CES 2006 means more consumer electronics.  More TVs, more more.   It also means the computer companies that once hit up Comdex will often show up at CES instead.  This means we need to hit up this show to get the latest on what is going on in the computer world.  This is our wrap-up of 4 days worth of CES as we highlight some of the products we saw, and take pictures of big televisions because we can.

AMD

We will go in alphabetical order, and so that means ironically we start with AMD.  Alienware had their Star Wars PCs on display.  HP has managed to actually market AMD based systems the past few months which we like to see.  This is their media center box that has sold so well in retail.

 

We put up the press release about the Nascar PC, and here we have our eyes on it for the first time.  We had not heard about this Pinon Sizka which is a Geode LX800 based small form factor design.

 

AMD keeps plugging away at the laptop market.  Here the popular Ferrari model is pictured with the new carbon fiber black casing.  You will also find the Lance Armstrong HP model that has sold very well, and an Alienware Aurora.  On the right is a rounded laptop aimed at the fairer sex.

 

AMD also was showcasing a myriad of Geode powered media player devices.  On the right we see Sage and Sony small form factor AMD powered media players.  In the background we see Austin director Robert Rodriguez talking about El Mariachi.  Ok, he is actually talking about Sin City which was rendered on AMD based systems.

 

Voodoo PC had this gold coated PC on display with its own guard.  It was so expensive that I felt obligated to tip the guard.  It is Vegas after all.

 

Voodoo also had a laptop on display.  Lastly we wind up our look at AMD's gallery with this webpad from DT Research.

While at AMD we discussed mobile almost completely.  They were interested in mobile and gaming, and we talked briefly about some new mobile tech coming we can't yet talk about.  I explained to AMD that we did not see too many laptops at our gaming events, and that this is most likely because of cost, and because AMD powered laptops are almost never offered with the fastest graphics solution.  This means gamers have either the fastest gaming CPU, and a slower graphics solution, or the fastest graphics solution, and must use a slower Intel CPU for gaming.  They said they hope to see this change, and well we will have to wait and see and hope that it does mean better gaming laptops are coming.

Antec

Antec had a number of silent cases on display at their suite.  This is a new silent model that comes in white with a nearly silent power supply.  It also includes plenty of technologies for keep drives quite, and a covering on the panel sides to help mask system noise.  Most interesting is the option to mount hard drives on rubber bands of sort by wrapping the drive in them to suspend them in the bay.  This completely eliminates any drive noise from vibration.

 

We see several silent models on the left in the 100 to 150 dollar range.  A new variation of the SOHO is in black on the right.

 

Big 120mm fans was a theme of the new Antec cases.  We see as well some plastic tabs used to help direct airflow around your case.  They can be expanded or shortened by adding sections so that airflow near the CPU can be maximized.  Here we see a removable drive bay using plastic fasteners to reduce vibration.

 

Antec is using triple chambers in their new cases to keep heat from the drives, power supply, and CPU and graphics cards in separate areas.  Each has separate cooling to keep your system running at its best.  Antec also showed a new media center case design that also includes the triple chambers, and was extremely quiet during operation.

Asus

Asus is next on our list, and we were surprised to see LCDs in action at their booth.  They have a 20" widescreen LCD pictured on the left which we would love to get our hands on.  Also new on the right is a 32" LCD HDTV which had some impressive color reproduction.  As we get more information on availability of these models we will let you know.

 

Asus is not just putting out plain GeForce 7800GT products.  They were showcasing their dual 7800GT card on the left, and a silent fanless 7800GT here on the right.

 

Also getting the silent treatment is their Radeon X700 card.  Something different here is that the GPU and memory are on the underside of the card.  The reasoning is that when in a case those components and the heatsink will be on the top side of the case so hot air will not be trapped.  Asus had plenty of next generation motherboards on display, and even one we can not tell you about behind closed doors.

 

On the left we see their new 32X PCI E lane CrossFire motherboard.  On the right we have also spotted a rare VIA K8T890 offering.

 

The Lamborghini laptop was big news at the show as it goes head to head with the AMD powered Ferrari.  The Lamborghini  has a carbon fiber casing.  Asus also had this quite small pink accented laptop for the ladies.

Asus had a wide array of products on display.  We are eager to see their push into displays and HDTVs.  They also had a power supply on display along with a new case we can't talk about yet.  Wireless and mobile devices were also on hand as the dominate motherboard manufacturer continues to expand their product lineup.

 

ATI

On to ATI we ran into Asus again this time with their case, CrossFire motherboard, and Radeon card on display.  Monarch also had an ATI powered small form factor at their booth.

