Tag Archives: ces

Hoverboard Company Backs Down After Rivals Raided At CES 2016

Posted on by Gareth Andrews
Reply

Trends come and go, from the latest phone to the newest console people often buy and then upgrade their technology a few months later. A few years ago the world was caught in a segway craze, with users riding around work and towns to doing rallies through woodland on the machines, but these were shortly replaced by their handleless “hoverboard” siblings. Sadly as with all crazes and trends, everyone wants a piece of the action. The hoverboard boom has led to more than a few recalls due to dangerous products, and even injuries. With cheap models being created all over the world, a US company decided to fight to protect their product at CES this year, a fight which the Chinese company has now backed out from.

Earlier this year at CES companies was showing off all kinds of technology, but Future Motion had their eye drawn only to one stall. Changzhou First International Trade Co had a stall set up demonstrating their version of Future Motions “hoverboard”. The design features a single wheel located in the middle of the device, as shown in the image above. Future Motion went to court and against no opposition asked the judge to issue a restraining order on the products sales. The hearing lasted a grand total of 7 minutes and at the end, the temporary restraining order was issued resulting in a raid on the booth at CES.

Future Motion has now dropped the case, which was set to be heard on the 19th February. Changzhou isn’t too happy though and is looking to recover the legal fees it’s had to pay to its lawyers. Their lawyer has released a statement saying that the “sole purpose of FM [Future Motion]’s TRO was to deprive its chief competitor Changzhou of its lawful right to display Changzhou’s Trotter product at the Consumer Electronics show (CES)”.

This definitely looks bad for Future Motion, who seem to have dropped the case in the hopes of it all fading away, with their actions seeming to back Changzhou’s evaluation that it was nothing more than a move to block competition.

Best of CES 2016 – NZXT CAM Software

Posted on by Peter Donnell
Reply

CES 2016: NZXT has been working hard on making their CAM software the ultimate one stop shop for monitoring and getting the most out of your desktops performance. Previous versions of the software were certainly impressive, but with CAM 3 and what we’ve seen is to come in updates throughout 2016 and beyond, it’s already the best of the best.

After speaking with NZXT, they told us how they’ve focused on pushing new features to the software, doubled the number of staff working on its development and the end results are certainly starting to show. There’s still a stigma in the community that you need NZXT products, such as Hue lighting, Kraken coolers and more to use the software, but that couldn’t be any further from the truth, as it’s compatible with any desktop Windows system. However, if you do own other connected NZXT products, they can all be controlled from extra tabs that will appear in the software, giving you even more control over your system.

Innovative features such as the average temperature monitoring are really cool. If you have a GTX 980Ti and 5000 other users of the software do, you can see what the average idle and load temperatures for that card are amongst other users, allowing you to better detect if your card is really reaching its full capabilities in terms of performance and cooling. Another in development feature looks to do the same for overclocking, monitoring what other models of the same card achieved and allowing a one-click apply of the average; super easy overclocking for all.

Colour customisation, customisable in-game performance overlays, performance logging so you can compare your per-game, daily, weekly, monthly figures to see how your system is doing, or if updates and overclocks have made a real world difference. There’s also a rather fantastic full-screen mode, great for tracking performance on multiple display systems.

The list goes on and on for features of CAM, and we highly recommend you try it out. If you’re still a little sceptical, we’ll be bringing you an in-depth review in the very near future.

NZXT CAM Software

Check out all our latest NZXT CES 2016 content, news and reviews right here.

Razer Offers 50% Off For One Day Only

Posted on by Gareth Andrews
Reply

These days you can’t just play a game, you must have everything to play it. From your mobile phone being turned into a Gameboy to remote controlling a tank with a PS4 controller, the consoles don’t always take the highlight. Events like CES bring together companies from all over the technology industry came together and they notice how much you care. Razer wants’ to thank everyone, by offering you 50% off for one day only.

At CES, Razer was awarded the Best of CES People’s Choice award, something that apparently has not happened before in the 49 years since CES started. To thank everyone, they’ve decided that on the 15th of January a special deal will be open to offering 50% of all their peripherals.

In order to claim this deal you will need two things, firstly you will need a Razer Insider account. Secondly, you will need to have linked the Insider account to your Razer ID. Guidelines on how to do all this can be found here, as well as the link you need to retrieve your code to activate the discount.

