Computex 2011 Show Coverage - Part 2
In the second part of our Computex 2011 coverage, we visited the booths of Acer, ASRock, Arctic Cooling, ECS, MSI, Thermaltake, ViewSonic, XFX and Zotac. Find out what these manufacturers have to offer.
Acer's Booth - Part 1
Like all big CE firms, tablets headline the Acer booth, as seen from this large Iconia Tab A500 banner.
If you have followed our recent tablet coverage on HWZ, you would know about the 10-inch Acer Iconia Tab, which runs Google Android Honeycomb and powered by NVIDIA's Tegra 2. Acer hopes that its Dolby Mobile audio technologies and its Clear.Fi app will give it a multimedia edge.
Much has been said about the dual touchscreen Iconia. Tablet or notebook? It's up to how you use this 14-inch device, but its size and decent specs (Core i5 processor with Intel HD graphics) along with its Win 7 OS means it's more of a notebook, if you can get used to its touch interface.
This is the new Iconia A100, which is claimed to be the first 7-inch (1024 x 600) Android 3.0 tablet. As usual, it uses NVIDIA's Tegra 2, with two cameras, a 5MP rear facing and a 2MP front facing for video calls. 720p video playback is supported with HDMI output.
Tablet or smartphone? That's the impression we get from the Iconia Smart, which runs Android 2.3 and has a rather large 4.8-inch HXGA capacitive multi-touch screen. A Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8255-1 1GHz processor is found inside.
The Acer W4 here is but a mockup but Acer will be putting the latest Windows Phone 7 Mango update on it. It uses a Qualcomm MSM8255, 1GHz processor with a 5MP camera. Microsoft lists a November 2011 launch date for this smartphone.
On the Android smartphone front, Acer has the 3.5-inch HVGA E320, which will run Gingerbread, and comes with Acer Shell 4.2, a custom UI. However, it uses a relatively slow 800MHz Qualcomm processor.
Acer's Booth - Part 2
Acer's Predator gaming desktop has been around and the latest version sees the presence of a Sandy Bridge Intel Core i7 processor, choice of up to a GeForce GTX 580 graphics card with 3D Vision technology, and SATA 6Gbps hard drives.
This Acer HN274H is the perfect 3D LED monitor to go with the Predator. It supports full HD 1920 x 1080 resolution with 3D support via HDMI. Response time is a speedy 2ms.
A Sandy Bridge powered AIO, the Acer Aspire Z5801 is a 24-inch model with optical multi-touch and will have an NVIDIA discrete graphics card inside. A Blu-ray disc burner and USB 3.0 ports make it a modern desktop system.
With an innovative, removable touchpad known as Acer MediaRemote, the Aspire 5951G may not be the newest product from Acer, but its 2nd-gen Intel Core processor along with NVIDIA GT555M/540M graphics ensure that it will keep up with your apps for the next couple of years. The Blu-ray writer and 750GB HDD should help too.
The latest version of Acer's TimelineX series, the 15.6-inch TimelineX 5830T comes with an Intel Core i3-2310M with Intel HD Graphics and up to 4GB of DDR3 memory. The 6-cell Li-on battery is claimed to be able to last up to 9 hours.
Business users may consider the 14-inch Acer Travelmate 8481G, which comes with an Intel Core i7-2617M (1.5GHz) with Turbo Boost up to 2.6GHz and an NVIDIA GT520M GPU. Storage options include a 128GB SSD. Battery life is claimed at 13 hours.
Arctic Cooling's Booth
Arctic Cooling started out as its name suggest, in the business of cooling components like graphics cards and processors, but as the size of its booth here testifies, the company has expanded beyond its initial scope, with audio, casings and PSUs among its products.
You're likely to see this powerful graphics card cooler on custom cards from vendors. It has three 92mm ultra-quiet PWM fans cooling its heatsink, which has five heatpipes and 83 fins.
Rated at able to cool 160W, this Twin Turbo II has two 92mm PWM fan, with five heatpipes and 53 cooling fins.
Designed to work with the upcoming Intel LGA2011 socket, this Freezer 20 Ultra is meant for extreme overclockers and will be arriving earliest in August. It will also work with existing AMD and Intel processors.
