we’ll be seeing some follow-ups in the coming months, with two new models. Each offers a touchscreen, and are very easy to use. Normally, touchscreen is equivalent to “expensive”, but not here. The single-bay touchscreen Sentry will retail for around $30, which seems incredible at this point. It’s a great way not to only spice up the front of your PC, but have full control over each fan in your machine. I look forward to seeing this come to market.

Read More Comment (0)

Corsair Reveals Hydro H50 Self-Contained Water CPU Cooler

Looking back a few years, I don’t remember many companies branching out of their main product line too much, but things have certainly changed since then With Corsair in particular, we’ve seen various products come out, including their widely-successful PSU line-up, and also their cooling products, which range from the DOMINATOR air RAM fan to the memory water-block.

At Computex, the company has announced their latest entry to the CPU cooler market with the Hydro H50. For the sake of comparison, they’re pitting the H50 to the Thermalright Ultra-120, and in their tests (and seen in live demos), their cooler can out-perform the Thermalright by around 15°C, and sometimes even higher.

While the Thermalright cooler is air-based, the H50 from Corsair is a self-contained water-cooling unit. At its core, it’s an Asetek cooler, but Corsair worked with the company for over six months to get the H50 to where it is today, and it works very well. Compared to some air coolers, it’s quite silent, and for the $80 price-tag, it’s a great option for pretty-much anyone.

In the live demo, two identical machines (aside from the cooler) were running the i7-975 Extreme Edition processor at 4.0GHz, and while the CPU under the Thermalright crashed every half-hour or so, I saw that the H50 was running stable for over six hours, and at around 65°C. That’s incredible for an $80 cooler!

Read More Comment (0)

EVGA Brings Super-Fast Graphics to the Mac

For enthusiasts, one of the biggest drawbacks to an Apple computer is the limitations of hardware. You can’t purchase a Mac and throw whatever you want in there, and as a result, even models like the MacPro can leave a bit to be desired in certain areas. One of the most notable limitations is with the selection of graphics cards, but soon, that will change.

High-end cards on Macs is something humorous, because they simply haven’t existed. To my knowledge, the last truly high-end GPU offering on the Mac was either the 7800 GTX or 8800 GTX, but within the next month or two, Apple gamers will be able to toss a very-fast GTX 285 in their rig, offering some incredible performance for any of today’s games.

“Oh boy, here comes a huge price premium!” That’s what I thought as well, but EVGA assured me that the pricing difference wouldn’t be huge, but it’d certainly be a little bit higher than the PC variant. It’s also important to note that while the game selection on Macs is undoubtedly lacking, anyone who runs a Mac with this card could experience PC-equivalent graphics in their games when running Windows through Bootcamp. It looks like you can finally be a Mac user and high-end gamer all at the same time!

For the time-being, this card is EVGA-exclusive, and I’d expect it to remain as such for a little while. And in case you are led to believe that this card would be identical to the PC version, only with a different BIOS, that’s not the case. Believe it or not, the card’s circuitry actually has to be adjusted in order to suit the Mac operating system. That’s likely a good reason why we don’t see more hardware support on that platform at this point in time.

Read More Comment (0)

Gigabyte’s GM-M7800S Mouse Brings Luxury to Your Palm

Luxury means a lot of things to a lot of people. Fast cars, huge houses, sparkly jewels, complex timepieces, and so forth. With the growing trend of technology falling into the hands of those who never once cared about it, companies are pushing products in such a way that they not only work well, but become a fashion statement.

This was Gigabyte’s thought when designing the GM-M7800S wireless mouse, an option for those who like to be noticed, or at least want their entire PC setup to look exquisite. The mouse size isn’t as large as a regular desktop mouse, but it’s much larger than a notebook offering, and also features similar design to Gigabyte’s other desktop mice already released.

What makes the mouse special is the fact that it’s comprised of both leather and soft plastic, not to mention 18K gold accents and Swarovski crystal elements. Yes, seriously. I never thought I’d see a mouse with mention of Swarovski on the box, but here it is. Surprisingly, the mouse’s price is only going to hover around $80 USD, and to add to the exclusivity, only 10,000 will be built.

Read More Comment (0)

The Loos Are Always Greener…

What am I doing posting a picture of a toilet? Don’t worry, we’re not going all BathroomGage on you. As I mentioned in our news the other day, we’re in Taipei, Taiwan for Computex 2009, and have plans to deliver lots of content during the show. To help make our coverage just a little more robust, I decided to take things a step further by posting photos and information that has little to do with the show.

This will be done in an effort to give you guys as much of our Computex experience as possible, and the idea may very-well carry itself over to other such content for other trade shows in the future. So what’s a toilet have to do with any of all this? Well, that’s part of my hotel room, and though it has a hot tub, heated loo and an advanced shower, you’d be surprised to know just how much it costs each night. I’m going to make you check out the related thread to find out, however :-)

If you’ve never been to Asia, or a foreign country in general, coming here is an incredible experience. It’s easy at times to become a little frustrated by the overall lack of English floating around, but past that, Taiwan is an incredible place. Lots of friendly people, great food, and unique areas are to be found. Definitely a night/day shift between what we see in America.

