Original Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/2245



We arrived a day early for Computex 2007 and were able to roam the hallways and meet with a few suppliers before the actual show starts today. This year's show will not have the same pizzazz as last year when the talk of the town was Core 2 Duo and AMD's purchase of ATI. Of course, that does not mean there will be a lack of new products, ideas, or hopes and dreams by the various manufacturers of PC centric products.

The focus on this latest installment of Computex will once again be Intel centric with the official release of the P35 chipset, early looks at the upcoming X38 and G35 chipsets, and of course an emphasis on the upcoming 1333FSB Core 2 Duo and quad core processors. Speaking of X38 and G35, they should be available in late July to coincide with the new price cuts to existing products and the introduction of the 1333FSB processors. We have also found out that overclocking limitations that occured on the G965 chipset will not be an issue with the G35 products. We understand from the manufacturers that enthusiast level G35 uATX designs are possible with clock speeds and BIOS options approaching that of P35 boards.


We did have a chance to view the X38 in action and while we cannot report benchmarks, let's just say that Intel's follow up to the 975X will be successful. We expect this chipset to be a hot product in more ways than one. Besides having what is shaping up to be class leading performance, the chipset will also have class leading power consumption and thermal outputs. The current estimated TDP rating is 36W; the chipset has a heat spreader on it, and expect to see temperatures near or above 60c while under load with current cooling techniques. It appears that SLI will not be officially supported at this point although we have seen it running on one of the early boards with drivers that were modified but not provided or supported by NVIDIA. NVIDIA's answer to the X38 will be their upcoming MCP73 series that is targeting both AMD and Intel products. It appears the Intel variant will not launch until the fourth quarter with the AMD version launching in late Q3 according to our sources.


Speaking of AMD, we were originally hoping as many others that Computex 2007 would have been the launch event for Barcelona and Agena. Unfortunately, this will not occur and the best we can hope for at this time is a Barcelona release in the latter part of Q3 at best and Agena following up in late Q4 or possibly sliding to Q1 2008 based on recently received information. The motherboards and chipsets to support this new processor family are starting to take shape but they are far from optimized at this point with early production level silicon just now being made available for the various suppliers who will offer products at launch. Our first look at the RD790 chipset from AMD that supports the new AM2+ socket, HyperTransport 3.0, and DDR2-1066 was interesting to say the least but it is too early to tell what the true performance potential of this technology is until we are able to test it with final silicon.

In fact, although we have seen DVT level chips running up to 2.3GHz, we understand there might be another silicon spin (maybe more) of Barcelona that is due later this month. If this occurs, then current rumors swirling around the trade show floor about the mass availability of product not occurring until the fourth quarter might just be true. At this time the motherboard/chipset companies are in the process of locking down their designs and optimization of the BIOS for performance is just starting. Our early first looks at application benchmarks show a great deal promise for this processor series but nothing overwhelming or very exciting at this point in the game. We, as others, are hoping for some serious competition from AMD as this is good for the market whether you are an Intel or AMD fan. Let's just hope the Barcelona/Agena series performance comes up to speed quickly (along with supply) or AMD is going to be in real trouble heading into the critical Q3/Q4 buying season.

From what information we could gather so far, it appears the upcoming product release of the HD 2600 and HD 2400 video cards from AMD/ATI are in a bit of trouble at this point. While the designs have been set and product is ready to be mass-produced, the various graphic card suppliers are waiting on final chipset silicon that is in the process of being released. We expect to see product within the next three to four weeks with performance coming in slightly below the current midrange products from NVIDIA. Whether AMD can make up this performance delta with further driver optimizations has yet to be determined, but we think the pricing structure that is in place from AMD indicates they will be extremely competitive from a price to performance ratio at launch.

Let's take a quick look at a few products we saw around the show floor during product setup. We will greatly expand our coverage over the course of the next few days as we formally meet with a wide variety of suppliers.



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.



Gigabyte

Gigabyte has made a tremendous comeback over the course of the last year by offering quality products at fairly reasonable prices. They have been determined to compete in the enthusiast and gaming sectors again and their recent product introductions have reflected this new direction by the company.




We had an early look at the X38 boards that will be launching near the end of July. These boards do not contain the new heatpipe system that Gigabyte will be using but the layout is basically final. The performance of the boards is excellent, especially with the new 1333FSB CPU and R600 CrossFire combination. Gigabyte will be releasing both DDR2 and DDR3 versions of the boards.

