W1zzard
03-10-2005, 07:46 PM
[Page=Introduction & XGI]
About Cebit
Throughout the past 20 years, thousands of suppliers and users from all over the world have come together every year in the early spring at CeBIT in Hannover, Germany.
With 6,270 exhibitors (52 percent from abroad) and a net display area of 309,000 square meters CeBIT is once again reasserting its singular role among the world's IT and telecoms trade fairs in 2005. In just one and a half decades, CeBIT has grown from its origins as part of the HANNOVER FAIR to become the world's leading event for information technology, telecommunications, software and services.
We will be staying at Cebit for the first five days and try to bring you the most important news from the hardware sector.
XGI Technologies
XGI presented us a first working prototype of their first new PCI-Express chip called XG47.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/xg47_1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/xg47_1.jpg)
Direct competition is ATI's X300 and NVIDIA's 6200 Series - while this is only the value video card segment, XGI says their boards will be a good amount cheaper than the competition.
The Shader Model 2.0 chip, has 2x2 pixel pipelines and 4 Pixel Shaders. It is manufactured using a 0.13u process, has 40 million transistors and a native PCI-E interface. Target clock speeds are in the 300 Mhz range for GPU frequency and 350 Mhz DDR for the memory.
A unique feature is full HDTV support which can't be had so cheap from any other manufacturer.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/xg47_2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/xg47_2.jpg)
The only available memory configuration of the design is 64-bit DDR1 with memory sizes ranging from 16MB to 128MB. Just like NVIDA's TurboCache or ATI's HyperMemory, the card will be able to utilize system memory as graphics memory. However, the price for this is reduced performance. In office systems this will be no issue, so cost can be decreased even further.
Another nice feature is, that the chip dissipates only 7.5 Watts max. so the cooling solution is a small passive heatsink. When asked, XGI confirmed that they do have plans to produce a low-profile version of the card suitable for home theater PCs.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/xg47_3_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/xg47_3.jpg)
Another chip, the XG45, will be available later this year. It will be able to compete with the X700 from ATI and the 6600 from NVIDIA, again at a lower price.
Targeted clock speeds are up to 450 MHz for both memory and core. This chip will be available in a wide range of configurations ranging from 64-bit 128MB DDR1 to 128-bit 256MB GDDR3. It is also produced in a 130nm process and its eight pipelines will support Shader Model 3.0.
XGI will also be improving their product range in the server market - extreme low power cards with no heatsink at all - and they will also have NVIDIA MXM based solutions of the PCI-Express chips later this year.
[page=Asetek]
Asetek
Our danish friends from asetek had no new Vapochill to show off, instead they had a very impressive cooler for the masses.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/vapomicro1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/vapomicro1.jpg)
Their VapoChill Micro utilizes the same proven phase-change technology as the Vapochill Extreme Cooling solution. A fluid in a closed low-pressure loop will evaporate when heated and move to the top of the pipes while in gaseous form. Once it cools down, it turns into a fluid again and returns to the bottom of the cooler. During this phase-change process, heat is released and dissipated through the cooling fins. This no-moving parts approach has a basically unlimited reliability, the angled direction of the cooling fins allow the cooler to run in both desktop and tower cases.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/vapomicro4.jpg
Traditional heatpipe constructions have to use a slab of copper to 'soak' up the heat before moving it through the heatpipe, Asetek's solutions has the evaporator right on top of the core.
This approach increases performance and reduces cost and weight. Talking about weight, the whole unit weights only 278g (355g with a 92mm fan)! Compare this to the 1000g of copper some other cooler manufacturers are approaching.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/vapomicro2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/vapomicro2.jpg)
Support for all P4 LGA775, S478 and AMD S754/939/940 platforms is ready, it does require different mounting kits tho.
Initially there will be three products. The X1 which is geared towards the midrange gamer PC, the X2 which is for high-performance PCs and the FL1 for the silent PC which will run completely passive.
When used on a 3.4GHz 114W Pentium 4 CPU the full load temperature will be in the 65°C range while still being quiet, the passive FL1 will reach around 70°C which is still a lot below dangerous levels.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/vapomicro3_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/vapomicro3.jpg)
But the best is the price. This cooler, including fan and mounting kit, can be had for around USD 35 which makes it a really interesting alternative to traditional air coolers, especially if you want to build a quiet system. It will be available starting May 2nd.
Asetek also told us a bit about their future products. We can't go into much detail here, but it will be an affordable water cooling solution, not for the hardcore overclocker but for those users who want to get into watercooling without too much hassle and risk of flooding their system.
[page=ECS]
ECS
ECS has presented a few new boards, based on the new chipsets released in the recent time. They are also "working on an NVIDIA chipset motherboard for Pentium 4".
