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Tech in
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BRINGING INNOVATIONS TO LIFE
Ultimate gaming extras
New ROG accessories give gamers a new edge
The future is in hand Meet the incredible new Eee Slate EP121 — the most capable tablet computer around Feel the force Brace yourself for the unbelievable performance of the ROG G74Sx
Meet the new wave
Enjoy your PC more with the wireless WAVI Xtion
CeBIT 2011 Special march 2011 www.techinstyle.tv
Welcome
Hello and welcome to this special CeBIT edition of Tech in Style. Technology with a more personal touch is the theme for this issue and we open with our most personal product to date — the Eee Slate EP121. This innovative tablet computer combines a number of new technologies in an exciting new form factor. The real difference, however, is that the EP121 is a fully fledged Windows® 7 PC, so it offers the same capabilities as a traditional laptop with a fraction of the size. We’re also proud to introduce another first for PC users in this issue — the WAVI and Xtion entertainment system. These complementary devices let you wirelessly transfer content from a PC in one room to a TV in another, and interact with both games and applications using gestures rather than a physical controller. Finally, you’ll also find information on the latest in our range of high-end gaming laptops, the ROG G74Sx. Based on the new second-generation Intel® Core™ processor and ‘Huron River’ platform, this is our most powerful portable yet and it offers gamers astonishing levels of 3D graphics performance. We hope you enjoy the issue!
Contents
06 04 The greatest slate ASUS’ new tablet PC, the Eee Slate EP121, combines power and portability for the ultimate in take-anywhere computing
06 Every home should have one
08 Little treasure
Jonney Shih Chairman, ASUSTek Computer Inc.
About ASUS ASUS, the world’s third biggest consumer notebook vendor and the maker of the world’s best-selling and most award-winning motherboards, is a leading enterprise in the new digital era. ASUS designs and manufactures products that perfectly meet the needs of today’s digital home and office user, with a broad portfolio that includes motherboards, graphics cards, displays, desktop PCs, notebooks, netbooks, servers, multimedia, wireless solutions, networking devices and mobile phones. Driven by innovation and committed to quality, ASUS won 3,398 awards in 2010, and is widely credited with revolutionising the PC industry with the Eee PC™. With a global staff of more than 10,000 people and a world-class R&D team of 3,000 engineers, the company’s revenue for 2010 was around US$10.1 billion.
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Whatever your family’s laptop needs, from playing games to helping the kids with their homework, the ASUS K Series has it covered
The best things come in small packages, like the sleek, stylish and incredibly lightweight new ASUS U46 business ultraportable
Windows®. Life without Walls™. ASUS recommends Windows® 7.
Find out more at www.techinstyle.tv
Credits
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Tech in Style
10 Can you feel the force?
Brace yourself , because you’ll be blown away by the extreme performance of the new ROG G74Sx gaming laptop
12 Ultimate gaming extras
If cutting-edge gaming’s what you’re after, you need to know about these state-of-the-art accessories launched this year by ASUS Republic of Gamers
14 The new wave in entertainment
The ASUS WAVI Xtion lets you control your PC with a wave of your hands, bringing a whole new world of interactive fun to your living room
16 Take your graphics to the next level
CeBIT 2011 SPECIAL EDITORIAL Editor Helen Ling Creative Director Quawn Hsu Production Ebony Besagni MANAGEMENT Managing Editor James Kidder PRODUCTION Production Manager John Pudney Production Co-ordinator Giulia Di Cesare Copyright: ASUSTek (UK) Limited, 2011. All editorial content in this magazine has been sponsored by ASUS. While every care was taken preparing this magazine, ASUStek Limited cannot be held responsible for the accuracy of the information nor any consequences arising from it.
What’s the best graphics card for a gamer who wants the most from their PC? The ASUS DirectCU II Series has all the answers
17 The green parallelprocessing machine
For powerful, energy-efficient parallel processing, ASUS recommends a server that’s eco-friendly, but gets the job done in double-quick time
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ASUS Eee Slate EP121 Intel® Core™ i5 processor 12.1" (1280 x 800) capacitive touchscreen Wacom® digitiser with stylus Windows® 7
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Windows®. Life without Walls™. ASUS recommends Windows® 7.