While toilets are fun to talk about, that certainly isn’t our main focus. Come Tuesday, we’ll be getting right into our Computex coverage, so be sure to check back often!

Few people understand my obsession with this drink, but if you like coffee, there’s nothing better on a hot day (which is everyday in Taiwan, at least at this time of year). This particular version is “black” coffee, but it still has sugar. For those who prefer coffee with cream, there are versions of that as well. Either way, it’s delicious.

Read More Comment (0)

The Past, Present and Future of Epic Games

If you dig video game history, then one article you must check out is one posted at Gamasutra just the other day. It features a huge interview with legend Tim Sweeney, founder of Epic. If you grew up with a PC in the late 80’s / early 90’s, it’s likely that you’ve played a game by Epic MegaGames, and if so, then you were already playing games from the company before even the likes of Unreal saw the light of day.

Three specific games mentioned in the article, Jill of the Jungle, Epic Pinball and Jazz Jackrabbit are games I hold close to my heart, as I played them over and over growing up, just like some titles rom Apogee, as I mentioned in an article a few weeks ago. Tim was the lone founder of Epic MegaGames, now Epic Games, and carries a rich history behind him, and most, if not all, is tackled here.

Familiar with ZZT? It was Tim’s first creation, which actually had its origins as a text editor. He saw the potential, and built not only a game out of it, but also an editor… one of the first. Oh, and if you are confused as to whether ZZT stands for anything, it doesn’t. Tim sneakily named it that so that his creation would appear at the bottom of all BBS’ (many people scrolled to the bottom since the beginning was full of nonsense).

I can’t even tap the base of what’s revealed in this lengthy interview in a simple news post, so just take my word for it and read it. You may gain a newfound respect for the company (or even go back and play the classics!).

“That’s kind of a common pattern in everything I do. One minute I’m completely on my own and I think, ‘Wow, I’m a genius, I can’t believe this idea nobody else had!’ And then you look at the references on it, and it turns out that a hundred other people have done the same things in the 1980s. And then you look, and you get your additional ideas from those. Between invention and stealing, you come up with a really good combination of ideas. “

Read More Comment (0)

Useful Firefox Extensions for Browsing Safe

The Internet is a wonderful place, but if we’re not careful, and slip up even once, then bad things can happen. As tech geeks though, we’re pretty much well-protected simply by executing common-sense (which is unlikely to be common-sense for normal users). But, even if you already take extra precaution to remain safe on the web, there’s always room for improvement.

CNET blog Webware takes a look at ten solutions specific to Firefox users for adding an extra layer or two of protection to your browsing experience, in the form of an extension. One of my personal favorites mentioned is NoScript, a tool which allows you to tell Firefox which sites to allow, or disallow JavaScript to run on the site. Seems like a simple tool, but trust me on one thing… it’s useful. It does require some time to configure over time, but it’s worth the effort.

Other extensions mentioned include Dr. Web Anti-Virus, which scans files downloaded to make sure they’re not installing malware on your PC. It doesn’t seem like it will stop it, as that’s not the purpose, but you’ll at least know about it and be able to take the necessary precautions. Then there’s Blocksite, which allows you to disable any site from being seen. If you use this one though, you may want to also disable IE and block every browser download site out there, as the site could easily be seen using a non-Firefox option!

You think you’re on a familiar site while filling out an online form, but you’re nervous about whether the trusted source will actually receive it. That’s where FormFox comes in. The add-on gives you the exact URL destination of information you’re submitting to a site. So when you input your name, address, and other information, you can mouse over the Submit button and search boxes to find out exactly to where you’re directing the information. You might be surprised to see where your data is going.

Read More Comment (0)

Microsoft Makes Zune HD Official

After months and months, and months, of speculation, Microsoft has finally unveiled their Zune HD… a model unlike any other Zune before it. Similar to the iPod touch, the Zune HD has a large 3.3-inch 480×272 touchscreen (OLED), a built-in HD Radio receiver (nice!) and even HD output, when hooked up with a dock. Oh, and it looks pretty awesome as well.

With the incredible success of the iPod touch and iPhone, Microsoft no doubt wanted a piece of the action, and for the most part, the Zune HD is quite similar to those devices. But… I really, really appreciate the addition of the HD Radio tuner, as the lack of any tuner is my biggest gripe with current iPods.

Aside from the fact that it looks good, and has a touchscreen, specifics are scarce. No mention of the CPU was made, and neither was battery-life. And probably most importantly, neither was storage. Either way though, the Zune HD looks quite good, from both an aesthetics and features perspective. Also interesting is new Zune+Xbox functionality, which will likely be appreciated by anyone with both. We’ll likely learn a lot more about that feature’s usefulness at E3 next week, where the platform will be available for public consumption.

Details are also scarce concerning storage capacities, CPU performance, and other crucial numbers, but it seems like they’ve got more in store come E3… and that’s the next big piece of news. Zune integration is coming to the Xbox and Xbox Live, as the Zune marketplace will step in to replace the current Live video resources, expanding the library and offering all kinds of new perks, like Zune’s first foray into international waters.

Read More Comment (0)