Tech View: Storage Devices, Optical Drives, and More
by Gary Key on November 22, 2006 9:15 PM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
abit: Multimedia Products
Universal abit is the successor to the abit motherboard brand that has partnered with USI for their manufacturing and engineering expertise. The abit name will remain as the main identity for products but expect to hear more from Universal abit as the company transitions itself from strictly IT manufacturing to leading technology design and brand management. abit is entering the growing Media Center PC market with their first products that include the ViiV based IL90-MV motherboard and the iDome digital speaker series.
The IL90-MV micro-ATX motherboard is based on the Intel 945GT and ICH7mDH Express chipsets with support for the Core 2 Duo (Merom) and Core Duo/Solo (Yonah) processor range. Note that this is a socket 478 motherboard, supporting the standard mobile Intel CPUs. Audio support from the Realtek 882M includes full Dolby Home Studio certification, 7.1 channel output, and optical S/PDIF in and out connections. HDMI 1.2 output is fully supported by the on-board Intel GMA-950 graphics chipset with 1080P and 1600x1200 UXGA capability. The system is basically silent, thermals are terrific, and in our testing it has offered excellent performance along with very good video output.
abit is introduced the iDome DS500 speaker and iDome SW510 subwoofer to the market late this summer. The iDome speakers feature a pure digital audio stream process from input to output. The speakers and subwoofer will be sold separately but the 2.1 system on display consisted of two fairly compact speakers, the subwoofer, and an integrated digital amplifier. The cost for the two speakers will be around US $115 and another US $110 will get you the subwoofer. Both units will work other manufacturer's products although for the price we recommend buying the set for best performance.
Each satellite offers 25W/per channel with the subwoofer providing 50W. The subwoofer features a 6.5 inch Super Bass driver with DBX technology providing a very deep bass tone with very little distortion in our listening tests, with the result being extremely clear audio. The satellites offer an independent 1 inch dome tweeter and 4 inch Neodymium drivers in a high quality case.
The speakers are controlled by a unique uGuru chip that allows for six different sound environments to be selected by the user dependent upon the audio stream being played. These modes consist of Normal, Game, Music, Movie, Rock, and Jazz. We had the opportunity to listen to these various modes over the course of the last three weeks and were very impressed with the satellites ability to deliver a very clean audio stream in a variety of situations from movie playback to gaming.
The highs are clear and bright with the mids being warm while extending downward to the point where there was noticeable bass response without the subwoofer while listening to music. However, for games and movies we highly recommend the subwoofer. Our only knock on the system at this time is the audio volume output is suited for the desktop or a very small room environment. abit is addressing this issue with the upcoming 5.1 system based on this technology. Otherwise, we highly recommend the abit iDome DS500/SW510 combination at this time as they are clearly one of the best 2.1 speaker sets you can purchase currently.
Final Remarks
This concludes our first piece of tech bits and bytes, and we will take a look at some interesting media products from Bluegears and Compro Technology along with a significant number of motherboards in our next article.
Universal abit is the successor to the abit motherboard brand that has partnered with USI for their manufacturing and engineering expertise. The abit name will remain as the main identity for products but expect to hear more from Universal abit as the company transitions itself from strictly IT manufacturing to leading technology design and brand management. abit is entering the growing Media Center PC market with their first products that include the ViiV based IL90-MV motherboard and the iDome digital speaker series.
The IL90-MV micro-ATX motherboard is based on the Intel 945GT and ICH7mDH Express chipsets with support for the Core 2 Duo (Merom) and Core Duo/Solo (Yonah) processor range. Note that this is a socket 478 motherboard, supporting the standard mobile Intel CPUs. Audio support from the Realtek 882M includes full Dolby Home Studio certification, 7.1 channel output, and optical S/PDIF in and out connections. HDMI 1.2 output is fully supported by the on-board Intel GMA-950 graphics chipset with 1080P and 1600x1200 UXGA capability. The system is basically silent, thermals are terrific, and in our testing it has offered excellent performance along with very good video output.
abit is introduced the iDome DS500 speaker and iDome SW510 subwoofer to the market late this summer. The iDome speakers feature a pure digital audio stream process from input to output. The speakers and subwoofer will be sold separately but the 2.1 system on display consisted of two fairly compact speakers, the subwoofer, and an integrated digital amplifier. The cost for the two speakers will be around US $115 and another US $110 will get you the subwoofer. Both units will work other manufacturer's products although for the price we recommend buying the set for best performance.
Each satellite offers 25W/per channel with the subwoofer providing 50W. The subwoofer features a 6.5 inch Super Bass driver with DBX technology providing a very deep bass tone with very little distortion in our listening tests, with the result being extremely clear audio. The satellites offer an independent 1 inch dome tweeter and 4 inch Neodymium drivers in a high quality case.
