W1zzard
03-16-2005, 04:17 PM
[page=ABIT Video Cards]
This is Day 3 of our Cebit report with news from ABIT, Albatron and Gigabyte.
Read Day 1 (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/) and Day 2 (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day2/) here.
ABIT
Video Cards
ABIT had several innovative ATI video card solutions to show.
First of all the ABIT R9550XTurbo-Guru:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_9550xturbo_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_9550xturbo.jpg)
Sorry for the image. The one I took was too blurry, so I had to use one from the ABIT Website.
This video card is the only 9550 that allows overclocking without running any special drivers.
As you may know, ATI added some overclocking protection for the Radeon 9550 to their Catalyst Drivers, starting with version 3.4. You can change clock speeds, but the clocks are returned to default after a few seconds or when a game is started. So you had to use a modified driver or flash a 9600 bios to your card to be able to overclock.
See the green jumper in the picture? It is used to swap between two video biosses stored on the card. One bios is the original 9550 bios, the other one is a 9600 bios.
This is a very clever way of ABIT to get around ATI's limitations. ATI says that their partners may not make any changes to the video bios or drivers in regards to overclocking.
What ABIT did to their 9550 does not violate any ATI regulations, "it's just a backup bios for the user in case something goes wrong". Nice one, ABIT.
Also this card has ABIT's uGuru Chip on-board which allows advanced monitoring and change of core and memory voltage. ABIT will soon announce an X800 based product using the uGuru chip. My guess would be an X800 XL with uGuru.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_rx700_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_rx700.jpg)
Also powered by uGuru is the RX700 Pro-Guru. The card uses the same uGuru chip as the other video cards. No dual Bios here, it is not needed to overclock.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_x800xl_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_x800xl.jpg)
The ABIT RX800 XL-256EDVIO is "just another" X800 XL. Only changes from the standard design are the nice cooler and the changed PCB color. As mentioned earlier, I'm betting ABIT will soon announce a uGuru version of this board.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_x800xlagp_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_x800xlagp.jpg)
The RX800 XL-256EDVIO (AGP) is one of the last high-end AGP video cards coming from ABIT.
[page=ABIT Motherboards]
Motherboards
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_powerpanel_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_powerpanel.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_readout_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_readout.jpg)
Based on the success of the first uGuru clock which can display system information like frequencies, temperatures and fanspeeds, ABIT created two new models.
One successor to the uGuru clock is external and displays what the "old" uGuru clock could do together with new stuff like Skype messages and E-Mail alerts and a readout which goes into a 5.25" drive bay. Both now come with an extra USB connector and buttons to cycle power and change clock speeds without leaving your game. The 5.25" one adds another USB and 1394 connector together with a CMOS reset button under a really cool rocker switch.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_ni8sli_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_ni8sli.jpg)
The NI8 SLI uses NVIDIA's new nForce4 for Intel chipset.
Intel LGA Socket 775
1066 MHz FSB
Dual Channel DDR2 667, up to 8GB
2x PCI-E x16, 2x PCI-E x1, 2x PCI
4x SATA RAID
Gigabit Ethernet
7.1 Channel Audio via AudioMAX slot which puts the sound card on an extra PCB for greatly enhanced sound output quality and increased board stability because of less interference.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_al8_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_al8.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_bl8_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_bl8.jpg)
Equipped with Intel's i945G chipset, the AL8 and the BTX version BL8 feature:
Intel LGA Socket 775
1066 MHz FSB
Dual Channel DDR2 667, up to 8GB
1x PCI-E x16, 3x PCI-E x1, 2x PCI
6x SATA II RAID
Gigabit Ethernet
7.1 Channel Audio
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_aw8_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_aw8.jpg)
Equipped with Intel's i955X chipset, the AW8 features:
Intel LGA Socket 775
1066 MHz FSB
Dual Channel DDR2 667, up to 8GB
1x PCI-E x16, 2x PCI-E x1, 2x PCI
6x SATA II RAID
Dual Gigabit Ethernet
7.1 Channel Audio via AudioMAX slot which puts the sound card on an extra PCB for greatly enhanced sound output quality and increased board stability because of less interference.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_an8sli_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_an8sli.jpg)
Based on NVIDIA's nForce4 SLI the AN8-SLI offers following features:
AMD Socket 939
2000 MHz HTT
Dual Channel DDR 400, up to 4GB
2x PCI-E x16, 2x PCI-E x1, 2x PCI
4x SATA RAID
Gigabit Ethernet
5.1 Channel Audio via AudioMAX slot which puts the sound card on an extra PCB for greatly enhanced sound output quality and increased board stability because of less interference.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_an8_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_an8.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_an8fat_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_an8fat.jpg)
Based on NVIDIA's nForce4 the AN8 and AN8-Fatal1ty offer following features:
AMD Socket 939
2000 MHz HTT
Dual Channel DDR 400, up to 4GB
1x PCI-E x16, 2x PCI-E x1, 3x PCI
4x SATA RAID
Gigabit Ethernet
5.1 Channel Audio via AudioMAX slot which puts the sound card on an extra PCB for greatly enhanced sound output quality and increased board stability because of less interference.