It should be noted that this discount is only available on peripherals and accessories, so no buying a giant Razer system for 50% off. The worst part of this deal can be found in the terms and conditions, though:

  • Each customer/shipping destination is allowed to place only one (1) order with a maximum of one (1) item.
  • Only the first order from each customer/shipping destination will be accepted and any subsequent orders will be cancelled. In addition, Razer reserves the sole and absolute discretion to cancel any orders that exceed the limit stated above. Razer shall not be liable to any customer in relation to such cancellations.

With the offer running from the 15th at 9 am GMT to the 16th at 8.59am people in Europe will have some nice Friday night shopping to look ahead of them. Don’t worry if you’re in another region, though, as the deals are available in for customers located in North America/Asia-Pacific, for more details and how to redeem this deal check out the page here.

New Form Of “SmartShoe” Shown Off At CES

Posted on by Christopher Files
1

The tech industry is focused on pushing forward with the notion of “Smart Tech” from washing machines, self-driving cars and also intelligent fridges, gadgets are quickly moving forward, but a SmartShoe? It is not too unusual when you take into consideration Nike’s inspiration for a Back to the Future-style smart self-lacing trainer which was shown off by Marty Mcfly himself, Michael J Fox in 2015.

Now, a new SmartShoe has been conveyed to audiences at CES and includes functions to warm your feet, which is handy, tighten automatically and are controlled by an app. The company in question goes by the name Digitsole and below is an image to convey this SmartShoe.

As you can see, they look futuristic but I feel the design looks rather clumsy and dated, perhaps they will be refined before launch. The company stated that the warmest these shoes can be heated to is 38 degrees, now, when I read this I thought Fahrenheit, erm, no, it has been reported that it is Celsius or 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit. Hopefully, the companies inbuilt thermostat will be able to control the heat within the shoes, otherwise, one can see you will also need an inbuilt fire extinguisher.

The price for these shoes will be around $450 dollars or (£307) and are likely to contain Digisoles heated insoles which are already on sale for $198 dollars or (£130)

The company also plans to launch both a slightly more stylish pair of trainers and also a smart high-heeled shoe, both these styles will also come with the hot heated sole function as well as motion tracking and also other options, below are images to convey both these styles of SmartShoe.

Smart shoes will have a market as tech involves into this sector, it will be noteworthy to see how fast consumers are willing to adopt such tech within their daily lives.

Images courtesy of Mashable and digitsole

Razer Showcase Nabu Watch @ CES 2016

Posted on by Peter Donnell
Reply

CES 2016: The new Razer Nabu Watch is on show in Las Vegas, and it’s clearly a big departure from the current Nabu wristband, it’s a lot bigger for starters! This is, at the very basic level, a digital watch. It features a separate battery that can last about 18 months and has a nice green LCD display for telling the time, it’s a watch and that’s about it. However, tucked just below the display is a secondary display, powered by its own rechargeable battery, This second display is a smaller version of the Nabu wristband, so it still gives you all the smart fitness tracking features you’ve come to know and love from that, as well as notifications, facebook messages and more. The battery life on this will be a few days long, so you’ll need to remember to charge it, just remember that the watch will keep on ticking under its own battery for a very long time.

I’m not completely sold on the rugged and somewhat oversized design, but it does look pretty cool and the softer wrist strap feels comfortable to wear.

Overall, it’s a cool two in one device and the price is said to be around £129.99 / $149.99, which is certainly more affordable that some similar devices on the market. What do you think of the new design?

Mushkin Display Latest Memory Products @ CES 2016

Posted on by Andy Ruffell
Reply

CES 2016: We’re here at the Mushkin suite in Las Vegas, and we’re very happy to see they’ve rolled out several new storage products for 2016. First up we have the Eco3, which features the Silicon Motion SM2256 controller, SATA 3.1 6Gb/s, and read and write speeds of 560MB/s and 515MB/s respectively with up to 87,000 IOPS. Additional features include SLC caching, Enhanced Data Protection Suite and a 3-year warranty.

The Eco3 is said to be exclusive to Newegg, at least for now, but the Triactor is virtually identical and will be available globally. No firm pricing at the moment, but expect it to be fiercely competitive.

The new 2TB reactor features the 2246 Silicon Motion controller and will launch in Q2.

The Striker, an enterprise focused SSD, is expect to launch late Q1. It will feature 565MB/s 88,000 IPS read and 550MB/s 92,000 IOPS write.

