TOURING THE GIGABYTE suite in the Taipei 101 tower, we saw a diverse group of new items to talk about. We have told you about some of them earlier, here are the rest.
The highlight was unquestionably the MIB case, by far the best case of Computex. Gigabyte did not stop there though, they had three other new cases, the iSolo 3138, 2000 and 2004. 3138, below right, is the nicest of the bunch, with a hinged aluminum cover plate over the drive bays. With the cover plate up, it presents a sleek front, but down, the inside is ribbed to give you a different look and feel. I have not seen a front panel hinged like that before.
Mid-mounted hinge
Another nice touch is the rubber cover for the USB, firewire and audio ports on top. Nothing groundbreaking, just handy. The 2000 has the same cover, but lacks the hinged plate. The front of this one, on the left above, is typical mesh and aluminum. The nicest thing about the 2000 is that it has an easy access washable dust filter. Other than that, all three are basically variants on the same chassis.
At CeBIT, Gigabyte showed off the Booktop netbook/laptop with a unique side standing docking station. These now have a bigger brother with an Intel CULV CPU instead of an Atom. It is called the M1305 and has a 13.3″ screen and an internal DVD. Graphics are done with a GS45 chipset, nothing amazing, but since it is sadly Vista compliant, it will need all the help it can get. You should see them on the shelves in September starting $1000, dock included.
Lest we forget, Gigabyte also makes power supplies. They have two lines to talk about. The first is an upcoming 900W 80+ Gold certified PSU, a 700W variant will follow. More than anything, this shows Gigabyte can make high end PSUs with the best of them.
More interesting was a prototype of a UPS PSU. Slated for production in Q4, this 500W unit will power a standard PC for 2-3 minutes under full load. It will not keep a server up overnight, but that time is enough for you to to hit the save button when the lights start flickering. Brownouts can be safely ignored as well. This PSU could be very handy if the price is not out of line.
Everything needs leather and crystal
Last up, we have a complete overkill part, the GM-M7800S wireless mouse. It is a standard Gigabyte mouse, a good thing, covered with leather, decorated with Swarovoski crystal, and plated with 18K gold. That part is, umm, more defined by individual tastes. Either way, it is the only gold, leather and crystal mouse we saw at Computex.S|A
Charlie Demerjian
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