On all those boards where you see both an AGP and a PCI-Express video card slot, ECS uses their patented technology, which allows both the AGP and PCI-Express card to work at the same time. The AGP port is implemented via a PCI-to-AGP-Bridge. No other manufacturer offers to run both AGP and PCI-E simultaneonsly, except for some VIA chipsets with have both a native AGP and PCI-E implementation in silicon.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/ecs_756a_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/ecs_756a.jpg)
The 756-A uses SiS' 756+965 chipset and has the following features:
Socket939 for AMD Athlon 64
FSB 200 MT/s
Dual DDR 400, up to 4GB
10/100 MBit LAN
1x PCI-E x16, 2x PCI-E x1, 1x AGP, 2x PCI, 1x CNR
RAID 0, 1, 0+1
4x SATA
8x USB 2.0
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/ecs_pf21_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/ecs_pf21.jpg)
The PF21 Extreme is based on Intel'S 925XE+ICH6R chipset.
LGA Socket 775 for Pentium4 (EM64T ready)
FSB 1066 MHz
Dual DDR2 533, up to 4GB
10/100 MBit LAN + Gigabit Lan
1x PCI-E x16, 2x PCI-E x1, 3x PCI
RAID 0, 1, 0+1
6x SATA
8x USB 2.0, 2x 1394a
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/ecs_pf22_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/ecs_pf22.jpg)
The PF22 Extreme has the same features as the PF21 Extreme but uses Intel's brand new high end chipset 955X + ICH7R Southbridge.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/ecs_pf5_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/ecs_pf5.jpg)
The PF5 is build around Intel's 945P chipset using the ICH7R Southbridge. Same features again.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/ecs_rs400a_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/ecs_rs400a.jpg)
The RS400-A uses ATI's RS400 + SB400 chipset, which features an integrated ATI video card.
LGA Socket 775 for Pentium 4 CPU
FSB 800 MHz
Dual DDR2 533 and DDR 400, up to 2 GB
10/100 MBit LAN
1x PCI-E x16, 2x PCI-E x1, 1x AGP, 2x PCI
RAID 0, 1
4x SATA
8x USB 2.0
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/ecs_rs480m_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/ecs_rs480m.jpg)
Using ATI's latest AMD64 chipset with integrated video card, RS480, together with the SB400 Southbridge, the RS480-M has the following features:
FSB 2000 MT/s
Dual DDR 400, up to 2GB
10/100 MBit LAN
1x PCI-E x16, 1x PCI-E x1, 2 x PCI
RAID 0, 1
4x SATA
8x USB 2.0
Continue to Day 2. (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day2/)
About Cebit
Throughout the past 20 years, thousands of suppliers and users from all over the world have come together every year in the early spring at CeBIT in Hannover, Germany.
With 6,270 exhibitors (52 percent from abroad) and a net display area of 309,000 square meters CeBIT is once again reasserting its singular role among the world's IT and telecoms trade fairs in 2005. In just one and a half decades, CeBIT has grown from its origins as part of the HANNOVER FAIR to become the world's leading event for information technology, telecommunications, software and services.
We will be staying at Cebit for the first five days and try to bring you the most important news from the hardware sector.
XGI Technologies
XGI presented us a first working prototype of their first new PCI-Express chip called XG47.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/xg47_1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/xg47_1.jpg)
Direct competition is ATI's X300 and NVIDIA's 6200 Series - while this is only the value video card segment, XGI says their boards will be a good amount cheaper than the competition.
The Shader Model 2.0 chip, has 2x2 pixel pipelines and 4 Pixel Shaders. It is manufactured using a 0.13u process, has 40 million transistors and a native PCI-E interface. Target clock speeds are in the 300 Mhz range for GPU frequency and 350 Mhz DDR for the memory.
A unique feature is full HDTV support which can't be had so cheap from any other manufacturer.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/xg47_2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/xg47_2.jpg)
The only available memory configuration of the design is 64-bit DDR1 with memory sizes ranging from 16MB to 128MB. Just like NVIDA's TurboCache or ATI's HyperMemory, the card will be able to utilize system memory as graphics memory. However, the price for this is reduced performance. In office systems this will be no issue, so cost can be decreased even further.
Another nice feature is, that the chip dissipates only 7.5 Watts max. so the cooling solution is a small passive heatsink. When asked, XGI confirmed that they do have plans to produce a low-profile version of the card suitable for home theater PCs.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/xg47_3_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/xg47_3.jpg)
Another chip, the XG45, will be available later this year. It will be able to compete with the X700 from ATI and the 6600 from NVIDIA, again at a lower price.
Targeted clock speeds are up to 450 MHz for both memory and core. This chip will be available in a wide range of configurations ranging from 64-bit 128MB DDR1 to 128-bit 256MB GDDR3. It is also produced in a 130nm process and its eight pipelines will support Shader Model 3.0.
XGI will also be improving their product range in the server market - extreme low power cards with no heatsink at all - and they will also have NVIDIA MXM based solutions of the PCI-Express chips later this year.
