Computex 2008 – Power Supplies, Cooling and Cases

Asetek is of course continuing to develop new products, a few of which were on display at Computex.  Above is a new modular water cooling system for CPUs and GPUs and standard desktop installations – this is basically an update to what is current available on the market. 

The most unique item Asetek had on display was their new low-profile all-in-one water cooling solution for 1U servers or small form factor computers.  What makes this design possible is the fact that the pump, reservoir and water block are integrated into a single unit (seen in the first image) and then pumps the water through a small radiator mounted at the top of the case with a pair of quiet fans. 

Here you see a small case that contains a 3.0 GHz Intel Core 2 QX6850 processor that includes the new low profile water cooling option to prove that you can get efficient, quiet water cooling in a minimal design.

Though I don’t have a photo of, Asetek was also working on a modular graphics card water block that would allow you to upgrade your video card without need to purchase a new water block.  Basically the module water block fits into a sleeve that is built for each specific GPU PCB design and you change that rather than the expensive block.  Hopefully we’ll be seeing this in retail this year as the new GPUs from AMD and NVIDIA are being released. 

On display was ASUS new line of complete systems that they’ll begin selling in Q3 of this year – the chassis builds support for TWO 1000 watt power supplies!

In a not-so-surprising move, ASUS introduced their own line of power supplies at the show as well – starting at 450 watts and moving all the way up to this 1000 watt model described above.  You can see on the specs that they seem to hit all the key points: 80 plus rating, 3-Way SLI and CrossFire certified, active PFC and supposedly “silent cooling.”