Computex 2013: Memory, Power, Cooling, Storage, And More

Sparkle, Deep Cool, Cougar, And Giada

Sparkle

The majority of products in Sparkle's booth were more corporate, rather than consumer-oriented. But the company does have a history of selling passively-cooled versions of high-end graphics cards, and it didn't disappoint us. Here's a shot of a passively-cooled GeForce GTX 680, though we're told passively-cooled GeForce GTX 770 and 780s are scheduled to arrive next month, too. Given the clock rates and thermal ceilings of Nvidia's GPUs (particularly GK110), it's probable that these boards won't operate in a completely stagnant enclosure. You'll almost certainly need some sort of airflow over the heat sink.

DeepCool

DeepCool's rep mentioned that we might see a new version of the Dracula graphics cooler later this year. For now, though, we have the Lucifer CPU cooler, with a passive (fanless) cooling capacity of 130 W.

Cougar

Cougar is working to build a bigger presence in the U.S., beginning with a couple of new enclosures. The MX500 and MX700 ATX cases are pretty solid-looking, and we find the former’s design to be particularly attractive.

The GCK300 keyboard also looks interesting, with its large volume knob, 1000 Hz polling rate, and macro creation software.

The Attack and Attack X keyboards are Cougar’s mechanical offerings, utilizing the popular Cherry switches. The Attack X is differentiated by red, white, and blue LEDs.

Giada

Giada is known for its extremely compact personal computers. The D2308 is its next-gen product, featuring Intel's fourth-gen (Haswell) Core processors, a GeForce GTX 650, and 802.11n Wi-Fi (plus Bluetooth) connectivity. Availability is expected toward the end of 2013.