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Computex 2010 Day 1
Author: Dennis Garcia
Published: Tuesday, June 08, 2010
Gigabyte - Motherboards
The first official meeting of Computex was with Gigabyte. In the past we have often noted that Gigabyte tends to be rather forward in their advertising during Computex. One year we noticed a number of black limos they used to shuttle their VIPs between the various halls. As of late you can see Gigabyte banners around their "after show spots" and a product booth in Hall 1 (away from Nangang). This year we got invited to visit the VIP room located in Taipei 101, this room almost mimics what is being shown at their booth. The only difference is, you can actually talk to people in the VIP room while you tend to get ignored on the main show floor.
All of the demos were operable including one to show off a phantom power option allowing you to charge your USB devices when the computer isn't powered on.
There were also a few announcements during Computex surrounding the new UD9 motherboard, most talked about the power delivery options and how the PWM is actually 2 power units working in parallel. If one happens to fail the other one will take over. You also have the option to control how many phases are active using software.
Pretty fancy stuff, however I must say, in my experience, I have never had a motherboard fail because the PWM has worn out. Maybe extreme overclocking puts some additional stresses on the PWM and make them wear out faster, dunno. Regardless, the actual need for the dual PWM couldn't me answered during my meeting and so far remains a "meh" feature in my mind.
There were also a few announcements during Computex surrounding the new UD9 motherboard, most talked about the power delivery options and how the PWM is actually 2 power units working in parallel. If one happens to fail the other one will take over. You also have the option to control how many phases are active using software.
Pretty fancy stuff, however I must say, in my experience, I have never had a motherboard fail because the PWM has worn out. Maybe extreme overclocking puts some additional stresses on the PWM and make them wear out faster, dunno. Regardless, the actual need for the dual PWM couldn't me answered during my meeting and so far remains a "meh" feature in my mind.