Pro camera users will be happy to see their new ICON compact flash cards, featuring 1066x speed with data transfers of 160MB/s and 256 and 512GB models being available in late Q1. Most interesting is that they’re expect to undercut the market prices of popular cards by a big margin, so keep an eye out for these.

Their latest prototype, two SM2246 controllers in RAID. The system will still handle this as a single drive, and performance will take a little bit of a hit, but when it comes to capacity for NAS setups, but expect a fantastic price per gigabyte option somewhere in Q2.

New and Upgraded Phanteks Chassis Products Revealed @ CES 2016

Posted on by Peter Donnell
Reply

CES 2016: Phanteks are one of my all time favourite chassis manufacturers, and after visiting their suite in Las Vegas, it’s easy to remember why. Their Evolv ATX and Pro M chassis are already impressive in terms of design, but their new models now come with  a tempered glass side panel. While the chassis remains unchanged, this new model gives you a great way to show off your hardware and gives them an even more premium visual appreance.

Phanteks are known to be a premium brand, which means premium prices. However, their new Eclipse looks to take many of their high-end features down to a more affordable price point. Equipped with room for cooling, featuring a built-in lighting kit and a fan controller, the P400a is the best of the bunch. It comes with a side panel windows, PSU shroud, cable routing and more, so you can expect you system build to look fantastic, but there will also b ea more enclosed silent version as well as a more affordable model without the lighting or fan controller, giving you lots of options to choose from.

Expect these to be at retailers very soon and a full review from us as soon as they’re available, but either way, it’s nice to see them taking a shot at a slightly more consumer (and wallet) friendly part of the market.

New Kingston Cloud Revolver Headset @ CES 2016

Posted on by Peter Donnell
Reply

CES 2016: Kingston are already a popular choice for PC gamers, after the massive success of their Cloud and Cloud II gaming headsets. Now they’ve back with a completely new design, the HyperX Cloud Revolver headset, and this time, it’s a fully Kingston designed headset, no help from other parties such as QPAD.

The design certainly looks great, and the headset feels like a premium product and well ballanced. Equipped with new 50mm drivers, Kington promise they’ve finally made a Cloud beater, but we’ll have to wait and see.

The headband design is self adjusting for the perfect fit every time.

And there’s a soft leather padding for excellent noise suppression on the interior of the ear cups. Other than that, you can find a new microphone, which is said to be even better than the old one, so it’s certainly something we’re looking forward to testing later this year.

The new headset is expected to launch in Q2, with an RRP of $120 and $150 for the 3,5mm and USB versions resectively.

Latest Polar Smart Watches @ CES 2016

Posted on by Andy Ruffell
Reply

Smart watches are everywhere these days, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t got room for even more. While many smart watches are tailored to the consumer, the new series from Polar are targeted at professional athletes. The V800 is packed full of features, ideal for the triathlete, or multisport athelets, as it’ll help monitor running, cycling, swimming and much more.

The M400 still packs a lot of high-end features, but is more tailored to urban and trail runners, afterall, if you don’t do triathalons, the V800 is likely overkill for your needs.

The bike computers are pretty slick too, featuring clear displays, GPU, performance tracking, great battery life and more.

There’s no doubt that these will be popular units, as they’re stylish, light weight, feature heart rate monitors, profiles, free app and web services, have clear displays and are designed to withstand the elements in their respective catagories. We’ve no details on the prices, but given their focused nature, they’re not going to be cheap. They may however be essential to the pros.

ARM Displaying Their Latest Technologies @ CES 2016

Posted on by Peter Donnell
Reply

CES 2016: ARM are one of the biggest tech companies in the world, chances are you’re using dozens of their products right now and you don’t even know it! They make the tiny processors, sensors and more that go into so many pieces of technology all around the world. At CES, they have been showcasing all their latest technologies, such as the Michigan Mote, the world’s smallest computer. At just 1mm3 in size, and using just 10 nanowatts of power, it’s great for batteries, radios, sensors and so much more. Unfortunately, ARM didn’t find my joke about the lack of HDMI funny, but it’s still an impressive unit.

The MbientLab MetaWear C, not the most memorable name ever, but with low-cost and endless applications, it’s a great bit of hardware. Featuring a temperature, pressure, accelerometer, gyro, magnetometer and light sensor, it’s a tracking powerhouse, and it’s no bigger than a button.

The Huawei Mate 8, a prime example of ARM hardware at work.

