Computex 2006 Wrap-Up: External Storage, Cooling, and More
by Gary Key on June 17, 2006 5:40 AM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
We are wrapping up our Computex 2006 coverage and although there are still hundreds of various products to discuss, we need to get back to the business of reviewing some of the products that are actually available. We will close our coverage with a look at a few external storage products, cooling items, and some miscellaneous items we found in our travels.
As we mentioned in our previous coverage, Intel really was everywhere at this show. Generally speaking, the majority of the products we viewed were evolutionary in nature. While there were some unique products such as the Thermaltake Mozart TX that took a completely different spin on a decades-old idea or the various USB 2.0 Flash Drive designs from A-Data, there really were no revolutionary products that we could find in our travels. We kept looking for a product that would just reach out and grab our attention - you know, the type that would cause lust in our hearts and put our brains into action trying to figure out how to come home with it at any cost. However, in the end we ended up viewing a lot of interesting products but ones that kept our Visa cards safely secured. That is not to say there were not a few products that we lusted after, like our Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 loaner that stayed with us for the briefest of moments, but overall the show was about maturity in the personal computer market and evolutionary strides in product designs.
External Storage Products:
SansDigital
We stopped by the SansDigital booth to view their new Mobile Silver line of products. While they have been marketing their AccuRAID (2U Rackmount), EliteStor (1U Rackmount), and EliteRAID (3U Rackmount) products into the business sector for some time, it is their MobileStor and MobileRAID products they are featuring for the home and small office user that we found to be interesting.
This is a small sampling of the Mobile Silver lineup of products that feature everything from a 2.5 inch Portable Hard drive enclosure to the five-drive external RAID enclosure featuring a SCSI Ultra 320 or SATA 3Gb/s interface.
The MS1U enclosure features support for 2.5 inch IDE hard drives up to 160GB in size, USB 2.0 interface, and 9-in-1 multi-format memory card reader/writer along with single button backup capability from the memory card to the hard drive.
The MR5S1 is a five bay external RAID enclosure that can be configured with either a SCSI Ultra 320 or SATA 3Gb/s interface. The enclosure supports RAID 0, 1, 10, 3, 5, 6, JBOD, and Hot Spare Disk. It also offers Online Array roaming, online RAID level/stripe size migration, online RAID capacity expansion and RAID level migration. If you're still following us, the feature list concludes with automatic insertion/removal detection and rebuild; Hard Disk, Fan and Temperature failure detectors; and a common drive carrier that can be used with all MobileStor enclosures.
As we mentioned in our previous coverage, Intel really was everywhere at this show. Generally speaking, the majority of the products we viewed were evolutionary in nature. While there were some unique products such as the Thermaltake Mozart TX that took a completely different spin on a decades-old idea or the various USB 2.0 Flash Drive designs from A-Data, there really were no revolutionary products that we could find in our travels. We kept looking for a product that would just reach out and grab our attention - you know, the type that would cause lust in our hearts and put our brains into action trying to figure out how to come home with it at any cost. However, in the end we ended up viewing a lot of interesting products but ones that kept our Visa cards safely secured. That is not to say there were not a few products that we lusted after, like our Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 loaner that stayed with us for the briefest of moments, but overall the show was about maturity in the personal computer market and evolutionary strides in product designs.
External Storage Products:
SansDigital
We stopped by the SansDigital booth to view their new Mobile Silver line of products. While they have been marketing their AccuRAID (2U Rackmount), EliteStor (1U Rackmount), and EliteRAID (3U Rackmount) products into the business sector for some time, it is their MobileStor and MobileRAID products they are featuring for the home and small office user that we found to be interesting.
This is a small sampling of the Mobile Silver lineup of products that feature everything from a 2.5 inch Portable Hard drive enclosure to the five-drive external RAID enclosure featuring a SCSI Ultra 320 or SATA 3Gb/s interface.
The MS1U enclosure features support for 2.5 inch IDE hard drives up to 160GB in size, USB 2.0 interface, and 9-in-1 multi-format memory card reader/writer along with single button backup capability from the memory card to the hard drive.
The MR5S1 is a five bay external RAID enclosure that can be configured with either a SCSI Ultra 320 or SATA 3Gb/s interface. The enclosure supports RAID 0, 1, 10, 3, 5, 6, JBOD, and Hot Spare Disk. It also offers Online Array roaming, online RAID level/stripe size migration, online RAID capacity expansion and RAID level migration. If you're still following us, the feature list concludes with automatic insertion/removal detection and rebuild; Hard Disk, Fan and Temperature failure detectors; and a common drive carrier that can be used with all MobileStor enclosures.
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VooDooAddict - Tuesday, June 20, 2006 - link
I've seen blurbs like this before for the F5000 ... Question still remains though ... what video system will be used? I'd love to see a 7900 GS or GTX in there.Kougar - Sunday, June 18, 2006 - link
That very last paragraph was worth the entire article! But thanks for the extra coverage too. ;)Don't forget to throw in some 32bit vs 64bit comparisons, since some benches are showing Conroe is finally delivering some on that potential 64bit advantage! I'm very much wondering if Vista x64 will show the same advantages over Vista x86... especially considering that the former is 4.1gb and the latter is a 3.1gb file size when I downloaded them both...
BTW, need some extra security for your luggage? I'll even offer my services for free... :D
Lord Evermore - Saturday, June 17, 2006 - link
That MR5S1, does it just plug into any old eSATA port if you get the SATA option? Seems like a sweet setup to get any RAID configuration you want, and I assume high performance using a hardware controller. How much is that gonna cost? A 3-bay unit seems like a good option they should have too, instead of only the 1, 2 and 5 bay units in the picture. 3 bays seems like just the right point for a user who wants high performance without quite going all the way to 5 drives, and it'd be a good size to hide away. Anybody else make similar products?Howard - Saturday, June 17, 2006 - link
Is that a heat piped HS I see?Gary Key - Saturday, June 17, 2006 - link
It is. I tried to get a close up with the display case open but no go. In fact, a couple of the OEM/ODM power supply manufacturers prohibted close up pictures of their products. It was strange to me as they were happy to provide brochures with bascially the same screenshots I wanted to take.
Per Hansson - Sunday, June 18, 2006 - link
Would be interesting to see how it was designed, every single watercooled PSU I've seen for example puts the primary (230VAC) and secondary (12DC and lower) diodes and mosfets on the same heatsink. They are only shielded by a thin thermal pad... So if something goes wrong there is high risk of 230VAC on the Secondary side, you can guess the effect on the computers components...Simple test; take a digital multimeter and set it to AC and measure from the chassi to the primary heatsink, on most designs you will read 160VAC... Now guess what would happen if you connected that heatsink to the other, and then imagine that the watercooled PSU I taked about above only prevents the short with a thin thermal pad...
Per Hansson - Saturday, June 17, 2006 - link
Sure looks so... I still do not understand why they have the cover on these units at a tradeshow...But it is probably to not reveal that they all use crap capacitors, everyone except Zippy and Seasonic (select models) use crap capacitors so...
Guess it's good for business when your products only hold togheter for 3 years and then start giving the computer random lockup problems due to too much ripple current being let through?!
Sigh...
Operandi - Saturday, June 17, 2006 - link
Actually all of Zalman’s PSUs are built by Forton-Source, so their definitely one of the better ones out there.Per Hansson - Sunday, June 18, 2006 - link
Yup, that is right, it is an excallent design, however it such a shame that they have to spoil it with OST and Capxon capacitors :(