Asus Hints at Future Products and CES Announcements
Subject: Mobile | January 7, 2012 - 02:30 PM | Tim Verry
Tagged: windows 8, transformer prime, tablet, eee memo pad, CES, asus, arm
CES isn't until next week, but many companies are talking product announcements beforehand. According to Engadget, a spokesperson at a company event in Taipei promises several mobile devices from ASUS that are coming out this year (some of which may make an appearance at CES).
Among the promises devices, Asus hinted at a version of the Transformer Prime with a 3G modem and possibly an improved AGPS chip. Be sure to check out our review of the Transformer Prime to get an idea of what you are looking at for the new version (though obviously minus the 3G). Further, the Eee Memo Pad, a 7" tablet running Android and used primarily in a vertical orientation (judging from where the ports are located). It packs a 1.2 GHz dual core Snapdragon ARM based processor, 3G and WiFi, up to 64 GB of internal storage, and a resolution of 1280x800.
Finally, although not quite ready in time for CES (or will it be?), Asus is committed to bringing an ARM powered Windows 8 tablet to the market. Allegedly, the new Windows 8 device will resemble the physical dimensions and look of the current Transformer Prime and will be released towards the end of this year. It will be interesting to see how the quad core Tegra chip handles Windows 8.
PC Perspective's CES 2012 coverage is sponsored by MSI Computer.
Follow all of our coverage of the show at http://pcper.com/ces!
Introduction, Design and Ergonomics
The original ASUS Eee Pad Transformer was a bit of an upset in the tablet market. Before its launch, there was no particular reason to believe that ASUS would be able to provide a better product than any of the many other PC manufacturers entering the Android tablet fray. Sure, I like most of the ASUS products that I’ve been able to review, and I believe they have some good engineers. But they also had no experience beyond a few Windows tablets and convertible tablets.
Yet they were successful. At the time I called the Transformer "the best Android tablet on the market today” and gave it with a Gold Award. Consumers apparently agreed, as it flew off shelves with such speed that ASUS has decided to debut a follow-up only half a year after the original hit the market.
Continue reading our review of the ASUS Transformer Prime tablet!!
Podcast #184 - Asus Llano Notebook, a Quad Core Sandy Bridge-E CPU, HD 7000 Series rumors and more!
Subject: Editorial | January 5, 2012 - 04:12 PM | Ken Addison
Tagged: snb-e, podcast, nvidia, llano, Intel, HD7000, asus, amd, 7970
PC Perspective Podcast #184 - 01/05/2011
Join us this week as we talk about an Asus Llano Notebook, a Quad Core Sandy Bridge-E CPU, HD 7000 Series rumors and more!
You can subscribe to us through iTunes and you can still
The URL for the podcast is: http://pcper.com/podcast - Share with your friends!
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RSS reader - MP3 - Direct download link to the MP3 file
Hosts: Ryan Shrout, Josh Walrath, Jeremy Hellstrom, and Allyn Malvantano
This Podcast is brought to you by
Program Schedule:
- 0:00:32 Introduction
- 1-888-38-PCPER or podcast@pcper.com
- http://pcper.com/podcast
- http://twitter.com/ryanshrout and http://twitter.com/pcper
- 0:01:41 ASUS K53T Review: Mainstream Llano Offers Inexpensive Mobile Gaming
- 0:04:34 Seasonic Platinum 80 Plus 1000W Power Supply Review
- 0:06:25 GSkill Ripjaws X 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR-3 1866 Review
- 0:12:50 Video Perspective: Corsair Carbide 500R and 400R Case Review
- 0:16:00 Intel Core i7-3820 Processor Review - Quad-Core Sandy Bridge-E under $300
- 0:27:30 Cooler Master Cosmos II video
- 0:31:30 This Podcast is brought to you by
MSI Computer , and their all new Sandy Bridge Motherboards!
- 0:34:00 HDD Warranties Slashed By More Than Half - But Why?
- 0:45:10 AMD Radeon HD 7700-series Details Leak - $149, 896 SPs, 128-bit
- 0:49:00 Does AMD have a 2304 stream processor GPU in waiting?