Another ARM Cortex chip is found in the Tom Tom GPS.

Even an automated pet food dispensor.

You wouldn’t think of shoes being ARM enabled, not that I’m trying to make a joke about it being feet enabled. With an ARM Coretex -M0 MCU, the shoes are smart enabled for fitness tracking!

The new Atheer AiR AR glasses, equipped with a number of ARM technologies for processing and sensors.

It seems there are endless products powered by arm, but what’s really special is that while they keep making powerful, cost effective and tiny systems to fit in our devices is that they’re so good at their job, their work often goes unnoticed. Great work ARM, we can’t wait to see what you come up with next!

Insteon Smart Home Technologies @ CES 2016

Posted on by Peter Donnell
Reply

CES 2016: One of the biggest tech trends right now is a connected home, from Bluetooth-connected lightbulbs that you can control from your phone to smart TV’s, there are a lot of devices out there doing some amazing things. The latest range of products from Insteon work in harmony with a lot of the latest tech on the market, from Logitech products, Amazon Echo, Cortana, Milocks, Sonos, Apple HomeKit and many more. They add physical connections to your home, that are a far cry from the humble light switches you likely already have.

Control your remote multimedia, lighting, mobile devices, connected TVs and more as you enter the room. Set a button that plays your favourite song, sets your favourite lighting mood, puts the kettle on! The choice is really yours and it’s that kind of freedom of connectivity that is so attractive.

The main hub is sleek and stylish, simply add power and network connections and you’re good to go.

They’ll be shipping a starter kit, allowing mobile control of a few connected devices, but there’s no limit on how far you can expand your setup, the only limit will be your imagination… and maybe your budget.

EVGA Reveal Hydro QRG Expandable Cooler @ CES 2016

Posted on by Peter Donnell
Reply

CES 2016: EVGA may be better known for their PSUs, graphics cards and other hardware, but now they’re expanding into the world of CPU coolers too! This isn’t the first time EVGA has dabbled with cooling through, having had many water cooled GPUs in recent years, so I have high expectations for their new QRG CPU Cooler.

The pump design is certainly unique and comes with a gorgeous LED-lit EVGA logo behind the clear top panel. The hoses are a good length, and come with a thick braiding over the top, and better yet, they come with quick release interlinks, allowing you to easily add a GPU into the mix; such as the Hydro EVGA series!

The cooler is set to launch soon, with just the 120mm version available initially, but expect other models to follow afterwards and if it’s successful, EVGA will be eager to expand on this range even further.

EVGA X10 Mouse & Z10 Keyboard @ CES 2016

Posted on by Peter Donnell
Reply

CES 2016: Gaming, there’s no doubt about it, a lot of PC gamers love it. PC gaming is even better when you’ve got a great set of peripherals too, and the Z10 from EVGA certainly fits the bill. Equipped with high-end Cherry MX switches, LED backlighting, slider switches for volume and lighting and a bold angular design, it’s certainly a nice keyboard.

However, it’s one extra little feature that sets this keyboard apart, as it can hook up to your graphics cards to allow GPU overclocking directly from the keyboard! If that’s not a great tool for overclocking, I don’t know what is!

The Torq X10 mouse is looking great too, with its aggressive and textured design, LED lighting and fantastic build quality, I can see this being a popular choice for competitive gamers.

There are two huge slipmats on the base, giving it fantastic glide.

And finally, it’s got an adjustable design to help better fit your hand.

Would you buy either of these? Would you like direct OC’ing on your keyboard?

EVGA Geforce GTX 980 Ti VR Edition Unveiled @ CES 2016

Posted on by Peter Donnell
Reply

CES 2016: Sometimes the simplist of changes can make an existing product significantly better, and the latest product from EVGA is a prime example of this. The GTX 980 Ti has already proven to be a great card for virtual reality, making easy work of anything Oculus or Vive can throw at it, to name but a few of the VR headsets on the market. What’s tricky is hooking up the required hardware, often needing a USB and HDMI port, which for some users can mean fetching behind their system and unplugging their monitor cables, no exactly ideal.

The new GTX 980 Ti VR Edition solves this by adding an additonal mini HDMI port to the internal end of the card, allowing you to pass through that cable to a 5.25″ device that sits at the front of your chassis. The new device does the same for two USB 3.0 ports, giving you front panel access to HDMI and an extra USB port, making it perfect for quickly hooking up your VR headset of choice!

