ASUS Crosshair V Formula refresh sneaks under the radar

Shawn Baker | Motherboards | Jun 6, 2012 6:47 AM CDT

Computex 2012 - Sitting in the corner of the ROG booth amongst a bunch of other motherboards we found the new Crosshair V Formula-Z, a refresh of the popular 990FX motherboard from ASUS that we know as the Crosshair V Formula. Looking at it you could easily find yourself thinking that it's just the regular non-Z version, but if we look a bit closer we can notice a few things.

One of the first comes with the removal of the legacy PCI slot that was present. That has now been swapped out for a PCIe slot. The audio side of things has also got an upgrade thanks to the addition of SupremeFX III now being present on the board.

Along with that ASUS said that they've also just done some overall tweaking to the board to increase the overclocking ability while we can also see the layout has slightly changed with the power and reset buttons being moved from the bottom of the board to the top with the LED Debug readout also being present now.

Continue reading: ASUS Crosshair V Formula refresh sneaks under the radar (full post)

Rosewill unveil a bunch of gear, cases, keyboards and more

Anthony Garreffa | Cases, Cooling & PSU | Jun 6, 2012 6:37 AM CDT

Computex 2012 - Day two of Computex is here and it has been insane, my legs and back are gone but I have some crazy amounts of pictures and what not. First we'll discuss Rosewill's latest gear and some upcoming stuff that should impress people. Rosewill aren't as well known as the other players like Corsair, Thermaltake, etc, but no company starts off as number one.

Rosewill walked us around their booth and showed Throne. Throne was very impressive, a large case, with swing-able top fins up the top of the case to maximise airflow, but can be closed to keep dust out of the case when it's not being used. The door can be opened from either side, which is great. The inside of the case was insane, very big and roomy with great cooling. The one stand-out for me was a top-mounted HDD dock. Yes, a HDD dock on top of the case.

It's the little things, ya know?

Continue reading: Rosewill unveil a bunch of gear, cases, keyboards and more (full post)

KingSpec PCIe 2.0 8x SSD in hand, pictured, coming to TweakTown Enterprise Division

Chris Ramseyer | Storage | Jun 6, 2012 6:30 AM CDT

Computex 2012 - Today we met with KingSpec and had some hands on time with their new PCI Express product that has up very excited.

The new card is designed for the entry level enterprise market but with the low price of around 3,500 USD (2TB, projected price) we see this product making it's way to the high end workstation market as well.

We now have a bit more info on the card. At first we thought only one side of the card was populated but as you see in this image, both sides hold mSATA ports for a total of eight. The performance should be amazing and we are quite excited to have one on the way. For our review we'll test the new card in our standard consumer / workstation tests and then ship it over to Paul for a round of enterprise tests.

Continue reading: KingSpec PCIe 2.0 8x SSD in hand, pictured, coming to TweakTown Enterprise Division (full post)

ASUS loses its mind and teases Computex crowd with Zeus concept X79 mobo

Cameron Wilmot | Motherboards | Jun 6, 2012 6:24 AM CDT

Computex 2012 - One of the most insane (and that's a good thing) things we've seen at Computex so far is the Zeus concept X79 motherboard.

If someone tried to sell you a motherboard without any PCI Express slots, what would you say to them? Go jump in the lake or let me give it a try. ASUS has been known for some pretty whacky concept designs in previous years, but this one takes the cake for creativity.

Onboard you get two GeForce GPUs operating in SLI mode. That's right, the motherboard comes with the GPU right on the board. This is rather creative and all, but what happens when the next GPU upgrade comes out? Are you expected to pull out the solder gun and install them yourself? Obviously not, but it's still a pretty cool idea none the less.

Continue reading: ASUS loses its mind and teases Computex crowd with Zeus concept X79 mobo (full post)

HIS world's first with Radeon HD 7970 X2 video card at Computex

Cameron Wilmot | Video Cards & GPUs | Jun 6, 2012 5:01 AM CDT

Computex 2012 - Around about an hour ago HIS showed off its brand new AMD Radeon HD 7970 X2 video card to a select group of media including TweakTown.

This is as far as we know the world's first dual GPU Radeon 7970 video card. The sample we were shown is an engineering sample and it still a little while off going on sale, but it shouldn't be too far away. With AMD's Radeon HD 7990 not all that far away, HIS would want to speed things up and deliver their X2 to the market as soon as possible.

The video card features a new and improved IceQ X2 cooler to cool the two onboard GPUs. The cooler is massive, one of the biggest we've seen for a while and that's saying a lot with the latest batch of video cards hitting the market with big and impressive coolers. The cooler will take up three slots, but obviously offer a crazy amount of performance.

