 | |||
|
|
|
|
|
 |
CES 2009 Part 1 January 12, 2009 Tom Colarusso |
|
 |
|
| |
Summary: In Part 1 of our CES coverage, Tom looks at VoodooPC's Firebird gaming PC, new headsets from Psyko and Razer,Sapphire's latest Toxic board, and Silverstone's upcoming Raven case. Read on for images and first impressions...
 CES 2009: Day One | Page:: ( 1 / 5 ) |
[image]
| <% print_image("01"); %> |
The first week of January brings with it the Consumer Electronics Show, when technology and entertainment corporations descend upon Las Vegas to give the press and public a sampling of their upcoming products. Just about any brand name you can think of is represented here, from the Fortune 500 companies like Sony and Microsoft, to the niche market manufacturers such as FSP and Shinzen.
[image]
| <% print_image("02"); %> |
CES has historically never really been a show for computer hardware, as Comdex used to fill that role. Now that Comdex is gone, many hardware developers have jumped into CES to help hold over potential customers between CeBIT and Computex. Also, the line between PC gaming hardware and general consumer products gets a little blurrier with each passing year, as many companies that have traditionally only worked in the IT sector expand into others areas, such as mobile computing, HTPC’s, mobile phones, and car audio.
[image]
| <% print_image("03"); %> |
We spent 3 days on the floor in Vegas and between losing our shirts at the craps table and oogling the purveyors of the Adult Entertainment Expo down the street, we actually managed to get some time in with a few of the cool products scheduled for release in 2009.
[image]
| <% print_image("04"); %> |
Our journey through CES began on Wednesday and we saw quite a few well known companies throughout the week, such as Razer, OCZ, Asus, Gigabyte, Lian Li, Corsair, and more. Overall we saw a lot of really cool stuff on the horizon that we hope to get our hands on to test first hand. In the meantime, we hope this will help to serve as a showcase of things to come in the year 2009.
| Day One: Razer | Page:: ( 2 / 5 ) |
We met the president of Razer, Robert Krakoff, first thing Thursday morning to take a gander at their newest product announcements, the Mamba gaming mouse and the Carcharias gaming headset.
[image]
| <% print_image("05"); %> |
[image]
| <% print_image("06"); %> |
| Razer Mamba Wireless Gaming Mouse | |
| Type | Wired/Wireless |
| LCD | Battery Life/DPI Setting |
| Feet-type | Teflon |
| DPI | 5600DPI |
| Polling Rate | 1000Mhz |
| Response Time | 1Ms |
| Available/Price | Feb. 2009; $129 |
| |
The Mamba looks similar to the DeathAdder mouse released previously by Razer, although it has an additional 2 buttons next to the left button that controls the swappable DPI settings. The mouse cable is completely detachable and can charge the battery pack when plugged in. Razer says the Mamba works over fast wireless, which should alleviate any signal dropouts or interference that plague regular wireless mice. The Mamba also has enough on-board memory to save up to 5 gaming profiles directly on the mouse, allowing users to hook it up to any rig and still maintain their personalizations.
The weight is surprisingly low for a wireless mouse and the cable detached with ease. The charging base looks more like a glowing statue meant to pay homage to a gaming deity than a power station for a gaming mouse. This added to the air of importance Razer is emphasizing with the Mamba. Razer looks to take a direct shot across Logitech’s bow with the Mamba, as the G7 is currently the only other gaming oriented wireless mouse on the market.
The other big product released by Razer this week is the Carcharias gaming headset. The Carcharias not only makes spell-checking incredibly fun, but is also designed around comfort during those long gaming sessions thanks to its foam-padded ear cups. The Carcharias is adjustable in just about every way imaginable, including the ambidextrous microphone and headband.