The card comes equipped with the ACX 2.0 cooler, although you can expect a reference design too, perfect for those adding custom cooling. No word on price, but expect them to be ready in time for release of Oculus and Vive.

EVGA Showcase High-end AMP & DAC @ CES 2016

Posted on by Peter Donnell
Reply

CES 2016: EVGA are taking a dive into the world of high-end desktop audio this year, as they demonstrated the prototype of their next-gen audio card! As you can see, we’ve go ta range of high-end gold caps on there, for squeeky clean power delivery, as well as an on-board AMP and DAC. It also looks like the DAC chips are interchangeable, although I’m not sure if that is going to be a remaining feature on the retail product, it would be nice for the enthusiast user to have that option.

The demo units and I can’t stress that enough, those red boxes are just that, demo units for the cards external USB version. They sounded absolutely fantastic, and the clarity and power delivery is up there with the best and you can bet we’ll be pushing this card to the limit as soon as retail samples are available. With a signal to noise ratio of 130Db, Japanese Rubycon caps, Italian made resistors and a little help from Audio Note on the design front, it’s no wonder they’re sounding great.

Are you a fan of high-end audio equipment, or are you happy with the on-board audio from your desktop? Let us know in the comments section below.

SyFy Labs Showcase Latest Technologies @ CES 2016

Posted on by Peter Donnell
Reply

CES 2016: The show floor here at CES is absolutely packed with cool technology, but one that caught my eye was the SyFy Labs booth. It’s what they call their innovation lab, where they’re using all kinds of high-end and modern technology to inspire them to deliver the latest content. We’ve got VR headsets, allowing you to explore a demo called “expanse”, a virtual reality app for the Samsung Gear VR, where users can explore spacecraft and settings from the TV show in 3D.

It’s a cool demo and it’s clear how this could be a great tool for show makers to really get into the mindset of their locations in sci-fi TV and movies, especially given the level of greenscreen work.

Next up we’ve got 3D printing from MakerBot, while this is a great tool for making props and other cool things, you can actually download models of ships, props, logos and more from the shows and download them to print yourself!

Joining forces with Philips Hue, Syfy Sync can enable your home RGB lighting to run on a “lighting track”, allowing the 2016 season of The Expanse to give you an even more immersive home cinema experience.

It’s great to see TV show producers really thinking outside of the box to make their shows more immeresive, and I may have to go buy some RGB Hue bulbs now just to try out the lighting track feature.

Synaptics Showcase Latest Innovations @ CES 2016

Posted on by Peter Donnell
Reply

CES 2016: Synaptics are one of those huge brands that you may not have heard of, but it’s most likely that you’ve used or are using their products on a daily basis. When it comes to sensors, trackpads and more, they’re the masters of their craft and if you’ve got a notebook with a touch mouse, or a fingerprint sensor, tracker or more, chances are that Synaptics made or designed it.

One of my personal favourites is the TteSports Poseidon Z Touch, which comes with a SmartBar. You can slide and pinch control the space bar, allowing you to select things, change volume, zoom and more.

This is only a mockup, but a sensor has been installed into this Corsair keyboard. This means you can have a private system fingerprint scanner; no more password reminders for you!

The IronVeil sensor is just limited to a keyboard either, as it can easily be deployed into a huge range of products. Here you can see that Synaptics have installed one into some very popular gaming mice, albeit just to prove it can be done. With quick online payments becoming more common, as well as people being hacked or passwords being insecure, this is a great little tool and one that could pave the way for more security for your desktop.

Would you use a fingerprint sensor on your computer?

New Creative Audio Products Demonstrated @ CES 2016

Posted on by Peter Donnell
Reply

CES 2016: Creative are one of the most recognisable audio brands in the PC market, and their latest products at CES 2016 prove exactly why that is.

First up, their new Blaster X headset, which looks a little like the Cloud 2 headset from Kingston, but thanks to a powerful amp module, it sounds far superior to virtually anything else in its class. The build quality is exceptional, it’s super comfortable and better yet, it’s multi-format ready.

Their new in-ear P5 headset is another winner, with titanium-coated diaphragms, FullSpectrum drivers, noise isolation, this is some seriously audiophile grade tech that will simply blow you away. And once again, they’re multi-format ready.

We didn’t get chance to test these, but as you can see, the Live!2, Aurvana Gold and the Aurvana Platinum are some of their latest premium grade headsets, and we’re really looking forward to testing them later in the year.