- 0:56:30 ... and the winner is Shamino with a world record 3DMark11 score on an HD7970
- 0:59:30 Lenovo Unveils ThinkPad Ultrabook, ARM-Powered Laptop Ahead of CES
- 1:03:50 Email Rapid Fire
- Email from Nabokovfan8
- Email from Tom about 7970 CrossFire
- Email from Mike about SSD purchases
- 1:05:10 Hardware / Software Pick of the Week
- Ryan: Transcend USB 3.0 Super Speed Multi-Card Reader
- Jeremy: OCZ Agility 3 240GB only $300 after you count the stupid MIR
- Josh: Only if on special for $99 A lot of fun, decent game titles with it. Powered by the Beard!
- Allyn: This- just got 50% better. (HDD model with fans here).
- 1-888-38-PCPER or podcast@pcper.com
- http://pcper.com/podcast
- http://twitter.com/ryanshrout and http://twitter.com/pcper
- Closing
... and the winner is Shamino with a world record 3DMark11 score on an HD7970
Subject: Graphics Cards | January 4, 2012 - 05:47 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: ROG, overclocking, LN2, HD 7970, asus, amd
ASUS' Republic of Gamers is off to an incredible start this year with the release of the HD7970, though there are always those who cannot leave their GPUs at reference speeds. For instance Shamino, who is not just a ranger in the Ultima series, but is also now the ultimate champion of extreme GPU overclocking. Taking a brand new HD 7970, removing the stock cooling and replacing it with LN2 cooling has netted him the record for single GPU performance. He scored 15,063 on 3DMark11 and 54,725 on 3DMark Vantage with an 84% overclock, the GPU was running at 1700MHz when he hit the record.
It can certainly be hard to get into a game when you need to constantly replace the evapourating LN2 cooling the GPU but for overclocking purposes you simply cannot beat the cooling ability of LN2. His record may not stand for long, they never do in OCing competiton, but for now he is king of the ring and is looking to move onto bigger and better things ... in this case a quad-CrossFire system which he intends to use to take the grand title of fastest graphics performance on the planet.
ASUS Transformer TF10; not more than meets the eyes
Subject: Mobile | January 2, 2012 - 02:52 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: asus, Transformer TF101, tablet, Android 3.2, Tegra 2
It is hard not to love ASUS' Transformer series, the 10.1" LED 1280x800 screen is not unique but the dock certainly is, coming in the form of a full keyboard with 2 more USB 2.0 connectors and a touchpad. It unites a netbook and tablet in a way no other company really offers. Inside it is powered by NVIDIA's Tegra 2 chip and has 1GB of RAM which leaves the device in a bit of a pickle. The 3D performance is quite good for a tablet and you should enjoy the games and Android apps which are available for the device but its 2D performance is lacking, which translates to poor movie playback. Techware Labs finished the review disappointed, they wanted to love the Transformer but couldn't cope with a tablet that plays movies poorly.
"Much like the netbook market, tablets have come of age and everyone seems to want one. Also similar to netbooks it seems that the market is saturated by tablets from many different manufacturers. Asus can be credited for making the netbook market a reality and for offering some of the finest netbooks made. Today we take a look at the Asus Transformer tablet to see if Asus has kept the tradition of offering an excellent product in the tablet market."
Here are some more Mobile articles from around the web:
- ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime Review Part II: Battery Life & More @ AnandTech
- HP Envy 14 @ TechSpot
- HP Pavilion G6-1C77NR Review @ TechReviewSource
- Dell Latitude E6220 Review @ TechReviewSource
- Dell XPS 14z Notebook Review @ Hardware Canucks
- Ultrabook Head to Head: Acer Aspire S3 vs. ASUS UX31E @ AnandTech
- MacBook Air vs. Ultrabooks @ TechReviewSource
- Samsung Series 7 (NP700Z5A-S03) Review @ TechReviewSource
- Sony VAIO S Series (VPCSE13FX/S) Review @ TechReviewSource
- CyberPower Xplorer X6-9200 Gaming Notebook Review @ Neoseeker
- ASUS G53SX 15.6-inch Gaming Notebook Review @ Techgage
- Be.ez Le reporter Air 13 MacBook Air Bag Review @ Tech-Reviews
- Amazon Kindle Fire Tablet Review @ Hardware Secrets
- Motorola Droid Xyboard 10.1 & Xyboard 8.2 Tablets @ Techspot
- Lenovo IdeaPad V470 Review @ TechReviewSource
- Arctic iPhone 4 Hard Case Review @ eTeknix
- SoliCharger-SP Review @ TechReviewSource
- Nokia Lumia 800 with Windows Phone 7.5 Review @ HardwareHeaven
- HTC Rhyme Android Smartphone Review @ HardwareHeaven
- Moving Your 'Non-Movable' Android Apps to an SD Card @ Techgage
- Samsung Galaxy Nexus @ TechSpot
- A Week With The Samsung Galaxy Nexus @ Tweaktown
- Energizer iSurge Travel Charging Station Review @ Legit Reviews
Introduction and Design
Back in June of 2011, we reviewed AMD’s new Llano mobile processor line by taking a look at a testbed system. The overall review was favorable, but it was also based on the best AMD had to offer, a quad-core A8-3500M processor running alongside a separate Radeon discrete GPU.
