Razer
 

Razer

Nestled back in the North Hall among all the pimped out cars and trucks, the Razer booth demoed their Destructor Gaming Surface, or mouse pad for the layman. The reason for this new pad? How about their new BoomSlang Collector's Edition 2007 and Lachesis High Precision Gaming mice.

Destructor

Lachesis

Both mice have dual readers that report the X and Y movement separately which really does improve accuracy. Their Call of Duty 4 demo machine had all of their latest gaming products connected which allowed me to experience them first hand. It didn't take but a couple minutes to realize just how much sharper both mice than anything I've used to date. The Destructor surface helped make all the difference as well. I think the correct gaming slang to describe the experience is, OMGWTHHAX!

BoomSlang 2007

Bottom Lights Up

I'm not one for straight on keyboards since I require more space for comfort. But, the three Reclusa, Tarantula, and Lycosa gaming keyboards are really, really nice. The keys and lighting look and feel so much nicer than you might think. And finally, the Razer Mako audio system is done and has already shipped world wide. The sound quality out of this system far exceeds anything I've experienced. I don't think Bose or Klipsch (and I know Creative can forget even trying) can even come close. Nicely done, Razer.

BoomSlang Limited Edition Box

Lycosa Keyboard

SilverStone
 

Silverstone TJ10

It's pretty impressive that SS has been able to become such a large scale competitor in the short time we've known them.  They must be doing something right to work in league with the likes of Coolit Systems. These guys have every major component associated with an enclosure, including power supplies. Their Decathlon are intended for the serious gamers and extreme system gurus. They're modular and looked pretty nice all around. We'll have to get some and put them on the test benches.

Kublai

Temjin

Power Supplies

They've answered the HTPC call and have their own impressive enclosures, the Grandia and Crown series, with full color touch screens and media capabilities. Their newest Temjin series, the TJ10 ESA Edition, has some unique features and was the most stock, innovative enclosure I saw at CES 2008. It has unique air cooling channels and ventilation that should do well for our ever so hot gaming systems.

Grandia Series

Crown Series

CPU Coolers

SilverStone had a very new, curious little, Commander ESA LCD Module that has touch screen features. It has a sleek docking station that fits in 5.25" bays of your computer case where you upload the data. The software is also fully interactive with Windows and still currently be fine tuned for future release. I think I'm going to have to get me one of these.

Removing Commander

Commander Module

The SaberTooth Gaming Mouse is another new edition to their product line. It has adjustable X and Y Axis settings and you can switch the DPI via the mouse. If one particular setting isn't doing it for you, you don't have to drop out of the game to switch it to the 3200 dpi setting. Otherwise, it does come with easy to manage software and drivers.
 

SuperTalent
 

SuperTalent

I don't know what it was bout these guys, maybe it was their energy level. But, it's refreshing to see an open "can do and will do" attitude when you talk to manufacturers. They said they could successfully do a 256GB Solid State Drive and they did. It's a very, very expensive process. Right now that drive can cost over $8000 due to the complexity of the fabrication process. As factories gear up to improve production, prices will eventually drop. There isn't any way to gauge when it'll become affordable and a competitive challenge to the current SATA market.

SSD Demo System

256GB SSD

Solid State Drives

The benefits of the latest SSD technology are much better life span, no moving mechanisms that can break down, very low power consumption at both idle and seek loads. Idle operations use 1.19 volts and load operations use 1.22 volts. Today's SATA or IDE drives use much more than that it almost seems crazy. And, they're ECO friendly as well.

SSD in Action

Idle Wattage

Seek Wattage

Supertalent's DDR2 memory finally made a name for itself taking some punishment and dishing out very respectable benchmarks. Their modules seem to really like ASUS platforms for best results. It's always the cleaner, better designed boards that really offer up the best results with quality modules. Their Project X DDR3 line is the newest in their arsenal and will most likely offer up the highest frequencies with the lowest timings over their default DDR3 line. They will soon also have kits breaking the 2000+MHz barrier which should be very interesting.

DDR2 and Project X DDR3

Tagan
 

Tagan Booth

Demo Machines

While attending THE CES Party of parties, Tagan made an appearance with a couple of their demo systems which displayed their latest cases and power supplies. Their newest BZ Series 700 to 1300 Watt power supplies have LED lit modular ports that light up when powered and change color intensity when in use. Some of them are ESA certified which coincides with Nvidia's PSU monitoring system.

Multimedia Storage

MM Series

They are pretty slick looking and appear to be seriously powerful. The cabling is military style connectors which make better contact than the original versions that first came out. Cabling has been improved as well making it look even better.

NAS Storage

IcyBox Storage

When someone mentions the name Tagan, mental images of very large side panel cooling fans appear. Their most widely known Diablo with its enormous 250mm front bezel fan is now accompanied by the Monolize II, 188AF with its leather front door, and all aluminum Black Pearl full tower. The Black Pearl has an integrated 4-channel fan controller with temp display. Definitely a nice case to go with one of their unique power supplies.

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