Arctic Cooling :

Sadly we couldn't speak to the representative of Arctic Cooling as there was noone at the booth at the rendez vous time. They were probably making a good deal with a distributor, as this booth was in the Resellers part of CeBIT. The part were mainly contracts and big deals are closed and is normally not accessible to the general public. Anyway, we took pictures of the new products displayed at the booth. New coolers shown for the 5870 and 5970 cards , claiming big temperature drops compared to the reference units at an almost inaudible level. Claims for which Arctic Cooling is renowned for. Third new product and which we will encounter several times mores on CeBit are notebook cooling units. Arctic cooling calls their solution Arctic NC, yep you guessed it ; Notebook Cooler.

Arctic cooler has build up a decent name over the years and is used on a lot of VGA brands. Dependable, affordable and efficient.



The 5870 cooler will be available in the next few months, the 5970 will hit retail market mid June.

Asrock :

Rob Canta from Asrock guided us through his booth. Asrock is indulging themselves into the low end notebook market. In their motherboard range they want to get rid of the general assumption on the cheapish look and build quality of their products. Hence why they are releasing Extreme motherboards, with an abundance of features and more professional looking colour schemes. At Asrock we found one of the few Gulftowns in action running happily on their extreme3 X58 motherboard. Rob told us it will take some time, but once the reviews will be online, it might turn a few heads. He's pretty confident about their new high end lineup.



On the booth they also had an AMD setup running on the new 890GX chipset. Having unlocked the 4th core of a Phenom II X3 720 CPU. The new Unlock Core CPU (UCC) feature in the bios allows this unlocking. True 333 can also be found on the latest Asrock motherboards. Reminding of course of Gigabyte's 333 trademark, though Rob confirmed this is even better, with guarding the PCI-E at 16X and maximising throughput for USB and S-ATA3.0 at any time, under any circumstance.



Asrock also has got a simple to click OC function on their H55 mobo's called Turbo 50 Increasing CPU/ram and IGP speeds to get 20-50% better results in some benchmarks.

Asus :

Asus having one of the biggest booths at CeBIT. This due to their activity on numerous fronts. I'm expecting to see the latest Asus airco or car soon. It's amazing how diverse the Asus range is. From motherboards, multimedia boxes, graphics cards,...,to notebooks and even screens. However, me and Massman are not that multimedia hardware, we only want the fast stuff, no in-betweens :)

Most enthusiast were awaiting the final version of the Rampage Extreme III and the new overclocked limited edition Asus ARES card. From the latter, initial production stops at 1000. Though Milan Rado said if demands are high enough and if they can get these cherry picked GPU's it could be a possibility that Asus keeps on producing this high end card. With 4Gb onboard and extreme cooling this card will be set some new records soon on HWBot.org. We didn't get any info on the price, but expect to survive on water and bread to get one of these at your place.



Let's hope Asus learned some lessons of the MARS adventure. Continuing the Matrix range, Asus also added the 5870 to the line-up. This card will remain more affordable then the ARES, yet highly tweakable again compared to a reference version. Gpu clocks at 900Mhz, 2Gb ram running at 1200Mhz (stock 5870 cards only got 1Gb onboard). A 5 heat pipe equipped cooler keeps everything cooler than the reference design. Voltage measuring points are also foreseen for the heavy benchers.



The Rampage Extreme III was only at display in a running demo unit. Pretty hard to shoot decent pictures. It seems Asus added again an abundance of features to power that brand new Gulftown to new levels. An extra 8 pin connector for the CPU and an extra molex for the GPU's. Only time will tell if it will be a Classified breaker. Retail price is estimated around 390 euro's and samples will be sent out end of march to the reviewers. Better save up again, sigh.



Asus didn't forget the AMD fanboys either in their ROG lineup. Enhancing the range with the 890FX Crosshair IV Extreme and Formula. The Extreme being the ultimate board with too many new features to mention. If it's eg feasible to start OC'ing from ya cellphone or other mobile devices I have my doubts, yet the RC bluetooth makes this all possible. The Extreme also got slightly more spaced GPU slots. The Formula will be the cheaper variant due to fewer gimmicks and is more gamer orientated.



