Gigabyte - better cases, mobos and crazy coolers

Author: Richard Swinburne
Published: 6th March 2008
Comments (18) Stumble
Gigabyte - better cases, mobos and crazy coolers

Self contained memory watercooling, from Gigabyte.

First off on the Gigabyte stand this year was a crazy, crazy RAM cooler – how does a self contained watercooling for a pair of DIMMs sound? Called “Cool Rain”, it looks like an ice skate that was full of tight kinks and “stylish, durable Blue LEDs”. We can’t exactly see Corsair or OCZ going out of business, just yet.

On the other hand, the chassis were actually really stylish – while we’re not a huge fan of the side window/grill on any of them, the “iSolo 220” with its power button and expansion ports set facing upwards in a brushed aluminium bit at the bottom looked very smart, yet subtly different.

For those fans of a front door to keep things neat, the Cupio 610 should be more up your street. In addition to the elegant front is a button at the top on the hinge and a thin power LED in the side. Yes, again it’s blue, just like everything else “cool” these days, but the very top of the case features the front expansion ports, including eSATA, and a little door to keep them neatly covered.

The new 3DAurora and Poseidon 310 look far better than the ones they are replacing, but in our opinion the iSolo and Cupio is where the potential is.




Gigabyte Cupio and iSolo


Cupio has its power button at the top corner of the door

In addition to this, Gigabyte was displaying a bunch of motherboards – unlike the current Intel P35 CrossFire problem on Gigabyte boards where you lose virtually all the SATA ports, it was good to see Gigabyte address this problem with its P45-based boards. The SATA is now placed right down at the bottom out of the way and all the ports sit near the edges – the P45-DS3R is again our weapon of choice as it not only offers simple dual PCI-Express 2.0 x8 CrossFire, but also enough normal expansion ports and connectivity to suit most people.

The heatsink is unheatpiped so can be replaced really easily if necessary and there’s even 1,600MHz FSB and 1,200MHz memory support included, as well as the awesome Realtek ALC889a premium high-definition audio codec included. All the future boards lose the “E” prefix for energy efficiency, but they still come with the new Dynamic Energy Saver software as standard.


Gigabyte GA-P45-DS3R and GA-P45-DS4

We asked if the software was going to be available on Linux and a Gigabyte representative responded that as far as he knew it was being worked on, but couldn’t offer a launch date or timeframe.

Finally, the Gigabyte GeForce 9600 GT passive is a little different – with two separate fins stacks Gigabyte calls this its “multi-core cooling” (...groan), one of which even pokes out the back of the card. It does make a single slot card into a dual slot, but we suppose that’s the price to pay for silence.

Discuss in the forums.

Quote naokaji 6th March 2008, 14:48
rofl.... self contained wc kit for the ram... this isnt madness, this isnt sparta, this is plain silly.

any idea on launch date of the p45 boards?
Quote [USRF]Obiwan 6th March 2008, 14:49
Ok, is it me or is this getting out of hand. First we have to deal with this ridiculously huge thing. And now a self contained watercoolingkit for your memory?


I dont even want to guess whats next...
Quote Bluephoenix 6th March 2008, 14:56
Just tell me when the iRAM 2 that takes DDR2 up to 32GB is released, then I'll beat their door down for one.
Quote Veles 6th March 2008, 14:57
Wow I thought you couldn't get more pointless and OTT that Scythes new cooler but gigabyte have topped them in the stupid olympics. Surely heatspreaders on RAM is way more than adequate?
Quote Firehed 6th March 2008, 15:23
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bluephoenix
Just tell me when the iRAM 2 that takes DDR2 up to 32GB is released, then I'll beat their door down for one.

Yeah, I'd forgotten about those things. With the prices of DDR2 right now, that kind of thing almost starts to make sense.
Quote Bluephoenix 6th March 2008, 15:34
I'm using an iRAM with 4GB DDR for pagefile right now, only thing that stops me from using one as a primary run drive is the size.

with 32GB DDR2 that would be enough for a full Vista Ultimate install and shadow copy/restore and pagefile space.
Quote lamboman 6th March 2008, 16:35
Wow, nothing better than unnecessary cooling that blocks airflow, increasing other part's temps, and blocking other memory slots.
Quote Brett89 6th March 2008, 16:41
I really like the power button on the Solo 228 or whatever it's name is. I like the P45 board design too.
Quote naokaji 6th March 2008, 17:28
Quote:
Originally Posted by Veles
Wow I thought you couldn't get more pointless and OTT that Scythes new cooler but gigabyte have topped them in the stupid olympics. Surely heatspreaders on RAM is way more than adequate?