The speakers are controlled by a unique uGuru chip that allows for six different sound environments to be selected by the user dependent upon the audio stream being played. These modes consist of Normal, Game, Music, Movie, Rock, and Jazz. We had the opportunity to listen to these various modes over the course of the last three weeks and were very impressed with the satellites ability to deliver a very clean audio stream in a variety of situations from movie playback to gaming.
The highs are clear and bright with the mids being warm while extending downward to the point where there was noticeable bass response without the subwoofer while listening to music. However, for games and movies we highly recommend the subwoofer. Our only knock on the system at this time is the audio volume output is suited for the desktop or a very small room environment. abit is addressing this issue with the upcoming 5.1 system based on this technology. Otherwise, we highly recommend the abit iDome DS500/SW510 combination at this time as they are clearly one of the best 2.1 speaker sets you can purchase currently.
Final Remarks
This concludes our first piece of tech bits and bytes, and we will take a look at some interesting media products from Bluegears and Compro Technology along with a significant number of motherboards in our next article.
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Jackyl - Friday, July 6, 2007 - link
I would like to comment on the MS2UT that I recently purchased. It is a mixed bag of problems. I have two Maxtor 7200 Proline 500GB drives in it, in a RAID-1. Sometimes when I power up the unit, one of the drives "fails" and won't turn on. The MS2UT display says the drive failed on the front LCD. I have to power cycle the unit to get both drives online. And sometimes when I do this, then it goes into rebuild mode and takes two hours to rebuild the 500GB drives!Support from Sans Digital is non-existent, and there are no firmware updates for the MS2UT on their website.
For the amount I paid, I expected better reliability. How can I be sure the rebuild process didn't mess something up? This unit will be returned to the store. The fans on the unit are also so small, they hardly keep the drives cool enough. The drives still get hot to the touch, and the internal enclosure temperature runs 40c-47c. Drive temperatures can NOT be monitored, only the enclosure temperature!
gevorg - Saturday, November 25, 2006 - link
"The subwoofer features a 6.5 inch Super Bass driver with DBX technology providing a very deep bass tone with very little distortion in our listening tests, with the result being extremely clear audio."Is this a joke? No 6.5" driver can provide "very deep bass tone" and "extremely clear audio". No matter how abit's marketing put it, its still an entry-level subwoofer for computer games.
iwodo - Friday, November 24, 2006 - link
Unless i am mistaken their product range all start with letter N. As confirmed by their web page. unless Anandtech know something we dont know about ( change in product numbering? ).I am looking forward to N2100 review. As the new firmware nearly double the performance of previous firmware. The one tested on tomsnetworking was done was old firmware which is rather slow.
The N4200 has already shown itself on tomsnetworking to be extra fast. ( faster then Buffalo terrastation ).
I hope the review could include other testing like temperature reading etc. I have had quite a few NAS with constant hang becoz the airflow inside is rubbish.
yyrkoon - Friday, November 24, 2006 - link
Personally, I would be more interested in http://www.accusys.com.tw/eng/products_deskraid_77...">This Not sure what technology is uses to communicate with the host(its obvious it uses eSATA, but if no host drivers, or apps are needed . ..), but I've emailed them for detailed specs, speed, availibility (because I haven't been able to find it for sale yet), and we'll see what they have to say.DigitalFreak - Thursday, November 23, 2006 - link
Sweet baby jeebus, they're taking their damn sweet time.
nullpointerus - Thursday, November 23, 2006 - link
They weren't making SATA optical drives because compatibility was nil. I was told by a knowledgeable support rep. that the SATA interface does not have a few of the standard media notifications that ATAPI supports - like disc insertion notification. But yeah, if the drive manufacturers had gotten together and set forth a standard set of SATA extensions years ago, it would have been working fine by now.Maybe Microsoft fixed something in Vista?
peternelson - Thursday, November 23, 2006 - link
"widespread adoption of the SATA interface by Q3 in 2007."
Crazy! They better get their act together quickly.
I want the equivalent of a pioneer 111 writer and some bluray drive, both with sata instead of ide and I want them NOW!
vailr - Thursday, November 23, 2006 - link
Dell has a Toshiba/Samsung SATA 16x DVD-RW drive. Combine with the Paypal $20 rebate and free shipping, for a final price of $30 + tax, shipped.http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.a...">http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/prod...us&l...
vailr - Thursday, November 23, 2006 - link
The LiteOn SHM-165S6S-11C is being sold by several online European vendors, such as:http://www.pcupgrade.co.uk/productdetails.asp?Prod...">http://www.pcupgrade.co.uk/productdetails.asp?Prod...
Haven't found any willing to ship to the U.S. yet.
yyrkoon - Thursday, November 23, 2006 - link
There is only one problem however:Compatible Products
This product is compatible with the following systems:
Dimension C521
Dimension E520
Dimension E521
XPS 710
Does this mean the BIOS needs to be aware that this is a SATA opitcal drive, or what ? How about, is it possible to put this into a random PC, and have it be able to boot ? Inquiring minds want to know ;)