Asustek Computer, one of the world's largest producers of computer components, on Tuesday unveiled what it calls "the world's first hardware based real-time overclocking device for graphics cards" along with its new Nvidia GeForce 8600 GT-based graphics board. The tool may be useful for not very experienced overclockers.

Asustek's OC Gear real-time overclocking device should be installed into a spare 5.25" bay and connected to an USB port. Specially developed software will allow end-users to adjust system master volume, graphics processing unit's (GPU's) clock-speed, GPU fan speed using a simple knob as well as monitor GPU temperature and current frames per second (FPS) information.

The EN8600 GT OC Gear graphics card from Asus is equipped with 256MB of high-speed 1ns GDDR3 memory as well as high-performance cooling system, thus, can provide sufficient overclocking potential for those seeking additional performance.The Asus OC Gear device itself is also compatible with various graphics cards by Asustek Computer, the company said, however, it did not reveal whether the software needed for Asus OC Gear will support other than EN8600 GT graphics boards.

ASUS has launched the latest offering in the LCD market - the ASUS PG221 LCD monitor. The ASUS PG221 is a 22-inch widescreen which incorporates a stylish and innovative industrial design with integrated audio speakers, rich video inputs and USB 2.0 support that turn the PG221 into an ideal multimedia display center. The 22-inch 16:10 widescreen LCD monitor features 1680x1050 WSXGA+ resolution, 320 nits brightness, 2000:1 dynamic contrast ratio thanks to the ASCR (ASUS Smart Contrast Ratio) Technology and 2ms response time. The PG221 has built-in 1.3MP web-cam and 2.1 channel stereo speakers that include 10W satellite speakers and a military-styled 15W subwoofer tank-box at the rear. The ASUS PG221 is also able to support a 6.1-CH surround sound system with SRS TruSurround XT Technology. For further information, read the product page here.

Asus is one of those companies that likes to produce a lot of motherboards, even though they share the same chipset.

Chinese XF forum has some pictures of the new P5K Premium board based on the P35 chipset from Intel. When compared to the P5K Deluxe, it looks like there are some subtle changes. The CPU voltage regulation has been re-worked, for example.

ASUS, announced the first product of its brand new product line: the ASUS Xonar D2 7.1-channel audio card. This new audio card is based on the AV200 audio chip, which offers a SNR of 118db for both audio in and out to all 8 channels. Besides delivering impressive audio quality, the Xonar D2 is also packed with multiple sound technologies like Dolby Digital Live, Dolby Headphone, Dolby Virtual Speaker, and Dolby Pro Logic IIx, which creates up to 7.1-channel surround from stereo or 5.1 sources as well as DTS Interactive for real time AC-3 encoding. The Xonar D2 also comes with a special application called "Portable Media Processor". This application works with the onboard ALT (Analog Loopback Transformation) circuit to provide almost lossless analog recording audio quality from digital music files. For more details regarding ASUS Xonar D2, please click here.

Taiwanese hardware maker ASUSTeK Computer is working with Intel on a line of notebook PCs priced as low as $199. The new line of notebooks is intended for users in emerging markets and education, said Sean Maloney, executive vice president and general manager of Intel's sales and marketing group. He announced the initiative with ASUSTeK Chairman Jonney Shih during a speech at the Computex exhibition. The new notebooks are similar to Intel's existing Classmate PC notebooks, a line of low-cost machines aimed at schools in developing markets. The notebooks will have an Intel processor and either a 7-inch or 10-inch screen. They will come with Wi-Fi, a solid-state hard disk, and run either Linux or Windows XP.

ATI and NVIDIA are both working on an external graphic solution for notebooks and ASUS has already shown working samples at CeBIT 2007. The company has taken the idea a step further and will be introducing an internal version dubbed "OCGear". It comes in combination with a GeForce 8600GT, which can be overclocked by turning the dial of the 5.25 inch unit. No word on how it interfaces with the graphic card or the rest of the PC.