Continue reading: HIS world's first with Radeon HD 7970 X2 video card at Computex (full post)

BitFenix introduce Prodigy, mini-ITX with handles and good looks

Anthony Garreffa | Cases, Cooling & PSU | Jun 6, 2012 1:11 AM CDT

Computex 2012 - Popular case maker BitFenix have unveiled their latest creation, Prodigy. Prodigy is a super-small mini-ITX case, but looks absolutely gorgeous. It will come in multiple colors, black/black or white/white and sports some decent cooling. It's made from a mix of steel and plastic, can take 1 x 5.25-inch drive, 5 x 3.5-inch (3+2 modular) or 9 x 2.5-inch drives.

Cooling on the front we find a single 120mm fan, or an optional 140/180/200/230mm fan, looking at the rear we find a single 120mm fan (included), or a 140mm fan which is again, optional. Up top we have the ability to throw in two 120mm fans (optional). What about the dimensions? It is definitely small at 250 x 404 x 359mm. I haven't touched one the stand-out feature, yet.

On the top of the Prodigy we find two handles, this is just so, so useful for lanners or for people who transport their PC around occasionally. We were giving the Prodigy a bit of a feel up when we bent the handles to see how they would take the weight of the case being fully-filled with hardware. The handles can be bent in on themselves, as they're made from some very high-end material.

Continue reading: BitFenix introduce Prodigy, mini-ITX with handles and good looks (full post)

Blocksworld: build your own game without any programming knowledge

Trace Hagan | Gaming | Jun 6, 2012 12:05 AM CDT

A new game from Boldai aims to make game programming accessible to everyone by allowing users to design and program games without any sort of technical knowledge. Blocksworld allows players to drag and drop blocks and then program them to do things through a drag-and-drop interface. The graphics are simple and so is what you can do, but I imagine the game could be fun.

There are currently 938 open free beta slots, so if you would like to check it out, sign up on Blockworld's website. The game features 4 main parts: build, play, share, and remix. First, players build an object, or anything really, by dragging different LEGO-like blocks into place. Once the blocks are in place, colors, textures, and custom behaviors can be added.

Once a player is content with the design, they then press play and watch the object or simulation come alive. The creations are basically endless in variety. Once happy with a design, the user can share it on Blocksworld.com, Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks so that everyone can marvel at your creativity.

Continue reading: Blocksworld: build your own game without any programming knowledge (full post)

Patriot Wildfire Pro SSD sees 28% over provisioning at consumer prices

Chris Ramseyer | Software & Apps | Jun 5, 2012 11:34 PM CDT

Computex 2012 - Patriot had Wildfire Pro back on display at Computex 2012. This time we saw a working model, unlike at CES where a mock up was on display. Wildfire Pro brings back 28% over provisioning, just like many very expensive SandForce based enterprise SSDs. The catch is, Wildfire Pro isn't going to cost more than a standard Wildfire with 7% over provisioning.

Over the last year, we've read several reports and white papers about data centers using consumer SSDs since they offer very good performance and the pricing is very attractive. The Wildfire Pro is a good fit for those already entertaining the idea of low cost, high performance solid-state drives in their critical environments.

The 28% over provisioning will give the enterprise a consumer product that is closer to the specs of the enterprise class SandForce 2500 based drives.

Continue reading: Patriot Wildfire Pro SSD sees 28% over provisioning at consumer prices (full post)

Micron Client Side Media Blackout - What does it tell us?

Chris Ramseyer | Storage | Jun 5, 2012 11:30 PM CDT

Computex 2012 - Half of the normal cast and crew from Micron are here in Taipei, but two of our favorite contacts were no shows. We met up with a handful of Micron / Crucial team members in Tokyo, but business was off the table, a full media blackout is taking place on the consumer side of things.

On the enterprise side Micron is set to swing for the fences. Our own Paul Alcorn just met with Micron hours ago and had a nice conversation about the already announced P320h, an enterprise class PCIe SSD that is sure to take the enterprise world over with PCIe version 2 8 lane interface.

So where does that leave Micron and Crucial on the client side of things? Well to be honest we really don't know. No amount of intoxicant could break the wall of silence and that might be just as telling. This could go two ways. The first is Micron is just relying on their m4 product line, which is doing very well in the market right now. The Crucial m4 512GB model is now selling for less than 400 USD.

Continue reading: Micron Client Side Media Blackout - What does it tell us? (full post)

Corsair demos two new flagship SSDs using a Link-A-Media Controller at Computex

Chris Ramseyer | Storage | Jun 5, 2012 11:26 PM CDT

Computex 2012 - Corsair threw a curve ball to us this morning with a new SATA 6Gbps controller. The new Neutron GTX was up and running with 24nm Toshiba Toggle Mode Flash and delivering class leading performance in ATTO. Two models are already on the road map, the flagship Neutron GTX with Toggle Flash and a Neutron with 25nm synchronous IMFT flash.

We're told pricing should be in line with current SandForce based models like the Force GT and Force 3.

ATTO is not a very good way to measure real world performance but we'll work on that on our own soon enough. The demo systems were running the drives as the OS boot drive so we didn't get a chance to rock Vantage or our Fill Test.

Continue reading: Corsair demos two new flagship SSDs using a Link-A-Media Controller at Computex (full post)