On a side note, we have some information for the users of Gigabyte's GA-N680SLI-DQ6 board who were wondering about the new revision 2 launching this month. The difference between the boards is that the rev2.0 board will utilize the 570 SLI Southbridge instead of the 590 SLI Southbridge. NVIDIA is phasing out the 590 SLI Southbridge so Gigabyte and others will be moving to the 570 SLI Southbridge. We should expect to see an updated BIOS shortly. In short, the new revision is not necessarily an improvement; it is merely a change that is necessitated by chipset availability.

ASUS

ASUS is one of the largest manufacturers of motherboards in the world and their current product portfolio is extensive. They are introducing several new motherboard products over the course of the next few weeks that will range from server level to high-end gaming boards.


ASUS listened to the user base and reviewers who have been clamoring for a dual x8 capable P35 board for CrossFire instead of the standard x16/x4 configuration. The new Blitz Extreme and Blitz Formula R.O.G. series of motherboards offers that and much more. ASUS has included their CrossLinx Technology (PCIe switching chipset) to enable true dual x8 capability off the P35 MCH. While they were at it, the design engineers decided to offer a hybrid water cooling/heat pipe system that allows the user to water cool the MCH. The "Fusion" block system consists of a solid copper block with 3/8" fittings and an accessory kit that offers ¼" and 10mm converters along with the necessary fittings.

From a performance viewpoint, the dual x8 configuration is showing up to an 8% performance improvement in most titles when compared to the x16/x4 setup, and utilizing a small water cooling system resulted in a 3C~7C improvement in MCH temperatures. The hybrid system works fine without the water cooling although we recommend additional cooling around the CPU area due to the increased temperatures from the P35. ASUS has moved the clear CMOS switch to the back panel, implemented overheat protection in the BIOS for the MCH and ICH chipsets when overclocking, improved the capacitors, and added EFI shielding on the Supreme FX audio card (ADI-1988B codec) along with adding two phase power circuitry to the memory module power delivery system.



We will have additional details on ASUS' server/workstation products in our next report but the two new releases are the ASUS P5BV-SAS and P5K64 WS motherboards. The P5K64 WS is based on the P35 chipset and ASUS plans on releasing additional workstation boards based on the X38 chipset in August under the P5E64 WS (DDR2) and P53E WS (DDR3) Professional nomenclatures.

Jetway

Jetway Computer is a making a comeback in the US market and plans on concentrating on offering AM2 products that are oriented towards performance on a budget.


The M2A692-GHG is based on the AMD 690G chipset and offers both HDMI and VGA output along with the standard features found on most AMD690G boards that include HD audio, Gigabit LAN, and four SATA 3Gb/s ports with RAID 0 and 1 capabilities.



ASUS




ASUS was showing off their new DAV Center A33 embedded amplifier unit that features an AM2 X2 4000+ CPU, Windows Vista Home Premium, a 160GB or 320GB hard drive, DVD-RW multi-drive, Dual TV Tuner Card (with Analog and Digital capabilities), WiFi 802.11n, Bluetooth, and Gigabit connectivity. The unit features full HiFi 5.1 channel capability along with 1080p playback. The system will retail for $999~$1499 depending upon configuration choices and Blu-ray support is expected by year end.


ASUS is also launching a series of Internet Radio products with the top product being the AIR3 system that also features universal iPod docking support that includes both audio and video out capabilities from your iPod. The system also features both 10/100 Ethernet and 802.11b/g connectivity. The speakers feature a dual port design and 5W output.


One of the most interesting products we noticed was the new ASUS Xonar D2 audio card that is available in both PCIe and PCI configurations. We will have a complete rundown on the card and a preview shortly but the specs are impressive. ASUS is using a proprietary codec chipset called the AV200 along with Burr-Brown PCM1796 digital to analog converters, and Cirrus Logic CS5381 analog to digital converters.

Quick Comments

Our first preview barely scratches the surface of current and future product introductions at Computex 2007. We will provide expanded coverage over the next few days looking at just about every product category imaginable for the PC. In the meantime, based upon thermal figures for the upcoming Intel X38 and NVIDIA MCP7x chipsets, we highly suggest you start thinking about adding additional cooling capacity to your room or moving to a colder climate. More from hot and humid Taipei tomorrow....

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