ASUS is about to present new additions to its Republic Of Gamers (ROG) series of motherboards, scheduled to be released at this years Computex Taipei 2007. Initially, two new mainboards will be available: the DDR3 Edition "Blitz Extreme" and the DDR2 Edition "Blitz Formula", both coupled with Intel's P35 and ICH9R chipsets. The new ASUS ROG Blitz series includes several exclusive features:

• Fusion Block System - water cooled northbridge (Blitz Extreme only)
• Crosslinx technology - CrossFire with two 8x PCIe lines
• CPU Level Up - OC CPU function
• COP EX to protect NB/SB and GPU from overheating
• 2-Phase DDR including Voltminder LEDs and an external LCD poster

If you have bought a previous version of Windows Mobile with your ASUS A639/A626/A686/A696 or P535/P735 PDA/PDA phone, ASUS will now let you upgrade it free of charge to Windows Mobile 6 starting from July.

ASUS has released the new EAH 2900XT/G/HTVDI/512M-a cutting-edge graphics card that features the latest generation AMD HD2900XT GPU. The new ATI Radeon HD 2900 GPU is designed to unleash the gaming power of DirectX 10; and excellent audio/video experience through HDMI support enabled by Avivo HD technology-providing gamers with an unparalleled gaming experience. The release of the ASUS EAH2900XT will come bundled with 4 explosive game titles which include the highly anticipated first person shooter game S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadows of Chernobyl, and Valve's "The Black Box" game bundle suite-consisting of 3 first rate games: Half Life 2: Episode Two, Team Fortress 2 and Portal.

The new ASUS EN8600GTS/HTDP/256M is a high-end graphics card that will be released and bundled with the much anticipated first person shooter game S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadows of Chernobyl. Equipped with 256MB of DDR3 memory and able to support NVIDIA's SLI technology, the EN8600GTS is designed with the gamer's graphics expectations in mind. With such high-end specifications, this graphics card has earned the accolade of being the official global bundle partner of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. In line with this, ASUS's G1 gaming series notebook - testament to its gaming-oriented design, also features in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R game itself.

Asustek is quite successful with their ASUS notebook lineup built by their own notebook manufacturing unit Asusalpha. For some companies the reason for this is crystal clear. You should know that companies like Dell, Apple, Sony and Toshiba don't have the capacities to manufacture their notebooks, gaming consoles and whatnot themselves. So they order them from companies like Asustek (PS3), Asusalpha (iBook), Hon Hai Precision Industry aka Foxconn Electronics (Mac mini, Power Mac series) or Quanta (Powerbook 17"). With that in mind it sounds quite logical that Asustek's notebooks are that successful - ASUS started to compete against its own clients and enjoys great economies of scale with that.
Dell now demands Asustek to spinoff its own notebook brand unit until Q1 2008 or they will hire another manufacturer. Apple's orders end this November with new ones still in question and Toshiba is limiting it's orders in the future. That said Asusalpha's future doesn't look that bright it seems. The question is if the total separation from Asustek is the right way to counter that trend. Source: Digitimes and X-bit labs

C-Media Electronics should see stronger profits and sales in 2007 amid the anticipated royalty gains following the announcement of Asustek Computer's new Xonar D2X high-end audio cards. Asustek plans to ship 500,000 Xonar D2X audio cards which adopt C-Media's solutions in 2007 after seeing satisfactory sales following the card's introduction at CeBIT 2007 in Hannover, Germany. The audio card, which will primarily target the gaming market, features 3D sound processing and supports Dolby Digital Live, DTS and 5.1 surround sound. C-Media is reported to earn US$10-20 for each Xonar D2X Asustek sells. If Asustek reaches its target of shipping 500,000 units in 2007, or 100,000 units per month, the design house can expect royalty payments to reach US$5-10 million. More information about the ASUS Xonar D2X sound card can be found here.

