Michael Brown Asus EAH 3870

AMD has pulled a rabbit out of its hat by transforming the near-debacle that was the R600 architecture into a serious mainstream contender: The Radeon HD 3870.

The new GPU delivers several important features left out of AMD’s previous best effort: the Radeon HD 2900 XT. The most important of these is the inclusion of AMD’s Unified Video Decoder, which offloads all high-definition video decoding chores from the host CPU. The new part supports HDCP on both DVI links, too, so Blu-ray and HD DVD movies can be displayed at the native resolution of a 30-inch panel. There’s also support for new technologies such as PCI Express 2.0, DirectX 10.1, and Shader Model 4.1, although it remains to be seen how important these features will be in the near future. (Nvidia’s new 8800 GT is also PCI Express 2.0 compliant, but it doesn’t support DirectX 10.1.)

Asus’s EAH3870 is the first retail board we’ve examined that uses the 3870 part, and we’re impressed: It’s been a while since we’ve been able to laud anything other than an Nvidia-based videocard with a Kick Ass award. This card is not only powerful, it’s also affordably priced at $260 (and includes the first-rate game Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts).

AMD promises we’ll see other cards based on this GPU selling for $220, but those will likely come with reference-design clocks. In this case, Asus bumped the 3870’s core clock speed to 851MHz and the card’s 512MB of GDDR4 memory to 1.143GHz (from AMD’s reference-design speeds of 775MHz and 1.125GHz, respectively). Asus had just begun shipping these cards and was able to provide us with only one, so check MaximumPC.com for an updated review with CrossFire numbers.

Great job, AMD! Now get back into the lab and build a new GPU that can compete at the high end of the market.

Consumers finally have a real choice in GPUs. The Radeon HD 3870 at the heart of Asus’s EAH3870 is a genuine contender.

Asus EAH 3870
www.asus.com

Aces

Unified Video Decoder; PCI Express 2.0, DirectX 10.1, and Shader Model 4.1support; affordable. AMD's first card in a while that can compete with Nvidia.

Deuces

Not as fast as the 8800 GT in DirectX 9.

Windows XP (DirectX 9)
	EVGA E-GeForce 8800 GT SSC	ASUS EAH3870 (Radeon HD 3870)
3DMark06 Game 1 (FPS)	30.0	24.6
3DMark06 Game 2 (FPS)	22.9	21.3
World in Conflict (FPS)	32.0	22.0
Lost Planet (FPS)	34.3	23.4

Windows Vista (DirectX 10)
	EVGA E-GeForce 8800 GT SSC	ASUS EAH3870 (Radeon HD 3870)
3DMark06 Game 1 (FPS)	28.0	24.0
3DMark06 Game 2 (FPS)	22.3	21.3
World in Conflict (FPS)	20.0	23.0
Lost Planet (FPS)	22.0	24.2
Best single-GPU score bolded. AMD-based cards tested with an Intel D975BX2 motherboard; Nvidia-based cards tested with an EVGA 680i SLI motherboard. Intel 2.93GHz Core 2 Extreme X6800 CPUs and 2GB of Corsair DDR RAM used in both scenarios. Benchmarks performed at 1920x1200 resolution on ViewSonic VP2330wb monitors.

Katherine Stevenson Asus BC 1205PT

So your DVD burner is getting a little long in the tooth and you’re ready for an upgrade, but you’re not all that keen on adopting next-gen tech. And who can blame you? Even the falling price of hardware doesn’t make up for the relatively slow burn times, costly media, and compatibility issues that plague Blu-ray burners (and the same would be true of HD DVD burners if you could even find them!). Trouble is, you’ve got a brand-new 27-inch LCD that’s just begging to display high-def movies. What’s a consumer to do? Well, you could buy a combo drive—one that lets you read next-gen discs and write data to fast, friendly CD and DVD, like the two models we review this month.

With Asus’s BC-1205PT you get to read high-def discs, but only if they’re of the Blu-ray variety, so you’ll want to have a strong affinity for that format (and its affiliated movie studios) to take the plunge. Because while you do save money by forgoing the ability to write to Blu-ray, the BC-1205PT still isn’t cheap. It’s a couple hundred dollars more than a high-performance standard DVD drive, and its DVD burn performance is far from top-notch.