The Freezer cooler has been successful enough that Arctic Cooling decided that it deserves a special, limited edition. This version comes in a titanium black color with cooling performance of up to 200W. The design of its fins also make it less liable to damage when transporting, suitable for enthusiasts and overclockers who travel with their rigs.
As part of Arctic Cooling's diversification into other segments, the slim MC001 is the company's first entertainment center. Powered by the dual-core Atom D525 processor and AMD's Radeon 5430 graphics, this small console-like device runs Win 7. Options for a Blu-ray drive, a digital TV tuner and a 120GB SSD are also available.
The Fusion 750 is 80 PLUS Bronze certified and enhanced by three 80mm Arctic Cooling fans with speeds between 500 to 1500RPM controlled automatically by an intelligent fan controller.
A stereo Bluetooth headset, the P311 supports A2DP and is rated at up to 20 hours of battery life.
With Neodymium drivers and noise isolation, in-ear buds, the E461-BM is lightweight with its aluminum capsule and fits snugly.
ASRock's Booth
ASRock has signed up former professional gamer Jonathan 'Fatal1ty' Wendel in its bid to raise its profile in the motherboard market, especially with enthusiasts and gamers and there's a series of Fatal1ty branded motherboards.
Like other motherboard vendors, ASRock was ready to display its X79 based board, the Extreme4. From what we can tell, it looks like a retail unit. 3-way SLI and CrossFireX and up to 12 SATA ports are some of the features you can expect.
ASRock's Extreme7 version of the Z68 chipset is without a doubt ASRock's highest end offering for this chipset. It has five PCIe 2.0 slots with support for quad CrossFireX and SLI. It also has a whopping four display outputs, including DisplayPort. Along with up to 6 USB 3.0 ports, this is one high-end board.
This is the Fatal1ty branded Z68 Professional. It comes with three PCIe 2.0 x16 slots with support for 3-way SLI/CrossFireX. It also has four display outputs, with two HDMI ports. 6 USB 3.0 ports are present, including one special Fala1ty mouse USB port.
ASRock's 990FX Extreme4 supports up to 2000MHz DDR3 memory and comes with a graphics UEFI BIOS. Three PCIe 2.0 x16 slots support both SLI and CrossFireX (3-way).
The A75 Extreme6 is based on AMD's A75 FCH chipset, with integrated AMD Radeon HD 65XX/64XX series graphics. Analog VGA, HDMI and DVI outputs are present, but you can install your own multi-GPU setups (only CrossFireX is supported).
The miniITX version of the A75 chipset, the A75M-ITX has two display outputs (HDMI and analog VGA) and one PCIe 2.0 x16 slot.
The exterior may look unchanged, but inside this Vision 3D HTPC now uses the mobile Intel HM65 chipset, with an Intel Core i7-2620M processor and an NVIDIA GeForce GT540M graphics. It has 4GB of DDR3 memory and a Blu-ray combo drive.
ECS' Booth
ECS has motherboards, graphics cards and even small form factor systems at its booth. We also saw the ubiquitous tablet on show.
Besides its model name, X79R-A, there's no further info on the specs of this ECS X79 board. But we can see at least 10 SATA ports, four PCIe 2.0 x16 slots supporting SLI and CrossFireX and onboard power and reset buttons.
The ECS Z68H2-M is a microATX board based on the Z68 chipset, with one PCIe 2.0 x16 slot and two PCIe x1 slots.
The ECS A75F-A will support AMD's upcoming A-series APU. It has a single PCIe 2.0 x16 slot, a PCIe 2.0 x4 slot, two PCIe x1 slots and three PCI slots. It's quite a full featured ATX motherboard in short, with four USB 3.0 ports too.
This is the mATX version, the A75F-M, with fewer expansion slots, but generally the same feature set.
The 10.1-inch 1366 x 768, ECS tablet here uses the Oak Trail, Atom Lincroft Z670 processor that Intel announced previously, with options for up to three different OS, Windows, Android and MeeGo. It means it could be using an x86 port of Android. Battery life is rated at under 6 hours, and it weighs 750g, which is similar to many tablets.
