Computex 2006: Abit is back, Biostar expands, and Thermaltake dazzles
by Gary Key on June 10, 2006 4:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
Thermaltake: Multimedia Products
A quick look at the rear of the case reveals the five exit points for the included 120mm ultra quiet fans and 80mm vent for the secondary system. The system we viewed was set up with eight fans and actually was very quiet during operation which surprised us. The case itself can hold a total of ten 120mm fans and a single 80mm fan or you can mix and match the number of fans with cooling radiators if you install a liquid cooling system. The system can handle up to two 12 x 24cm radiators when utilizing four of the 120mm vent points. The case also has four 19mm holes drilled at the bottom left corner to handle liquid cooling tubes.
This close up of the lower front panel displays Thermaltake utilizing one of their slot based power supplies for the mini-ITX board.
A close up of the 7 inch drive bay in operation. Thermaltake is expecting to sell this retractable 7 inch LCD unit as a separate option for around US $250. The LCD panel is not included with the case.
The Mozart TX features an e-SATA port along with the capability to power this port from the same location. Overall, this is a very interesting case with a lot of potential for the right customer. The case is very sturdy, both doors swing open a full 90 degrees for easy access, the 5.25" drive bays and PCI card slots are tool-less designs, and the hard drive bay is removable with shock absorbing grommets designed to reduce noise and vibration.
A quick look at the rear of the case reveals the five exit points for the included 120mm ultra quiet fans and 80mm vent for the secondary system. The system we viewed was set up with eight fans and actually was very quiet during operation which surprised us. The case itself can hold a total of ten 120mm fans and a single 80mm fan or you can mix and match the number of fans with cooling radiators if you install a liquid cooling system. The system can handle up to two 12 x 24cm radiators when utilizing four of the 120mm vent points. The case also has four 19mm holes drilled at the bottom left corner to handle liquid cooling tubes.
This close up of the lower front panel displays Thermaltake utilizing one of their slot based power supplies for the mini-ITX board.
A close up of the 7 inch drive bay in operation. Thermaltake is expecting to sell this retractable 7 inch LCD unit as a separate option for around US $250. The LCD panel is not included with the case.
The Mozart TX features an e-SATA port along with the capability to power this port from the same location. Overall, this is a very interesting case with a lot of potential for the right customer. The case is very sturdy, both doors swing open a full 90 degrees for easy access, the 5.25" drive bays and PCI card slots are tool-less designs, and the hard drive bay is removable with shock absorbing grommets designed to reduce noise and vibration.
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Gary Key - Saturday, June 10, 2006 - link
The on-board sound on this board will be the Realtek ALC-882M that is placed on a riser card. The sound was significantly better audio quality wise than some of the 882m solutions we have heard placed on the motherboard. We also spoke with Abit about utilizing the new Realtek ALC-888 which sounded a generation better to us and that was on a $85 ASRock board the same day. We are hoping the transition to the ALC-888 will be a quick one for most manufacturers as it would suffice for about 90% of the users. The balance will want a X-FI or something else discreet.
My issue with Abit, the Product Managers agreed, is that the buyer for these boards will typically not only want a discreet sound solution but also a slot for a TV tuner card or a professional audio interface card. PCI is not dead until the multimedia companies move over to PCI-E, it is that simple and until such time, the board should have two if not three PCI slots that are not blocked, take one of the PCI-E x1 slots, combine the lanes, and give us a universal x4 slot if need be to make room but do not block this slot also. We were able to play with the 975x board before the show opened and although it was pre-production, it ran like a banshee. ;-)
xsilver - Saturday, June 10, 2006 - link
any indication of what the prices are going to be?hopefully prices will stay the same and just replace a 600w one with a 1200w one?
or if the price is going to be 2x the 600w one, who could afford it??
Gary Key - Saturday, June 10, 2006 - link
Pricing was not set yet but we would estimate in the $250~$325 range at this time. Yikes.....
emilyek - Saturday, June 10, 2006 - link
You'd think 50 engineers could rub their heads together and come up with something decent.Have the Thermaltake boys been watching 'Pimp My Ride' or something? The only decent thing in their lineup as shown is the HTPC.
Xenoid - Saturday, June 10, 2006 - link
The Thermaltake cases were all very nice (and I'm sure very expensive), but is it just me or do the LAN-style carry cases still look ridiculous? Same with that big box for 2 systems in one..I'd rather just have 2 full-towers..they'd take up a lot less room and cost less too.toyota - Saturday, June 10, 2006 - link
what a waste of ram. i guess this means we will start seeing 1 gig on next gen cards that might actually utilise it.JarredWalton - Saturday, June 10, 2006 - link
We've already got the GX2 with 1GB, though granted that's really 2x512MB. Vista may actually be able to use the GPU RAM for lots of other things, though - that's the theory anyway. Imagine, no longer getting the slow background refresh when Windows decides to swap some of that information out of RAM and into the page file....