Find out more at www.techinstyle.tv
The
greatest slate Eee Slate EP121
ASUS’ new tablet PC combines power and portability for the ultimate in take-anywhere computing
P
eople who spend their lives on the move need a mobile computer that not only lets them work whenever and wherever necessary, but that can keep them entertained when it’s time to relax, too. That’s the idea that led to the creation of the new Eee Slate EP121 from ASUS. It’s a mobile computer that packs all the power of a traditional laptop, but its slim tablet design means it can go anywhere and be used everywhere, for work and entertainment. The key to the Eee Slate’s success is its no-compromise specification. With an Intel® Core™ i5 processor inside, it’s the most capable tablet computer around and Windows® 7 Home Premium means it can run the same industry-standard productivity software as any laptop or desktop PC. Adobe Flash
support also gives the Eee Slate complete access to the full range of entertainment the web has to offer, and HD movies look fantastic on the vibrant 12.1" screen. That big, bright screen is more than just a mere display, though — it’s an innovative input device. The capacitive multitouch sensor puts complete control of the Eee Slate under a fingertip, while Wacom digitiser technology provides pinpoint precision with the supplied digitiser pen, making the Eee Slate an incredibly versatile mobile computer. It all comes down to a perfect balance of power and portability. Whether it’s web browsing, word processing, photo editing or just sitting back to watch a movie, it’s never been easier — or more entertaining — than with the Eee Slate EP121.
slim, stylish and subtle
intuitive input options
versatile typing
The Eee Slate EP121 is just 16.95mm thick and weighs a mere 1.16kg, so you can slip it into a bag, stand it on a desk, or sit back with it on the sofa. It’s easy to hold and use on the move, too, and the screen’s ultra-wide viewing angle makes it a great way to share content with others.
The capacitive multi-touch screen responds to the lightest of touches, but Wacom® digitiser technology adds a new dimension. Grab the digitiser pen and the Eee Slate becomes anything from an electronic notepad with sophisticated handwriting recognition, to a digital canvas for aspiring artists.
Typing on the Eee Slate screen is a breeze. Corning Gorilla Glass means it’s super-strong and feels great under a fingertip, while the capacitive multitouch sensor is ultra-accurate. Reach for the supplied Bluetooth Qwerty keyboard and you can sit down for a solid writing session, too.
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E ve r y home s h K Series
Whatever your family’s laptop needs, from gaming to homework, the ASUS K Series has it covered
F
inding a laptop that suits the whole family has never been easy, but the new ASUS K Series takes the guesswork out of getting it right. The secret lies in a solid specification that means each model can take on any task, whether it’s mobile working on the daily commute, helping the kids with their homework, or just relaxing with a movie or game. Value laptops often skimp on performance, but not the ASUS K Series. The new Intel® ‘Huron River’ mobile platform with 2nd generation Intel® Core™ dual- and quad-core processors delivers better-than-ever performance with low energy consumption — just the thing for families with a wide range of laptop needs. Onboard Intel® HD Graphics 3000 offer enhanced
multimedia capabilities, while more demanding graphical needs are well-met by optional NVIDIA® GeForce GT 520M/540M graphics. A choice of screen sizes means there’s a K Series model to suit all circumstances, while the sleek new design is betterlooking than ever — and 15% slimmer than before. The K Series also comes in a choice of stylish colours and thoughtful touches abound, from the generously proportioned multi-touch trackpad that suits fingers of all sizes, to IceCool thermal technology that keeps the palm-rest cool to the touch. So, if you need a good all-round laptop that everyone will enjoy, the new ASUS K Series is just what you’re looking for.
ASUS K Series laptops at a glance Sleek, stylish design with tough aluminium keyboard surround and a choice of eight eye-catching colours. Second-generation dual- and quad-core Intel® Core™ processors deliver new levels of mobile performance and intelligent power management.
