CES 2009: Part 2

Previously, on FiringSquad….

Yesterday, we reported on what we saw from Razer, HP, Psyko, Sapphire, and Silverstone. Today, we are going to finish up our CES coverage with Gigabyte, nVidia, iBuypower, Lian Li, Velocity Micro, OCZ, BFG, Asus, Corsair, and EVGA. So let’s cut to the chase and get right into it, shall we?

Gigabyte

Gigabyte invited us to their suite where they were showcasing their latest in their Ultra Durable line of motherboards. The one that caught our eye the most was the GA-EX58-Extreme. Featuring an X58 chipset and 3-way SLI, The GA-EX58-Extreme sports one of the most interesting features we‘ve seen on a motherboard: an integrated water block on the chipset.

GA-EX58-Extreme

Notice the liquid cooling barbs on the chipset

Demo system running the new board

Gigabyte's got some big coolers

Specs

Without the glasses

nVidia

Nvidia was touting their newly announced 3D Vision glasses pretty heavily with the tagline “Speak Visual.” We are going to try to get a review of the 3D Vision glasses done for you guys, but for now, take ease in knowing that they are pretty cool when tried firsthand. They have to be used to really be appreciated, especially in games like Mirror’s Edge, Left 4 Dead, and Burnout: Paradise. They seemed to enhance the textures of the rendering, as small locks of Zoey’s hair swayed around with movement with them on. The level of depth can be adjusted on the fly, should you find it too obtrusive to your tastes.

Without the glasses

Ignore the fat ugly guy and look at the specs instead

Nvidia was also showing off their Ion Platform, which is essentially a small PCB with an Intel Atom CPU and nVidia 9400M GPU. They had demos setup showing the Ion rendering Call of Duty 4 at 30 frames per second as well as High-Definition 1080P video playback. The first thing that popped into our heads was the potential for a powerful HTPC system if it was paired with a SSD or 2.5” notebook hard drive.

This must be that World of Warcraft I hear so much about...

NVIDIA Ion is tiny

Lots of Ports

iBuypower

iBuypower was showcasing three new systems that are just being released now, 2 based on the Core i7 and one based on the AMD Phenom II. The first Core i7 system featured the latest case from Silverstone, the Raven, as well as dual EVGA GTX295 graphics cards in SLI and a 256GB SSD from Samsung. Their other Core i7 system was using the new Xpressar refrigerant system from Thermaltake, the first such system to do since its release. The Phenom II system was sporting the latest from AMD including a Radeon 4870X2 and liquid cooled CPU thanks the Domino A.L.C. self-contained cooler. iBuypower also showed off their custom side panels which use a laminate to create a seamless image. The quality was impressive and a nice touch should anyone want to give their rig the ultimate customization.

Sorry for the blur, low light is not my friend

Specs

Specs

The Xpressar is custom fit

Why yes, I would like to see a magic trick...where'd everyone go?

Specs