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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Powermoloch - Wednesday, January 11, 2006 - link
Very nice guys, great job on the report and such. Especially showing what OCZ is up to with their phase change coolant thing (first time I seen it). Pretty neat to be honest.Son of a N00b - Saturday, January 14, 2006 - link
man that OCZ phase change unit was looking sexy as hell, especially with that oh so tempting price...If only they were able to incorporate northbridge and GPU cooling into it also (even if it was more expensive) to truly earn the name of the revolution...Also it is aimed for the enthusiast market, so space as someone ws complaining about does not matter...
JarredWalton - Saturday, January 14, 2006 - link
They talked about the possibility of a dual GPU cooler block. Part of the problem with that is phase-change requires a lot more complexity than something like water cooling. You're not just cycling liquid through a tube; you have to worry about evaporator/condenser stuff as well. NB and RAM are down on the list in terms of importance, especially with chips like the FX series that have unlocked multipliers.R3MF - Thursday, January 12, 2006 - link
What was the Shuttle s754 'update'?was it a G5 Chassis with a 6100/430 chipset, silent power-brick PSU and support for AMD Turion/A64 processors?
that would be interesting.
JarredWalton - Thursday, January 12, 2006 - link
Actually, I think it was a G2 chassis. I believe http://global.shuttle.com/Product/Barebone/SK21G.a...">this is the unit we saw. K8M800CE chipset doesn't seem like anything really impressive, and there isn't a DVI port. The newer stuff at Shuttle was another Viiv unit, with Core Duo support (as opposed to Pentium D). I don't think I saw anything really new on the AMD side.MrSmurf - Wednesday, January 11, 2006 - link
I was intrigued by the phase change cooling unit as well but it's too big. I like my system to be powerful but tidy and neat at the same time.