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Available with optional NVIDIA® GeForce GT 520M/540M DirectX 11 graphics with Optimus technology for incredible energy efficiency.
Choose from 14", 15", 17" and 19" LEDbacklit screens with textured, smudgeresistant lids.
Battery life is 20% better than previous K Series models, giving up to 5.35 hours on the ASUS K53. iF Design Award-winning chiclet keyboard, large multi-touch trackpad and IceCool palm-rest make even long laptop sessions cool and comfortable.
o
Windows®. Life without Walls™. ASUS recommends Windows® 7.
Find out more at www.techinstyle.tv
ou ld have o
e n
ASUS K Series laptops Intel® Core™ processors Up to 8GB DDR3 RAM Onboard or NVIDIA® GeForce GT 520M/540M graphics Choice of 14", 15" , 17" and 19" LED-backlit screens
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U46 ultraportable
Little
The best things come in small packages, like the sleek and stylish new ASUS U46 business ultraportable
T
he definitive ASUS ultraportable just got even more portable — meet the new U46. On the outside, there’s a gorgeously sleek design and a brushed aluminium lid that’s not only built to shrug off the knocks of a life spent on the move, but stunning to behold, too. On the inside, the U46 still crams an expansive 14" screen on and a standard-voltage 2nd generation Intel® Core™ processor, plus a battery that lasts for up to 10 hours. Weighing in at under 2kg, it won’t cause backache however long you spend travelling with it.
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The small footprint doesn’t mean that the ASUS U46 skimps on other features, though. There’s a full-size chiclet keyboard and internal DVD writer, not to mention USB 3.0 for connection to the latest high-speed accessories. Best of all, there’s a clever screen hinge that sits further forward than usual, which means the U46’s screen can open at a more comfortable angle when it’s squeezed into the tight space of a passenger jet or train seat. Why can’t all ultraportables be so well designed?
Windows®. Life without Walls™. ASUS recommends Windows® 7.
Find out more at www.techinstyle.tv
The advanced mechanical design of the U46E has the thinnest 14” panel available in a compact frame for superior ultraportability.
ASUS U46 ultraportable Intel® Core™ processor Up to 4GB DDR3 RAM 14" (1366 x 768) LED- backlit screen 333 x 245 x 24.6~26.2mm Under 2kg
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Can you feel the force? ROG G74Sx laptop
Brace yourself , because you’ll be blown away by the extreme performance of the new ROG G74Sx gaming laptop
R
OG G Series laptops have long been the laptop of choice for gamers who want all the power of a high-end desktop PC in a portable package, but surely no laptop can be that powerful? Don’t you believe it — just take a look at the new ASUS ROG G74Sx. Powered by an Intel® Core™ i5 or i7 ‘Huron River’ processor and NVIDIA® graphics, the ROG G74Sx offers extreme levels of gaming performance, racking up an astonishing 3DMark Vantage score of over 10,000. Blistering speed doesn’t mean blistering temperatures, though, and an innovative internal thermal-management system keeps the ROG G74Sx comfortably cool to the touch even with the hottest on-screen action. Thoughtful, gamer-friendly touches also abound. The backlit keyboard has a separate numeric keypad and distinct cursor-key cluster, while the 17" screen sits on a solid, wobble-free hinge. The ROG G74Sx is designed for easy internal upgrades, with dual hard-drive bays and support for up to 16GB RAM. Wrap the whole thing up in a sleek matte black case and you get the ROG G74Sx — the gamer’s ultimate secret weapon.
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Windows®. Life without Walls™. ASUS recommends Windows® 7.
Crysis 2 © 2011 Electronic Arts Inc. All rights reserved.
Find out more at www.techinstyle.tv
ASUS ROG G74Sx laptop Intel® Core™ i5 or i7 processor Up to 16GB DDR3 RAM NVIDIA® graphics 17" LED-backlit screen
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Vulcan ANC
Rampage III Black Edition
ultimate ga extras Lift your gaming experience to a whole new level with two state-of-theart accessories launched this year by ASUS Republic of Gamers
G
amers looking for that extra performance edge know that Republic of Gamers components always deliver the goods, but why stop with the inside of a PC? By applying the same legendary gaming expertise to a new range of ROG accessories, ASUS is adding a whole new dimension to the world of high-performance entertainment. Read on to find out more about two exciting additions to the ROG range.