If you take a tour through your local electronics retailer, you’ll find that this is not the most common combination of parts on store shelves. The less expensive and less powerful A4 and A6 processors are more common. In our original Llano laptop review, I theorized that these would remain competitive at their respective price points, but we didn’t have the opportunity to test a laptop equipped with the less expensive hard.
Now, via the ASUS K53T, we finally have a chance to thoroughly examine a mid-range Llano laptop.
Continue reading our review of the ASUS K53T Llano Notebook!!
ASUS ROG welcomes 2011 with the Rampage IV Extreme
Subject: Motherboards | December 19, 2011 - 02:30 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: ROG, Rampage IV Extreme, lga 2011, asus
ASUS' Republic of Gamers family now has a Socket 2011 motherboard in the form of the Rampage IV Extreme. The ROG boards are the highest end of ASUS' motherboard and the prices reflect this, the board [H]ard|OCP reviewed is $450. For that you do get a lot, four PCIe 3.0 16x slots of which three can operate at 16x speeds, four SATA 3Gbps ports and four SATA 6Gbps ports, eight USB 3.0 ports and up to a full dozen USB 2.0 ports. A large assortment of connectors and extras comes packaged with the board, as well as a new version of TurboV EVO, ASUS' monitoring and overclocking software. Overclocking proved difficult, no matter which cooling solution they tried the CPU would slowly heat up until it began triggering alarms or simply crashed. As this is an early version of the board you can expect the success rate to change somewhat; head to the review to see the long list of extras ASUS included with this impressive X79 motherboard.
"ASUS expands its ROG line once again to include offerings based on Intel’s latest X79 chipset and support for the new Sandy Bridge-E processors. The ASUS Rampage IV Extreme comes from a long line of Rampage motherboards most of which have been excellent products. Our expectations are extremely high for this "Extreme" offering."
Here are some more Motherboard articles from around the web:
Motherboards
- MSI X79A-GD65 8D Review @ Bjorn3D
- ASUS P9X79 WS Motherboard Review @ Hi Tech Legion
- ASRock X79 Extreme4 @ Tweaktown
- ASRock X79 Extreme9 X79 Motherboard Review @ eTeknix
- Gigabyte X79-UD7 @ Bjorn3D
- ECS X79R-AX Intel LGA 2011 @ techPowerUp
- Intel DX79SI Motherboard @ Hardware Secrets
- ASRock X79 Extreme4-M and X79 Extreme4 Review – Sandy Bridge-E meets mATX @ AnandTech
- ASUS P9X79 Pro @ Bjorn3D
- ASUS P9X79 Pro @ Tweaktown
- Asus P8Z68-V LX Z68 Motherboard Review @ eTeknix
- EVGA Z68 FTW Motherboard Review @ Legit Reviews
- Gigabyte Z68XP-UD4 Review @ HCW
- BIOS Option Of The Week - DRAM Ratio H/W Strap @ TechARP
- Biostar TA990FXE: First Mainboard with Native Bulldozer Support @ X-bit Labs
- Asus M5A99X EVO and Asus M5A97 EVO: two Simpler Mainboards for AMD Bulldozer @ X-bit Labs
- Sapphire Pure Black 990FX Motherboard and Radeon 6450 FleX Edition Review @ HardwareHeaven
- Sapphire Pure Black 990FX @ kitguru
- ASUS Sabertooth 990FX Motherboard Review @Hi Tech Legion
Podcast #181 - Hybrid Storage Roundup, the ASUS US36SD-XA1 notebook, News of the week and more!