Some more medium range boards, funny enough we spotted a Nvidia variant (980a SLI) too on the wall.



If all this wasn't enough Asus surprised us with 2 more ROG gaming laptops Being inspired by the stealth fighter for design and thermal management. The G73HJ is powered by an I3/5/7 CPU of choice. Build onto a PHM55 motherboard with DDR3 support up to 8Gb. For ultimate gaming pleasure, the mobility Radeo 5870 stuffed with 1gb DDR5 will show it's crisp images to a 17 inch HD monitor. Its little brother is the G51JX3D. CPU choices there between the I7-720/820QM CPU. Graphics power with 3D effects via the Nvidia GTS360M with 1Gb DDR5. Monitor size is also reduced to a 15.6 inch HD monitor. Question is how long can you enjoy gaming with 3D glasses before going bezerk. But as more and more games and movies are popping up with 3D effects it’s normal for Asus to give it a shot.

Awardfabrik :

Asus had a little extra for the spectators. Providing a capability for the audience to go head to head on 2 pre set LN2 equipped rigs. This under the supervision of Germans finest overclockers of the Awardfabrik site. Big names like Stummerwinter, SOF, @rne, No_name and many more kept the crowd entertained, also giving away freebies. Good move there Asus as it drew huge crowds (even without booth babes!) From Italy Hiwa and Giorgoprimo supported the Awardfabrik team to set new world records before the end of CeBIT

Some pictures of the setups :



Biostar :

Biostar is known as a typical Taiwanese firm. With loads of flashy colours in their simplistic design. Though don't be subjective, they were the ones that created the amazing Tpower 45 that set new records for FSB a while back on socket 775. Eric Tung showed us the latest line-up. As with all manufacturers main focus on H55/57 and the new AMD 890 chipset. I'll let the pictures do the talking.




Coolermaster :

Coolermaster is a world known brand for its cases. Though Coolermaster is more than that, providing cooling solutions and also high quality power supplies. Marloes gave us a dutch trip through the Coolermaster madness. Let's start off with the 3 new air coolers. First cooler is a low budget cooler that has been modified to allow more clearance between the cooler and the rams. 2nd up is the new V6 cooler with very slick design and selectable LED control. The cooler will be out of the box quipped with 2 PWM controlled fans.



The two bottom pictures on the left are for the V6 unit. V6 due to the 6 heatpipes. Spot the no more direct contact as Marloes told us it's better to avoid it when you are having more than 4 heatpipes. The cooler on the right looks familiar, but is still a complete own design for max performance. Behind the scenes was a new cooler under NDA, but no piccies, nor Belgians allowed. Too bad the conference room was fully occupied; otherwise we would have got a nice scoop. Maybe next time.



Next up some new cases. The new CM690 II case is ready for launch. With some new modifications the interior is easier to cablemod ( bigger holes), got HD trays for SSD's, dust filter on the bottom etc...



For the heavy gamers or LAN party geeks, Coolermaster got some more futuristic design with the new HAF series. Providing tornado like air flows inside ya cases with big 20xm and larger rads all over the place. Two different models will be available so every can get one depending on his budget. The Full tower HAF 932 version has got two hot swappable 5 1/2 drive bays and more than enough room to house any monster graphics card. The 922 is a slight cut down version yet still equipped with massive front, side and top fans.



Laptop users have not been forgotten. Coolermaster created one for the Laptop gamers too, the SF19. With dual fans, being speed controlled integrated led design and USB hub.



Since we are still talking about gamers accessories. How about the ultimate gaming mouse ? The Sentinel being multi programmable, script programmable via software. Plus all the settings and co are stored inside the mouse. So you can take it anywhere and enjoy your favourite settings on sensitivity, key programming per game etc...without the need to reinstall software etc. I must say I was really impressed what the guys at coolermaster pulled of here. That software bundle is so elaborate yet seems very intuitive to use. This mouse is a cut down version of the advanced Sentinel mouse. Lacking the weight control, slightly different mouse buttons and altered scrolling wheel. It's size is a smaller, making it easier to work with for people with smaller hands.