MSI's Booth - Part 1
What is MSI showing off at its Computex booth? Well let's find out in the next two pages.
The two Big-Bang boards on display, the Marshal and XPower aren't new models; MSI is preparing the next Big-Bang boards but they are not ready yet.
MSI's X79A-GD65 is likely not its top model for the upcoming Intel chipset, but it will have MSI's proprietary features like Military Class and OC Genie. It also has 10 SATA ports and three PCIe 2.0 x16 slots.
We almost missed this but the MSI Z68A-GD80 (G3) is probably the first motherboard to have PCIe 3.0 slots. Besides that, it looks like a typical MSI board, with Virtu and multi-GPU support. Of course, there are no graphics or expansion cards that can use the Gen 3 PCIe feature now.
This is the new ClickBIOS II, which appears to be a welcome change from MSI's first UEFI BIOS effort. This one looks more professional, with some positive changes in the user interface. It also accepted our touch input at the demo, so it's similar to what Gigabyte did with its TouchBIOS.
The MSI A75A-G35 is an ATX board for the AMD A75 chipset. It comes with some MSI technologies like Control Center II and it will also support USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gbps.
The A75 chipset appears to be popular in the microATX form factor and MSI is yet another manufacturer to make this choice with its A75MA-G55.
The MSI N580GTX Lightning Xtreme Edition has 3GB of GDDR5 memory instead of the usual 2GB. It also has a neat cooler where the fins of the fan will turn from its initial blue to white as the temperature increases, so one can check at a glance how warm the graphics card is at. The threshold for this Smart Temp Sensor feature appears to be 45 degrees Celsius, before the fins starts to turn significantly white.
The Lightning Xtreme also supports the latest, new version of MSI Afterburner, which is a very handy tweaking and overclocking tool. And now it works on Android, allowing you to tweak your GPU at a distance through Wi-Fi. The new Afterburner also has a video recording feature called Predator, to record your games, similar to that found on FRAPS, and unlike FRAPS, it's free.
We get it, MSI's motherboards and graphics cards are tough!
MSI's Booth - Part 2
MSI's top gaming notebook, the GT780R (R stands for RAID HDD option) was introduced at CES but we can't get enough of its solid SteelSeries keyboard. Expect the huge 17-inch notebook to come with a Core i7 Sandy Bridge processor with NVIDIA GTX560M graphics.
This relatively thin (1 inch) and light 15.6-inch X370 uses an AMD E-350 APU to achieve its long battery life of up to 10 hours. It comes with a multi-touch pad with an LED display.
The X460 has a '128' slogan, meaning under 1-inch thickness, under 2kg in weight and a long battery life of 8 hours. It will use the latest Intel Core mobile processor with support for USB 3.0.
This is a special edition WindPad 100A designed by Jeremy Scott, a fashion designer who's popular with celebrities.
The WindPad 110W is aimed at business users. It uses AMD's Brazos platform with Windows 7 OS. This 10-inch tablet has an IPS screen with a resolution of 1280 x 800 with dual cameras and optional 3G. Battery life is rated at up to 6 hours but it's relatively hefty at 850g.
The Wind Top AE2410 uses the latest Intel Core i5-2410M processor with Intel HD Graphics 3000, though one can choose to have an NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M instead. This 23.6-inch AIO has a multi-touch screen with USB 3.0 support.
The MSI Wind Top AE2050 is a 20-inch nettop that uses AMD's Brazos platform. It uses integrated graphics (Radeon HD 6310) with USB 3.0 support.
MSI hopes to capture the business users with this Wind Top AP2011 AIO. It uses LED backlit to save power and has an adjustable stand. Internally, it will use the latest gen Intel Core processor with Windows 7 Professional or Home Premium.
Thermaltake's Booth
Thermaltake has been going the e-sports angle for a while now and its booth at Computex reflected this, with teams of gamers going up against each other.
We have seen Thermaltake's Level 10 chassis for a couple of years now but this is the GT version. We're also seeing quite a few distinctive mods of this Level 10 GT model. This version is obviously inspired by NVIDIA. There's even a headtset holder, something that we don't remember seeing on the original.
This is the Snow Edition Level 10 GT chassis.
