Hardware Computex 2016 - Day 1

Jeez man, talk about pulling an all-nighter (pot, kettle black?)

Cheers for the Exsectus pic, was good getting to meet you earlier today! There was some seriously cool stuff on show. The MSI motherboards I thought were particularly interesting, the new Titanium boards look amazing in person, pictures don't do those boards justice. It was my first time seeing that InWin 805 Infinity, that thing is mind bending.

 

Trade show madness? On the go, no sleep and a bit of networking & beer thrown in... I used to do a 4 day show at the NEC - happy days.

Please, won't anyone make a white ITX board??? The Arctic B150 Mortar looks good, let alone the silver boards; something white/silver/light camo in ITX would be good.

 

best of the Show right here...

 

On the backside of the MSI booth (near the case mods) is their Kaby Lake board. If it's still there..

 

Those white/digi camo MSI boards do look very nice.

 

Nice! Glad to see it made it there in one piece. Do Maki have to stand next to it for a week then?

J.

 

The Mortar, yea, only available in mATX.

The silver Titanium ones look very nice with white GPUs and PSU cabling installed.

About the mods on show: seen several different ideas on transfer plates for water cooling. I think the first (premium) case to integrate this natively into the motherboard tray and/or motherboard/PSU cover will really be a winner. It'll reduce flexibility but it'll be revolutionary not having to create one for non-modder.

 

So what was the most interesting thing you saw? What really turned your crank?

 

Me? I only saw a fraction of the items as most companies have put the good stuff behind closed doors. Sadsadsad. If the forum handled pics more conveniently I'd post them all, but, it doesn't.

My list:
1) MSI Kaby Lake board - I couldn't spot anything new! I'm not sure if deliberate or genuinely the fact that KbL boards are really a virtual clone of Z210!
2) ROG Avalon was a nice idea to kill the cables - I hate cables - but the concept was poorly executed all buried deep in a box. Can't see any component.
3) Galax HOF white PCB on show
4) Galax has a big range of Phison SSD devices: SATA, M.2, PCIE - everything. All white PCB or box.
5) ASUS has a 240Hz PG258 24.5" AOUA display based on the lovelylovely PG34 design
6) Gigabyte has an external M.2 to Thunderbolt adapter. Probably a bundling item with its new X99 boards.
7) Lots of potential Samsung 950 Pro competition, but whether we'll actually see it in 2H16 ... don't hold your breath, we never saw any from last years Computex still.
8) DRAM-less SSDs with TLC NAND fueling entry-level upgrades. It'll be shitty quality but still better than a HDD and a potential upgrade for casual users/HTPCs.
9) In Win's new special edition cases were teh sex. Total bling, total OTT, but aww yea.
10) In Win 805 Infinity: just killer front panel design. But no upgrade option for existing 805 owners like myself = sadsadsad
11) Aerocool Dream Box: Look it up! Really opened my ideas to build ideas without having to actually cut anything up.
12) Lian Li PC10WRX: Much more compact than the BIG PC09, yet still ATX. Very nice design with the glass front and side together and compact is for the better.
13) Lian Li PC TU300TX ATX flight case with retractable handle and wheels. It's a thing.
14) Zotac custom watercooled 1080. I missed the name. Proper WCing + aftermarket 1080 design with warranty
15) An AM3+ refresh each from ASUS/GBT/MSI, which is still nice to see.
16) FSP 'Dagger' 500W SFX PSU and full size ATX PSU with redundant, load balancing units inside. Nice idea, innovative, but tiny fan is probably noisy AF.
17) Bitfenix Pillow mini ITX case. Look it up. MMmmm "interesting"!
18) Zotac Mag-something mini-PC with integrated custom watercooling. Neat, nice looks but can't see the WCing when the box is on. Shame.
19) ROG G31 has a 'mini PC' style external box that's JUST THE 750W PSU. And two Titan-Xs. .. why?!
20) Be Quiet Dark Bsae 900. Bigger than the 600 and more customizable inside but equally forgettable tbh.
21) ASUS now has Strix branded laptops in addition to ROG.
22) I saw an RGB SSD. We've reached peak RGB.
23) Seasonic 80Plus Titanium PSUs. Apparently they have a new 600W fanless model which I didn't see. Sad because I only just bought my fanless 520W ~2 months ago.

 

Wonder how much money they spent on R&D for that AIO cooler.

 

THanks for the insider perspective, bindi!

 

Bindi text wall: Sounds like your crank was nearly twisted off.

 

The show doesn't offer that service unfortunately.



I'd only spent half a day there vs 2-3 before. Very small show this year.

 

Thanks Bill! Although I must admit after seeing many of the rigs in show mine pales in comparison, here's some serious modding talent out there that's for sure.

Haha something like that. Spent most of the days at the Tt booth, which was fine as everybody's so friendly and fun to talk to. Got to tour around the various exhibition halls a few times at least, as well as experiencing a bit of Taipei in the evenings (decided to forgo massages based on everybody else's experiences rofl). The night markets are really cool.

 

Maybe they'll move it to Bangkok next year