On Aug 8, 2006, GIGABYTE and ASUS together announced they have entered into a joint venture to produce GIGABYTE branded motherboards and graphics cards. A spokesman of GIGABYTE said a resolution of the board of directors was passed on the Mar 22 to call off the plan of forming joint venture. It's explained the confusion of clients and suppliers, together with the changes of both internal and external factors has lead to this hard decision. In the present environment, the necessity of forming joint venture is no longer as strong as expected, and thus suspension is the best solution for both shareholders, said GIGABYTE's spokesman. Although the joint venture has given up, GIGABYTE intends to keep its move on transferring part of its businesses onto the new subsidiary, meaning that a new GIGABYTE brand will come out soon after all.

Taipei, Taiwan, March 22, 2007 - To provide users with a compact sized CPU cooling solution, ASUS has announced the Arctic Square CPU cooler. This compact cooler incorporates innovative features, including double side fins, dynamic fan speed control and four copper heat pipes in order to deliver efficient heat dissipation for the latest quad-core processors. With a small cooler size, the Arctic Square is widely compatible with many motherboards and chassis. The Arctic Square offers quiet performance and a unique design with a blue LED, providing a peaceful computing environment and a stylish system interior.

ASUS has introduced the new TS-8 slim chassis series to accommodate users who want a stable and flexible chassis solution. With its compact dimensions and the ability to dissipate heat efficiently, the TS-8 is a perfect mini PC addition to smaller homes and offices.

Fudzilla reports that ASUS will have a wide variety of products to show at CeBIT.

First off, there will be notebooks:The VX2 notebook from the Lamborghini line will be available for viewing. The W5Fe will make an appearance, as as the world's first SideShow notebook.

Also from the notebook department, there is the ultra-portable U1F, weighing in at less than 1kg:Next, two monitors will be presented:The LS201 20 inch LCD monitor that provides slim elegance. The display has a jewel-class glass for both aesthetical and protective reasons, so it won't be scratched ever again. It has a contrast ratio of 2000:1. The other one is more interesting, of course because it supports HDCP function with DVI input. It is a 22 inch wide-screen with a 16:10 screen ratio, and it has a fast 2ms Response Time.

For overclocking gadgets and a watercooled GeForce 8800, click below.

ASUS showcases the W1 and W2 notebook series with HD-DVD high-definition solution at CeBIT this year that will dramatically raise expectations of visual and audio satisfaction. Incorporated with Toshiba's HD DVD-R optical drive, the W1 and W2 notebooks can read discs with up to 30GB of data, including video, photo and music all from a single HD DVD disc. The HD DVD-R optical drive also plays HD DVD movies at a resolution that is six times sharper than the DVD format, presenting a vibrant, incredibly sharp and state-of-art multimedia experience. The W1 and W2 series offer an all-round high-definition experience with built-in digital TV tuner and HDMI interface, supporting standard, enhanced, or high-definition video, plus muti-channel digital audio on a single cable.

You are bored by the glossy plastic notebooks from Apple or these shiny metal covered laptops which you have to polish everytime you put a finger onto the surface? Then you might be the type of a person who prefers a wooden texture. The people at c|net got the opportunity to play with the Asus EcoBook which you can buy sometime next year. I was really amazed by the details of the wooden panels. These panels are changeable in case they get scratched and of course they are biodegradable.

A day after news about ATI's Lasso mobile-GPU technology, DailyTech has published an article highlighting more details about ASUS' XG Station.

The XG Station should be available to OEM and channel partners from next month. What is perhaps most interesting is the way that ASUS plans to sell these devices - they will not be purchasable separately, but will come bundled with the company's PCIe graphics cards. Pricing on XG Stations will vary depending on the bundled graphics card. There is no word on which graphics cards will be compatible and which won't - though squeezing in a 8800 GTX might be asking for a little too much.

In addition to the enhanced video capabilities, the XG Station features audio output capabilities. There is a single headphone output jack on the XG Station - unfortunately, there is no 5.1 output support. However, the XG Station supports Dolby Headphone technology for simulated six-channel surround sound audio.