Coolit :

Coolit has been known for years for easy to install, fully integrated and ready to use cooling solutions. I must admit I was never a big fan of the ALC Domino unit, being to loud and not performing well enough. Their design team worked hard and boy did they have a nice surprise for me at CeBIT. With the new Eco and Vantage ALC models they really got something going here. Far easier to install with an innovative multi socket adjustable bracket. The ECO model lacks the LED readout, has got the TIM preapplied and uses a slower fan on the single fan radiator. Bundled with the Maestro software you get wireless access to any fan in there, also allowing functions like thermal shutdown,..., even text warning on your cellphone if something goes wrong with your PC is a possibility. With the Maestro software you can adjust fan curves, LED warning colours, etc... You really have to see it before you can grasp all the functions. Would be nice to get one unit at the Shrimps lab and to duel the Corsair H50 unit.




But Coolit didn't stop at CPU cooling alone. Trying to create a multi purpose block for GPU's ain't an easy task to do. Yet somehow they seemed to have pulled it off with the OMNI ALC unit. By using a 2 piece block where one part needs to be adapted to the graphics card's design and the other one is just bolted on for the heat transfer. The GPU's are cooled by a 2 fan radiator. Only time will tell if Coolit can keep up with the ever changing designs of graphic cards. Prices for new blocks should be around 30-40 dollars. Far less then normal waterblocks. But you may wonder, since they are closed prefilled loops, how do I add a second card ? Coolit will have the GPU unit pre-bundled with 2 blocks. One dummy slot can be used if you have only one graphics card in your system.



Last but not least they showed us the XO2 prototype. Cooling CPU, PWM's, NB , SB and GPU with just 2 blocks is really impressive. Really shows off the level of engineering these guys are at.




Corsair :

Corsair going air cooling now : with 2 models the A70 and A50 (A stands for Air). The first with a dual fan solution in push and pull configuration and a 4 heatpipe, direct contact solution. The A50 is a single fan solution and lacks one heatpipe compared to it's bigger brother.



The Obsedian 700D is a slightly cut down version of the 800D case. Size remains the same, but the hot removable swap bays are just HD brackets now and the sidepanel has got no longer a window.



Ram wise, no new things besides the high end stuff we already know ( GTX1 & 2). USB dongles have been updated with the new extremely fast GTR models and the new Padlock 2 All the HX power supplies will get a factory warranty of 7 years instead of 5



SSD wise Corsair got the entire range well covered, going from high speed and price to affordable : Performance , Force , Reactor and Nova series.The Sandforce SF-1200 based F100 (Gb) and F200 (Gb) will be on the market soon.

Cougar :

Cougar was a brand new name to me. Mostly focusing on PSU's. But I spotted also look a like Coolermaster cases. I didn't have any time to visit the booth properly so just two quickies:




Enermax :

Enermax is a well known power supply brand that added the new Modu 87 to their line-up. They also enhanced their range of fans, keyboards, laptop coolers, ... but most important for when someone says Enermax, I think power supplies.




Enzotech :

Enzotech didn't really have new water blocks, but is continuing to improve their current CPU block the Luna rev A. I've done some basic pretesting of some NDA blocks and David told me Skinnee is testing the latest revisions. Expecting the new CPU block in mid April hopefully. On show where the new brackets for 1156 and 1366 and the all copper heatsinks for the PWM's. Too bad my pictures of the latter were really of bad quality. They had a nice running demo unit with all the blocks, fittings installed that Enzotech has in their range.



GEIL :

GEIL is a well known brand in the memory department. Geil had 2 demo units displaying their latest high end kits. One P55 system was equipped with the latest Evo One DDR3 2300mhz C9 kit. Being aided in cooling by a massive heatspreader. Other ram kit at display was the 8Gb 2133Mhz Black dragon kit. The later one was really impressive as the rams didn't have any heatspreader at all. When we were informing about he IC's on the PCB's he we found out that all the GEIL stuff is homemade. All rams start their life in the EVO III IC tester. From there the rams are binned and further tested and burned in the DBT unit. A non working for-display-use-only unit was at the GEIL stand.



