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
We've already had a lot of coverage from this year's CES, with most of that focusing on the true consumer portion of the show. That's a broad market, which covers just about every conceivable electronics device, but so far, we haven't focused a lot on the computer enthusiast segment. With our wrap-up coverage of CES, we have some information from many of the more familiar names in the computing industry, along with a few miscellaneous tidbits that we haven't mentioned so far.
Memory & Cooling
Corsair
Corsair was showing their first water cooling solution at last year's CES, and this year's offering incorporates what Corsair has learned in the past year about water cooling.
The Nautilus is a standalone self-contained water-cooling appliance powered by the 12V line in a 4-pin Molex connector from the motherboard. You definitely do not need an external plug and setup is said to be a fast 10 minutes or less. The Nautilus gives new users a fast, easy choice for efficient overclocking of the CPU and the added advantage of almost silent water cooling. One of the best features is the price - Corsair expects the Nautilus to sell for about $150.
Kingston
Flash Memory seems to shrink in size with every new announcement, and Kingston launched their Micro SD memory at CES.
The tiny Micro SD (lower right) joins Kingston's extensive line of mobile phone flash memory designed for ultra-low power consumption and a small size that makes transfer between phones an easy task. Kingston Micro SD is available as a 256MB card weighing just over a gram - targeted for use in the new smart phones.
Kingston also was promoting its own 15-in-1 flash reader that will retail for $19.95. With so many cheap readers around, you might wonder why Kingston decided to enter the market. They tell us that many readers are extremely slow and make high-speed flash perform very poorly in read operations when attached to a computer. The Kingston unit was designed to read at high-speed with no performance compromises. A fast, low-cost, flexible reader from a company like Kingston is certainly a welcome choice in today's market.
Memory & Cooling
Corsair
Corsair was showing their first water cooling solution at last year's CES, and this year's offering incorporates what Corsair has learned in the past year about water cooling.
The Nautilus is a standalone self-contained water-cooling appliance powered by the 12V line in a 4-pin Molex connector from the motherboard. You definitely do not need an external plug and setup is said to be a fast 10 minutes or less. The Nautilus gives new users a fast, easy choice for efficient overclocking of the CPU and the added advantage of almost silent water cooling. One of the best features is the price - Corsair expects the Nautilus to sell for about $150.
Kingston
Flash Memory seems to shrink in size with every new announcement, and Kingston launched their Micro SD memory at CES.
The tiny Micro SD (lower right) joins Kingston's extensive line of mobile phone flash memory designed for ultra-low power consumption and a small size that makes transfer between phones an easy task. Kingston Micro SD is available as a 256MB card weighing just over a gram - targeted for use in the new smart phones.
Kingston also was promoting its own 15-in-1 flash reader that will retail for $19.95. With so many cheap readers around, you might wonder why Kingston decided to enter the market. They tell us that many readers are extremely slow and make high-speed flash perform very poorly in read operations when attached to a computer. The Kingston unit was designed to read at high-speed with no performance compromises. A fast, low-cost, flexible reader from a company like Kingston is certainly a welcome choice in today's market.
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Leinad - Saturday, March 4, 2006 - link
I see that the Corsair Nautilus500 is available, and at pretty much the expected price. I have searched around looking for any information on the Cryo-Z, and don't see any. Just curious if anyone in Anandland had any further information...I also wanted to second the request/suggestion of the addition of a cooling area to Anandtech.
yacoub - Thursday, January 12, 2006 - link
And the best thing about all the Asus boards pictured? EVERY ONE OF THEM IS PASSIVELY COOLED. About time. Dinky motherboard fans are the bane of many otherwise-quiet systems and they're often of such poor quality as to die within a few months and leave the user with a board that can overheat.Very nice work, Asus.
JarredWalton - Thursday, January 12, 2006 - link
Funny you should mention that. I have an ASUS K8N4-E Deluxe board that has been used less than 3 months. It has a dinky NB HSF, and guess what died this past week? So now I replaced that 30mm or whatever fan with a spare 60mm fan jury-rigged into the case, and it cools better and runs quieter. Small fans are garbage.SignalPST - Wednesday, January 11, 2006 - link
Sounds very promising. Hopefully, they'll fix the problems with the NB heatsink and 7800GTX 512MB getting in the way. When should we expect more details for this board?
FlyingShawn - Wednesday, January 11, 2006 - link
Quick correction on what looks like a typo on your DualCor coverage. The article states that the 1.5 Ghz processor runs XP Pro and the 400 Mhz runs XP Tablet. Actually, the 1.5 Ghz runs XP Tablet and the 400 Mhz runs Windows Mobile 5. So basically you have a full XP Tablet for when you need it and the instant-on benefits of a Mobile 5 PDA for when you need information like PIM data quickly.abakshi - Wednesday, January 11, 2006 - link
Yeah I was about to post that.That brings up another interesting issue though -- is data synchronized between the two sections (e.g. Outlook contacts/calendar/etc.), and do that mean you can run both parts at once and simply switch between the two (since they seemingly share only the user interface elements)?
Wesley Fink - Wednesday, January 11, 2006 - link
Yes, DualCor was demoing synchronized data between the 2 OS. I will correct the OS/processor statements in a few minutes.monsoon - Wednesday, January 11, 2006 - link
since we didn't get the new MAC MINI at Macworld, i'm eager to read your coming review of the AOpen PC Mini with CORE DUO insideHoudani - Wednesday, January 11, 2006 - link
Those Aopen boxes look stupendous on the outside. I'm eager to hear how their innards fare. All three of them there boxes are intriguing.wilburpan - Wednesday, January 11, 2006 - link
This is probably the wrong trade show for this, but was there any indication from CES as to whether BTX is increasing its penetration into the market?