Asus this year dominated the hall 17 with another humoungus booth. A but contradicitng as most manufacturers are all reducing the size of their booth stands. Gigabyte was to be found only in the Resellers area. A bit strange as they had some good stuff on display ( at least for the enthousiast community )

Back to Asus :

On the X58 front their main show stoppers is the Rampage Extreme III BLack edition. Targeted at the gaming enthousiast community.  Including the NIC Killer 2100 ( claimed for an enhanced ping environment) and Asus own Xonar audio chip (for better audio experiences with a lot of added features like eg audio profiles per game). Both will be included on a seperate PCI-E card, baptised Thunderbolt.

For the enthousiasts the PCB is redesigned to withstand higher Bclocking, outperforming their previous flagship the Rampage III Extreme.

 

   

 

All black PCB, 4 way crossfire and Tri SLI supported ( so for 4 way SLI you still have to use the Expander board)

 

   

 

Estimated retail price will be way up in the 450 euros. Let's hope for the OCing community Asus will be able to add a board to the lineup, without the Thunderbolt card

Ofcourse the B3 rechipping and relabelling is in full progress on all the sandy Bridge motherboards. Asus also had one Z68 board on display : the P8Z68-V Pro

 

 

 

Their well kep secret was the brand new GTX580 Matrix card. If it will beat the already high end CU II version is just a matter of time. The Award fabrik team had already 1600mhz benchable CU II cards being cooled with LN2

 

 

 

Clocks and co were not listed ( as all manufacturers did ) The card has got readout points and a tweak it similar OC buttons. In due time Asus will have a new GPU OC software, leaving behind the aging Smart doctor. If our PR guy was correct it should be ROG connectable, which would be very very cool.

Some more shots form the booth with the Sandy Bridge improved gaming notebooks.

 

 

 

 

Some Eepad stuff too (not my speciality) but the transformer version looked nice ( added battery longetivity and keyboard)

 

 

Thx rogier for the booth tour !

 

 

Asrock :

Motherboard wise it's pretty calm. Getting the new B3 chipsets out is the main objective. Also a Z68 motherboard on display at the ASrock booth. The X58 flagship is now the Extreme 6 version.

 

 

 

Jonathan Wendel aka Fatal1ty was playing Quake live for those that wanted to give him a challenge. Ofcourse using his own branded Pro board and the rare OCZ Fatal1ty rams.

 

 

ASrock wouldn't be ASrock if they didn't have something special on display ofcourse. The Transformer board featuring a mix of 1155 and 1156 components.

 

 

 

 

 

Coolermaster :

Coolermaster introducing some new PSU's (but nothing is finalised yet ) RPM controller and 7V fan connectors foreseen on the PSU. Some brand new air coolers with an ingenious mounting system.

 

 

 

Also they are working hard on a brand new prefilled liquid cooling system.

 

 

 

The CM Storm case is being finalised. Part of the HD bay is removable to allow long video cards, with the CM Storm design it is also possible to use 2 long card in SLI or Crossfire.

 

 

 

The Storm gamers headset, featuring real 5.1 surround, was tested by sir Massman. Shot on the left trying to figure out how Starcraft II works. With Windows minesweeper Massman told me he got better scores due to the headset and his groupie/fan ( to be seen on his right side ) cheering him on.

 

 

 

Corsair :

 

Corsair was located in the resellers booth. Gareth Ogden the PR guy on duty. Behind the scenes we found the brand new H60 cooler. While it will not be the next big thing in regards of cooling performance, it's extra possibilties when being linked with the "Link" software are endless.

 

 

 

 

 

With the optional modules, steering fans, LEDS is all possible. The new Corsair GT SSD series will feature the new sandforce 2200-2500 series for improved blistering data transfer rates.

 

 

Corsair launched some new headsets and speakers. The TX series are also upgraded to version 2 ( if I recall correctly 5 years of warranty now).

But the star or eyecacther at their booth was this white version of the T600. Nicely crafted and stepping away from the comon black designs

 

 

 

 

 

ECS Elite group Motherboards :

The ECS Black range is targeted at the gamer/enthousiast community. Beefier PCB and power components, multifunction debug leds are all included in the package. Also a P67 with a Lucid Hudra chipset is in the lineup.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Including Sandy Bridge and AM3 sockets, they got the whole range well covered. The new 990 motherboard was also photographed, but we will adhere to the NDA, so no pictures yet.

 

Enermax :

Enermax had a brand new power supply on display, the MRX Revo. Starting from 1200W, but still multi rail. I really wonder why enermax does not step away from the split rails. Most enthousiasts prefer single rail and beefy amperages.

 

 

 

 

 

The PSU was demoed as being capable of powering two high end setup : one gulftown and one Thuban setup. Both with 2 GPU's running the Heaven benchmark. To proove their durability the engineers had found a rocking way to demonstrate their builds. ( a video is below )

 

 

 

Enermax is launhing a complete lineup of air coolers, tower to blow down cooler types. Entry, medium and high performance coolers to suit each budget or need.

