Sapphire

Sapphire was the talk of E3 with their “ Nano-Cooler” liquid metal demonstration. Aside from the fact that NanoCoolers require no moving parts to work, the relatively small packaging just continues to sweeten the deal. In the image below, the X850XT uses two fans to cool the heat exchanger, but the final product will only need one.

The heatpipes – filled with the liquid metal alloy – were warm to the touch, but not searing hot like traditional heatpipes. The final product will also use a reduced electronics package, since the bulk of the electronics featured in this shot are actually for the prototype fans.


Click to enlarge.

RD400 ( Xpress 200 Crossfire for Intel) was also on display. Most of the ATI partners had some demonstrations of RD480, but very few had RD400.


Click to enlarge.


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  • gilboa - Thursday, June 2, 2005 - link

    Linux *has* software RAID 6 support.
    I've been using it for a while now.

    Just look at the kernel source under:
    /usr/src/linux/drivers/md/raid6*
  • bigboxes - Thursday, June 2, 2005 - link

    "Maybe if they put heat pipes throughout the whole desk it would offer interesting cooling."

    LOL
  • smn198 - Thursday, June 2, 2005 - link

    Lian Li's weird round case could be good for a geek version of this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/4593977.stm

    Their desk looks quite interesting although I think I'll spend my $2000 elsewhere. Maybe if they put heat pipes throughout the whole desk it would offer interesting cooling.
  • cHodAXUK - Thursday, June 2, 2005 - link

    Suprise, suprise, another year passes and Lian Li still haven't produced a case that doesn't look like an aluminium version of an old 386 midi-tower.
  • flatblastard - Thursday, June 2, 2005 - link

    Correction: rd400/rd480

    Also, I was wondering if those motherboards have 6 or 8 channel audio. It's late and I'm too tired to walk upstairs and fire up the main rig so I can enlarge the pic big enough to read that list ;)

    Man I must be gettin lazy in my old age (26), lol.....or could this be a sign it's time to replace my old browser rig?
  • flatblastard - Thursday, June 2, 2005 - link

    Looks like HIS RD400/RS480 will be using the sb450 southbridge instead of ULi. Interesting considering the "powerhouse" image. I guess it's still too soon to pass judgment on southbridge from the near-future. I'm still keeping my eyes peeled just in case you throw in a pic of the ultra vanilla non-crossfire ati+sb450/ULi mobo if such a thing will exist. I"ve seen various pics on manufacturer web sites but nothing new in a while.
    Just keep feeding us and we will grow. Keep up the good work!
  • Calin - Thursday, June 2, 2005 - link

    Tarumam,
    Every microelectronics producers (memory makers included) tend to overestimate the need for some product or another. Or they simply react to one opponent's increased production with increased production of their own, regardless of the perceived need.
    In the end, this is good for users - it forces prices down to levels sometime lower than production costs.
    I liked the watercooled case
  • Doormat - Thursday, June 2, 2005 - link

    Windows Servers can do RAID-5 but I wouldnt recommend it since it requires the use of dynamic disks (in other words, its difficult to get your disks back if your machine dies and you have to reinstall the OS or stuff like that).

    There are RAID-6 cards out on the market now (Areca makes up to 16-port PCI-Ex8 SATA-II RAID-6 controller). I do see everyone migrating to RAID-6 since it would take a long while to rebuild a 8x400GB RAID-5 array, even with current HD read/write speeds. That long amount of time to rebuild the array leaves you vulerable to having another disk fail while the rebuild is taking place and you being SOL.

    Raid 6 info: http://www.acnc.com/04_01_06.html

    It basically uses parity in two dimensions.

    Other than that, it looks like it was a very good Computex - its a shame they dont have a show like this in North America. I'd be there in a second!
  • Brian23 - Thursday, June 2, 2005 - link

    ...which brings me to my next point kids, don't do crack.
  • Yawgm0th - Thursday, June 2, 2005 - link

    I was a few seconds too late. :)

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