Sunday, May 11th 2008
ASUS Motherboards Offer 360° Dimensional Protection
In order to cater to the safety and security of consumers, ASUS, leading producer of motherboards worldwide, has announced key motherboard innovations to provide users with the ultimate in safety and data security. Available on the P5Q series and other top-notch motherboards, these innovations include ESD and Overcurrent Protection for safeguarding users against electrostatic discharges and overcurrent; as well as the ASUS Data Guardian (TPM) and Drive Xpert for data security and backup. With these features, users will be able to enjoy a full range of protection during everyday computing.
Electrostatic Discharge Protection (ESD)
When users walk on carpets and rugs, leave their cars, or remove some types of plastic packaging, there may be a buildup of electric static charge - sometimes as high as a few kilovolts. When contact is made to electronic devices at this time (especially computers), the accumulated electrical charge can then "jump" into the system through the fingers - creating either a system crash or other errors, or worse still - electrical damage to internal components. As depicted with the image below, the IC's damage was caused by electric static discharge.
The European Union (EU) was the first to require testing for static discharge tolerance, and created a set of standards of protection through strict guidelines and rules (contact discharge of 4 kilovolts and air discharge of 8 kilovolts). In line with the commitment to provide the best possible customer satisfaction, ASUS has designed motherboards that surpasses the EU's strict static electricity standards; and provide users with protection against such static discharge in the most commonly used scenarios - for example the front USB ports. Each USB port on the motherboard is protected against static electricity discharge - something which no other motherboard maker is yet to achieve. This highlights ASUS' true commitment towards consumers - not just in terms of performance, but also to help protect users against static electricity.
Overcurrent Protection for Safe Computing
An overcurrent is a current that exceeds the amperage rating of the external device (flash memory, hard disks and etc.) or other active components in a circuit (e.g. ICs). When you connect an external device (e.g. external HDD) with a flawed circuit into your PC system, it might cause an overcurrent. Without adequate protection, an overcurrent can seriously damage components on the motherboard (e.g. ICs) or even the external device itself. ASUS' motherboards are designed with an installed circuit that acts like fuses and circuit breakers to detect an overcurrent condition when the current reaches a value that will cause an excessive or dangerous temperature rise in conductors - and in doing so, protecting your external devices, ICs and the safety of the users themselves.
ASUS Data Guardian (TPM) for Total Data Security
Increasingly, cyber crime and ID theft are becoming more prevalent, and PC users and business client may face risks to their sensitive data and personal data through unauthorized usage, hackers, stolen hard disk drives, and even loss of critical data through the Internet and emails. The ASUS Data Guardian (TPM support) provides ultimate data security protection for the user's personal data by creating a virtual folder that is protected by an encryption key, and then stored on a USB portable drive - allowing users to store their most valued and secret data safely against unauthorized access. With the ASUS Data Guardian, users will be able to enjoy a secure and protected working environment.
Drive Xpert - The Easy and Safe Way for Data Management
Users usually store their precious photos and favorite music in their computer hard disks. Due to the complexity in traditional backup solutions, and the long amount of time taken for backups, it is seldom convenient or easy to manage these backups; even traditional RAID options - which solve these problems, suffer from hard and complex setup processes. Thus most users do without any form of backup, and run the risk of losing their precious data in the event of crashes or accidental data loss. Without any need for drivers or complex setups, the ASUS exclusive Drive Xpert solves all these dilemmas, and is ideal for anyone who needs to secure their data on their hard drives or enhance hard drive performances without the hassles of complicated configurations. With Drive Xpert's exclusive user-friendly graphical user interface, users can easily arrange hard drive backups or enhance their hard drive transfer rates - making sure that data is looked after every moment, every day.
Electrostatic Discharge Protection (ESD)
When users walk on carpets and rugs, leave their cars, or remove some types of plastic packaging, there may be a buildup of electric static charge - sometimes as high as a few kilovolts. When contact is made to electronic devices at this time (especially computers), the accumulated electrical charge can then "jump" into the system through the fingers - creating either a system crash or other errors, or worse still - electrical damage to internal components. As depicted with the image below, the IC's damage was caused by electric static discharge.
