Computex 2007: Preview Look at Motherboards and More
by Gary Key on June 5, 2007 3:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
Flash Storage
Transcend
Transcend is a large manufacturer of memory and storage products that was founded in 1988. Their current product portfolio has grown to include over 2,000 memory modules of every type: flash memory cards, USB pen drives, portable HDDs, multimedia products, graphics cards, and other accessories.
Transcend has provided us with a sample of their latest 2.5" Solid State Disk (SSD) that features a 16GB capacity and 44-pin IDE interface and is designed for the industrial or rugged laptop market. This drive features MLC technology but with an improved controller interface that should result in write speeds above 30MB/s and read speeds around 20+MB/s.
Another interesting product we noticed was their new ExpressCard SSD unit that features a USB 2.0 interface, Vista ReadyBoost capability, and capacities up to 32GB. Expect to see a review of both products shortly - after all, what else is there to do in rainy Taipei at night?
Various
We have already met with most of the major players in the USB flash drive market and although there are not any significant new product introductions coming in the next few weeks, you can expect improved capacities and speed increases later this year. We received over a dozen samples of the latest USB flash drives from a wide variety of suppliers that will be part of our USB flash drive roundup coming later this month.
Motherboards
We will have significant coverage of motherboards products during the course of our Computex reporting as we visit each motherboard manufacturer and discuss product plans for the coming months. The products we are presenting today are a few that caught our eye during our first visits.
ASRock
ASRock is one of our favorite value/budget motherboard manufacturers and they are releasing several boards at Computex this year.
One of their primary Intel board releases will be the ConRoe1333-DVI/H R2.0 and Conroe1333-D667. Both boards feature the new 945GC A2 chipset that brings full 1066FSB and DDR2-667 capability to the venerable 945G chipset. The DVI/H board is the premium board offering a separate DVI-HDCP card for DVI-D graphics output. Both boards are Vista Premium 2007 ready and ASRock guarantees the boards' ability to run up to or slightly exceed the 1333FSB level with most Core 2 Duo processors. However, the boards do not support the quad core processors. Availability should be immediate with pricing staring around the $75 level, although it will vary depending upon the market.
ASRock's latest AM2 offering is based on the new NVIDIA 7050 / nForce 630 combination that offers native DVI with HDCP support. The board supports up to 720p playback through Blu-ray or HD-DVD devices and with the latest PureVideo drivers we have to say the playback capabilities looked impressive when compared directly against the AMD 690G products. This board also features Gigabit LAN through the Realtek RTL8211B and HD Audio utilizing the Realtek ALC888. The board should be available in the next two weeks with pricing to be set shortly.
Transcend
Transcend is a large manufacturer of memory and storage products that was founded in 1988. Their current product portfolio has grown to include over 2,000 memory modules of every type: flash memory cards, USB pen drives, portable HDDs, multimedia products, graphics cards, and other accessories.
Transcend has provided us with a sample of their latest 2.5" Solid State Disk (SSD) that features a 16GB capacity and 44-pin IDE interface and is designed for the industrial or rugged laptop market. This drive features MLC technology but with an improved controller interface that should result in write speeds above 30MB/s and read speeds around 20+MB/s.
Another interesting product we noticed was their new ExpressCard SSD unit that features a USB 2.0 interface, Vista ReadyBoost capability, and capacities up to 32GB. Expect to see a review of both products shortly - after all, what else is there to do in rainy Taipei at night?
Various
We have already met with most of the major players in the USB flash drive market and although there are not any significant new product introductions coming in the next few weeks, you can expect improved capacities and speed increases later this year. We received over a dozen samples of the latest USB flash drives from a wide variety of suppliers that will be part of our USB flash drive roundup coming later this month.
Motherboards
We will have significant coverage of motherboards products during the course of our Computex reporting as we visit each motherboard manufacturer and discuss product plans for the coming months. The products we are presenting today are a few that caught our eye during our first visits.
