As you would imagine with only Sandy Bridge being the new platform to really take precedence in Q1 2011, ASUS didn’t have any new Republic of Gamers motherboards to really show off besides the current lineup. There were of course the existing Sandy Bridge boards with the new B3 revision though and a new family member to the current range, featuring a new chipset – Z68.

The P8Z68-V Pro was on display and is due for release very soon. It features all of the expected ASUS technologies such as TPU and EPU. Of course SATA 6G is present as is onboard VGA/DVI connectors because the Z68 chipset hopes to combine the qualities of both H67 and P67 in a complete solution. The P8Z68 will allow us to fine tune both graphics and memory aspects, and will no doubt continue in the other P8P67 series of boards by being a popular choice amongst those wanting to build a solid Sandy Bridge machine.



Biodegradable HTPC enclosure

Also on display at CeBIT was something a little bit quirky. ASUS may be serious about their hardware but they aren’t afraid to show that they are also keen to provide a solution or two to help the environment. So here we have a small enclosure which is totally biodegradable. We are told that this will shortly be available and can be used to house an ITX configuration without a problem. So if you are an eco-warrior, perhaps you should give this one a go?



Essence One

Audio enthusiasts will always been on the look out for solutions to fine tune audio and remove inference such as noise.

ASUS had on display their new Essence One. Essentially this is a headphone AMP that can deliver up to 600ohms. The Essence one has its own dedicated power adapter to bring very clean sound. Available outputs come in the form of XLR, ¼” and RCA.