SFFn Editorial: CES, My View

[confusis]

This is one of a series of mini-rants by your faithful correspondent, John Morrison. These are part of a series focusing on issues in the SFF niche. All content is entirely opinion of John, not of SmallFormFactor.net, and should not be taken as fact.

So, CES has passed, and as usual, there was a myriad of new products, new products, new ideas. We have seen the usual; the ATX plague, the RGB disease, and the random stuff that, maybe, just maybe, should have stayed on the drawing board. While everyone has their own opinions, these are mine!

Read more here.

 

[confusis]

Yes, this means that the mini rants have returned.

 

[cmyk78]

I like the Trident Z RGB, it doesn't look hideous and gaudy to me. I think it's the fact that it's pastel.

 

[confusis]

Give me plain low profile DIMMs any day

 

[3lfk1ng]

Give me plain low profile DIMMs any day

This x1000. I still love my LP Samsung but I wish they made an DDR4 version of the LP Tracer

 

[dakrath]

I'm looking forward to seeing how the ThermalTake Engine 37 performs

 

[BirdofPrey]

I feel like you misunderstood the stuff listed as "The Bad"
That 3 screen laptop isn't product, it's more like a concept car: It's never going to actually be made; it's just there to show off this cool thing they made, and maybe one or two of the innovations inside might eventually make it into a real product several years down the road.

As for the computer card, my understanding of that was that it is supposed to go inside smart appliances/TVs which would provide them with an upgrade option. It's not a portable computing solution at all, so shouldn't really be compared against what's useful there. Now whether or not your smart fridge needs to have it's CPU upgraded every once and a while or if it wouldn't make more sense just to have a standard, dumb TV hooked up to a console or HTPC is another matter entirely.

 

[LocoMoto]

Give me plain low profile DIMMs any day

I've been drooling over such beautys the last few days, but DDR4 non ECC LP DIMMs are like the antimatter of RAM.

 

[confusis]

I feel like you misunderstood the stuff listed as "The Bad"
That 3 screen laptop isn't product, it's more like a concept car: It's never going to actually be made; it's just there to show off this cool thing they made, and maybe one or two of the innovations inside might eventually make it into a real product several years down the road.

As for the computer card, my understanding of that was that it is supposed to go inside smart appliances/TVs which would provide them with an upgrade option. It's not a portable computing solution at all, so shouldn't really be compared against what's useful there. Now whether or not your smart fridge needs to have it's CPU upgraded every once and a while or if it wouldn't make more sense just to have a standard, dumb TV hooked up to a console or HTPC is another matter entirely.

Remember, the article is my opinion, not fact! (or even alternative fact) Hence the disclaimer at the beginning and middle of the post.

What I'm saying by including these two options is that I don't like the ideas. Not that they're necessarily bad for anyone else, just that I don't like them

 

[jtd871]

The triple screen luggable has been done before (see the thread for the link) on a desktop chassis. Its made for specialists, by specialists, for a price. I tend to agree with @confusis that this idea's time has passed.

I also think that the compute card basically puts the nail in the coffin of the compute stick, which is too bad. It was one of the simplest ways of turning a dumb TV into a Windows-based PC for basic media streaming and light productivity. But maybe the miniaturization required for the form factor was too expensive to achieve.

 

[EdZ]

The Compute stick and Compute Card, despite a similar name, serve two different purposes. The Compute Stick lets you plug an external device into a TV or monitor, and use it as a PC (if you have an bunch of wireless peripherals or carry around a hub). The Compute Card is meant to be internal to a device that may not even have a display (or at least, not a nice HDMI addressable one) and act as a modular replaceable SoC.

 

[jtd871]

Give me plain low profile DIMMs any day

Heck, it's tough finding plain (no heat spreader/sink/shield) normal height DDR4 sticks.