CeBit 2003
I think our readers know it very well what CeBit means for the IT industry. Briefly, - this is the planet's largest computer expo. Our Moscow's ComTech compared to that is like a petty shop versus a supermarket. Of the closest competitors, ComdexFall (Nevada), is not long for this world and takes only one expo hall, compared it to the 37th at Cebit. The Taiwanese Computex is growing from year to year, but its coverage can't be compared to CeBit. Hadware, Software, security, cellular phones, providers, Web industry, banking IT etc. etc. - all these were represented at the expo and distinctly partitioned into sectors. Nobody in the sound mind can walk through and explore all the 7000 expo stands at CeBit2003... But you don't have to. We are interested in hardware manufacturers which take 7 halls, which is more realistic...
Right by the Northern entrance to hall N2 being central, there is an Asus expo stand, close to Sony and JVC.
ASUS
Asus, the permanent leader of the motherboards and video market seems to have spanned over all the neighbouring areas. The retributive sword of this Taiwanese monster seems to have spanned over to the markets like notebooks, PDA and cellular phones, which the traditional players of the field strongly disliked. But - all in good time.
Motherboards
Before Cebit'2003, the top-end line of Asus motherboards looked like this:
- P4G8X - Intel E7205
- P4PE - Intel 845PE
- P4GE - Intel 845GE
- A7N8X - nVidia nForce2
- P4S8X - SiS648
- P4SDX - SiS655
But the official announce of new Intel's chipsets, Canterwood and Springdale, has amended the list. What can be said most briefly is that Springdale is a direct heir to i845PE/GE with the difference that the FSB has gone up from 533MHz to 800 MHz, and Canterwood is in fact the same Granite Bay (e7205) with the new 800 MHz bus and some slight cosmetic add-ons.
The upper line in the top list is undisputably taken by the P4C800 Canterwood motherboard. Featuring support for the dual-channel DDR400 interface, FSB 800 MHz, new ICH5R South Bridge, the board will be the most desired thing for hard-core overclockers.
Asus P4C800 - CanterwoodThe Asus P4P800 (Springdale) board is a bit simpler and cheaper and has come to take the place of P4PE.
Asus P4P800 - SpringdaleThe potentials of the new chipsets are well demonstrated by the following photo:
Overclocked Asus P4C800This time Asus has replaced its cryo-cooled demonstration with quite easily available Tt's air-cooling means. The results are on the screen :)
Video cards
To date, there are three new nVidia chips:
- FX5800 - is the very notorious NV30. It is produced with extremely limited lots because of the very low chip yield, is very costly to manufacture and requires huge cooling systems. The marketing positions of the chip are very low, and the integrated options are not in demand on the market. Its production does not pay, and the only purpose of its release is to get the better ATI in pursuing higher scores. Plainly speaking, the chip was produced for presentation purposes. Should some readers come across an FX5800-based video card available on sales, that will be a really remarkable fact. Manufacturing companies receive such chips in so small quantities that the cards are not enough even for test labs, i.e. they are few. Most likely, there will never be any mass production of FX5800.
- FX5600 (NV31) is a cut-down version of NV30. Unlike NV30, it uses the standard DDR memory controller; - reminding you that NV30 offers a controller for the DDR2 memory. It's just this chipset that is very soon going to be a favorite among nVidia produce fanciers.
- FX5200 (NV34) is what used to be called MX. The video chip is simply for regular video cards, but with support for DX9. At sales volumes, the company is going to be an indisputable leader.
As Alan Tike noted in our interview, the number of nVidia's partners is as many as 20-25 companies, each representing a complete spectrum of video cards built on these chips. Now imagine how many various makes of this video card will hit the retail shelves in the nearest time... Immense quantities! Having run around numerous stands, we saw the forthcoming variety at first hand. Quite often the manufacturer even doesn't indicate it on the box as to which chip is in fact implemented in the solution and uses its own designation systems. The mess in consumers' heads is going to be quite immense, and we would have to find out precisely with sales assistant as to what we are going to buy. The rule of thumb is easy if we recall that there are always three chips - the FX5600 is priced between $300-$400 depending on the package bundle and the number of video Ins/Outs. FX5600 - 180-250$. The FX5200 is about $100-$150. Further on, the prices will be going down.
NVidia is most likely to expand the chip assortments based on the stably supported frequencies, which will be marked as Ultra. This will add more variety of cards on the market ...
This favorite of Asus is dubbed V9900 Ultra - only stars and five-digit amounts are higher than that. Evidently, that is just the very presentation-version FX5800(NV30).
Asus V9900 UltraAnd what is of real interest is the V9560. It is the FX5600 chip, and Asus will be manufacturing two makes of cards on its base:
Asus V9560 VideoSuiteThe "VideoSuite" make - offers TV-In/Out.
Asus V9560 TDThe "TD" make - offers TV-Out and DVI.
Asus V9520 VideoSuiteAnd the last photo presents a video card based on the FX5200, which will be produced in three (!) makes - the already mentioned "VideoSuite", "TD" makes and a "T" make that offers a TV-out.
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