My days at CES are almost all filled with meetings that have been running all over the strip from hotel to hotel making my time at the convention itself is limited to the last day. That means that if I want to see most of the show I have to almost run as I go through the LVCC. Almost nothing can make me break my focus as I run through on Sunday but I did run by a book that caught my eye and pulled me in. A company called Atlantic was showing off their home organization and gaming solutions.

My visit to the Mushkin suite was more about reconnecting and discussing the future more than covering what is new but that doesn’t mean that they didn’t have anything new to show off. I did get to take a look at their latest power supply variations and a few of their Ridgeback DDR3 kits.

After our meeting with Cooler Master Adam ran off to his next meeting at the LVCC and I made my way up to talk with the nice folks at Patriot about what they are working on. Our meeting was informal and quick because I needed to run to eat; my last meal was yesterday before meeting with Gigabyte. Mary over at Patriot was nice enough to give me a cookie and a muffin to hold me off though, thanks Mary!!

Ricky was nice enough to have me over to their suite to show me their new products and returning products for 2011. The more and more I see with boutique builders, the more it’s growing on me. For someone that doesn’t want to go through the hassle of picking out parts, this is the way to go. Plus it’s always good to see what kind of “Monster” computer they can come up with.

Xi3 may not have a wide variety of products available, but the product they do have is a specific design, one aimed at improving on the traditional computer. Xi3 is actually a formula representing Variable, Information, and Cubed. Seeking a little more information, we headed to their booth on South Hall.

The definition of concurrent is happening at the same time as something else. When such a thing as a Dual-band Wireless N router came about we knew the possibilities and got one. The problem was that the secondary band is well under the 300Mbps specifications. Introducing the first true wireless 450Mbps concurrent Dual-band router from TRENDnet; The TEW-692GR will be the envy for all wireless gamers.

On Friday morning I was up early for a private showing at the Bellagio. Normally you wouldn’t think of DVD/Blu-Ray drives of being something that you would really talk about. We very rarely use our drives anymore. Loading Windows or ripping a DVD is about all I use my drive for. The thing is, when I had my netbook and it didn’t have a drive I felt like I was missing out on something. Along with installing Windows, ripping your DVD’s, Blu-Ray and CD’s there is not much else we can do with them.

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.

09.Jan

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