ASRock
ASRock is one of our favorite value/budget motherboard manufacturers and they are releasing several boards at Computex this year.
One of their primary Intel board releases will be the ConRoe1333-DVI/H R2.0 and Conroe1333-D667. Both boards feature the new 945GC A2 chipset that brings full 1066FSB and DDR2-667 capability to the venerable 945G chipset. The DVI/H board is the premium board offering a separate DVI-HDCP card for DVI-D graphics output. Both boards are Vista Premium 2007 ready and ASRock guarantees the boards' ability to run up to or slightly exceed the 1333FSB level with most Core 2 Duo processors. However, the boards do not support the quad core processors. Availability should be immediate with pricing staring around the $75 level, although it will vary depending upon the market.
ASRock's latest AM2 offering is based on the new NVIDIA 7050 / nForce 630 combination that offers native DVI with HDCP support. The board supports up to 720p playback through Blu-ray or HD-DVD devices and with the latest PureVideo drivers we have to say the playback capabilities looked impressive when compared directly against the AMD 690G products. This board also features Gigabit LAN through the Realtek RTL8211B and HD Audio utilizing the Realtek ALC888. The board should be available in the next two weeks with pricing to be set shortly.
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Schugy - Tuesday, June 5, 2007 - link
I still can't find any SIS 771 retail mainboard and I still hope for new Phenom chipsets.cruzer - Tuesday, June 5, 2007 - link
I'm looking forward to see how Asus overcame the PCIe latencies that Creative whined about.Gary Key - Thursday, June 7, 2007 - link
Creative whined about it, turns out that was a smoke screen, yes latencies can be affected by PCIe, but not to the point where Creative could not make a PCIe sound card. ASUS is telling us the PCIe card performs best, especially under Vista. We have both cards coming to us in a couple of weeks, so we will see. ;)baronzemo78 - Tuesday, June 5, 2007 - link
Any news on the Intel version of the Nvidia MCP73? Will this be available this Christmas along with the new G92 graphics cards? I'm hoping for good quad core Kentsfield and Penryn support.baronzemo78 - Tuesday, June 5, 2007 - link
Also Is the MCP73 an integrated graphics product or high end SLI enthusiast motherboard? I've heard conflicting things.Viditor - Tuesday, June 5, 2007 - link
I just read on the newswires that "AMD 'Barcelona' Processors are to be Showcased on Server Platforms from Supermicro, TYAN and Uniwide at Computex" this week...erwos - Tuesday, June 5, 2007 - link
Some in-depth coverage of the new Shuttles would be very much appreciated. The press release leaves a bit much to the imagination.Gary Key - Thursday, June 7, 2007 - link
Shuttle only had a couple of systems at the booth, the most interesting one being a X38 in their new SFF case. :)yacoub - Tuesday, June 5, 2007 - link
What's up with AMDelay? late Q3 or into Q4 for Barcelona and Agena, and more delays for the mid-level GPUs. =(Viditor - Wednesday, June 6, 2007 - link
I think it's possible that Gary's sources have it wrong...
3 Server partners at Computex demonstrated Barcelona servers today...
At the Computex show, Taiwanese motherboard and server maker Tyan was showing off a two-socket, 2U rack-mounted server with two Barcelona chips that has eight DDR2 DIMM sockets per processor
Super Micro, the American motherboard and server maker that just went public and has strong links to Taiwan, is demonstrating its AS-4021M-T2R+ server at Computex. This is a two-socket Barcelona box that comes in a 4U rack or tower configuration
Uniwide Technologies, which hails from Korea, is showing a single-socket Barcelona box that has an interesting twist. Rather than use an Opteron 1000 series chip in this machine, Uniwide's UniServer 1512 uses an Opteron 2000 series processor. The reason why is that the Opteron 1000 series processors are limited to four DIMM slots per processor socket, while the 2000 series can have eight DIMMs per socket