Hall 2 of Computex was 1/3 of the size of Hall 1, but it held the exhibits from the big name Taiwanese motherboard manufacturers. The first two pics from the left shows Asus, FIC, Gigabyte and Epox. Although Hall 2 and 3 didn't have companies that related directly to what we have here at PHAM Computer, they were still important places to visit. Intel had their exclusive room at Hall 3, the smallest of the three halls but their entrance was quite interesting (3 pic from the left). Abit, like Intel had their own room but it was at the Hyatt Hotel. Unfortunately Abit didn't allow picture taking. Just about every booth at Hall 2 had some type of large plasma screens to show off their products, but on Thursday morning (Wednesday in US) they were all tuned to the NBA Finals (first pic on the right).


Virtual Reality

     A lot of us play games on our computers so it isn't surprising to see every peripheral manufacturers display their assortment of joysticks and controllers. While we've all seen the wire-less joystick, free style controllers, and force feedback wheels, two company stood out in terms of game playing technology. The first two pics from the left shows the booth of Artificial Parallax Electronics Corp (APEC), a company that specializes in 3D stereoscopic imaging. If you are an owner of a deluxe Asus video card then you should be very familiar with their work, they produced the 3D glasses bundled with the card. The racing game machine that I played at APEC's booth was very fun until I started to get dizzy after a couple of minutes... The representative said that most people shouldn't have problem with the 3D effects and people like me should get used to it with time. I hope he's right. The third pic from the left shows a guy standing in front of a large screen playing volleyball with the computer by controlling the movement with his arm. He had no controllers and was not standing on anything, the only way the computer was detecting his movement was the black firewire camera mounted in front of him. Although Aplux's intent was to show the superior bandwidth offered by IEEE 1394 standard over the current USB devices.


More Aluminum, Copper and Fans

     With cases, the trend is moving toward the use of aluminum while copper is now the choice for high performance CPU heatsinks. With power supplies, almost every manufacturers in this field has some type of dual fan unit to show people. The first two pics from the left are again some very nicely painted aluminum cases by GreenChoice. The second pair of pics from the left show off Globalwin's latest creation, the copper heatsink utilizing the vapor chamber technology. If I remembered correctly, their representative said it was good for 1.6+GHz processors. This is very impressive consider that it is about half the size of their big WAW/WBK38 heatsinks. The last pic from the left is taken from Enhance Electronics, these power supplies comes in 300, 400, and 500 watts and are also capable of varying their speeds like the Enermax's Whisper (FC) series power supplies.


Getting Smaller and Bigger

     One thing I notice with each successive computer shows is that computers are getting smaller. The first pic from the left is a good example of a smaller computer, forget about the underpowered unit that you've seen before, this PIII machine with a console-like shell was running 3DMark 2001/2000 without any problems (although I don't know why they called it Cappuccino). The second pic from the left is another example of the ever improving micro ATX motherboard becoming smaller. Let's forget about what motherboard chipset it has, take a closer look at those I/O ports. With all the standard all-in-one features of other micro ATX board plus video in/out and TV tuner why did they even bother to give you three PCI slots?? The nVidia GeForce 3 graphics card is without a doubt the video card of choice for all the exhibitors at Computex that was displaying 3D graphics. Although they are not as big as the Voodoo 5s, the heatsinks on them are getting pretty big... The last two pics from the left are GeForce 3 cards from MSI and Gigabyte.


Cooler Master

     As the first manufacturer to come up with the idea of making desktop cases out of aluminum, Cooler Master has seen its exclusivity go down the drain. With more companies jumping on the bandwagon of producing more affordable aluminum cases, they thought again to distinguish themselves from the rest. Ok, so maybe copper isn't the building material for the upcoming cases, but if you've had the chance to work with their original aluminum case and especially the ATC-201 then you know their construction and finish are already top notch. In keeping with their high quality build quality, Cooler Master has decided to go upscale rather than compete in prices with other case makers. So what I got to see in Cooler Master's hotel room were four gorgeous PC enclosures that looked like they belonged in the living room. The pic above from left to right are ATC-300, a Mini Tower; ATC-210, mid tower with plexi glass cover; ATC-110, a mid tower with drive bay door; and ATC-500, a desktop case that looks like a high end DVD player. While the first three cases retain similar layouts to their older brothers, the ATC-500 was designed to not only save space but maximizes cooling and compatibility. If you are tired of the "PC look," then you should definitely consider these cases because ordinary aluminum cases just won't cut it anymore! Prices for these cases are expected to be "high" however, as the representative from Cooler Master kept emphasizing their "high-end" effort.

*Update 09/10/01*  The Mini Tower is ATC-500, not ATC-300.  The case that looked like a DVD Player is actually ATC-800.


Enermax