The Fatal1ty edition has a different color theme and adds cooling for memory.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_av8_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_av8.jpg)
The AV8 is based on VIA's K8T800 Pro Chipset:
AMD Socket939
2000 MHz HTT
Dual Channel DDR400 Support, up to 4GB
1x AGP, 5x PCI
2x SATA RAID
5.1 Channel Audio
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_gururemote_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_gururemote.jpg)
The GuruRemote was another cool innovation ABIT had to show off. It is an infrared remote which is compatible to all remote controls because you can teach it commands. The big backlit LCD display has a touch screen, which allows changing system functions like overclocking and fan speeds. Also you can see your current hardware monitoring values on the remote, it is constantly getting pushed the latest values from the system via infrared.
Obviously it can be used to remotely control ABIT's media player application - moving the mouse cursor in windows for "generic" control is not yet possible.
Getting a list of incoming Skype and MSN calls is possible as well.
I really like the design of the remote control, it looks classy and elegant. Other PC remote controls look just like a toy and are a shame to have lying on the table.
[page=Albatron]
Albatron
Albatron does not do ATI video cards, but they had some well thought out NVIDIA solutions to show. When asked whether they think about adding ATI cards to their product lineup the answer was "I can't comment on that" - does not sound too bad to me. Their 512MB 6800U design is running in the labs and will most probably be presented at Computex.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/albatron_6200_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/albatron_6200.jpg)
The Albatron AGP6200A is Albatron's new budget AGP video card. It uses NVIDIA's NV44A GPU, clocked at 350 MHz with support for Shader Model 3.0. Memory size is 128MB DDR.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/albatron_wisefan_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/albatron_wisefan.jpg)
The second new video card was this 6600, which is equipped with better memory than NVIDIA's reference design and uses Albatron's WiseFan cooler.