Geil is releasing now under the name Thortech some power supplies with some impressive spec numbers. Again as with the rams everything is own craftsmanship. Current line-up consist of the 650 and 800watt model, but they are planning a 1400watt model soon. Two demo units constantly stressed and powered via their 800watt PSU. We felt under the hood and temps were very high. Just for info the video card was constantly running over 90°C. Backing up their PSU's with a 5 year warranty, it seems they are pretty confident about the quality.



Gigabyte :

Gigabyte had quite a few new motherboards present for the AM3 socket. The 890GPA-UD3H we already saw at the media event. Though we saw some newer boards too based on 870 and 880 chipset :



And let's not forget the Super Overclock version of the 5870, currently Fastest Vantage single GPU in the world. Such a nice series Gigabyte has created for the enthusiast crowd; Kuddos Gigabyte ! GPU core speeds rate at +900mhz and 1gb DDR5 rams at 1250mhz making it the fastest retail 5870 out there.

Gskill :

Visiting the booth of Gskill was a real jawbreaker to me. I still got one of them precious DDR2 PC8000HZ kits that were and still are great performers. When we saw that 24Gb kit running at 1800mhz with Cas 8 we all thought; amazing stuff. But there was more from Gskill. The PIs series have got really amazing clocks varying from 1600 cas 5 (yep no typo) to 2500mhz cas 9. Ofcourse these clocks are only warranted on a P55 motherboard. It was really impressive to see Frank just swap modules, load the bios settings and the rig posted and tested fine. Lian-Tu saw on our faces that we were happy campers :p Too bad we don't see much of these Gskill products in Belgium.




SSD's present where the Falcon I and II series. The new Phoenix drive , based on Sandforce technology will be available soon.



Icy Dock :

Now for something completely different. Hard drive enclosure specialist Icy Dock showed us some nice screwless removable enclosures. I'm no specialist on this domain but they seemed very easy to use and to setup. Two brand new slick looking USB3.0 ready enclosures were shown, one for 2.5" the other one for 3.5" drives. Benjamin Koprian informed us that all of their internal products are S-ATA 6Gb/s ready. Most external products will be ready soon too. We saw racks with integrated hardware RAID controllers (MB982SPR and MB992RS), so no software install is required. The MB974SP-B rack even had on/off switchable drives. Very practical for the Eco purists.





Lian Li :

No need to introduce this company, unless you are from planet Mars or something. Everyone knows Lian Li, amazingly crafted cases and enclosures, lightweight and sadly also pretty expensive. But you pay what you get for, no arguments possible about that. Picture time, enough of the chit chat. For the enthusiasts we also spotted a benchtable.

MSI :

MSI tour started off with the graphic card tour. Erik told us that the Frozr II will be replaced with , yep you guessed it the frozr III. But we got no info if that means 3 fans instead of two. Star on the floor was the 5870 Lightning card. Like all lightning cards these are really designed for heavy duty benching. Top class components ready to take a serious beating. Could we ask for more ?





Moving onto the motherboards, we were happy to see a newer version of the Hydra based 870A-GD60. There are still software issues that don't allow it to be exploited to the fullest. We saw some real numbers at CeBIt, it still looks as a very promising technology. The X58 Big Bang Xpower mobo is also coming along nicely. Will it be a Classified or Rampage Extreme III beater, only time will tell?




We had a press meeting with some of the lead designers via the guys from Overclocking-tv.com. You can see the video footage here : Overclocking-Tv meets Xpower



Msi got some upgraded gaming laptops too, but the 2000 euro costing GT660 is stuffed with specs that you mostly don't even find in a desktop. Featuring Dynaudio speakers, up to 12gb of ram, GTX 258m GPU and maybe there's even going to be one SSD onboard and a normal HD for storage. The laptop shown was still in beta phase as some stuff will be probably still be altered before final release.