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Windows®. Life without Walls™. ASUS recommends Windows® 7.
Find out more at www.techinstyle.tv
ROG Vulcan ANC
ming
Great gaming isn’t just about amazing visuals — audio is just as important. Speakers don’t always give the best results, which is why a high-quality headset like the new ROG Vulcan ANC is the preferred choice for a more immersive experience. A lightweight design, wellpadded ear cushions and sealed backs make the ROG Vulcan ANC comfortable to wear with little noise leakage. Better still, active noise-cancelling technology filters any external noise, while the high-quality noise-cancelling boom microphone means that in-game chat is crystal-clear.
ROG Rampage III Black Edition
Based on the Intel® X58 Express chipset, the Core™ i7-ready ROG Rampage III Black Edition is the ultimate motherboard for gamers who want outstanding performance, vast upgrade potential and features designed to push frag rates to the limit. With six triple-channel DIMM slots, four SATA 6Gb/s ports and eight four-pin fan headers, the Rampage III Black Edition is designed for flexibility, no matter what the PC configuration. Support for NVIDIA® SLI and AMD® CrossFire multi GPU set-ups lets gamers fully exploit the latest graphics-card technology, too. Add in easy overclocking features, a dedicated network processing unit for lag-free online gaming and a built-in headset amplifier with Xear Surround Sound (both courtesy of the ROG Thunderbold expansion card), and the ROG Rampage III Black Edition is a gamer’s dream made real.
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Wavi
The
Wireless HDMI transfer at 5GHz over 25m coverage
new wave in PC entertainment The ASUS WAVI Xtion lets you control your PC with a wave of your hands, bringing a whole new world of interactive fun to your living room
P
C entertainment just got more fun, thanks to the new ASUS WAVI Xtion. Forget mice, keyboards, clumsy game controllers and fiddly remote controls — with the WAVI Xtion you can browse your photos, listen to music, watch movies and play games with just the wave of a hand. First, connect one WAVI audio/video interaction unit to your PC and the other to your living-room TV and you’ll have a full wireless, lag-free link for both input and output. Next, connect
the Xtion motion controller and position it in front of your TV screen and, with Plug ’n’ Play installation, you’ll be able take complete control of your PC in minutes, letting you interact with your PC in exciting new ways. From the flick of a finger to a swing of the hips, when you control your PC with the ASUS WAVI Xtion the possibilities are endless — imagine keeping fit with a virtual on-screen instructor that tailors their workout to you! ASUS WAVI AMIMON WHDI wireless technology 4 x 5 MIMO antennae (5GHz) 25m wireless range 1x HDMI-in, 1x HDMI-out, 2x USB ports 480p, 576i/p, 720p, 1080i/p resolution support
Xtion
Real-time motion capturing and body movement tracking! Enjoy the fun without controllers!
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ASUS Xtion 70º sensor angle 0.8m ~ 3m effective sensor range USB 2.0 connection Windows XP / Vista 7
Windows®. Life without Walls™. ASUS recommends Windows® 7.
Find out more at www.techinstyle.tv
Wave to Action
Xtion Portal
The exclusive Xtion Portal is an entertainment centre that lets you enjoy your PC’s multimedia content, gesture-based games and other applications on your living-room TV without the need for a physical controller. Hours of wireless fun guaranteed!
Enter the Xtion Developer Challenge Create your own application and games with Xtion Professional Pack for developers. ASUS will be launching the Developer Challenge in mid-March 2011, and top winners will walk away with a fantastic prize! Keep watching on the ASUS official site for more information.