During normal use, only two of the fans are active. Once the temperature rises above a certain level, the third fan kicks in. Also when one of the fans fails, the third will be running all the time. This is possible through an extra PCB with a microcontroller, which is integrated into the heatsink assembly.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/albatron_power_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/albatron_power.jpg)
In order to satisfy the power demands of heavily overclocked motherboards, Albatron designed an addon-module called mPower, which adds one phase to the motherboard's PWM circuitry. On motherboards the workload of converting power for the CPU is shared between several mosfets, usually six, resulting in three phases. With mPower (which is included free with all high-end models) you can upgrade to a four-phase motherboard just by plugging in a small PCB.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/albatron_px955x_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/albatron_px955x.jpg)
Intel's latest chipset i955X powers the PX955X
Intel Pentium 4 LGA 775
FSB 1066
Dual Channel DDR2 667 Support
1x PCI-E x16, 2x PCI-E x1, 3x PCI
3x SATA II RAID
7.1 Channel Audio
Gigabit Ethernet
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/albatron_k8sli_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/albatron_k8sli.jpg)
The Albatron K8 SLI uses NVIDIA's nForce4 SLI Chipset:
AMD64 Socket 939
FSB 1000
Dual Channel DDR 400 Support
2x PCI-E x16, 2x PCI-E x1, 2x PCI
4x SATA II RAID
5.1 Channel Audio
Gigabit Ethernet
No switch is required to switch the SLI mode, auto-detect circuitry is on the board.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/albatron_k8x890_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/albatron_k8x890.jpg)
Based on VIA's K8T890 the K8X890 has those features:
AMD64 Socket 939
FSB 1000
Dual Channel DDR 400 Support
1x PCI-E x16, 1x PCI-E x1, 3x PCI
2x SATA, 4x PATA
7.1 Channel Audio
Gigabit Ethernet
mPower Support
[page=Gigabyte]
Gigabyte
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/ga_8i955x_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/ga_8i955x.jpg)
The GA-8I955X Royal is the new flagship motherboard using Intel's i955X chipset:
Intel Pentium 4 LGA 775
FSB 1066
Dual Channel DDR2 667 Support
1x PCI-E x16, 2x PCI-E x1, 3x PCI
4x SATA II RAID
7.1 Channel Audio
Dual Gigabit Ethernet
Dual Bios
U-Plus DPS, adds more PWM phases to motherboard for a total of 8
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/ga_8nsliroyal_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/ga_8nsliroyal.jpg)
The GA-8N-SLI Royal uses NVIDIA's nForce4 for Intel chipset allowing SLI:
Intel Pentium 4 LGA 775
FSB 1066
Dual Channel DDR2 667 Support
2x PCI-E x16, 2x PCI-E x1, 2x PCI
6x SATA II RAID
7.1 Channel Audio
Dual Gigabit Ethernet
Dual Bios
U-Plus DPS, adds more PWM phases to motherboard for a total of 8
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/ga_8i945p_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/ga_8i945p.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/ga_8i945g_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/ga_8i945g.jpg)
The GA-8I945P Pro uses Intel's i945P chipset. The GA-8I945G Pro has on-board video via Intel's chipset - that is the only difference between the two boards.
Intel Pentium 4 LGA 775
FSB 1066
Dual Channel DDR2 667 Support
1x PCI-E x16, 2x PCI-E x1, 3x PCI
4x SATA II RAID
7.1 Channel Audio
Gigabit Ethernet
Dual Bios
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/ga_8i915p_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/ga_8i915p.jpg)
Running on Intel's i915P Chipset the GA-8I915P Dual Graphic allows the simultaneous use of two PCI-E video cards:
Intel Pentium 4 LGA 775
FSB 800
Dual Channel DDR 533 Support
2x PCI-E x4, 1x PCI-E x1, 3x PCI
4x SATA RAID
7.1 Channel Audio
Gigabit Ethernet
Dual Bios
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/ga_8vt880p_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/ga_8vt880p.jpg)
Using VIA's PT880 Pro Chipset the GA-8VT880P Combo has these features:
AMD64 Socket 939
Dual Channel DDR 400 Support
1x PCI-E x16, 1x AGP 8x, 3x PCI
2x SATA RAID
5.1 Channel Audio
Gigabit Ethernet
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/ga_k8a480m_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/ga_k8a480m.jpg)
Based on ATI's RS480 chipset and ULI's southbridge the [b]GA-K8A480M-9[b] offers:
AMD64 Socket 939
2000 MHz HTT
Dual Channel DDR 400 Support
1x PCI-E x16, 1x PCI-E x1, 2x PCI
Integrated X300 in ATI Chipset
4x SATA RAID
7.1 Channel Audio
Gigabit Ethernet
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/ga_x800xl_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/ga_x800xl.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/ga_x800xl2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/ga_x800xl2.jpg)
Gigabyte has put this completely passive cooler on several video cards ranging from to X800NP. While they say it runs completely stable I am not really convinced of it. A backup fan would have probably been a good idea .. or a "Hot! Do not touch" sticker.
