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Displaying items by tag: Asus

Wednesday, 13 April 2011 23:10

Asus' EEE Slate EP121 1A011M Poked and Prodded



EP121With every new product that hits the market there are going to be winners and losers. This is true from CPUs to GPU s and everything in between. There is one place where this is more true than any other segment of the market; this is the mobile market. Now the mobile market does not just mean phones (smart or dumb). This market includes everything from portable power sources to fully fledged desktop replacement notebooks. Currently the most competitive market is in the Tablet world. To most people Apple is king. They have the most successful tablet device out and are well into the second generation of the iPad. But first does not always mean best nor does popularity alone indicate complete success (although it certainly helps). Today we have the chance to take a look at one of the competitors to Apple. Not necessarily the iPad, although it will challenge that device in a major way, this is more of a direct threat to the Apple fan base and their tablet/ultra-portable devices. This is the EEE Slate EP121 (also called the EEE Pad) from Asus; a product launched at CES and one that packs quite a bit of hardware including an Intel Core i5 Dual Core CPU and up to 4GB of RAM. So sit back for a good read and decide for yourself if this one falls into the winner’s group or the losers.

Published in Pro Systems
Monday, 04 April 2011 19:43

Asus EAH6950 Voltage Tweak Edition Give Away

 

 

02Ok so here is the deal. Asus has sent us a couple of GPUs. One an EAH6870 Direct CU is for review and testing. The other an  EAH6950 Voltage Tweak Edition is for us to give away to one of our readers. We thought we would make this interesting. To do this we have come up with a nice interactive way to give this away. We will be publishing our review of the 6870 very soon and this card is designed to be overclocked as is the 6950 so we thought we would see if you guys and girls can guess just how fast we can get the 6870 and still finish all of our testing.


To find out what we use to test you can take a look at our review of the Asus 5870 Stalker COP Edition. Once you have the overclock in your head (for Core, Memory and Voltage used) send it along to our This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. The first person (based on the subission times) who is the closest (and is inside the US or Canada) to the actual overclock wins the Asus EAH6950 Voltage Tweak.

We will be publishing our review in on April 13th so you have till then to get in your guess. Make sure the e-mail address is valid as that is how I will be contacting you. Good Luck!

01



**I do not an will never sell, redistrinute, give away or spam ANY e-mail address used for this contest, to register for the site or any other that I may have... It is just in poor taste to do that**

Published in News

 


RIIIBE

At CES this year I had the chance to take a look at some of Asus’ new products that were going to be launched soon.  These were mostly P67 based motherboards (although there was the EEE Slate that I am currently working on), but there was one that really caught my eye. This was the Rampage III Black Edition. The RIIIBE might seem like an improvement on the RIII Extreme, but that would be quite an understatement.  We will be taking a long hard look at this product in the next few days but wanted to give you a quick preview here to whet your appetite.

Published in Un-Boxings
Wednesday, 16 February 2011 08:51

The Asus Xonar Xense sounds off in the lab




XenseIn the PC world audio components are often overlooked. There are only so many items that your average consumer can keep track of. They know CPU, GPU Motherboard. Some will know about the power supply but really not much else. After all, Intel and others have been fighting to say the build in Audio CODEC on your average motherboard is as good as a discrete audio card so why should consumers think different? Well, if you think about it logically this does not make sense. After all, can you name one IGP (integrated graphics processor) that is as good as even a simple mid-range discrete GPU? I would not even say that the IGP on the i7 2600K is as good. So why would anyone think that an on-board audio CODEC would be better or even “just as good”? It is all marketing. We have tested multiple boards and also multiple add-in audio cards and can attest to this. Now I think I have found “the one”. The one audio card that finally brings the audiophile level expectation to the PC world. This is the Xonar Xense. It is Asus’ flagship audio card and one that has them partnered up with Sennheiser. The Xonar Xense comes complete with a pair of Sennheiser PC 350 Xense Edition headphones, a tuned audio card (complete with custom gain levels), and a head phone amplifier this is one serious piece of audio gear for your gaming or multi-media audio pleasure. So let’s put the PC 350 Xense headphones on, sit back and see what we can hear.

