CES 2008 Photo Report

Asus focused much of their attention on mobile technology at this year’s CES.  We saw a number of new notebooks and mobile devices on display in Asus’ booth along with the traditional assortment of motherboards and other PC accessories.

     

     

     

     
ASUS

The latest Lamborghini notebook, the VX3 was being showcased, as was the new G70.  The G70 is a DTR-class notebook that features NVIDIA’s SLI technology, a 17” WUXGA screen, dual-SATA hard drives, a Blu-Ray or HD DVD drive, and a built in 1.3MP webcam.  The G70 had a brushed aluminum finish that looked great in person – the picture doesn’t do it justice.  Another interesting feature of the G70 is a small built in screen above the keyboard that can be used to displaying a multitude of different things, like PC Health status, media being played, etc.

While in Asus’ booth we also had a chance to play with the company’s upcoming R700 GPS and handful of smartphones.  The R700’s interface still needed some work, but the device’s form factor and screen were very nice.

Of course, the Asus booth was rife with EeePCs, which now come in multiple colors, and a slew of accessories designed for the diminutive PC.   A bevy of motherboards were on display too, like the upcoming X48-based Rampage Formula, the NVIDIA nForce 780a based M3N-HT Deluxe, and the X38-based P5E64 WS Professional.

A Recap From HotHardware's News Page: As usual, we tripped through the Asus product booth this year at CES.  And in traditional Asus fashion, we were privy to some sights and sounds that were rather interesting.  If you've been paying attention, you've probably noticed that Asus is making a big push into the notebook space and has even managed to penetrate some of the major brick and mortar retailers like Best Buy.  As such, Asus had a lot on display regarding their Notebook and UMPC offerings, with lots Eee PCs of course, front and center.  However, tucked off in the corner we stumbled upon a previously released model that was updated with a next generation mobile GPU from NVIDIA.

   
Asus G1Sn with NVIDIA GeForce 9500M GS GPU
 

The Asus G1Sn notebook you're seeing here is equipped with an NVIDIA GeForce 9500M GS mobile graphics processor.  According to the system properties, the 9500M GS has a GPU code name of G84 and in this particular configuration, it is coupled to 512MB of frame buffer memory.  Based on the naming convention, we would speculate that this is a mid-range mobile GPU - and we expect it to perform as such - but with features similar to that of the upcoming GeForce 9 series of graphics processors, and with the potential for a Hybrid Power implementation when used with future nForce mobile chipsets.

     
EVGA

We saw some very cool stuff in EVGA’s suite at CES, some of which we cannot tell you about just yet.  For now, let’s just say EVGA plans to offer a number of graphics related products for the PC that don’t slide into an expansion slot.

One of the hot products EVGA was showcasing was a dual-slot GeForce 8800 GT card.  EVGA cited reports that single-slot GeForce 8800 GT cards were running hotter than some customers would have liked, so the company decided to introduce the product you see pictured here.

EVGA also showed off some new motherboards.  But what makes these different than their traditional offerings is that EVGA now has a team of in-house designers producing proprietary EVGA motherboards (the team comes from a former enthusiast-friendly motherboard manufacturer who shall remain nameless.  Hint: The name also starts with an E).  They will continue to offer reference motherboards based on NVIDIA’s chipsets, but the 780i SLI pictured here is an all-EVGA design.  Notice the hybrid air / water cooling system, connector placement, and clear-CMOS switch.