Continue to Day 4. (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day4/)
This is Day 3 of our Cebit report with news from ABIT, Albatron and Gigabyte.
Read Day 1 (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day1/) and Day 2 (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day2/) here.
ABIT
Video Cards
ABIT had several innovative ATI video card solutions to show.
First of all the ABIT R9550XTurbo-Guru:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_9550xturbo_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_9550xturbo.jpg)
Sorry for the image. The one I took was too blurry, so I had to use one from the ABIT Website.
This video card is the only 9550 that allows overclocking without running any special drivers.
As you may know, ATI added some overclocking protection for the Radeon 9550 to their Catalyst Drivers, starting with version 3.4. You can change clock speeds, but the clocks are returned to default after a few seconds or when a game is started. So you had to use a modified driver or flash a 9600 bios to your card to be able to overclock.
See the green jumper in the picture? It is used to swap between two video biosses stored on the card. One bios is the original 9550 bios, the other one is a 9600 bios.
This is a very clever way of ABIT to get around ATI's limitations. ATI says that their partners may not make any changes to the video bios or drivers in regards to overclocking.
What ABIT did to their 9550 does not violate any ATI regulations, "it's just a backup bios for the user in case something goes wrong". Nice one, ABIT.
Also this card has ABIT's uGuru Chip on-board which allows advanced monitoring and change of core and memory voltage. ABIT will soon announce an X800 based product using the uGuru chip. My guess would be an X800 XL with uGuru.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_rx700_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_rx700.jpg)
Also powered by uGuru is the RX700 Pro-Guru. The card uses the same uGuru chip as the other video cards. No dual Bios here, it is not needed to overclock.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_x800xl_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_x800xl.jpg)
The ABIT RX800 XL-256EDVIO is "just another" X800 XL. Only changes from the standard design are the nice cooler and the changed PCB color. As mentioned earlier, I'm betting ABIT will soon announce a uGuru version of this board.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_x800xlagp_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_x800xlagp.jpg)
The RX800 XL-256EDVIO (AGP) is one of the last high-end AGP video cards coming from ABIT.
[page=ABIT Motherboards]
Motherboards
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_powerpanel_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_powerpanel.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_readout_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_readout.jpg)
Based on the success of the first uGuru clock which can display system information like frequencies, temperatures and fanspeeds, ABIT created two new models.
One successor to the uGuru clock is external and displays what the "old" uGuru clock could do together with new stuff like Skype messages and E-Mail alerts and a readout which goes into a 5.25" drive bay. Both now come with an extra USB connector and buttons to cycle power and change clock speeds without leaving your game. The 5.25" one adds another USB and 1394 connector together with a CMOS reset button under a really cool rocker switch.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_ni8sli_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_ni8sli.jpg)
The NI8 SLI uses NVIDIA's new nForce4 for Intel chipset.
Intel LGA Socket 775
1066 MHz FSB
Dual Channel DDR2 667, up to 8GB
2x PCI-E x16, 2x PCI-E x1, 2x PCI
4x SATA RAID
Gigabit Ethernet
7.1 Channel Audio via AudioMAX slot which puts the sound card on an extra PCB for greatly enhanced sound output quality and increased board stability because of less interference.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_al8_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_al8.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_bl8_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_bl8.jpg)
Equipped with Intel's i945G chipset, the AL8 and the BTX version BL8 feature:
Intel LGA Socket 775
1066 MHz FSB
Dual Channel DDR2 667, up to 8GB
1x PCI-E x16, 3x PCI-E x1, 2x PCI
6x SATA II RAID
Gigabit Ethernet
7.1 Channel Audio
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_aw8_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_aw8.jpg)
Equipped with Intel's i955X chipset, the AW8 features:
Intel LGA Socket 775
1066 MHz FSB
Dual Channel DDR2 667, up to 8GB
1x PCI-E x16, 2x PCI-E x1, 2x PCI
6x SATA II RAID
Dual Gigabit Ethernet
7.1 Channel Audio via AudioMAX slot which puts the sound card on an extra PCB for greatly enhanced sound output quality and increased board stability because of less interference.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_an8sli_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_an8sli.jpg)
Based on NVIDIA's nForce4 SLI the AN8-SLI offers following features:
AMD Socket 939
2000 MHz HTT
Dual Channel DDR 400, up to 4GB
2x PCI-E x16, 2x PCI-E x1, 2x PCI
4x SATA RAID
Gigabit Ethernet
5.1 Channel Audio via AudioMAX slot which puts the sound card on an extra PCB for greatly enhanced sound output quality and increased board stability because of less interference.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_an8_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_an8.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_an8fat_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_an8fat.jpg)
Based on NVIDIA's nForce4 the AN8 and AN8-Fatal1ty offer following features:
AMD Socket 939
2000 MHz HTT
Dual Channel DDR 400, up to 4GB
1x PCI-E x16, 2x PCI-E x1, 3x PCI
4x SATA RAID
Gigabit Ethernet
5.1 Channel Audio via AudioMAX slot which puts the sound card on an extra PCB for greatly enhanced sound output quality and increased board stability because of less interference.