you can even run the ram naked, the heatspreaders dont do much anyway, no airflow through them, crappy tim inbetween, only marginally bigger surface than the modules themself, sure, if you oc your ram like crazy you are going to need some cooling, but even then a simple fan blowing over them is enough.
Quote Bindibadgi 6th March 2008, 17:47
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bluephoenix
Just tell me when the iRAM 2 that takes DDR2 up to 32GB is released, then I'll beat their door down for one.

I actually looked and there's still only the iRAM and 8GB DDR1. I got the impression they aren't making them anymore, they are concentrating on the chassis/thermal division, mobos and MIDs/notebooks now.
Quote Rexxie 6th March 2008, 18:05
Richard/Tim/Bit-tech people; is there any chance you could try to get hold of Gigabyte and ask them of any news on a new version of the i-RAM supporting DDR2?

And I have to join in here: A self-contained watercooling kit for the RAM!? That is simply.. crazy and sad.
Quote mrb_no1 6th March 2008, 18:56
quick question(s):
1) anyone know how to find out the temps of ram through software, rather than using a thermal sensor on the sink itself in the case?
2)Having found the temp, what is 'safe', and what might mean cooling attention should be required?
3)if ram cooling isnt an issue, why do companies bring out crazy things like the ocz sink with additional wc'ing on their ram or like gigabyte have above? is it purely for dip sticks who like pimpin their shiate to the max for what i might be mistaken in calling their e-peen?

Just thought it might be nice to know, not in standard cases but in the most crazy, out of this world high spec system on which someone has oc'd the nuts off of it, answers on a postcard, please

peace

fatman
Quote naokaji 6th March 2008, 19:02
Quote:
Originally Posted by mrb_no1
quick question(s):
1) anyone know how to find out the temps of ram through software, rather than using a thermal sensor on the sink itself in the case?
2)Having found the temp, what is 'safe', and what might mean cooling attention should be required?
3)if ram cooling isnt an issue, why do companies bring out crazy things like the ocz sink with additional wc'ing on their ram or like gigabyte have above? is it purely for dip sticks who like pimpin their shiate to the max for what i might be mistaken in calling their e-peen?

Just thought it might be nice to know, not in standard cases but in the most crazy, out of this world high spec system on which someone has oc'd the nuts off of it, answers on a postcard, please

peace

fatman

1. there is no way since ram doesnt have internal temp sensors fitted, so no way to get the temp with software.
2. safe? hmm, well, i'd say ~50C, sure ic's wont get damaged instantly even with temps at ~100C, but i woudnt risk more than ~70C after several hours full load. i'd add a fan based on voltage rahter than temp, 2,3+ = fan recommended.
3. marketing and standing out of the crowd (they dont make the actual chips themself, so they have to find a way to separate themself from other brands) and same reason as why thermaltake is showing off a 2kw psu at cebit, epeen.
Quote Bindibadgi 6th March 2008, 20:50
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rexxie
Richard/Tim/Bit-tech people; is there any chance you could try to get hold of Gigabyte and ask them of any news on a new version of the i-RAM supporting DDR2?

And I have to join in here: A self-contained watercooling kit for the RAM!? That is simply.. crazy and sad.

I will ask tomorrow for you :)
Quote johnnyboy700 6th March 2008, 20:56
Just how hard do you have to spank your RAM to justify those coolers? Now that they exist I'm guessing its only a matter of time before somebody decides to try to see how far you can you before they melt their RAM chips.
Quote Bluephoenix 7th March 2008, 04:10
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bindibadgi
I will ask tomorrow for you :)

thank you bindi, and do tell them that while few people do look into them, the ones who do buy them swear by them and really want a newer version.
Quote IanW 7th March 2008, 06:40
Quote:
We asked if the software was going to be available on Linux and a Gigabyte representative responded that as far as he knew it was being worked on, but couldn’t offer a launch date or timeframe.

Thanks for asking this on my behalf. Shame the P45-DS3R loses 2 internal Sata ports from the P35.
Quote HourBeforeDawn 7th March 2008, 06:53
water cooled memory in that form, huh make it so it can cool 4 sticks and it might be worth or if anything at least it looks neat lol
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