A range of mobile speakers, featuring premium build quality and promising great sound. We didn’t get to test them, but if they’re on par with the other products we’ve seen from them recently, they’re going to be pretty special.

Need something that can really kickstart the party? The Roar Pro has all the extra grunt you’re likely to need.

Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to explore all the new products or demo everything, but we’ve reached out to Creative to bring you some great product reviews in the coming weeks and months, so stay tuned for more info on these products are they hit the market.

NZXT Take CAM Software to the Next Level @ CES 2016

Posted on by Peter Donnell
Reply

CES 2016: NZXT may be best known for their chassis, cooling and power supply products, but this year it’s all about software. Their new CAM software is currently making a mockery of the current crop of desktop overclocking and performance monitoring tools and after chatting with their software manager, it’s only going to get better and better throughout 2016. The software is extensively updated, bringing it up to version 3.0 and adding a whole host of new features. All the basics are here, temperature monitoring for your hardware, storage report, usage, etc.

One thing that really caught my eye is how the software uses the cloud to track your stats, so you can check multiple devices in your setup, or from remote locations. The cloud data is then used to compare to other users. If you have a certain GPU, you can see what the average user temperatures for that card are for all the other users, which could let you know that your card is running higher (or lower) than expected.

The overlay at performance tracking software is the best we’ve ever seen. Need performance stats and FPS overlay? You got it. You even get a breakdown report afterwards that are all backed up, allowing you to track performance over time, great for system testing and overclocking, aswell as bragging rights that you’re hitting 60FPS+ in whatever you run.

There’s also a full-screen interface, which is great for multi-display setups. If you’re using a workstation, test-bench, rendering system or just doing performance analysis, this is going to be a fantastic tool to have.

Of course, that’s not all! There’s colour customisation, screenshotting features, and more settings than you can shake a stick at. On top of that, there’s soon to be overclocking features added for your GPU, as well as a cloud-based overclocking tool that will help you get the most power from your GPU settings at a single click, achieved by checking the average OC for your particular card and easily applying it.

There’s more functionality here than we can capture in a few simple images, so expect us to take a much closer look at the software in the coming weeks.

Steelseries Rival 700 Vibrating + OLED Equipped Gaming Mouse @ CES 2016

Posted on by Peter Donnell
Reply

CES 2016: The latest gaming mouse from Steelseries is on show today, and it has got a lot of very unique features. First of all, this is a great looking mouse in general, it comes with all the usual features we have come to expect from a gaming mouse, such as fully programmable buttons, customisable lighting, tough grips on the side panels and more. There have been improvements to the side grips, though, as they’re now more durable after users said they had worn through them on previous mice.

The first and most noticeable addition is the OLED display on the side, great for giving in-game information such as round number, stats and more, but it can also show off customisable gifs, giving you room for your team logo and more.

The mouse also comes equipped with an inverted motor, which adds a tactile vibration feedback. The orientation of the motor means that the vibration won’t interfere with tracking, but it adds a new level of interaction with your games. We tried it with CS:GO and the mouse gives you a little nudge when ammo is low, meaning you instinctively know when to reload. It’s a really cool feature and something we’re eager to see expanded on by developers.

The next big innovation is the sensor. By default, the mouse will come with a high-end optical sensor. However, Steelseries will also release a laser sensor, and you can simply detach this one and plug in the new one! There’s even scope for more sensors in the future, so it’s the mouse that just keeps on getting better. No details on price but Steelseries are aiming at $20-30 for the new sensor.

It also comes equipped with a detachable cable, and you’ll find a 6ft braided and a 3ft rubber cable included, making it great for desktop and notebook use. Obviously, you’ll also find the new Steelseries management engine, allowing extensive customisation of the settings.

 

This is easily one of the most customisable and configurable mice we’ve ever seen and our testing at the show left us very impressed, so keep an eye out for this one in the coming weeks, as it has the potential to be one of the best mice of this year.

Phanteks Demonstrates Amazing New Products @ CES 2016

Posted on by Peter Donnell
Reply

CES 2016: Phanteks have been creating some of the best chassis money can buy over the last few years and it looks like that is a trend that is set to continue, as they demonstrate their latest and greatest products here in Las Vegas. This first one is still a prototype, but Phanteks say we can expect the final one by Computex this year.  IT comes with room for an ATX motherboard, as well as a mini-ITX motherboard, much like the Enthoo Primo did with Micro-ATX and Mini-ITX boards. Obviously, this means it’s freaking huge, and with room for high-end water cooling in the front, back, top and bottom it’s obviously aimed at the enthusiast user.

