Computex 2006: 300W GPUs, Conroe, HDMI Video Cards and Lots of Motherboards
by Anand Lal Shimpi on June 5, 2006 10:24 PM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
ASUS' Conroe Motherboards
Of course Conroe was on ASUS' mind during our meeting as we got a chance to look at some of the top tier maker's P965 and 975X line:
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AUS P5B Deluxe is a starts off as a run of the mill P965 motherboard, but of course with the usual ASUS flair. ASUS' trademark heatpipe cooling solution is very present on this motherboard, as is a new addition - a wireless riser card:
The wireless riser card can be removed, and in theory upgraded later if ASUS offers such a card in the future. It connects via two on-board USB connectors (it's simply an 8-pin header on the board) and can be removed by taking out a single screw and unplugging the daughter card.
Like many new motherboards we encountered, the P5B Deluxe features an eSATA port for use with external hard drives. The benefit of eSATA of course is that you get the same performance as an internal SATA hard drive, but with the convenience of a removable drive.
Taking advantage of the motherboard's support for noise cancellation technology, ASUS bundles an array microphone with the P5B Deluxe. An array microphone with noise cancellation technology can significantly reduce the background noise and focus more specifically on the person speaking, especially useful for speaking in a noisy environment.
The last neat feature in ASUS' P5B Deluxe bundle is the inclusion of these riser blocks for the front panel and USB/FireWire headers. Their purpose is to allow you to connect your front panel and USB/FireWire connectors to the risers and then easily seat the riser on the header pins on the motherboard.
We would still prefer it if case manufacturers and motherboard manufacturers got together and enforced a standard pin header, but after years of hoping we'll take anything we can get.
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ASUS 975X motherboard with Conroe support, the P5W DH Deluxe, is pictured above.
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mindless1 - Wednesday, June 7, 2006 - link
Nice coverage. These new toys leave me drooling. Now off I go to find a smallish nuclear reactor to power everything. LOL.sri2000 - Friday, June 9, 2006 - link
You just need to get yourself a "Mr. Fusion" and you'll be all set.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Fusion">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Fusion
bespoke - Tuesday, June 6, 2006 - link
Too bad the new DFI boards still have that hideous fan on the NF chipset - that little bugger runs at 4,000 to 5,000 and is terribly loud.I can't wait to upgrade to Conroe, ditch NF4 and get back to a quiet (yet nicely performing) PC.
Griswold - Wednesday, June 7, 2006 - link
Duh.. newsflash, there are also NF4 boards without fans - just not from DFI. What really sucks about the fan on the DFI board is, that it breaks after 3 months and you end up replacing it with a better fan.Stele - Wednesday, June 7, 2006 - link
Although that's not much of a use if you're aiming to get a DFI board - which I think is where he was coming from. :)
For one reason or another DFI does not seem to be interested, or at least eager, to implement more/more effective passive cooling solutions on their products. Besides the lack of noise, passive cooling's greatest advantage is the fact that it doesn't have moving parts that are prone to failure like fans... as you found out.
At least they did take a unique step in implementing a digital integrated VR design on their board... its remarkable compactness and 'clean' layout without large electrolytic capacitors makes it really worth looking at for motherboard power circuits. Can't wait till more details of their implementation and tests thereof surface.
R3MF - Tuesday, June 6, 2006 - link
was the ECS miniITX A64 motherboard with an nForce chipset.i would love to see a AM2 MCP61-S variant with two dimm slots and PCI-E 16x card!
bldckstark - Tuesday, June 6, 2006 - link
Dual redundant power supplies in the Asus 1U server would seem to indicate that there are three or four power supplies housed within, but I believe the actuality is that there are only two right? Redundant means secondary as I understand it. Dual redundant means two secondaries. Therefore dual redundant PS's include a backup power supply and then a backup of the backup power supply. Which is it? Are there 2 or 3 power supplies in that thing?hoppa - Tuesday, June 6, 2006 - link
God I am so sick of hearing about x new card that is "even better than" the already $500 dual x1950.9 XFIRE XLI+ v2.0 ZI miss the days when those cards, the best cards, maxed at $300, the awesome stuff was at $200, and you could do quite well for $150. Now $150 is a joke.
One43637 - Tuesday, June 6, 2006 - link
is it just me or does the GB motherboard offerings remind you of the Asus motherboards (A8N32 & P5N32) that were released last year...Griswold - Tuesday, June 6, 2006 - link
High time the dorks at Nvidia and ATI start working on the power saving front. At least they seemm to have that in mind for the follow-up generations... This only means that R600 and G80 wont make it into my computer until the following cards reduce the power envelope by quite a bit.*shakes fist*