The Overseer RX-I has an unique top-loading HDD mounting system. The PSU meanwhile is located at the bottom for easier installation. Long graphics cards up to 12.5 inches are supported.
This HDD docking station allows one to swap your HDD without opening up your chassis and fiddling with screws or what not.
This Spacecraft VF-I has an aluminum bezel to create that unique look preferred by gamers. USB 3.0 connectors are built-in and one can install up to seven fans inside. It supports most AMD and NVIDIA graphics cards up to 12.5 inches. High-end liquid cooling solutions are also supported.
This is one extreme CPU cooler. The Frio Extreme has two 140mm PWM fans with speeds between 1200 and 1800RPM. It supports all existing AMD and Intel processors but we recommend that you check that your rig has sufficient clearance for this huge cooler.
Not everyone needs such a powerful PSU but if you do, Thermaltake's modular Toughpower XT is certified for 80 PLUS Gold and comes with seven years warranty and support. For enthusiasts and gamers, the fact that it's ready for multiple graphics cards supporting up to 3-way SLI and CrossFireX is important.
For the mainstream user, Thermaltake's Smart series is sufficient. This M550W comes with modular cable management and provides up to a maximum of 650W of output. It has two 6-pin PCIe connectors and one 8-pin PCIe connector so it's not that suitable for those with more than one GPU.
Viewsonic's Booth
ViewSonic has been focusing heavily on the tablet segment and it has a number of tablets in various dimensions to show at Computex.
ViewSonic claims that the ViewPad 7x is the first 7-inch tablet to offer Google Android Honeycomb, though it prefaces this by saying it will be ready in Q3. It is powered by an NVIDIA dual-core processor with 1GB RAM and 8GB of storage. The 1024 x 600 capacitive display supports 10-point finger touch and it has a mini HDMI output with support for HD video capability.
This ViewPad 4 was shown off at CES but we are still not sure what's the point of this 'tablet' that's like a smartphone. It runs on Gingerbread and to be fair, is pretty light at 143g.
This ViewSonic VP2765wb-LED has an IPS panel with true 8-bit color that professional users demand. As you can see, it has quite a range of adjustments, including pivot and height adjustments. It also comes with a DisplayPort interface along with four USB 2.0 ports and DVI inputs.
XFX's Booth
XFX's small booth at Nangang exhibition hall had few of its graphics cards on show, but visitors can test their brawn in the mini-game setup there.
This triple display monitor stand is just what gamers need for their Eyefinity, tri-monitor setup. It's made of steel and aluminum and weighs around 23 pounds. Monitors from 17 to 24 inches are supported and it's expected to be on sale from next week for US$450.
This PRO850W semi modular PSU from XFX comes with 80 PLUS certification and supports multiple graphics cards with up to eight PCIe 6+2 pin connectors.
A rather stylish design for the modular cable connectors.
Zotac's Booth
Zotac's booth had its range of graphics cards, motherboards and mini desktop systems.
Shrinking the Z68 chipset to the mini-ITX form factor, the Zotac Z68-ITX WiFi comes with NVIDIA GT 430 1GB mounted on the board. It uses SODIMM memory modules (DDR3-2133) to conserve space and has both SATA 6Gbps and USB 3.0 ports.
This Fusion-ITX WiFi is based on AMD's Brazos platform and comes with an E-350 APU. SODIMM is used again with a passive heatsink. USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gbps are supported.
This custom GeForce GTX 560 is unique for having five display outputs. It has two dual-link DVI outputs, one DisplayPort and two HDMI. Link the DVI to the DisplayPort and together with the two HDMI, this card will support three monitors. It's clocked at 820MHz for the core and with a memory clock of 4008MHz DDR5 for its 1GB memory.
This custom, overclocked GTX 580 has 3GB of DDR5 memory with the clock frequency at 815MHz and 4100MHz DDR5 for the memory.
This Intel Atom D525 powered ZBOX Blu-ray 3D ID36 uses NVIDIA Ion graphics chipset with two DDR3 SODIMM slots. It uses a 2.5-inch HDD with a slim Blu-ray drive and supports USB 3.0, Wi-Fi and eSATA.
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