If you think you've heard it all, you haven't. TruWireless Dolby 7.1 compliant, the Admiral by NOX Audio gives a better than concert hall sound with out the wires and without the crowd.
With a range of products including SSD’s, Ram, power supply’s, USB flash drives, peripherals, and even cooling products I really wasn’t sure what to expect for my meeting with OCZ. I did meet up and talk with fatal1ty at the OCZ party the night before so I was expecting to see something new from his partnership with OCZ, maybe something to go with the motherboard we recently reviewed?
The next meeting that I had on Thursday was with iGUGU. Their booth was very impressive, more than enough representatives to help out with demos and questions. I sat down at one of the TVs and just kept a low profile. About twenty seconds past and a woman came over and wanted to know if I wanted a demo, and we were off and running.
The first night in Treasure Island, before we laid our heads on our couches, Wes showed us an article on what we would soon learn was the Switchblade. The next morning, we were at the Razer booth to see it for ourselves. If the recent pre-order date for the Onza and the assigned name of Hydra to the Sixense motion controlling weren't enough, the idea of a portable Defense of the Ancients gave us plenty to dream about.
I wasn't sure what to expect of MadCatz at this year's CES; with not much new technology aside from first-party motion controlling to work with, we had seen a few leaders in the console gaming market with a less-than-flattering display of new products. For that reason, perhaps, was I so impressed with the offerings MC had to show.
Anthony met me at their booth this afternoon for a quick walkthrough of what they have to offer us. Right away I knew that I was in for something special. When you think about external storage, quality might not be number one; Rocstor’s products drool with quality. Holding one of their drives in my hand felt very solid and like they took the time to deliver a product that they thought out.
Our friends over at ICYDock gave me a call while I was wondering around the show floor this year and asked if I would like to visit the Raidon booth a close partner of theirs and take a quick look at both of their products. Of course we have always loved their innovations, I couldn’t turn down a chance to see what to expect in the coming year. Adam and I slipped over in between our other meetings and took a look.
One of the big introductions from MSI on their motherboard side is the P67 Big Bang Marshal, their flagship P67 board. With eight full PCI express x16 slots you are going to have the flexibility to run any combination of video cards and other x1, x4, and ,8 devices. You still have MSI’s Military Class II components and their OC Genie II but most people will be impressed with this board’s size along. The eATX form factor has been out for some time but still to this day surprises me with its size.
We first met Other World Computer (OWC) at the Futurelook party on Wednesday night, one of the sponsors of the event. It was obvious that they dealt in SSD's since one of our writers was drawn as a winner for one. Of course after that we were a little anxious to learn more about their products, since as soon as we returned home we would find ourselves in possession of a 240 model.
Everyone knows what to expect from Kingston: a continual improvement in all things RAM and anything memory related. At CES 2011 there is no change in the trend. Coming out with an impressive line of DDR3 RAM is the HyperX Genesis2, coming to you in an elegant grey and soon after launch the standard Genesis blue we are all accustomed to. HyperX is Intel XMP certified and P67 ready, and will be offered in 4GB 2x2GB kits at 2133MHz and 1600MHz frequencies. The only difference in looks is the loss of the tabs on the top portion of the RAM, which I think all would agree is an improvement on the overall appearance of the RAM. By the end of February, expect to see a full line of HyperX in all the key consumer markets from High Performance to Low-Voltage.
In Win was showing off their newest case titled the BUC. As with any other In Win case this case is nothing like anything else on the market. They included a key locked side panel IN the side panel that when opened gives you access to three of the four built in drive bays. Peoples opinion of In Win cases is typically ether hot or cold, but you can’t deny that they keep changing things up and coming up with creative new ideas! Follow the link below for a larger sized photo.
Last year 3d televisions were all the rage at CES and this year tablets are the big thing. You literally can’t go 20 feet without running across a new company jumping on the bandwagon. When it comes to tablets there are only a few companies that aren’t new to the scene and one of the more well-known companies, specifically in android tablets is Archos. Of course I found the time to stop by their booth and take a closer look to see what they are showing off.
The meeting with AMD was a bit different than most, both a product show and a private meeting. This isn't at all unusual, but AMD held both in a single meeting room in the North Hall of the Convetion Center. The majority of the room was a large, active showcase of gaming laptops, video cards, and 3D TVs that members of the press were teasingly led past into a smaller, cubicle office environment to get a one-on-one walkthrough of the latest and future projects to come.
After Gigabyte's Press Conference the day before, we were really looking forward to seeing the new gaming series motherboards in person. Though an entire suite was dedicated to showing off the new G1 Killer line, another room directly across the hall held a much wider array of products coming in the new year.
It’s no secret that over the past year and a half I have grown to love shuttle PC’s for putting together portable gaming rigs for LAN parties. What can I say, I love those little boxes. They may not be the most powerful rigs but when paired with a quad core and a decent video card they can play just about anything you throw at them. I didn’t schedule a meeting with our friends over at Shuttle but I did make a point to sneak over to see what to expect in the coming year.
Meeting with Nyko this year was almost de ja vu, returning to the Hilton Casino and Hotel, to about the same (if not exactly the same) suite number. The display of Kinect and Move peripherals in addition to the new Xbox 360 design brought me back to today however, greeted again by a buffet offer that I missed, having caught a quick meal a half hour before. Indeed, just like last year.
Loyal LanOC event participants are likely to be familiar, and perhaps even have a product by the gaming peripheral specialists Thrustmaster. Having been a faithful sponsor of our events in the past, Thrustmaster may share the sole responsibility for hooking Wes on flight sims, and without a doubt aided in no way to his racing simulation addiction. Their booth at this year's CES was large enough to warrant the use of two neighboring locations, a good indicator of the full-sized peripherals they had to demo.
Antec's booth is one of the first you see when you enter the South Hall 1 of the Convention Center. It sits at the beginning of the 21000 aisle, an Antec logo topping the large, white plastic structure. Towers, power supplies, and even laptop accessories line each side of the booth, on display both in the open and behind glass cabinents. Near the front of the booth, however, lies a large sound dome accompanied with a smaller enclosed cubicle, with the name 'SoundScience' printed across. From inside, grenade blasts and gun fire shake the plastic and vibrate the floor. Curiously, I approached simulated warzone.
Our first stop Thursday morning was to the Bellagio for a private showing of the latest and greatest from Cooler Master. Wes and I were graciously met in front of Treasure Island with a Presidential Limousine courtesy of CM and soon found ourselves on the 36th floor admiring a view of the famous fountain show. The room was full of power supplies, CPU coolers, towers, and gaming accessories that Cooler Master had for the upcoming year. It was difficult, however, to take our minds off why we were now wearing NDA badges around our necks.
With a private invitation to the Corsair press conference and party at the V Bar in the Venetian in hand I made my trek to my first press conference of CES 2011 today to check out what Corsair has to offer in the coming year. 2010 was a great year for them and they seem to be excited to give a sneak peek at a few new items that they hope will help them continue the trend.
