Displaying items by tag: Asus

Now that the Developer Preview of Windows 8 is out on the streets everyone is working like mad to come up with a review of the new OS from Microsoft. Most of these reviews have been run inside virtualization programs like VMware’s Player, or Virtual Box, or… well you know the thing. However, the thing that I (and many others) would like to know about Windows 8 is; how does this work on its intended platform? We know from past conversations and statements with and from Microsoft that Windows8 was built to run on the increasingly popular tablet PC (and also ARM based tablets).  Of course there are no certified Windows 8 tablets yet and our concern over trying Windows 8 out on a real tablet is having to completely reinstall our favorite Asus EP121 all over again if things go south. Thankfully Microsoft is already on the job.

They have quite a few existing Windows 7 tablets in the lab right now and are testing the Windows 8 touch interface to make sure that It is running properly and also that it is not a pain to use. This was something that was left out of previous editions of Windows (going all the way back to Windows XP Tablet Edition). The touch interface was an after-thought and not something that was built into the OS from the ground up. This time Microsoft knew what the market layout would be and has developed Windows 8 more for the touch screen than the keyboard and mouse.  They have a list of tablets that is quite impressive that they are currently testing all of which are currently on the market. We have reproduced the list from their Developing Windows 8 Blog below.

We are very tempted to back a backup image of our EEE Pad EP121 and load up the new preview just to see how it works. We will let you know if we get that brave. For now we will stay in the safety of VMware and will let you know our thoughts on this early preview soon.

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Quite a while ago we talked to you about the virtues of the Asus Rampage III Black. This board can best be described as The Flagship of the Flagship Rampage III line. It has everything, wireless, Bluetooth, Overclocking, Tri-SLI and Crossfire-X. The design is sleek and sexy with plenty of options for overclocking, gaming, audiophiles and more beside. It is one of those boards that people are just going to want. Well now that we have had a chance to play with this board we are going to let you know about how it performs. So let’s sit back and enjoy the ride as we test the Asus Rampage III Black.

One of the big (or is it small) things that re-emerged on the market last year was the reintroduction of Via’s Mini-ITX form factor for motherboards. We have had a few of these in the lab and they are very fun to play with. So far we have had boards from J&W Technology Limited and Gigabyte so now it is time for use to throw one up from Asus. The board we have is part of their MiniMAX lineup. It is the P8H67-I Deluxe. As you might have imagined this has an H67 chipset onboard so it is all read for the Sandy Bridge Core i7/i5 of your choice. We have seen what the H55 could do in this form factor so we are excited to see what Asus can do with the more efficient H67 and Sandy Bridge combination.  We are going to take a look at the design and features of this board now and then run it through the wringer later.

We have told you about Asus’ design choices for the Sabertooth P67 and even gone into some detail about the mindset behind this and other products in the TUF line. However all of the best design choices and components in the world will not make a board perform. To get great performance takes a little more. In this half of our Sabertooth review we are going to look into that side of the product. Asus has always had a reputation for tinkering with their BIOSes (not always a good one though).  So let’s start off there and see where it takes us.

Asus has a flare for design and for choosing the right parts to go on their products. Over the years of working with them I have often had them tell me “wait for our design” instead of tinkering with the reference parts. The benefit of this is that the consumer usually gets a much better product in the end and we see the upper potential of a GPU, CPU or Chipset. We have walked you through the layout and design of the Asus Crosshair IV, now we are going to show you how well it performs.

When you hear the term Crosshair several things come to mind. The first is probably the two lines that intersect inside the optics on a targeting scope (which were originally real hairs). The next could be the options in most of your first person shooter games. If you are an AMD enthusiast you might think of Asus’ Crosshair line of motherboards for AMD CPUs. It is this last one that we are going to dive into and talk to you about today. The Crosshair line is fittingly named, as it relates to accuracy, and performance. Asus has worked hard to make sure these boards represent the highest level of performance for AMD CPUs. Although not the most current available we are taking a look at the Hydralogix enabled Crosshair IV Extreme. This is a $299 890FX based board with Lucid’s Hydralogix multi-GPU technology hanging out on the board. We are going to look at its design and features today and will follow this up some single GPU performance testing shortly.

We have been following Asus and their progress as a company for a very long time. When we first began working with them they were a very ambitious company (and at times too ambitious). This came out in their products in many ways. Some were good others were bad. However, over the years they have learned from their mistakes and began to build products that not only performed but also made sense. One our favorite lines from Asus is the Republic of Gamers line, but right behind that is their “The Ultimate Force” line. We have looked over a few boards from this line and like their quality and stock performance. When the P67 chipset hit the market we were looking forward to getting the Sabertooth on the test bench. Unfortunately just before we did Intel found the error in the B2 Stepping of the Cougar Point. Now, all of that is in the past and we have the Asus P67 Sabertooth on the bench for some test time. So let’s look at the design philosophy and what you get when you buy this board from Asus.

OK I have been promising this for some time now and it is about time that I got moving on it. Decryptedtech is having another giveaway. After the response we got from the 6950 giveaway (where we made you work for it). We decided to add something to this one. In the next three reviews you will find words that are in bold. When you put these words together they will form a question; that is one question for each review. The questions should not be too hard but will vary in topic (Cake or Death?). Once you have all three answers just be the first to email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Oh yeah, I suppose you would like to know what I am giving away huh? Well I am giving away an Asus P6X58D Premium brand new still in the box. This contest is open North American residents only due to export taxes and restrictions. Keep checking here, our facebook page and also twitter for when these reviews hit the net. Good luck!

AMD’s 68xx series GPUs have been out for a little while now. This means that the boring time of stock and reference designs is well past and now we get to see what happens when a manufacturer puts their best effort into designing a graphics card. In the past we have seen Asus stand out with some impressive designs. Their DirectCU and Voltage Tweak offerings have been excellent. Today we have one of these on the test bench in the form of the Asus EAH6870 DC/2DI2S/1GD5. This factory overclocked card features their DirectCU (hence the name) cooling which has the heat pipes sitting right on top of the GPU for better thermal performance. This new card also features Asus’ Voltage Tweak to help you get even more performance out of it. So let’s take a look and see if this $200.00 card is worth your time and money.

After a few unfortunate delays and incidents we are finally able to close out this contest and announce the winner of the Asus EAH6950 Voltage Tweak Edition GPU.

Congratulations Stu Lowe who guessed closest to our final overclock on the EAH6870 DirectCU that we are reviewing (look for that review shortly). Stu's guess of 990Core 1110 Memory and 1.25 Volts was very close to what we finally got to work stabily.