 

Plenty of Mobility powered laptops were on hand.  ATI also has a large number of mobile devices with ATI graphics technology.

 

They also had a motherboard wall with Xpress 200 and Xpress 200 CrossFire boards from many manufacturers.

 

We always like seeing DVI ports on integrated video motherboards, but we like HDMI better now.  This Liquid XS mod liquid cooled a CrossFire rig.

 

We wrap up our look at ATI with some looks at the gaming area of their booth with a Prey video playing above these guys gaming.

 

BenQ

BenQ had a lot LCDs, HDTVs, and projectors on display.  This 3ms 19" LCD gaming product caught our attention.  They even had Kornelia on hand dishing out punishment in Quake 4 to show they are committed to gaming.

 

If you don't like widescreen LCD monitors then there is no hope for you.  Here BenQ has three in small, medium, and large both stand and wall mounted.  We dig that 23" model.  We asked BenQ about the possibility of adding HDMI to their LCD monitors, and they told us that they would indeed be doing that in the future much to our delight.

 

Coolermaster

Coolermaster has an ever widening array of cooling and case products.  Here are a few of their newer CPU coolers with plenty of copper and heatpipes.

 

They also had these nice looking prototype next generation case designs.  The middle one has a gated front that caught my eye.  We hope to see these in for review soon.

 

Corsair

Corsair has renewed their interest in water cooling, and had a brand new solution on display.  The Nautilus 500 will run about $150, and should have a fairly easy setup.

 

Also on display were a couple of mods Corsair had commissioned.

 

DFI

At DFI we saw another product we can not yet talk about.  They are getting more serious about integrated video motherboards.  This GeForce 6100 model is an example of that.  You can also see they are starting to use DVI as well.  We certainly encouraged them to take a serious look at adding HDMI too.

 

Here they have an ATI Xpress 200 model, the RS482 Infinity.  We expect 16X SLI coming from DFI soon as they improve upon their Lan Party series yet again.

 

Dlink

Dlink was showing their gaming router as well as various wireless home and SOHO products.

 

Dull

Big news at CES was Dull's showing of a quad SLI system with a 30" LCD.  We talked to Dull at length about the system, but they have no answers about a launch date, price, or quantity this system will see.  What we have are two 16X PCI Express slots with a 7800GTX attached to each, and both cards having a daughter card.  We asked Dull about why if they were serious about gaming would they not use the fastest gaming CPU.  They admitted that was an issue.  We learned from some motherboard partners that were a bit miffed about being left out of this announcement, and one can't blame them.  I would suspect that if indeed quad SLI becomes commercially available the market will be in homebuilt systems, and not with Dull.  I can still not all these years later consider their attempts at a gaming PC serious.  They do not have the right personel. 

 

Here we have a shot of the 30" LCD which we are told is really a Phillips.  A better version is said to be coming available from them with more features, and better screen quality.

ECS

ECS was showing off their CrossFire motherboard we have finally received.  They also had PMPs on hand they are ready to manufacturer and rebrand.

 

They also showed a number of Intel Duo products including this Viiv box.  Intel ordered 300 from ECS for their demonstrations, and this model is featured in the ads for Viiv.  We learned from ECS that HDMI support should be coming in the second version which we were glad to hear.  We also let it be known that a Turion model would be excellent in our opinions.  Also learned from ECS is their intent on coming back to the graphics card market first with mid range products like the 6800GS and X1300.  We hope to take a look at their graphics offerings soon.

Google

Years from now before Google becomes self aware, and wipes us from the face of the planet those at CES 2006 will remember the precursor, or foreshadowing to the event.  Giant Google cranes disguised as innocent Legos will pluck us to our doom.  Luckily our legacies will live on as we will be entirely Google cached.

 

Infocus

If there was a theme to the main hall it was that putting the NFL playoffs on a big HDTV projector would draw a crowd.  The other theme is that clearly the Cowboys, and not the Redskins deserved to be in the playoffs.

 

Intel

Intel was showing off loads of Viiv products.  I actually preferred these lighted Half Life tenacles.

 

Microsoft

Microsoft was all Xbox 360 and Vista.

 

MSI

MSI was showcasing their 16X SLI and CrossFire Socket 939 motherboards.  We certainly hope to test them soon.

 

The also had a wide range of laptops and media players on display.

 

Another big news grabber was their SLI card using two MXM laptop GeForce parts.  Yes, you can swap them out for new versions.  Will this come to market?  Perhaps if cost is low enough, and mobile parts can continue to follow their desktop counterparts quickly.  The also had this modded out case running SLI.

