The cool thing about attending big-time events like the Consumer Electronics Show held two weeks ago in Las Vegas is that I get to see all the sweet new high-tech products scheduled to roll out in the next 12 months. The bad thing is having all that awesome gear paraded under my nose while knowing full well that, barring a lottery win, I can't afford the vast majority of it.
In fact, just knowing that Samsung has a plasma display in the works that's larger than my garage door only makes my crummy little 25-inch set seem that much worse.
Before you start writing in with your condolences, let's move on to happier topics: specifically, the handful of cool and (relatively) affordable PC-upgrade products I saw at the show.
The Quest For Quiet Power
My fellow PC geeks know I'm willing to go to great lengths to find a high-quality power supply, and that one of my newest obsessions is quieting my PC. Antec's latest product is geared toward satisfying both those urges: It's a silent power supply.
Called the Phantom, the company's newest power supply has exactly zero fans. Yep, the unit is completely fanless. The 350-watt device looks like a giant heat sink: It has aluminum fins all around, designed to draw heat away from additional heat sinks inside the unit. How hot is that?
In addition to the power supply's heat-sink technology, Antec says the Phantom utilizes high-quality components designed to make it considerably more efficient than other power supplies. The typical power supply offers about 65 percent efficiency; Antec says the Phantom achieves about 85 percent efficiency.
Antec expects to ship the first Phantom in March for an estimated street price of $169. (Hey, nobody said silence was cheap.) Down the road, additional units offering 500 and 700 watts are expected. These units will require a single integrated fan, but Antec executives say it will spin up only when the power supply is under a heavy load.
Easy, Breezy Backups
External hard drives aren't exactly new, but Western Digital unveiled a slick new package that should make the oh-so-onerous task of regular backups easy, even for the likes of me. The company's new Media Center combines a 7200-rpm hard drive with a fancy 8-in-one card reader that supports CompactFlash Type I and II, Microdrive, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, MultiMediaCard, Secure Digital card, and SmartMedia formats.
The company plans to roll out 160GB and 250GB models later this month, selling for $300 and $400 respectively (additional capacities are in the works). What's interesting about this product is that you can set it up to back up all of your important stuff with the push of one button. If you've ever gone to the trouble of ripping your entire CD collection, you know what important stuff I'm talking about. Another one of the unit's tricks: Insert your media card, and you can move images or other files directly onto the drive with no PC interaction needed.
The unit connects to a PC via USB 2.0 or FireWire, and it includes a two-port USB 2.0 hub with ports in front and back for connecting additional peripherals. Cool.
The TV to PC Connection
So a while back you went to the trouble of turning your PC into a TiVo-like personal video recorder using slick software like SnapStreams' Personal Video Station (recently rechristened Beyond TV) and a tuner card. That was pretty clever--until you realized that you really do prefer watching television on your TV and not on your PC monitor. D'oh.
Never fear. Hauppauge (say it with me, it's pronounced "hop" and then "pog"--isn't that fun?) showed its new $100 Media MVP device, which connects a television to a PC via a wired Ethernet network; a wireless version is coming soon, Hauppauge says. Using a rudimentary menu system viewable through your TV, you use the Linux-based device and its remote control to access all those wonderful reruns of The Single Guy you have on your computer. Even if you don't have a tuner card, you can use the inexpensive device to access music, videos, and photos stored on your PC.
Antec Gets Cubed
Okay, I hate to give Antec too much press, but the company did show off some other cool stuff at CES, including a new small-form-factor case called the Aria. Designed to compete with Shuttle's elegant bare-bones packages, Antec's unit offers one major difference: It'll hold any industry-standard Micro ATX motherboard.
When you buy a Shuttle case you're stuck with a Shuttle motherboard. Antec is hoping power users intrigued by the notion of a small-form-factor PC will try the Aria with the mini-mobo of their choice. The case, measuring 10.5 inches wide by 12.7 inches deep by 7.9 inches tall, can accommodate full-sized expansion cards, and it includes a 300-watt power supply with a quiet 120mm fan. The unit is slated to ship in March at an estimated street price of $129.
Run across any cool upgrade products lately? Have an idea for a cool GeekTech column? Drop me a line.
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