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ASUS DirectCU II graphics cards NVIDIA® GeForce GTX 580, 570 & 560Ti (PCI Express 2.0) AMD® Radeon HD 6970 & HD 6950 (PCI Express 2.1) Up to 2GB GDDR5 RAM Proprietary DirectCU II cooling system DVI, D-Sub, HDMI & DisplayPort output ASUS overclocking utilities included
Get cooler and go-faster graphics What’s the best graphics card for a gamer who wants to get the ultimate performance from their PC? USER PROFILE Name Gerhold Krause Age 19 Location Düsseldorf, Germany Occupation Student Gerhold wants advice on his next graphicscard upgrade for his gaming PC. He’s a demanding player and likes to push his system to the limit, so a card that can deliver smooth frame rates at high resolutions and detail settings is a must. Gerhold likes to tinker to get the best results, but his current DirectX 10 graphics card has limited overclocking potential and suffers from stability problems when worked hard. What can ASUS recommend?
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verclocking is a sure-fire way to stress the components on a graphics card, so effective cooling and a solid design are essential to maintain reliability. ASUS has a vast amount of experience in developing overclocking technology for PCs and its new range of DirectCU II graphics cards offers enthusiasts ample performance-tuning options. Available with both AMD® and NVIDIA® DirectX 11 graphics chipsets, DirectCU II cards use an innovative new cooling system that places copper heat pipes in direct contact with the GPU and large, twin cooling fans. This keeps the cards cool and quiet even when under heavy load, and all models offer greater overclocking potential as a result. Speaking of overclocking, the exclusive ASUS Voltage Tweak utility offers fine control of the DirectCU II’s parameters through an intuitive interface that anyone can use to increase GPU clock speed by up to 50%. Even more impressively, ASUS Super Alloy Power technology uses a special metal alloy for critical electronic components to reduce operating temperatures and increase performance, which brings the additional benefit of a longer product lifespan. Drop a DirectCU II graphics card into your desktop PC and you’ll see the performance gains immediately — and the easy overclocking potential means you’ll get the best performance from demanding games for a long time to come.
Windows®. Life without Walls™. ASUS recommends Windows 7.
Find out more at www.techinstyle.tv ASUS ESC4000 server Dual Intel® Xeon 5500/5600 Series CPU with 18 DIMM slots for genuine high-density parallel-processing performance 8+1 PCI Express expansion slots support up to four x16 cards or eight x8 cards, including half- height cards and ASUS PIKE upgrade cards Eight tool-free hard-drive bays with hot-swap support for zero downtime during hard-drive or SSD replacement Integrated Infiniband interconnect support with up to 20GB/s low-latency bandwidth and minimal CPU overhead VMware vSphere HypervisorTM (ESXi) support for easier virtualisation
The server goes green For powerful, energy-efficient parallel processing, ASUS recommends a server that’s eco-friendly, but gets the job done in double-quick time USER PROFILE Name: Kristen Dell’Orr Age: 31 Location: Bologna, Italy Occupation: IT support specialist Kristen manages the IT support department for a university science faculty and is looking to deploy new rack-mounted server hardware for use by the physics department. Since the department runs multiple demanding computational models as a matter of routine, powerful parallelprocessing performance is a critical consideration, but green credentials are also paramount — the university operates according to an ecological policy that limits potentially environmentally hazardous materials and power consumption. Can ASUS help?
F
rom the information Kristen provides, the new ASUS ESC4000 sounds like the ideal choice. This 2U rack-mount server is designed just for the kind of computationally intensive parallel applications her physics department needs to run — and it’s an ASUS green-certified product, too. Dual Intel® Xeon CPUs with Quad NVIDIA® Tesla M2050/ M2070 Fermi-based graphics cards provide copious amounts of parallel processing power, while an impressive 18 DIMM slots support up to 144GB of RAM. Effective storage management is a key issue for a server in this environment and ASUS PIKE technology offers cost-effective RAID storage control. Rounding off the ESC4000’s specification is a 1+1 redundant power supply that’s been certified as 80 PLUS Gold for energy efficiency. Three independently controlled internal fans ensure greater stability under peak loads, too. As for its other green credentials, the ESC4000 goes beyond RoHS requirements by eliminating the use of 37 hazardous substances, including chlorinated organic compounds and ozone-depleting materials, so it will meet the university’s environmental requirements.
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