Computex 2012 - On Monday we got some short hands on with what ASUS are currently calling the Tablet-600. This is a system that is almost finished, but has yet to receive its final retail model name.

It's a system with a 10.-inch Super IPS+ panel with a 1366 x 768 resolution that supports up to an amazing 10 finger multi-touch. It was running the Windows RT Preview Release which if you weren't sure is essentially Windows 8 for ARM based processors, as opposed to regular Windows 8 that is for traditional x86 processors.

And on that note it brings us to the CPU and this job is given to NVIDIA with its Tegra 3 quad-core processor. As far as additional specs go, it comes with 2GB of RAM, 32GB eMMC storage, 802.11n, Bluetooth 4.0, rear 8MP auto focus LED flash camera and front 2MP camera. It also comes with enough sensors to ship a battle ship - G-Sensor, Light Sensor, Gyroscope, E-compass, NFC and GPS.

Computex 2012 - We sat in on Intel's keynote speech today in Taipei, and let me start off with this: I've never been more excited about the PC world than I have today. We kinda knew Ultrabooks were going to be big, but consumer devices are about to get a whole lot bigger, while physically shrinking in size, while offering more features and functions than ever before.

Intel pushed that their tick-tock method is helping, where we're seeing constant pushes in the shrinking of tech, as well as teaming up with virtually every major ODM, OEM and retailer across our planet. We will have more info, and a heap of hands-on over the coming days, but for now let's quickly update you on what we saw today.

Intel had ASUS on stage, where they showed off some Ultrabooks that were very... ultra. Intel and ASUS are pushing the boundaries of security, to touch on just one of the many things discussed today. They showed off an ASUS Ultrabook that sported a camera that would sense you with increased algorithms that detect facial features such as facial hair, eyes and your smile. ASUS had an Ultrabook on show, where if the Ultrabook detects that it has been moved, it will sound an alarm and secure the system. This protects your precious data from anyone who might steal your Ultrabook if you were to turn away from it at work, Uni, or a coffee shop.

Computex 2012 - ASUS had a few amount of goodies to show off at their Republic of Gamers event, with the AMD-based MATRIX HD 7970 GPU. In usual ROG and MATRIX fashion, this card kicks some serious ass for those serious benchers and gamers. Sporting some very nice features, it can rule your game, as ASUS put it.

The MATRIX HD 7970 features VGA Hotwire, which lets you accurately read and control voltages all at the hardware level, backed up with TweakIt which offers real-time voltage adjustment and full-speed fan cooling, all at the press of a button. DIGI+ VRM with 20-phase Super Allow Power technology is featured on the MATRIX HD 7970 which delivers 'superior efficiency, reliability and performance'. Lastly, GPU Tweak utility can be used to tune those clock speeds, fan performance, GPU load line, PWN frequency and voltages, all from a swanky UI.

The center of the MATRIX HD 7970 is the GPU itself, AMD's GraphicsCore Next-based Radeon HD 7970, featuring 3GB of RAM on a 256-bit wide bus. Cooling is the usual MATRIX-featured DirectCU II which should keep the card nice and chilled under hardcore conditions. 3 or 4 of these in CFX would be quite the sight to behold. Nice work, ASUS.

Computex 2012 - ASUS took the stage earlier today unveiling a bunch of new Republic of Gamer-branded devices, first up we have their new desktop gaming rig, ROG Tytan. ASUS have crammed quite a few unique abilities into Tytan, so we'll start with the specs, shall we? Tytan sports Intel's Core i7-3960X 6-core processor with three O.C. modes, but we'll get into that a little later.

Backing up the 3960X we have Intel's X79 chipset, NVIDIA's dual-Kepler GEFORCE GTX 690 GPU, 16GB of DDR3 2133MHz RAM, two 128GB SSDs in RAID0 with a 2TB 7200RPM drive for storage, ASUS' Xonar DX sound card and a Blu-ray writer. Whilst the specs are impressive, its the housing that is the real feature here. I mentioned the three O.C. modes before, which to me is one of the stand-out features of the Tytan.

Overclocking can be quite difficult, and the results vary so much between hardware that it's hard to have a baseline of what to expect. ASUS have removed this effort for the user, with three O.C. modes all at the touch of a button. On the top of the case is a 'speed' button, sans Keanu Reeves and a bus rigged with explosives. The speed button can be pressed three times for 3 pre-defined O.C. speeds. The default stage is stock, then we have 3.8GHz, followed by 4.0GHz and finishing with 4.2GHz. It may not be the break-neck, needs-liquid-nitrogen-to-push-it-speeds, but hey, out of the box overclocking without the need to reboot is impressive.