Subject: Editorial | December 8, 2011 - 05:44 PM | Ken Addison
Tagged: revodrive hybrid, podcast, nvidia, notebook, Intel, hybrid, asus, amd
PC Perspective Podcast #181 - 12/08/2011
Join us this week as we talk about our Hybrid Storage Roundup, the ASUS US36SD-XA1 notebook, News of the week and more!
You can subscribe to us through iTunes and you can still
The URL for the podcast is: http://pcper.com/podcast - Share with your friends!
- iTunes - Subscribe to the podcast directly through the iTunes Store
- RSS - Subscribe through your regular
RSS reader - MP3 - Direct download link to the MP3 file
Hosts: Josh Walrath, Jeremy Hellstrom, and Allyn Malvantano
This Podcast is brought to you by
Program Schedule:
- 0:00:40 Introduction
- 1-888-38-PCPER or podcast@pcper.com
- http://pcper.com/podcast
- http://twitter.com/ryanshrout and http://twitter.com/pcper
- 0:02:05 Hybrid Storage Roundup: Seagate Momentus XT vs. OCZ RevoDrive Hybrid vs. Intel Z68
- 0:15:20 ASUS U36SD-XA1 Notebook Review: The Battery That Never Dies
- 0:21:00 Video Perspective: AMD A8-3850 vs Intel Core i3-2105 Gaming Comparison
- 0:24:20 This Podcast is brought to you by
MSI Computer , and their all new Sandy Bridge Motherboards!
- 0:25:12 ASRock Z68 Extreme 7 Gen 3 LGA 1155 Motherboard Review
- 0:27:15 Asus GeForce Direct CU II Series Reviews
- 0:28:16 Intel, Micron double single-chip flash capacity
- 0:33:46 Mobile madness minus benchmarks; new mobile GPUs from AMD & NVIDIA
- 0:40:39 Ivy Bridge should be here by the spring
- 0:46:05 Chrome passes Firefox and is now the 2nd most used browser
- 0:49:50 It's a bit early for 11.12, but how about Catalyst 11.11c?
- 0:51:15 Memorieeessssss lots of memoriesssss
- 0:55:06 Hardware / Software Pick of the Week
- Josh: Treat yourself for Christmas with a new vid card and game
- Allyn: Ready Player One - (Audiobook)
- 1-888-38-PCPER or podcast@pcper.com
- http://pcper.com/podcast
- http://twitter.com/ryanshrout and http://twitter.com/pcper
- Closing
Introduction and Design
Ultrabooks are now on store shelves, but that doesn’t mean the more traditional ultraportables are dead - not by a long shot. Thin may be cool, but the high price premium attached to ultrabooks means that they will, at least for now, be a niche product. Meanwhile, the workhorse 13.3” ultraportable will remain popular.
One of the most accomplished manufacturers of this type of laptop is ASUS, which has been building U-Series ultraportables for several years now. We’ve generally given them high marks here, but now there is a new model to check out, the updated U36. Unlike the stylish U33 Bamboo, this model is a tough, simple laptop that seems to take ques from Lenovo’s ThinkPads. Has this compromised the series? Let’s find out.
Continue reading our review of the ASUS U36SD-XA1 Ultraportable notebook!!
Yummy: Transformer Prime running Ice Cream Sandwich
Subject: Mobile | November 22, 2011 - 05:21 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: transformer prime, tegra 3, nvidia, ice cream sandwich, google, eee pad, asus
The world’s first quad-core mobile processor was recently made official with our announcement of the NVIDIA Tegra 3 chip, which will debut in the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime Android tablet. Following on Google’s release of Android 4.0 “Ice Cream Sandwich” (ICS) source code last week, we thought you’d like an early demo of ICS running on the Eee Pad Transformer Prime.
Google has done a great job on ICS and has made the platform open to the ecosystem and easy to develop on. Thanks to Google’s developer support, NVIDIA’s experienced software team was able to work with ASUS to quickly bring up Android 4.0 ICS on the Transformer Prime.
Recorded on November 16, only two short days after the source code for ICS was made publicly available, the video below shows the next-gen Android OS user interface looking clean and snappy on the Transformer Prime. This is just a sneak peak of things to come for the first Tegra 3-powered Android tablet.
This is just an early demo, but we think you’ll agree it’s extremely impressive that so much is already working well. Check out the flawless1080p video playback and quick demo of the quad-core optimized Riptide GP game in the video below.
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