In the base, there’s a separate compartment for the PSU and additional water cooling hardware, as well as a some lovely built-in RGB lighting that goes around much of the chassis.

The use of an SFX PSU is no longer required either, thanks to the PSU splitting hardware that allows you to power dual systems from a single PSU, freeing up more room in the chassis for hardware.

The external panels are thick cut aluminium, giving it a fantastic premium look and feel. Normally aluminium is lightweight, but with this much of it, the chassis is extremely heavy.

We can’t wait to see this chassis once it is completed and ready for consumers!

The new Enthoo Primo also supports dual systems and once again the SFX PSU mount from the old model is gone, allowing you room for a GPU mount using a riser card, giving you a much more visually appealing build.

The Mini XL dual system looks great too, featuring the same sleek and high-end built quality and component support of any other Phanteks chassis we’ve ever seen.

The power splitter card is certainly a cool bit of kit, and as you can imagine, it’s pretty darn handy for these dual-system chassis designs. Just remember, if you’re running two high-end systems, you’ll need a pretty beefy PSU. With built-in load sharing, the unit is far from a dummy splitter, ensuring each system is getting the power it needs.

The power combo is the same idea, albeit in reverse. Not only can it bridge two high-end PSUs, something that can be a vital tool for those doing extreme system builds, or enthusiast/competitive overclocking, you can bridge two lower grade PSUs  to get the power you need, giving you a lot of unique and interesting options for your build.

Just look at this monster gaming system, powered by two 750W EVGA PSUs and using the power combo! Pretty cool, right?

 

Steelseries Numbus iOS Game Controller @ CES 2016

Posted on by Peter Donnell
Reply

CES 2016: We’re here at the Steelseries suite in Las Vegas, and the first thing to catch our attention in their lovely new Nimbus controller. Equipped with all the features that you would expect from a modern gaming controller. It’s obviously quite similar to many other popular controllers, but familiarity with the button layout is no bad thing. The ergonomics are very comfortable and it comes with support for all the latest and greatest Apple devices, perfect for playing on your TV, iPad and more.

Large trigger around the back are great for ergonomics and they have a really nice throw and grip to them.

We’ve got the Nimbus in the eTeknix office, so expect a full review of this great new controller very soon.

Cooler Master Masterkeys Keyboard @ CES 2016

Posted on by Peter Donnell
Reply

CES 2016: Keeping with Cooler Masters “Maker” philosophy, their latest keyboard at CES 2016 is one of their best so far. Following on from their popular QuickFire series of keybaords, the new ones come with a wide range of Cherry MX switch choices, so you should have no issues finding the ones you truly love. There’s also full RGB lighting, and Cooler Master have worked hard to find the best possible RGB lights they can find. Equipped with the brightest RGB LEDs around, the keyboard is a joy to look at, and of course, with RGB, you have 16.7 million colours to pick from for any switch.

The internal redsign of the keyboard means that we not only get better lighting, but also more direct, as it doesn’t bleed through to the other keys, giving you much more defined colour patterns when customising the visuals. All the usual features are here too, such as on-the-fly macros, profile support, desktop software customisation and it all comes bundled in a very durable and slim chassis. Stay tuned for more information on the Masterkeys Pro L and Pro S in the coming weeks here at eTeknix.

Cooler Master Showcase Latest Cooling Products @ CES 2016

Posted on by Peter Donnell
Reply

CES 2016: Cooler Master may have been in a little hot water last year over pump designs, but that’s old news and something they’ve easily worked around with their a new cooling design of their own making. The new water cooler still has a fairly straight forward radiator design, but now features super flexible tubing, as well as a very unique pump design.

As you can see, it has a clear top, giving you a great view of the liquid chamber in the pump. The demo hardware was running dry to show off the hardware, and CM also said that while there’s only a single LED here, it will be fully LED lit when it comes to market. This is going to look great when it’s done and we cant wait to test it out when it is completed.

Then we have their new fan series, gone are all the previous brandings, now focusing on three ranges, AirFlow, Balance and Air Pressure. Obviously, the usual sizing variants will be available, but they’ll com ewith all black fittings, a sleek design and anti-vibration rubber mounts for the screws.

