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
Biostar: AMD Motherboards
The TForce 570 U Deluxe board features the NVIDIA nForce 570 Ultra chipset, passive cooling, and Realtek ALC-883 HD audio. Availability is expected within a couple of weeks with pricing not set yet but expected to be in the US $85~$100 range.
Biostar is one of the few manufacturers' offering both the NVIDIA nForce 550 and nForce4 AM2 boards. The main difference between the two is the lack of HD audio and Gb Lan on the nForce4 board. Like the 570 Ultra board, the TForce 550 utilizes active cooling for the MCP chipset. We can expect to see more passive cooling boards from Biostar in their next product release. The TForce 550 is already available and is one of the cheapest AM2 motherboards currently on the market.
Biostar: Video Cards
Biostar has recently introduced a complete line of video cards based upon NVIDIA chipsets ranging from the 7950 GX2 to the FX5200.
The above shot shows three of the more interesting video cards in the Biostar booth: the V6802XA52, V7602GSG1, and V7602GS21. The V6802XA52 features the 6800XT chipset on an AGP 8x bus with 512MB of DDR2 memory running at 700MHz with a core clock speed of 325MHz. While obviously outdated for today's latest systems, Biostar believes it to be a better upgrade path than other AGP based cards for those still running AGP based systems. Considering the amount of Intel 865 based boards we viewed with full support for Conroe this might not be a bad choice for those on a very limited budget. The V7602GSG1 is based on the 7600GS chipset but has 1024MB of memory running at 800MHz with a core speed of 400MHz and is passively cooled. This was the first 7600GS card we noticed with 1024MB of memory. Whether the card can utilize this amount of memory properly is debatable but it was nice to see cards including 1024MB at mainstream pricing. The V7602GS21 goes for a more common 256MB of video memory, for those that don't believe in overkill.
The TForce 570 U Deluxe board features the NVIDIA nForce 570 Ultra chipset, passive cooling, and Realtek ALC-883 HD audio. Availability is expected within a couple of weeks with pricing not set yet but expected to be in the US $85~$100 range.
Biostar is one of the few manufacturers' offering both the NVIDIA nForce 550 and nForce4 AM2 boards. The main difference between the two is the lack of HD audio and Gb Lan on the nForce4 board. Like the 570 Ultra board, the TForce 550 utilizes active cooling for the MCP chipset. We can expect to see more passive cooling boards from Biostar in their next product release. The TForce 550 is already available and is one of the cheapest AM2 motherboards currently on the market.
Biostar: Video Cards
Biostar has recently introduced a complete line of video cards based upon NVIDIA chipsets ranging from the 7950 GX2 to the FX5200.
The above shot shows three of the more interesting video cards in the Biostar booth: the V6802XA52, V7602GSG1, and V7602GS21. The V6802XA52 features the 6800XT chipset on an AGP 8x bus with 512MB of DDR2 memory running at 700MHz with a core clock speed of 325MHz. While obviously outdated for today's latest systems, Biostar believes it to be a better upgrade path than other AGP based cards for those still running AGP based systems. Considering the amount of Intel 865 based boards we viewed with full support for Conroe this might not be a bad choice for those on a very limited budget. The V7602GSG1 is based on the 7600GS chipset but has 1024MB of memory running at 800MHz with a core speed of 400MHz and is passively cooled. This was the first 7600GS card we noticed with 1024MB of memory. Whether the card can utilize this amount of memory properly is debatable but it was nice to see cards including 1024MB at mainstream pricing. The V7602GS21 goes for a more common 256MB of video memory, for those that don't believe in overkill.
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soydios - Tuesday, June 13, 2006 - link
Does anybody know when we can expect to begin seeing Socket AM2 motherboards based on RD580 in the retail channels? I'm still waiting for the M2R32-MVP. =\Gary Key - Thursday, June 15, 2006 - link
End of June for MSI and ECS, probably a week or so later for Asus. These schedules might change but they are still working with ATI on bios improvements.
Pythias - Sunday, June 11, 2006 - link
Thats a lot of juice. I though the industry was headed towards power conservation....poohbear - Sunday, June 11, 2006 - link
man abit needs to drop that Fatl1ty nonsense if they're trying to cater to enthusiasts. who's gonna buy an overpriced mobo just because of some gamers name attached to it?! we're not rabid teenagers who have a loyal following to some pop star like computer geek, we're mostly in our 20s/30s, so start catering to adults w/ quality mobos that dont need some geeks name attached to it to stand out. Let the quality and features speak for themselves please, not "fatal1tys" name. have they even done any market research to see if ppl actually buy products because of this guys name attached to em?darklight0tr - Sunday, June 11, 2006 - link
I agree. In fact, I avoid any product that has the Fatal1ty name on it, no matter how good it looks. All of these companies think gamers slobber over the name Fatal1ty, when in fact they don't give a crap. We want quality products, not marketing pieces.Gary Key - Sunday, June 11, 2006 - link
I agree also, this is all marketing and you will see more FataL1y products from Zalman and others in the near future. I would just assume Abit use the color scheme on the boards, add a couple of PCI slots, lower the price, and call it a day. However, these companies assume his name has leverage in the marketplace, whether it does or not, only Abit and others will know at the end of the day.
Abit recognizes this to some degree which is why they will be promoting the Max line heavily into the upper market tier segments. While the board needs a couple of PCI slots, I can tell you it has reached 435FSB with a "B" revision Conroe. ;-)
Missing Ghost - Saturday, June 10, 2006 - link
sincerely, I don't see what's the big deal about the products they show. They all seem to have ugly layouts and bad design choices.cornfedone - Saturday, June 10, 2006 - link
All of these new, useless, over-priced mobos are intended for what? As noted by others, the mobos don't have a practical number of USABLE PCI slots, the prices are way excessive, you can bet they will have long lists of defects based on virtually all Asian designed consumer mobos shipped in the past three or more years and there will be little if any customer support for the malfunctioning mobos customers will be stuck with if they purchase these POS. Instead of fixing the defective mobos properly the mobo companies will crank out new POS to great fanfare by the hardware review sites.It's as if the mobo makers are working in a vacuum and don't care that their products do not meet consumer demands and that they don't function properly. I say they can keep their defective products as I don't need them.
koomo - Saturday, June 10, 2006 - link
The PC world is increasingly becoming a common consumer item, and seems just a few years away from joining VCRs and microwave ovens as disposable-when-broken houseware.Conroe and the K8L seem like logical, traditional progression along the better/faster/cheaper curve.
But now we're looking at 1000W power supplies? How will the PC gaming developers handle this, with a smaller-and-smaller piece of the overall video gaming pie requiring such power-hungry and expensive toys?
I'll take a PC game over a console any day, but I wonder it would be best to take a holiday for a year on the latest software/hardware until the future lower-energy video cards are supposedly due. And in the meantime, spend more time playing boardgames with VASSAL ;)
dhei - Saturday, June 10, 2006 - link
Another day, another voltron inspired case. Honestly are people buying these? Or is this some sick joke from case manufactors. I want the guy who started this trend to be fired.:)Hey Thermaltake, 1960s Sc-fi movies called, they want there computer props back.