 

 

 

New generation is the name for the new case lineup. Being just pre production models the quality build already looked top notch. The cases are designed for maximum storage and cooling.

 

 

 

The funniest thing on display at Cebit 2011 for me : Rock that Enermax PSU !!

 

 

Poor GPU and motherboard lol....

Gigabyte :

 

Gigabyte was only present in the Resellers booth : Highlights there the G1 Assassin and the brand new super duper X58A-OC board. Specifically designed for the niche enthousiast market.

 

 

 

Continuing in the legacy of their Super Overclock series the brand new GTX 580 and 6970 SOC versions... no official word on the clocks ( again sigh )

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gskill :

As Gskill already had an insane lineup of all sort of ram speeds and types it was not unexpected to only find one new edition : the sniper gaming series ram.

 

 

 

The new Sandforce chipset based SSD : the Phoenix II SSD. For the rest they had some impressive amounts of ram running, 24Gb 2000MHz CL8 on X58 is really great.

 

 

 

OCZ :

OCZ is focussing almost 100% on the storage market now. Providing SSDs and PCI-E SSDs for all market segments. The new Sandforce (2281) SSD will be powering the Vertex 3. Nice thing now is that OCZ also provides some of their models in a 3 1/2 form factor. And we even spotted a 1.8 inch SSD on the booth wall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Them PCI-E specs are jaw dropping, sadly so is the price :)

 

For the new PSU line OCZ got the new ZS (400-700W) and fully modular ZX (850-1250) lined up. All PSUs come with a 5 year warranty.

 

 

 

Patriot Memory :

 

Wildfire is the new high end Partiot Sadnforce based ( 2200 series) SSD. Their was a brillaintly done custom case by Scan PC showing off some nice WC gear.

 

 

 

Patriots new USB3.0 with ultra fast tranfer rates will feed ya need for sure. The Magnum will be initially available in 64 and 128MB versions. Estimated retail price for the 64Gb will be around 160 Us dollars. The MSI MOA overclocking event is sponsored by Patriot so worldwide overclockers will push the 2133 CL9 kit to it's limits in the upcoming weeks. (EDIT : Kingston 2250CL9 kit will be the RAM of choice for the MSI MOA event)

 

 

 

Looking forward to test one kit myself :)

 

MSI had it's Big Bang Marshal board on display. Design looks great , though no idea if that many PCI-E slots for multi GPU solutions are a great idea on Sandy bridge

 

   

 

Z86 chipset in MSI's military blue inspired outfit:

 

   

 

On the right it is the P67A-GD80. PCBs look quite familiar don't they ?

 

 

 

For the mainstream users the twinfrozer II design get's a slight midlife update. Better cooling around the Heatpipes should allow for lower GPU operating temperatures.

 

 

 

The two latest editions to the Lightning class, the 6970 and GTX 580. Rumours were that NickSih already breached past 1500MHz GPU clocks. Hopefully the MSI GTX 580 Ligthning can obtain clocks similar to the boost the GTX 275 lightning had from the reference card...

Bold statements for the MSI high end gaming notebook :

 

 

 

It looks classy ( besides the long haired dude displayed on the screen ), super audio included. SSD inclusion is still on debate...

 

 

 

Saphhire :

Sapphire had a beautifull case mod on display.

 

 

The Uriel is being powered by one of their black boards. Sapphire's black series got a P67; X58 and AMD board in the lineup.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also one of the few stands with a working ATI 6990 graphics card.

 

 

 

Sparkle :

The little sparkle booth caught our eye with some very slim, one PCI-E slot versions of the GTX 560 and 570 cards.

 

 

According the PR contact, the cooling is as good as the stock reference cooling, being albeit a bit louder. Looks great for SLI and or folding setups.

 

Sparkle also has their Calibre series, some with cooling solutions from Arctic. The latter known for very efficient cooling vs noise. The GTX 570 on the left includes Sparkles own Thermal Guru cooling  technology.

 

 

 

The card that might draw the attention is the GTX 580 Captain model. New PCB design, voltage read out points,...

 

 

 

 

AviiQ was really unknown to me. But apparently they won a price for their innovative foldable notebook stand.But new is the USB portable charger and IPad stand

 

 

 

 

Reeven :

A brand new name in the cooling market. Showing off some air coolers and PSUs, but also an entry LN2 cooling pot with copper base.

 

 

 

 

Scythe :

Their humongous Katama cooler was shown to the big audience. Not really my cup of tea but it looks impressive !

 

 

 

To finish off Cebit 2011 some nice looking casemods :

 

 

 

 

ah and I totally forgot about this super programmable ventilated keyboard from Thermaltake...

 

Darn no Bulldozer from AMD, no GTX 590 (only for the happy few) let's hope the best for the 2012 edition !!

 

Thanks to the guys from OC -TV that I could hang out with them.  And witness the wonders of their Danish Super Interviewer Marc Beier. A big thanks to Chris" Retsina Malakas" Pastilidis for the GB piccies...