[image]
| <% print_image("07"); %> |
| Razer Carcharias Gaming Headset | |
| Frequency Response | Headphone: 20-20,000Hz Microphone:50-16,000Hz |
| Impedence | 32 at 1kHz |
| Sensitivity (@1kHz, 1V/Pa) | 102 ± 4dB at 1 kHzMax |
| Input Power | 200mW |
| Headphone Drivers | 40mm, with neodymium magnets |
| Mic pick-up pattern | Unidirectional |
| Available/Price | Jan. 2009; $79 |
| |
The Carcharias features a sheathed cable to prevent snags, as well as a unidirectional microphone. A lot of thought seems to have gone into the mic as it can not only be reversed for southpaws, but the plastic casing bent to bring it farther or closer to the mouth for optimal recording. Also, Razer realized that the last thing gamers want to hear over ventrilo is background noise so the microphone features a hole solely on the inside of the boom. So now when your 6Ghz overclocked Core i10 Duo III starts cranking out enough heat to melt the polar ice caps, you can be rest assured that turning on an extra room fan isn’t going to annoy your clan mates.
Razer also announced they are currently developing an upgraded version of the Carcharias called the Megalodon. The Megalodon ‘s physical design is almost exactly like the Carcharias, except that it features 7.2 surround sound and an upgraded control pod that allows the user full control over audio settings. The specifications of the Megalodon haven’t been finalized yet, but the prototype we saw was pretty impressive and we look forward to its release later this year.
[image]
| <% print_image("08"); %> |
| Day One: Psyko, VoodooPC | Page:: ( 3 / 5 ) |
Psyko
One of new companies showing their wares at CES this year was Psyko Audio Labs. Headed by James Hildebrandt, a mechanical engineer with graduate work in audio acoustics, Psyko was touting their 5.1 gaming headset. The Psyko 5.1 headset is geared directly at the gaming market and advertises that is uses an entirely new way of playing positional audio. Complete specs weren’t available at this time, but Psyko hopes to price the headset at $299 when it gets released later this year.
[image]
| <% print_image("09"); %> |
The Psyko is unique in that the speakers are located in the headband instead of ear cups, which has channels that direct the sound downward. When the sound reaches the hollow cups, it reverberates as it would in an empty room, which should then give you excellent positional audio without the added latency of Digital Signal Processing. The Psyko also sports a boom microphone and subwoofers in the ear cups, for extra bump. An interesting feature they showed us was the ear cup vents they built in to keep your noggin from getting too hot and heavy during extended gaming sessions. We tested the Psyko briefly and found it to be quite comfortable and unique. They had a demo setup with Call of Duty 2 and the sound results were interesting, but we wouldn’t call them earth-shattering. We’d be interested to try the Psyko with some more modern games, as they might produce more immersive results.
VoodooPC
Hewlett-Packard’s acquisition of Voodoo was a direct answer to the Dell/Alienware gaming juggernaut created in the Spring of 2006. VoodooPC helped design and release the HP Blackbird, which won numerous awards for its performance and design innovations. Since then, product releases have been somewhat infrequent as HP restructured its internal organization to better allow its high-end components time to gestate. This year, HP/Voodoo has announced their follow-up to the Blackbird, the Firebird gaming PC.
[image]
| <% print_image("10"); %> | <% print_image("11"); %> | <% print_image("12"); %> |
| HP Firebird with Voodoo DNA | |
| CPU | Intel Q9400 (803: Q9550) |
| Memory | 4GB PC6400 DDR2 |
| Graphics | nVidia GeForce 9800S SLI |
| Storage | 2x 250GB 5400RPM SATA (803: 2x 320GB) |
| Optical | Slot-load 8x DVD-RW (803: 8x DVD-RW/Blu-ray with HDMI) |
| Audio | Integrated Intel HD Audio (803: X-Fi Mini Card) |
| Available/Price | 802: Jan 2009;$1799 803: Jan. 2009; $2099 |
| |
HP has designed a lot of really interesting features into the Firebird, including an external 350w power supply and built-in liquid cooling. Yes that’s right, the Firebird only uses about 350 watts of power. For the Firebird, Voodoo used a lot of mobile components to keep power consumption down, such as the mobile 9800S and 5400RPM hard drives. The hard drives are also hot swappable and easily removed thanks to the proprietary storage system that’s been integrated into the case.
Another neat “green” feature is the ability to disable the SLI with the push of a button. This cuts down both power consumption and heat output. The Firebird will be available in 2 SKU’s eventually, with the upgraded 803 featuring a faster CPU and Blu-Ray drive.