Audio and video capabilities aside, ASUS equips the XG Station with a large LED display to monitor vital system information. The LED display shows the following information:

• System master volume
• GPU clock speed
• Current GPU temperature
• Dolby Headphone feature status
• Current actual Frames Per Second (FPS) information
• GPU fan speed Indicator

A control knob allows users easy overclocking controls too. Overclocking functionality of the control knob is limited to GPU core clock only though.

The ASUS P5NT WS is built on the NVIDIAC55+MCP55PXE chipset structure which supports a LGA775 Socket for running Intel Dual-core/Quad-core CPUs with 1333/1066/800 MHz FSB and two NVIDIA SLI graphic cards with Dual x16 speeds on the same platform. This allows the user to enjoy the best CPU and graphics for the system build. With the addition of the PCI-X interface, the P5NT WS motherboard provides much more options in I/O configurations for SOHOs and power users to custom-build their ideal working or entertainment environment.

ASUS launched today the EN8800GTX AquaTank graphics card equipped with innovative all-in-one watercooling, which improves the cooling with up to 12°C compared to a generic GF8800GTX cards. The EN8800GTX AquaTank/HTDP/768M video cards come factory overclocked to 630Mhz core and 2.06GHz (1030MHz DDR3) memory clocks. Click here to learn more about the card itself.

ASUS has introduced two new widecreen LCD monitors the MW221U and MW201U, sharing 1680 x 1050 resolution, 700:1 contrast ratio, support for HDCP (High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection) and Microsoft Windows Vista Certification. The MW221U and MW201U both incorporate ASUS's exclusive Trace Free Technology, which accelerates response time to 2ms to enable smooth video quality without ghosting and video delays. Both monitors display 16.7 million colors and adopt ASUS Splendid Video Intelligence Technology for more spectacular Vista experiences making the MW221U and MW201U the best choices for visually upgrading the system.

ASUS has just released new BIOS updates that enable 1333MHz front side bus(FSB) support for all of its motherboards based on Intel 965 chipset. ASUS 965 motherboards need simple BIOS tweaking to support Intel's next generation 1333FSB Conroe E0 CPUs. New BIOSes are available for ASUS P5B Deluxe / P5B Deluxe/WiFi-AP Release BIOS 1004, ASUS P5B Release BIOS 1007, ASUS P5B-E Release BIOS 0904, ASUS Commando Release BIOS 0801 (BETA!). Please, refer to ASUS web page if you're not familiar with BIOS preflashing.

With the release date of Windows Vista drawing ever closer, ASUSTek Computer Inc. (ASUS) is now offering 4 motherboard models that are designed especially for the new operating system. Packed with ASUS special features like ScreenDUO, AI Remote, AP Trigger, TPM and ASAP (ASUS Accelerated Propeller), ASUS is proud to be the first motherboard manufacturer in the industry to attain the Windows Windows Vista Premium logo. The four new models include: M2N32-SLI Premium Vista Edition, P5B Premium Vista Edition, M2N-Plus Vista Edition and P5B-Plus Vista Edition. For more information on the new motherboards, please visit the company homepage.

Taipei, Taiwan, January 22, 2007 - To accommodate the increasing demand on better graphic performance for mobile computing, ASUS presents the A8Jr notebook series incorporated with the latest visual processing capabilities. The slim and lightweight A8Jr will be based on Intel's Core2 Duo processor and will be the world's first notebook series to utilize ATI's Mobility Radeon X2300 GPU for stunning and crisp graphics.

"There is an ever-increasing demand for higher graphic processing power and crisper graphics for entertainment and applications alike," says David Cummings, director of marketing, Graphics Products Group, AMD. "Our answer to that demand is the X2300 GPU. This GPU utilizes patented technology to increase processing power and provide the user with smooth, realistic hi-resolution graphics."