The new Masterair Maker 8, which features a sleek design for high-end air cooling. It uses a 3D vapor chamber in the base, a thick tower and a push/pull fan configuration for excellent cooling performance.

It’ll support 120mm and 140mm fans via removable clip-on brackets, allowing for quick and easy fan changes/maintainance.

It’s also very colourful. The LED lighting is actually from the fans, but there’s a cool lighting pass-through design that helps illuminate the top cover and the area around the heat pipes.

This is a stunning looking cooler and once again we can’t wait to see it in the eTeknix office and put it through its paces.

Air cooling not your thing? Expect to see this range of custom loop cooling hardware on the market very soon too!

 

 

 

Cooler Master Masterwatt 1200w Titanium Digital PSU @ CES 2016

Posted on by Peter Donnell
Reply

CES 2016: As we take our tour of the Cooler Master suite at this year’s show, I had to stop and admire their latest power supply. PSUs are nothing new, but this one is a real winner, with a brushed aluminium exterior design that looks unlike anything I’ve seen before. The Masterwatt 1200 is a beautifully designed unit, delivering up to 1200W of power with a mighty impressive 80 Plus Titanium efficiency rating.

It also makes use of the new CM Connect Software and app, allowing you to fully monitor and control the efficiency, power delivery and stats of the unit. And as you can see below, it’s a great looking mobile app with an intuitive layout and connect via USB 3.0, meaning you don’t even need to power the PC to get access.

Equipped with the latest 135mm Silencio FP fan, it’ll be whisper quiet, fully modular cables, as well as an updated connector and cable design that can handle higher loads. To top it all off, it’ll come with a fantastic 7-year warranty. Keep an eye out for this one latest this year, because it could be one of the best PSUs we’ve seen for a long time!

Latest Cooler Master Chassis Products Displayed @ CES 2016

Posted on by Peter Donnell
Reply

CES 2016: We’re here at the Cooler Master suite at CES 2016 and be prepared, as they’ve got a lot of fantastic products to show us this year! First up, their new Master Concept chassis, which represents the best of the best of what CM can do these days. It’s a big chassis too, easily on par with the Cosmos II, and it’s clearly inspired by it too. The case comes with FreeForm Modular System, allowing you to remove and rebuild all major components on the interior, move things around, you can even detach those big exterior rails, mod them, make your own, rebuild; if you want freedom in terms of design, this is where you’ll find it. Of course, like a concept car, this is just CM showing what they can do, perhaps even what they’re aiming for with future entries in the MasterCase series! Only time will tell.

Their latest range of chassis products doesn’t disappoint either, with the Master Case Maker 5 being the new king. Of course, CM are also looking into more affordable versions of their highly modular chassis, and you can expect to see the smaller and more affordable versions hitting the market later this year. We loved the Master Case when we reviewed it, so we’re eager to test more products in this range later this year.

The modular nature of the chassis means there are a lot of customisation options available too. Here we can see a range of aftermarket parts that are available for their chassis, such as the range of side panels, including standard, windowed, silent and tempered glass.

Modular top panels, giving you closed, open, silent and more.

As well as a range of storage bays, radiator mounts, GPU support brackets, SSD mounts and more to play around with.

 

 

 

 

 

QNAP Display TAS-268 Android Powered NAS @ CES 2016

Posted on by Andy Ruffell
Reply

CES 2016: We’ve seen all kinds of NAS hit the market over the years, but the latest from QNAP, the TAS-268 Android, really stands out from the crowd. It’s no secret that operating a NAS can be a little daunting for the average consumer, but Android OS is something a lot more people are familiar and comfortable with using. The Android-powered NAS boots right up to the Android desktop, giving you access to the Play Store and all the apps that come with it, meaning you can tap into Netflix, Amazon Prime, Plex, and so much more right out of the box.

With 2 x 3.5″ bays giving you up to 12TB of storage, this could be ideal for those who need to backup all their data from smartphones, tablets, desktop systems and more, while also offering a full suite of multimedia features for the family entertainment system(s). Those wanting to dive into more advanced features will still find the amazing QTS interface too, giving you the choice of an Android multimedia station and standard NAS at the touch of a button. With HDMI output, four USB ports, Gigabit LAN and more, this is a great little unit.

The unit is tool-free, making it very user friendly and QNAP also said there will be a more affordable 1-Bay unit available soon too. Stay tuned for more information on this one in the coming weeks.