Published in Enthusiast Audio



09-stuffHave you noticed that the selection for good quality audio components for the PC is dwindling? I mean the number of companies that make add-in sound cards, good quality analog (and digital) speaker sets and yes even head phones (for those of us that have to maintain a low volume presence). There was a time when the choices in audio gear was large enough that you had to do quite a bit of research to get something that fit right. Now, well the pickings are slim. However, just because they are limited does not mean there are not any good ones out there. As we recently found with the Cine5 from Asus some companies are getting back into the audio game. We had the chance to talk to Asus about their recent improvements in quality audio products (both on their boards and their own line of audio gear). Asus said they recognize that gamers, enthusiasts and HTPC owners are looking for better audio from their components; as such Asus is moving to provide these parts at all levels to meet this need. One of the products they have released is a set of plug and play wireless headphones; the Travelite HS-1000W. These headphones operate from a single USB audio dongle that acts as both audio processing device and charging connection. They are lightweight and while not exactly “stylish” still look pretty good. Now it is time for us to see if they work well or not.

Published in Consumer Audio



01-Cine5Asus is a common name in computer components. We have taken a look at more than our share of their products from the mundane to the extreme.  One area that Asus has been taking more of an interest is the higher-end side of the HTPC market.  Here is where things get interesting. Unlike gamers, or overclockers a person that wants to build a high-end HTPC is looking for the best combination of performance, cooling and power draw. If you can build it fast, cool and power efficient then they will want that.  But building an HTPC is not only about what you drop inside the system. You also need some good hardware on the final end of the output side. Not to worry, Asus has you covered there too. They have their own line of HD capable monitors and even speaker sets to keep you happy. We are taking a look at t new one to hit the market. It is a speaker bar that is capable of providing 5.1 surround sound to your viewing area. Called the Cine5, this small and stylish speaker system runs for about $130 on the internet. We are going to take a look and see if it is worth it.

Published in Consumer Audio
Thursday, 05 August 2010 13:45

Asus Rampage III Formula Pictures and Information



Rampage_III_FormulaI love hearing about new technology and upcoming products. It is great to speculate on what we will get from these future devices. Today we have information on a very nice one. This is the latest from Asus’ ROG lineup. We have some very nice information and images of the upcoming Rampage III Formula.

Published in News
Tuesday, 03 August 2010 20:35

Asus Dual Socket 1366 Z8NA-D6C stops by the lab



01The workstation server market is one that has been neglected in the mainstream technical media. Yes there are a few “upper-end” sites that cover the workstation arena but they tend be a little snobby at times and almost always talk over the heads of the average consumer. So we are going to try and bring some of that talk to you in plain English. To kick things off we have a very nice product. This is the first Dual socket 1366 motherboard in a standard ATX package. It has been brought to you by the Asus Work Station team. These guys are a very talented bunch and have made some workstation products that can even compete head to head with some of the Republic of Games boards that Asus has. So let’s introduce to you the Asus Z8NA-D6C.

Published in Pro Motherboards

 

 

Card01With all the hoopla over the GTX 460 going on we are taking the time to look at a GPU that is not really new, but is still worthy of some headlines. Although the AMD Radeon HD5870 is fast approaching its first birthday it is no surprise that it is still a big seller. But we wondered if it is the reference GPUs that are making the 5870 fly off the shelves or if it is products like the Asus EAH5870 S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat edition (which we will just call Stalker COP moving forward) This is Asus’ V2 HD5870 with a voltage tweak option for great overclocking potential. As you might have guessed the box also contains the Stalker COP game as part of the bundle. So let’s try out this bundle and see if it is worth the $500 or so you will shell out for it.

 

Published in Enthusiast GPUs



08-boardAs another product comes down off of the bench we get to crack open new one. This time we break open the Asus Rampage III Gene. This Micro ATX motherboard is the baby brother to the Rampage III Extreme and has some of the same core features, just in a smaller package.  The smaller size makes it perfect for installation into portable LAN party cases. With a retail price of about $230 (about $150 less than the Rampage III Extreme) it could be an amazing deal if the features and performance are even close to its big brother. Let’s tear open the box shall we?

Published in Un-Boxings
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