CeBIT 2008: The Best of the Rest

MSI (continued)

Graphics

MSI showed off its GeForce 8800 GT “Hybrid Freezer” that only turns on the fan when the GPU reaches 87˚C, so it runs passively when doing 2D and actively only when you’re gaming. It’s a nice idea and the fan is quite large, but at 32dB it’s not that quiet – although will you hear it over the gunshots and engine noises?

Motherboards

Intel’s new G45 chipset was also spotted – sporting the title X4500HD, to denote its High-Definition branding. However Intel still hasn’t integrated the digital TDMS and HDCP crypto-ROM into the chipset, leaving it for the motherboard manufacturers to yet again swallow the cost instead.


MSI’s K9NGM2 V2, which uses Nvidia’s MCP78 or GeForce 8200, was also demonstrated with a heatsink that’s a little larger than the one on Gigabyte’s AMD 780G motherboard, but GeForce 8200 is a single chip solution.

In addition, the low cost Nvidia nForce 750a SLI was also pictured featuring basic 8x8 SLI on an AMD platform with Phenom AM2+ support and a revamped CircuPipe that now sits in the power regulation area. The board also features Hi-C low profile capacitors which are meant to give even better performance and lifetime than the solid aluminium capped variety.


The performance-targeted Nvidia nForce 780a SLI was also shown off with very similar features – that’s also a single chip solution and MSI have had to include a low profile heatsink with itty-bitty fan in the middle because it's sat right on the end of the PCI-Express slots instead of above them.