The PC Report

At Computex 2010, Asus has launched a new tablet-style PC that will be running Windows 7; the Eee Pad. Using the same naming scheme seen with their netbook line (Eee PC), the tablet will be first available in two models: the EP121 and the EP101TC. Both models will feature a capacitive touchscreen, hopefully with multi-touch support and a long battery life. The devices are said to be coming in early 2011 and will be priced between US$399 and US$499

The 12-inch EP121 will come with an Intel Core 2 Duo CULV processor, full Windows 7 on the inside and a reported 10-hour battery life. A webcam and USB port will be present, however not much else is known about the device other than it will support a hybrid docking/keyboard station for when you need some non-touchscreen typing. Even less is known about the EP101TC – we know it has a 10.1 inch display and that it will be running Windows Embedded Compact 7 but that’s about it.

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A new motherboard from Asus will soon be hitting the shelves that allows mix-and-match graphics cards from different vendors thanks to the Lucid Hydra chipset present on the board – this means you could chuck in an ATI card along with a Nvidia card! The Asus CrossHair IV Extreme will be the next out of Asus’ line of high-end motherboards packed with great features like the mix-match GPU support  and also Bluetooth RoG Connect, as seen on the Maximus II Extreme, will also be present.

The CrossHair IV Extreme packs an AMD AM3 socket along with the 890FX chipset to support the latest in AMD processors including the new Phenom II X6s. What we can deduce from the pictures provided is that there will be dual-channel DDR3 support, upwards of nine SATA ports which at least two of should be SATA 6 Gbps, five PCIe slots and one standard PCI slot and Core Unlocker and OC Turbo Key buttons. We hope USB 3.0 is present on the board.

The CrossHair IV will certainly sport a nice expensive price tag when it becomes available – which is currently unclear.

After a long, hard battle getting the device actually onto the market, Asus today is officially launching the EeeKeyboard. The EeeKeyboard was shown off way back at CES 2009 (almost 16 months ago) before getting launch dates every few months for a year followed delays and then more launches, the absolute final one being May 2010 – we hope it’s for real this time.

For those of you who aren’t up to speed, the Asus EeeKeyboard is a whole computer in a keyboard. It packs a now-outdated Intel Atom N270 processor, 1GB of DDR2 memory, a 16/32GB solid state drive, Bluetooth, WiFi b/g/n, internal speakers and mic, HDMI out and an internal battery good for 4 hours of use. There is also a 5″ 800×600 capacitive touchscreen display present on the board for easy launching of apps; the whole system is powered by Windows XP.

The Asus EeeKeyboard is currently up for pre-order on Amazon for US$599, but a final shipping date is still a mystery.

MSI, Gigabyte and Asus have announced that they will be releasing new motherboards that are set to unlock the true potential of some Phenom II processors. These motherboards will support a hardware method of unlocking and using disabled cores in some new AMD Phenom II processors – an option which will be available in the BIOS of the special motherboards. Each manufacturer is set to have their own name for this technology, eg. Asus’s name for the tech is “Core Unlocker”.

As you may be aware, some processors do not meet design specifications are dumbed-down and have cores disabled so that they can still be sold, usually for a cheaper price and under a different model name. The M4A89GTD series from Asus, the 89FXA-UD7 motherboard from Gigabyte and the 890GXM-G65 for MSI will all support unlocking of these disabled cores, with more motherboards presumably coming in the future.

Note: Pictured motherboard is not the new core unlocking motherboard

The Asus Eee PC T101MT is the latest touchscreen addition into the Eee PC range – and it also packs a swivel display. The official word on this laptop is that it comes with a 10.1″ swivelling resistive multi-touch touchscreen display with a resolution of 1,024×600, an Atom N450, up to 2GB of RAM and 320GB hard drive, Windows 7, webcam and the usual netbook-style ports and a 6.5 hour max battery life.

As per usual, Asus has denied us info on a price or release time frame, but we also know that with the netbook purchase you get a free one year 500GB Asus WebStorage trial.

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Another Pine Trail Eee PC has surfaced, this time on Amazon.de. Available now for pre-order at ~US$360 is the Asus Eee PC 1001P (what seems to be the little brother of the 1005P/PE) which packs the usual 10.1″ display in a clamshell body alongside a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N450, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive loaded up with Windows XP. Oh, and no dodgy bumpy trackpad! If you pre-order one now it will ship by January 6.

Intel’s latest Atom upgrade to Pineview seems to be all ready to go with the latest Eee PC being revealed and containing the latest Pineview processor. The Eee PC 1005P and 1005PE both have sexy 10.1″ LED backlit displays, Intel Atom N450 processors, 1GB of RAM and GMA 3150 graphics (still not the best of GPUs). The PE carries a larger (250GB) hard drive and a battery that should last up to 12.5 hours.

Of course as these netbooks have yet to be announced, we don’t have a price or release date, however we expect that to be very soon. We do know, though, that the netbooks will pack Windows 7 Starter Edition, which isn’t the greatest of the Windows 7 distros but should suit you just fine. If you’re looking for a new, cheap and small laptop then the latest Eee PC with a Pineview processor should be a good purchase.

The next generation Asus Eee PC has been shown off in an international event. The Eee PC 1201T is one of the first laptops to adopt the AMD Congo platform – the 1201T is going to be powered by the 1.6GHz AMD Neo MV40 and HD 3200 graphics for some netbook grunt comparable to the Intel ION platform. Other internals include 2GB of DDR2 RAM, a 250GB hard drive and a 6-cell battery.

All of these bits and bobs will fit inside the sleek looking Eee PC 1201T shell with a 12.1″ display at 1366×768, which unfortunately still carries the borderless trackpad with dimples that many people dislike. No word yet on pricing or availability, but we expect them to be announced soon. It will be interesting to see if 1080p playback really is possible as AMD said…

Asus appears to be ramping up its ROG Connect overclocking system – they’re adding remote Bluetooth control to the list of things it can do. On the back of the Asus Maximus III Extreme motherboard is a button that when pressed, switches from normal control to a Bluetooth system that allows your “Bluetooth-enabled PDA phone” to review their system’s status and tweak settings wirelessly. Sounds pretty cool on paper, but we are yet to see it in action.

The board is set up for the serious, with a P55 chipset for Core i5/i7 processors, five (yes, five) PCIe 16x slots for graphics cards in multiple configurations, 6 SATA 3Gb/s ports and 2 SATA 6Gb/s ports, two USB 3.0 ports and a myriad of USB 2.0 ports and a maximum of 16GB of DDR3 RAM via 4 slots. Apart from the actual motherboard specifications, there is no price or release date as of now.

USB 3.0 is starting to make a push into the retail world, as companies start implementing the technology in their cameras, external hard drives and optical drives. With this push though, you’ll need to upgrade your motherboard to support it, and if you’re an i7 user, this Asus X58 board should suit your needs. Unfortunately though, the Asus P6X58D Premium motherboard only sports two USB 3 ports, however I think we’ll cope for now.

Other features of the board include support for 24 GB (yes, twenty-four) of DDR3 RAM via six slots, three PCIe 16x slots for your graphics expansion cards, two SATA 6Gbps ports plus those two USB 3.0 ports and four USB 2.0 ports and the LGA 1366 slot for your Bloomfield i7 CPU. The motherboard is available now for purchasing for US$310 via Newegg.