 

Nvidia

Nvidia had some stuff we also could not talk about.  We can talk about this ABS system, and a nice looking green light modded case.  Notice the custom Nvidia Steelpads which happens to be my mouse pad of choice.

 

Nvidia was showing off their latest mobile offerings including the 7300, 7400, 7600, and 7800.  These models included American and European offerings from several vendors.  To the right is one we could not show in the picture unfortunately.  On the right is an HDDVD demonstration.  Do you like to... do it yourself?

 

Here Nvidia was demoing some shader model 3 action.

We talked to Drew Henry at length about their acquisition of ULi.  They felt having a Taiwanese design firm would be a great asset to the company as they continue to expand their product lineup.  Also of course with ATI heavily relying on the ULi Southbridge for years, and many Xpress 200 boards using a ULi Southbridge it could also be quite a blow to their top competitor.

 

OCZ

OCZ was showing off the new Tempest heatsink, as well as their new lineup of memory with the new heatsink spreaders.  The vent holes they claim drops the memory chip temperature a couple of degrees.

 

Certainly interesting was their new phase change cooler.  This was just a prototype, but still was cooling an FX55 rather well.  They are aiming at a price point of $350 at introduction, and cooling almost as good as a Prometia.  They hope to drop the price as low as $200, and also plan on offering models with twin heads for dual CPU cooling, or cooling the CPU and GPU.  Certainly we would love to see a lower cost phase change solution and will be watching this one.

 

Panasonic

Panasonic took home the crown for the largest HDTV with a 103" 1080P plasma model.  They also had the obligatory TV wall.

 

Samsung

Samsung was beaten out by 1 inch for the largest plasma coming in at 102".  They did however have the largest LCD HDTV at 82".

 

I can't say no to a 24" LCD monitor, and here is their latest model.  Also on display was a LED backlit LCD monitor compared to a CCFL.  Believe me the LED backlighting looked great, and puts off less heat as an added advantage.

 

Samsung was also showing off a PMP, and they had the obligatory TV wall as well.

 

Sapphire

Sapphire was another meeting where the NDA reared its head so we can not show you all we came across.  We can show you this X1600 Pro half height video card with HDMI!  Yes, finally HDMI will come to the PC.  It includes a Silicon Image audio chip on board, and will work in CrossFire mode!  These should be shipping very soon according to Sapphire, and should become a quick favorite for modern media center PCs.

 

Sapphire of course also showed off their Pure line up of Xpress 200 and Xpress 200 CrossFire motherboards.  Also on hand where case modded Shuttles from local Austin Modder Sheldog.  We hoped to talk to him at a lan last weekend about these mods, but he was in an accident that I hope he has fully recovered from.

 

We were surprised to see that Sapphire is now offering MP3 players, and USB flash memory sticks.  With their manufacturing capacity they do have a leg up on the competition.  Our own Jason has been testing the MP3 player extensively and loves the sound quality and options so far.  Expect reviews of both of these items soon.

 

Sharp

Here we have yet again the obligatory TV wall this time from Sharp.

Skull Candy

Jason fell in love at the Skull Candy booth.  They offer a lineup of headphones and earbuds which I'm sure will come in handy with his Sapphire MP3 player review.

Sony

Sony was showing HDTV on a projector setup, but not the usual football action.  They also demoed HD video on the PS3.

 

It appears these guys were all falling for this video cut scenes as actual Playstation 3 gameplay.  They would be wrong.  Sony also had the obligatory obligatory TV wall.

 

Texas Instruments

Texas Instruments has some fine DLP processors powering some of the best HD projectors and TVs around.  They also had the biggest NFL playoffs projection at the show.  On the right is a nice looking Mitsubishi projection LCD TV also TI powered.

 

Toshiba

Toshiba was pushing HDDVDs at their booth.  Here we see many of the upcoming HDDVD titles.  I actually own most of these titles so that makes me happy.  HDDVD seemed in the lead compared to BluRay for certain at the show.  Luckily whoever wins out this is not the DIVX versus DVD battle that luckily went to the good guys, and not the way of Circuit City so many years ago.

XFX

We wrap things up with XFX and their new rounded system nick named the bong.  It is tube shaped like those fancy tubed speakers, or old fashioned vacuum cleaners.

 

Here are some shots of each side of the case which of course includes an XFX GeForce 7800GTX.  It ran pretty quiet and cool, but is just a prototype at this point.

So here we have our coverage of CES 2006.  Writing it all was almost as exhausting as four days of the show itself as we traveled all over Vegas, and wished the good old days of Comdex where still around.  If you are still hungering for more of CES 2006 then be sure to check out our photo gallery here containing almost 500 pictures from Vegas.