ATI/ASUS

ATI

ATI’s Comdex presence was very subdued this year. Not only was their booth smaller it was also pretty sparse. And with less people at the show this year, it was a pretty laid-back environment. ATI had a couch sitting in front of a wide-screen TV that was powered by an ALL-IN-WONDER small form-factor system. The highlight of course was ATI’s new EAZYSHARE technology, which will be launching with CATALYST 3.10 later this month.

As we discussed earlier, with EAZYSHARE, you can convert your ALL-IN-WONDER-based PC into a video server, serving video content to up to four RADEON-based clients throughout your home. EAZYSHARE supports wired as well as wireless networking standards, and will be a standard feature for all ALL-IN-WONDER RADEON owners, for those of you with older ALL-IN-WONDER products, ATI will likely offer EAZYSHARE via CD, but you will have to pay a shipping and handling fee.

Devices powered by ATI

You can use EAZYSHARE to watch live television or any recordings you’ve made, as well as timeshift. Due to licensing restrictions, the client machines won’t be able to access Gemstar’s GUIDE PLUS+ data, but you can schedule recordings from the client machine. We’ll be doing a dedicated feature on building a home theater PC shortly, which will feature the ALL-IN-WONDER and of course will mention EAZYSHARE in more depth there.

ASUS

A custom ASUS P4 rig

ATI boards were so hot they nearly blinded me

A closer look at the P4R800-V Deluxe board

ASUS had its complete lineup of current and upcoming motherboards on display. The big news was ASUS’ RADEON 9100 IGP-based boards, the microATX P4R800-VM and the ATX P4R800-V Deluxe. Since the ATI chipset lacks native Serial ATA, FireWire, and audio, board manufacturers will have to rely on third-party chips for a wide range of functions. Fortunately, ATI didn’t skimp on the North Bridge, as it offers support for Intel’s 800MHz front-side bus, dual-channel DDR333/400, AGP 8X, and Hyper-Threading. And of course, you can’t forget the RADEON 9100 integrated graphics (with dual display support). I just hope ATI redoubles their efforts for their next South Bridge, IXP 250.

ASUS' nForce3 250 board

ASUS' Terminator 2 SFF system

T2 up close

ASUS also had a motherboard based on NVIDIA’s upcoming nForce3 250 chipset. nForce3 250 will add native Gigabit Ethernet networking and Serial ATA support to the package, although NVIDIA will continue to omit its Dolby Digital audio.

Another ASUS SFF rig

Other notables I saw included ASUS’ RADEON 9800 XT and RADEON 9600 XT boards, as well as their GeForce FX 5950 Ultra solution, the V9980 Ultra. We have all of these boards in-house, as well as their SiS 655 TX motherboard, the P4S800D-E Deluxe so expect reviews of these products shortly.