The Fatal1ty edition has a different color theme and adds cooling for memory.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_av8_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_av8.jpg)
The AV8 is based on VIA's K8T800 Pro Chipset:
AMD Socket939
2000 MHz HTT
Dual Channel DDR400 Support, up to 4GB
1x AGP, 5x PCI
2x SATA RAID
5.1 Channel Audio
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_gururemote_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/abit_gururemote.jpg)
The GuruRemote was another cool innovation ABIT had to show off. It is an infrared remote which is compatible to all remote controls because you can teach it commands. The big backlit LCD display has a touch screen, which allows changing system functions like overclocking and fan speeds. Also you can see your current hardware monitoring values on the remote, it is constantly getting pushed the latest values from the system via infrared.
Obviously it can be used to remotely control ABIT's media player application - moving the mouse cursor in windows for "generic" control is not yet possible.
Getting a list of incoming Skype and MSN calls is possible as well.
I really like the design of the remote control, it looks classy and elegant. Other PC remote controls look just like a toy and are a shame to have lying on the table.
[page=Albatron]
Albatron
Albatron does not do ATI video cards, but they had some well thought out NVIDIA solutions to show. When asked whether they think about adding ATI cards to their product lineup the answer was "I can't comment on that" - does not sound too bad to me. Their 512MB 6800U design is running in the labs and will most probably be presented at Computex.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/albatron_6200_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/albatron_6200.jpg)
The Albatron AGP6200A is Albatron's new budget AGP video card. It uses NVIDIA's NV44A GPU, clocked at 350 MHz with support for Shader Model 3.0. Memory size is 128MB DDR.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/albatron_wisefan_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/albatron_wisefan.jpg)
The second new video card was this 6600, which is equipped with better memory than NVIDIA's reference design and uses Albatron's WiseFan cooler.