Computex 2012 - Wow, we didn't expect to see this, but here it is. 3DMark for Windows 8, as it's called at this stage of development. The test was running at a screen resolution of 1280 x 720 with an AA sample count of 1. What you are seeing here is by no means a finished product at all.

As we walked around the Nangang Computex hall yesterday we managed to get some very exclusive eyes-on time with 3DMark for Windows 8 running on an MSI system. The system to be exact is an Intel Core i7-3960K, Big Bang-XPower II motherboard and two MSI GTX 680 Lightning video cards in SLI.

We told some of our friends last night and some questioned the relevance of a new 3DMark for Windows 8 considering at least at this stage that the new Microsoft OS will ship with DirectX 11. We don't know much more about the next 3DMark than you do based on what we can see in the video above, but it's very cool to see none the less.

Computex 2012 - Yesterday we visited the Corsair suite for an early looking at its new products and one of the biggest new items from the company is its AX1200i power supply.

Many of you would be aware of the popular and impressive AX1200 power supply, but let's introduce the brand new AX1200i PSU. It is a 80 Plus Platinum rated power supply, but the big story here is it is Corsair's first consumer fully digitally controlled power supply that features a DSP (Digital Signal Processor). That means it's able to work in conjunction with Corsair Link 2 software that allows you to do all sorts of cool things thanks to the new full digital nature of the PSU.

You can some really cool things such as monitor the real-time power in and power out of your PSU along with measure the efficiency percentage. You can even go as far as measuring the power consumption on the PCI-E power (as well as the 12v rail, SATA, main and so on) to get a fairly good idea of what your video card is using. You can also set Over Current Protection individually. Corsair also claims at the AX1200i features very impressive tight power regulation which we cannot wait to check out in our full review when we get a unit in from Corsair.

Computex 2012 - Yesterday we had an early visit to the Corsair suite where we were introduced to a range of new products that were being displayed.

First up is Corsair's Dominator Platinum memory which is still in development, but is being announced today. It's still a little while out from shipping, but at this stage the modules are able to operate at overclocked speeds of 3000MHz DDR at CL12.

Besides the obviously impressive speed, the modules also include a swappable light bar which allows you to pick a color that suits the rest of the parts inside your PC, Corsair also claims that the ICs are all hand screened. Then you get DHX cooling, but the big deal with this memory is that it includes Corsair Link compatibility that allows you to check RAM temperature along with the other parts inside your system that also work with Corsair Link.

Apparently I am not the only one who thinks that Windows 8 is going to be terrible. A Wall Street Journal writer by the name of John Dvorak shares some of the same concerns as me and even went as far as to say "Windows 8 looks to me to be an unmitigated disaster that could decidedly hurt the company and its future."

I'm not sure I would go quite that far, but some of his concerns are echoed by journalists around the web. His major problem seems to lie in the new Metro desktop interface that appears to be designed for tablets. He had some hope when it appeared that he could still use the old style desktop, but with the latest release candidate, that is no longer an option.

Dvorak says:

Computex 2012 - Again we walking the hall of Computex Nangang early we manage to bring you another exclusive and this time it is our very first and quick look at the upcoming ASRock Z77 OC Formula.

This is ASRock's first motherboard that designed especially for overclockers and it has a lot of design influence by new star recruit Nick Shih who really only joined the Taiwanese motherboard maker not that long ago. The board features a rather stylish black and yellow color theme which did remind me fairly quickly of something that you'd see in the Transformers movie.

Not that the color and resemblance is of any real importance as Nick Shih is a very well-known overclocker who knows his stuff and judging by Nick's signature on the PCB, a lot of his time and effort has gone into working with ASRock engineers to produce a board with his name on it. Besides the apparent overclockability of the Z77 OC Formula, the one big thing that excited me was that fact that this motherboard has no less than 10 USB 3.0 ports onboard.

Computex 2012 - We spent quite a bit of time with GIGABYTE yesterday on Day 0 of Computex in their VIP meeting rooms on the 36th floor of Taipei 101 where we got a good chance to look at some of their range of new Ultra Durable 5 based motherboards.

During our meeting we were told that GIGABYTE were the only motherboard maker to have a board that supports dual Thunderbolt ports. It turns out this is not true.

As we were walking around on our spy mission early in the Nangang Computex hall, we ran into ASRock who were showing off an upcoming Intel Z77 based motherboard that also supports dual Thunderbolt ports on the I/O panel.