The BC-1205PT is rated at 12x for DVD+/-R write speeds—a good deal slower than today’s top DVD burners, now at 20x, and not surprisingly, burn times take a hit. It took us 7:12 (min:sec) to fill a single-layer DVD+R with the BC-1205PT, compared to the 5 minutes flat it took our favorite drive, Samsung’s SH-S203B (reviewed October 2007). Burning to a double-layer DVD, the Asus drive maintained a 3.96x average speed and filled the disc in 27:09, more than twice the time it took our Samsung. Only when burning to DVD-RW media did the Asus and Samsung perform on par, writing 4.38GB to a single-layer disc at 15:07 and 14:31, respectively. When reading data from all of our test discs, Asus’s drive had notably slower seek times than both the Samsung and the LG GCC-H20L reviewed here.

Middling performance aside, the BC-1205PT offers a SATA interface, the CyberLink BD Solution suite for playback and burning chores, and a simple, black face plate.

You’ll get to watch high-def movies with Asus’s BC-1205PT, but only if they come on a Blu-ray disc.

Asus Eee PC T101MT Budget Touchscreen Tablet Available Soon

Tablet or netbook? Asus' upcoming convertible Eee PC T101MT is a little of both, and if Amazon's German portal is any indication, it's just about ready to ship.

Amazon's listing has the tablet pegged at 12.1 inches, but it's actually a 10.1-inch display. It's also touchscreen capable, hence the tablet talk, and includes an Intel Atom N450 processor (1.6GHz), 2GB of RAM, a 320GB hard drive, Intel GMA3150 graphics, and Windows 7 Home Premium. In other words, everything you would expect out of a modern day netbook.

Don't be alarmed by the pre-order price, which is listed at 499 Euros, or a little less than $690. We suspect it will sell for $100+ less once it goes stateside.

Image Credit: liliputing.com

Asus Eee PC T101MT Budget Touchscreen Tablet Available Soon

PIQOO | www.piqoo.blogspot.com

Tablet or netbook? Asus' upcoming convertible Eee PC T101MT is a little of both, and if Amazon's German portal is any indication, it's just about ready to ship.

Amazon's listing has the tablet pegged at 12.1 inches, but it's actually a 10.1-inch display. It's also touchscreen capable, hence the tablet talk, and includes an Intel Atom N450 processor (1.6GHz), 2GB of RAM, a 320GB hard drive, Intel GMA3150 graphics, and Windows 7 Home Premium. In other words, everything you would expect out of a modern day netbook.

Don't be alarmed by the pre-order price, which is listed at 499 Euros, or a little less than $690. We suspect it will sell for $100+ less once it goes stateside.

Image Credit: liliputing.com

Asus G73 Gaming Laptop Available in the States

PIQOO | www.piqoo.blogspot.com

In the market for a gaming notebook? If so, Asus' G73 laptop might be the steal of the year, albeit it's still early. Nevertheless, we haven't been this stoked about an affordable gaming notebook since Gateway wowed us with its P7811-FX machine.

Those looking for battery life first and performance second need not apply. But if you're into desktop replacements, the G73's spec sheet will certainly oblige. Inside the 17.3-inch laptop sits an Intel Core i7 720QM quad-core processor, and that's just the beginning. You'll also find 8GB of DDR3 memory, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870 graphics with a 1GB frame buffer, and a 500GB hard drive spinning at 7200RPM.

The G73 also boasts a 1920 x 1080 screen resolution, DVD burner, 4 USB ports, VGA and HDMI, an 8-in-1 card reader, 2.0MP, 8-cell battery, and Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.

Ready for the best part? It's available now from Newegg $1,450.

Image Credit: Asus

Asus Eee 1005PE Adds an H, Doubles the RAM

PIQOO | www.piqoo.blogspot.com

If you're a fan of Asus' Eee 1005PE netbook, then you're going to love the 1005PE-H model, the company's latest model built around Intel's Pine Trail platform.

Like the original Eee 1005PE, the H variant sports the same 45nm Pineview Atom N450 processor (1.66GHz, 512K cache). But unlike its predecessor, the Eee 1005PE-H boasts twice the amount of RAM at 2GB versus 1GB. It also comes with a bigger 320GB hard drive, compared to the original's 250GB.

The rest of the spec sheet includes a 10.1-inch 1024 x 600 screen, Windows 7, and a 6-cell battery Asus claims will keep the netbook running for 11 hours.

No word yet on price or availability, at least not here in the States. So far, this one's only been spotted in France.

Image Credit: fnac.com