CES 2006: Motherboards, Memory, Cooling, and a Few Surprises
by Wesley Fink & Jarred Walton on January 11, 2006 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
OCZ
OCZ recently went beyond their memory roots with power supplies aimed at the enthusiast. That move was a huge success for OCZ, so this year, OCZ is taking aim at a new product line for the Enthusiast.
When computer hobbyists get the overclocking bug, it isn't long until they discover that the key to pushing the performance envelope is cooling the CPU. The first stop is improved air-cooling, and OCZ has been a supplier of air-cooling solutions for many years. The next logical performance jump is water cooling, which cools better than air with the added advantage of near silent operation. The ultimate is phase-change cooling, which operates much like a freezer with a compressor. Phase-change allows insane CPU overclocks, but the cost of admission has been $800 to $1500 or higher - which makes it out of reach for all but the most dedicated, and well-heeled, enthusiast.
OCZ hopes to make phase-change a real choice for more buyers with the introduction of a $299 MSRP Phase Change cooling system. Shipments should begin in about 30 days, and OCZ tells us that once sales volume picks up, they are hopeful that prices can drop even further to the $200 range. This will make OCZ phase-change about the same price as some of the better water-cooling kits.
That $299 will include a copper head for the processor. The OCZ design is not a full case, but a compressor with a phase-change head. OCZ tells us that the shipping design will have the head cable coming from the top of the compressor box - which will allow modders to use the compressor case as the base of an existing case if they choose.
The front of the unit reports operating temperatures at the CPU. The demo unit was reporting -25 to -27C driving an AMD FX57 processor at 3.2 GHz through loops of FutureMark 3DMark2005.
OCZ recently went beyond their memory roots with power supplies aimed at the enthusiast. That move was a huge success for OCZ, so this year, OCZ is taking aim at a new product line for the Enthusiast.
When computer hobbyists get the overclocking bug, it isn't long until they discover that the key to pushing the performance envelope is cooling the CPU. The first stop is improved air-cooling, and OCZ has been a supplier of air-cooling solutions for many years. The next logical performance jump is water cooling, which cools better than air with the added advantage of near silent operation. The ultimate is phase-change cooling, which operates much like a freezer with a compressor. Phase-change allows insane CPU overclocks, but the cost of admission has been $800 to $1500 or higher - which makes it out of reach for all but the most dedicated, and well-heeled, enthusiast.
OCZ hopes to make phase-change a real choice for more buyers with the introduction of a $299 MSRP Phase Change cooling system. Shipments should begin in about 30 days, and OCZ tells us that once sales volume picks up, they are hopeful that prices can drop even further to the $200 range. This will make OCZ phase-change about the same price as some of the better water-cooling kits.
That $299 will include a copper head for the processor. The OCZ design is not a full case, but a compressor with a phase-change head. OCZ tells us that the shipping design will have the head cable coming from the top of the compressor box - which will allow modders to use the compressor case as the base of an existing case if they choose.
The front of the unit reports operating temperatures at the CPU. The demo unit was reporting -25 to -27C driving an AMD FX57 processor at 3.2 GHz through loops of FutureMark 3DMark2005.
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swatX - Wednesday, January 11, 2006 - link
i am so dissapointed at DFI. i thought they were going to show off their mATX nforce 6150/430 board. are they even planning to release it or was this just a rumor.Wesley Fink - Wednesday, January 11, 2006 - link
I went back to our CES pictures and found shots of the new DFI mATX GeForce boards. Since you are interested the images have been added to the coverage. It looks like the new DFI 6100/6150 boards are for real and not just rumors.swatX - Wednesday, January 11, 2006 - link
Thanks a lot!do you know by any chance if the bios of those motherboards will be simillar to bios of their Nforce 4 motherboards.
Wesley Fink - Wednesday, January 11, 2006 - link
The red DFI matx board is based on the ATI RS482 chipset, not the 6150 as we reported earler. We have corrected the article. DFI was not displaying a 6150 Socket 939 board, but they did have the 6100 Socket 754 which is pictured on the DFI page. We have asked DFI to update us on their 6150 plans and we will let you know as soon as we hear more.highlandsun - Thursday, January 12, 2006 - link
I read the specs for the ATI board on the DFI web site. Too bad it uses the ATI southbridge instead of ULI. http://us.dfi.com.tw/Product/xx_product_spec_detai...">http://us.dfi.com.tw/Product/xx_product...=4497&am...Otherwise, it looks pretty interesting, doesn't seem to be missing anything critical as an HTPC platform.
Avalon - Wednesday, January 11, 2006 - link
Eh, top air cooling is somewhat close to good water cooling. However, this OCZ Revolution phase change has me very excited. The possibility of $200-$300 phase change is phenomenal!Xenoterranos - Wednesday, January 11, 2006 - link
No Kidding. That's how much Koolance was asking for the Exos a few years back. Phase change for this cheap would cause either a massive increase in quality and quiteness among water-cooling solutions, or a massive price-drop.rjm55 - Wednesday, January 11, 2006 - link
Great job on covering the processor cooling at CES. I've been looking for this everywhere and no one else was posting much about it. Does this attention to cooling mean you guys may be launching a cooling section in the future?tuteja1986 - Wednesday, January 11, 2006 - link
"We couldn't provide pictures, but the new ATI video card will be launching soon. Vendors tell us that they already have GPUs and completed cards this time around and therefore, product will be on the shelves at launch. Specifications hint that this may well be the new top-end video card, outperforming even the 7800GTX 512, which appeared in small quantities in what nVidia is now calling "limited release", and which has now disappeared from the market."irony ... lol
i wonder what how fast G71 will be and will it make it in this month or late feb/early march as various website are reporting it.
JarredWalton - Wednesday, January 11, 2006 - link
We'll be looking into it for sure. Air cooling is all about equal once you hit the $40+ parts (well, the good ones are equal anyway). Water and phase-change are way beyond anything air can do, though.