During normal use, only two of the fans are active. Once the temperature rises above a certain level, the third fan kicks in. Also when one of the fans fails, the third will be running all the time. This is possible through an extra PCB with a microcontroller, which is integrated into the heatsink assembly.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/albatron_power_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/albatron_power.jpg)
In order to satisfy the power demands of heavily overclocked motherboards, Albatron designed an addon-module called mPower, which adds one phase to the motherboard's PWM circuitry. On motherboards the workload of converting power for the CPU is shared between several mosfets, usually six, resulting in three phases. With mPower (which is included free with all high-end models) you can upgrade to a four-phase motherboard just by plugging in a small PCB.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/albatron_px955x_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/albatron_px955x.jpg)
Intel's latest chipset i955X powers the PX955X
Intel Pentium 4 LGA 775
FSB 1066
Dual Channel DDR2 667 Support
1x PCI-E x16, 2x PCI-E x1, 3x PCI
3x SATA II RAID
7.1 Channel Audio
Gigabit Ethernet
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/albatron_k8sli_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/albatron_k8sli.jpg)
The Albatron K8 SLI uses NVIDIA's nForce4 SLI Chipset:
AMD64 Socket 939
FSB 1000
Dual Channel DDR 400 Support
2x PCI-E x16, 2x PCI-E x1, 2x PCI
4x SATA II RAID
5.1 Channel Audio
Gigabit Ethernet
No switch is required to switch the SLI mode, auto-detect circuitry is on the board.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/albatron_k8x890_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/albatron_k8x890.jpg)
Based on VIA's K8T890 the K8X890 has those features:
AMD64 Socket 939
FSB 1000
Dual Channel DDR 400 Support
1x PCI-E x16, 1x PCI-E x1, 3x PCI
2x SATA, 4x PATA
7.1 Channel Audio
Gigabit Ethernet
mPower Support
[page=Gigabyte]
Gigabyte
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/ga_8i955x_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/ga_8i955x.jpg)
The GA-8I955X Royal is the new flagship motherboard using Intel's i955X chipset:
Intel Pentium 4 LGA 775
FSB 1066
Dual Channel DDR2 667 Support
1x PCI-E x16, 2x PCI-E x1, 3x PCI
4x SATA II RAID
7.1 Channel Audio
Dual Gigabit Ethernet
Dual Bios
U-Plus DPS, adds more PWM phases to motherboard for a total of 8
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/ga_8nsliroyal_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/ga_8nsliroyal.jpg)
The GA-8N-SLI Royal uses NVIDIA's nForce4 for Intel chipset allowing SLI:
Intel Pentium 4 LGA 775
FSB 1066
Dual Channel DDR2 667 Support
2x PCI-E x16, 2x PCI-E x1, 2x PCI
6x SATA II RAID
7.1 Channel Audio
Dual Gigabit Ethernet
Dual Bios
U-Plus DPS, adds more PWM phases to motherboard for a total of 8
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/ga_8i945p_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/ga_8i945p.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/ga_8i945g_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/ga_8i945g.jpg)
The GA-8I945P Pro uses Intel's i945P chipset. The GA-8I945G Pro has on-board video via Intel's chipset - that is the only difference between the two boards.
Intel Pentium 4 LGA 775
FSB 1066
Dual Channel DDR2 667 Support
1x PCI-E x16, 2x PCI-E x1, 3x PCI
4x SATA II RAID
7.1 Channel Audio
Gigabit Ethernet
Dual Bios
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/ga_8i915p_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/ga_8i915p.jpg)
Running on Intel's i915P Chipset the GA-8I915P Dual Graphic allows the simultaneous use of two PCI-E video cards:
Intel Pentium 4 LGA 775
FSB 800
Dual Channel DDR 533 Support
2x PCI-E x4, 1x PCI-E x1, 3x PCI
4x SATA RAID
7.1 Channel Audio
Gigabit Ethernet
Dual Bios
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/ga_8vt880p_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/ga_8vt880p.jpg)
Using VIA's PT880 Pro Chipset the GA-8VT880P Combo has these features:
AMD64 Socket 939
Dual Channel DDR 400 Support
1x PCI-E x16, 1x AGP 8x, 3x PCI
2x SATA RAID
5.1 Channel Audio
Gigabit Ethernet
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/ga_k8a480m_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/ga_k8a480m.jpg)
Based on ATI's RS480 chipset and ULI's southbridge the [b]GA-K8A480M-9[b] offers:
AMD64 Socket 939
2000 MHz HTT
Dual Channel DDR 400 Support
1x PCI-E x16, 1x PCI-E x1, 2x PCI
Integrated X300 in ATI Chipset
4x SATA RAID
7.1 Channel Audio
Gigabit Ethernet
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/ga_x800xl_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/ga_x800xl.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/ga_x800xl2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day3/images/ga_x800xl2.jpg)
Gigabyte has put this completely passive cooler on several video cards ranging from to X800NP. While they say it runs completely stable I am not really convinced of it. A backup fan would have probably been a good idea .. or a "Hot! Do not touch" sticker.
Continue to Day 4. (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Cebit2005/Day4/)