OCZ Technology :

OCZ needs no introduction. Having established themselves in the ram market for many many years now and rapidly expanding in the power supply and SSD market. Tour guide was sir Risteard Mc Sweeny, though I must admit being partly distracted by the beautiful ladies on the OCZ stand (the flesh remains weak). Sadly OCZ didn't have new exposure concerning ram kits. Main focus nowadays is on the SSD market. Their line-up is getting quite large, maybe a bit confusing for some. With support from Tech Guru Tony Big Toe OCZ is updating firmware regularly. Just for your information watch the OCZ forums closely. Tony told us some user discovered a trick with his SSD's, to make data transfer go bezerk.





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OCZ knows who's important : overclockers and enthusiasts on top :p

Brand new Fatal1ty PSU rated at 750watt, bronze 80+rating. For the enthusiast crowd OCZ got their new Z series with a gold rating for 80+, meaning 90% efficiency. Last picture on the right are sir Massman and Tony in case you didn't know. Overclocking generations united :p

Patriot Memory :

Patriot Memory is very well known in the USA, less known here in Belgium. Time to explore their gamma of rams, SSD's and USB dongles. Ram wise they got the Viper I & II series for the enthusiast crowd. High speeds and tight latencies warranted. For I5 rigs the Sector 5 series is your best pick. And for the gamers they got the G series, more affordable, so better bang for the buck. Megan Wu stressed for the SSD's range that Patriot is very proud to have the Mac SSD in their line-up : the Koi SSD





Sapphire :

Like all graphics card vendors we lacked again the Fermi card. Sapphire had the Vapor X version of the 5870 on display. Boosting a healthy 875Mhz GPU core and 1250Mhz (5000mhz) on the rams it's going to be tough competition between the different brands. A brilliant 6 monitor equipped race setup allowed the spectators to test the 5870 Eyefinity6 capabilities with the race game GRID. Some where there to drool at the game performance, others were there for other reasons 



Silverstone :

Silverstone had some nice customised cases on their stand. The complete water-cooled unit by Innovatek was a brilliant display of craftsmanship. The new Deviltech is aimed at the LAN gamers with more than enough airflow to cool down ya gaming monster.



Thermaltake :

Many got a love-hate relationship with this company. Some adore their designs and ideas, whilst other will turn their heads away. I must say that the SpinQ Thermaltake cooler was used on many demo setups, so it must be pretty good. Their new line of cases is split up in V series, the more expensive range with maximum cooling performance storability and versatility. The G series for the gamers, good performance, portable and affordable. Finally the Q line : mATX cases created for maximum portability.




Thermaltake also has 2 notebook coolers with a big 23cm fan on the stand, one of them being aluminium based. Then a deja vu with 2 Notebook power supplies with different adaptors. Thermaltake got 95 and 65watt models available.

So how was it ?

Well it were two hectic days with a lot of prearranged meetings. It has been nice to finally meet the faces behind the emails and phone calls. Thanks again all for the tour guides and for supporting Madshrimps. We wouldn't be here without you girls and lads.
For CeBIt , it was my first time and I have mixed feelings. Maybe my expectations to finally see the Fermi card, caress a Gulftown or Thuban processor were a bit too much. Especially the Nvidia demos got a bit annoying in the end. The only thing we could see was that silly rocketsled game over and over again. The persons operating the game were probably not even Nvidia's own staff.

At night them Fermi boxes were protected by let's call them “fermiguards”. Either the thing inside was so valuable or it was not what we were expecting it to be. Rumour is that 2 Zotac people got fired due to them breaking NDA. Loads of speculations at CeBIT about the card about the specs and heat output. There are scores on the net that indicate the card might not be that great for gamers and got very tough competition of ATI's 58 series. Let's wait a few more weeks till launch date. Major bummer that we didn't see anything about it.

For the rest a pleasure to meet all those crazy overclockers from Germany, Italy, Russia and the Viking people. For our dear readers hope you enjoyed the article, it's not as in depth as we usually do, but at least you got to see some new stuff...

I'll be back next year CeBIT, maybe for a few more days and a more relaxed way of exploring!

Finally to finish the article : It's great to be a reviewer, sadly those nice moments are over in a flash