The European Union (EU) was the first to require testing for static discharge tolerance, and created a set of standards of protection through strict guidelines and rules (contact discharge of 4 kilovolts and air discharge of 8 kilovolts). In line with the commitment to provide the best possible customer satisfaction, ASUS has designed motherboards that surpasses the EU's strict static electricity standards; and provide users with protection against such static discharge in the most commonly used scenarios - for example the front USB ports. Each USB port on the motherboard is protected against static electricity discharge - something which no other motherboard maker is yet to achieve. This highlights ASUS' true commitment towards consumers - not just in terms of performance, but also to help protect users against static electricity.
Overcurrent Protection for Safe Computing
An overcurrent is a current that exceeds the amperage rating of the external device (flash memory, hard disks and etc.) or other active components in a circuit (e.g. ICs). When you connect an external device (e.g. external HDD) with a flawed circuit into your PC system, it might cause an overcurrent. Without adequate protection, an overcurrent can seriously damage components on the motherboard (e.g. ICs) or even the external device itself. ASUS' motherboards are designed with an installed circuit that acts like fuses and circuit breakers to detect an overcurrent condition when the current reaches a value that will cause an excessive or dangerous temperature rise in conductors - and in doing so, protecting your external devices, ICs and the safety of the users themselves.
ASUS Data Guardian (TPM) for Total Data Security
Increasingly, cyber crime and ID theft are becoming more prevalent, and PC users and business client may face risks to their sensitive data and personal data through unauthorized usage, hackers, stolen hard disk drives, and even loss of critical data through the Internet and emails. The ASUS Data Guardian (TPM support) provides ultimate data security protection for the user's personal data by creating a virtual folder that is protected by an encryption key, and then stored on a USB portable drive - allowing users to store their most valued and secret data safely against unauthorized access. With the ASUS Data Guardian, users will be able to enjoy a secure and protected working environment.
Drive Xpert - The Easy and Safe Way for Data Management
Users usually store their precious photos and favorite music in their computer hard disks. Due to the complexity in traditional backup solutions, and the long amount of time taken for backups, it is seldom convenient or easy to manage these backups; even traditional RAID options - which solve these problems, suffer from hard and complex setup processes. Thus most users do without any form of backup, and run the risk of losing their precious data in the event of crashes or accidental data loss. Without any need for drivers or complex setups, the ASUS exclusive Drive Xpert solves all these dilemmas, and is ideal for anyone who needs to secure their data on their hard drives or enhance hard drive performances without the hassles of complicated configurations. With Drive Xpert's exclusive user-friendly graphical user interface, users can easily arrange hard drive backups or enhance their hard drive transfer rates - making sure that data is looked after every moment, every day.
7 Comments on ASUS Motherboards Offer 360° Dimensional Protection
about sums it up, IMO.
2 of my rigs currently run Asus , my laptop is also Asus, only my mediacenter uses Asrock which is still a subsidery of asus (just wanted to try em out). :D
ESD. All that information is given with the user-manuals of almost all manufacturers. The front-panel ESD protection comes as something new. Never heard of someone frying a motherboard trying to plug in a pen-drive.
Protection against surges/over-currents is the job of the PSU, with no PSU in today's market offering more than 90% efficiency rating, little can be expected of 'over-currents'. Sure, generic/cheap PSU's can come with faulty components that could bring frying-pans along with them, but logic states that such features are what ASUS usually bundles with those > $120 motherboards, I'm yet to see a < $70 board from ASUS that comes with the 'EPU' (something that is required most in systems mass-deployed in offices, usually M-ATX boards with < $70 tags.) Now, when a user buys a mid/high end board (which will come with these features), it's also somewhat logical that the user would buy a half-decent PSU that comes with surge protection and somewhat fluid DC output.
Data Guardian and Drive Xpert are two bits that make sense because usually other motherboard manufacturers bundle OEM/trial versions of software that perform these functions. Again, I highly doubt, that the segment of buyers that need these features the most (offices, banks, schools, hospitals, etc., mass-deployed PC's) might get these bits of technology.
So, these seem more as marketing gimmicks than something that will genuinely benefit the right segment of users.
As for power fluctuations.. that's why I use surge protected plugs and besides doesn't the PSU have inbuilt protection too to stop the current from being distributed into your expensive components?
Either way, Asus are a great company and I wouldn't say no to more features or better protection of my hardware.