[image]
| <% print_image("13"); %> | <% print_image("14"); %> | <% print_image("15"); %> |
| Day One: Sapphire, Silverstone | Page:: ( 4 / 5 ) |
Sapphire
[image]
| <% print_image("16"); %> |
Sapphire has a longstanding tradition of supporting ATI and, as such, has become one of their closest partners in board development. Producing anywhere from 35-40% of the market share of ATI-based boards, Sapphire is usually one of their first partners to get new designs for early adoption. At CES, Sapphire was showcasing their newest 4870 card, the 4870 1GB Toxic with Vapor-X cooling technology.
[image]
| <% print_image("17"); %> |
| Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870 Toxic | |
| Clock Speed | 780Mhz Eclk/1000Mhz Mclk |
| Memory | GDDR5 1GB 256-bit |
| Cooling | Dual Slot with Vapor-X Technology |
| Display Support | DLDVI-I/HDTV-Out/DLDVI-I HDMI VGA (via dongle) |
| CrossFire | Native Hardware Support |
| Power | PCIe Graphic External 2x 3-Pin |
| Available | Jan. 2009 |
| |
The 4870 Toxic is a factory overclocked 1GB board utilizing a specialized cooler with 3 heatpipes that vents hot air to the rear of the case. The 4870 Toxic supports both DVI and HDMI, with the latter supporting 7.1 audio output. Sapphire also had an impressive system setup with their liquid cooled 4870X2 Atomic to show-off their excellent cooling and performance.
Silverstone
Silverstone had a pretty decent sized booth setup showing off all their cases, from the HTPC up to full tower gaming. Silverstone, like Lian Li, works quite a bit in aluminum giving their creations stylish exteriors that match up with home theater components. However, also like Lian-Li, Silverstone appears to be making a break from that tradition with the Raven full tower gaming PC.
[image]
| <% print_image("18"); %> | <% print_image("19"); %> |
| Silverstone Raven Full Tower Case | |
| Material | Reinforced plastic outer; 0.8 SECC Body |
| Color | Matte Black |
| Form Factors | SSI EEB, SSI CEB, E-ATX, ATX, mATX |
| Drive Bays | 5x5.25\\" 6x3.5\\" |
| Cooling | 2x180mm intake 1x120mm exhaust |
| Front I/O Panel | USB2.0: 2 IEEE1394: 1 HD Audio Mic/HP |
| Available/Price | Jan 2009; $249 |
| |
The Raven uses a steel and plastic construction that makes it look like the Batmobile’s little brother. The front door is pneumatically powered, so it slides back into place with a slight nudge. The motherboard orientation is the most interesting, as Silverstone has upended it so that the PCI cards stick out of the top, which is also where all the air vents. Silverstone’s thinking is that since hot air rises, it should theoretically be easier to push it up via the case fans as opposed to horizontally in traditional cases. The Raven is also available with and without a side window, depending on your personal preference.
[image]
| <% print_image("20"); %> | <% print_image("21"); %> | <% print_image("22"); %> |
| Day One: TigerDirect PC Race, Conclusion | Page:: ( 5 / 5 ) |
TigerDirect PC Race
[image]
| <% print_image("23"); %> | <% print_image("24"); %> | <% print_image("25"); %> |
[image]
| <% print_image("26"); %> | <% print_image("27"); %> | <% print_image("28"); %> |
The winner was Al Hernandez, a consultant from Fox News with an impressive time of 5 minutes and 59 seconds. Al’s charity of choice is the Challenged Athletes Foundation, which will receive a check for $10,000. Overall, it was a really cool event that turned out to be more competitive than I thought it would. Although it was all for charity, a lot of these guys took the build-off pretty seriously. Perhaps next year I’ll get to show my mad skillz, but for now we were quite content with watching the mayhem.
[image]
| <% print_image("29"); %> | <% print_image("30"); %> |
Day One: Fin
So, that was day one for us. Take every product we talked about, add in about 10 miles of walking and you can pretty much imagine what CES is like. We saw some pretty neat things all along the show floor and were impressed by the number of exhibitors, despite what’s going on with the economy right now. On Day two, we are going to take a look at Gigabyte, iBuypower, OCZ and more, so check back to see what they had on show. Until then, let us know what you thought about the products on exhibit!