[page=Asetek]
Asetek
Our danish friends from asetek had no new Vapochill to show off, instead they had a very impressive cooler for the masses.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/vapomicro1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/vapomicro1.jpg)
Their VapoChill Micro utilizes the same proven phase-change technology as the Vapochill Extreme Cooling solution. A fluid in a closed low-pressure loop will evaporate when heated and move to the top of the pipes while in gaseous form. Once it cools down, it turns into a fluid again and returns to the bottom of the cooler. During this phase-change process, heat is released and dissipated through the cooling fins. This no-moving parts approach has a basically unlimited reliability, the angled direction of the cooling fins allow the cooler to run in both desktop and tower cases.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/vapomicro4.jpg
Traditional heatpipe constructions have to use a slab of copper to 'soak' up the heat before moving it through the heatpipe, Asetek's solutions has the evaporator right on top of the core.
This approach increases performance and reduces cost and weight. Talking about weight, the whole unit weights only 278g (355g with a 92mm fan)! Compare this to the 1000g of copper some other cooler manufacturers are approaching.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/vapomicro2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/vapomicro2.jpg)
Support for all P4 LGA775, S478 and AMD S754/939/940 platforms is ready, it does require different mounting kits tho.
Initially there will be three products. The X1 which is geared towards the midrange gamer PC, the X2 which is for high-performance PCs and the FL1 for the silent PC which will run completely passive.
When used on a 3.4GHz 114W Pentium 4 CPU the full load temperature will be in the 65°C range while still being quiet, the passive FL1 will reach around 70°C which is still a lot below dangerous levels.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/vapomicro3_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/vapomicro3.jpg)
But the best is the price. This cooler, including fan and mounting kit, can be had for around USD 35 which makes it a really interesting alternative to traditional air coolers, especially if you want to build a quiet system. It will be available starting May 2nd.
Asetek also told us a bit about their future products. We can't go into much detail here, but it will be an affordable water cooling solution, not for the hardcore overclocker but for those users who want to get into watercooling without too much hassle and risk of flooding their system.
[page=ECS]
ECS
ECS has presented a few new boards, based on the new chipsets released in the recent time. They are also "working on an NVIDIA chipset motherboard for Pentium 4".
On all those boards where you see both an AGP and a PCI-Express video card slot, ECS uses their patented technology, which allows both the AGP and PCI-Express card to work at the same time. The AGP port is implemented via a PCI-to-AGP-Bridge. No other manufacturer offers to run both AGP and PCI-E simultaneonsly, except for some VIA chipsets with have both a native AGP and PCI-E implementation in silicon.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/ecs_756a_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/ecs_756a.jpg)
The 756-A uses SiS' 756+965 chipset and has the following features:
Socket939 for AMD Athlon 64
FSB 200 MT/s
Dual DDR 400, up to 4GB
10/100 MBit LAN
1x PCI-E x16, 2x PCI-E x1, 1x AGP, 2x PCI, 1x CNR
RAID 0, 1, 0+1
4x SATA
8x USB 2.0
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/ecs_pf21_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/ecs_pf21.jpg)
The PF21 Extreme is based on Intel'S 925XE+ICH6R chipset.
LGA Socket 775 for Pentium4 (EM64T ready)
FSB 1066 MHz
Dual DDR2 533, up to 4GB
10/100 MBit LAN + Gigabit Lan
1x PCI-E x16, 2x PCI-E x1, 3x PCI
RAID 0, 1, 0+1
6x SATA
8x USB 2.0, 2x 1394a
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/ecs_pf22_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/ecs_pf22.jpg)
The PF22 Extreme has the same features as the PF21 Extreme but uses Intel's brand new high end chipset 955X + ICH7R Southbridge.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/ecs_pf5_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/ecs_pf5.jpg)
The PF5 is build around Intel's 945P chipset using the ICH7R Southbridge. Same features again.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/ecs_rs400a_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/ecs_rs400a.jpg)
The RS400-A uses ATI's RS400 + SB400 chipset, which features an integrated ATI video card.
LGA Socket 775 for Pentium 4 CPU
FSB 800 MHz
Dual DDR2 533 and DDR 400, up to 2 GB
10/100 MBit LAN
1x PCI-E x16, 2x PCI-E x1, 1x AGP, 2x PCI
RAID 0, 1
4x SATA
8x USB 2.0
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/ecs_rs480m_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/images/ecs_rs480m.jpg)
Using ATI's latest AMD64 chipset with integrated video card, RS480, together with the SB400 Southbridge, the RS480-M has the following features:
FSB 2000 MT/s
Dual DDR 400, up to 2GB
10/100 MBit LAN
1x PCI-E x16, 1x PCI-E x1, 2 x PCI
RAID 0, 1
4x SATA
8x USB 2.0
Continue to Day 2. (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day2/)