Hot off the presses, we’re extremely pleased to report that our newest OEM, ASUS, has just announced that they’ll soon be introducing a new Home Server to the market here in the US – and in other markets across the globe. Their TS Mini Home Server, powered by a 1.66 GhZ Intel Atom chipset and running Windows Home Server, will come in two configurations:

• 500GB Hard Drive (with 1 empty HDD bay) @ $349 MSRP
• 1 TB Hard Drive (with 1 empty HDD bay) @ $529 MSRP

The form factor is pretty sleek and comes packed with 6 USB ports and an eSata port for additional external storage options. In addition to all the great features of the underlying Windows Home Server operating system, the TS Mini will also come bundled with a free year long subscription to a 500 GB online storage service, a feature that automatically synchronizes files stored on the TS Mini with external drives, and a real time system monitoring tool.

Not to be outdone, ASUS also points to the device’s ‘green’ credentials: it’s certified ‘Energy 5.0’ compliant and consumes on average only 24.5W.

The TS Mini is now available for pre-order at online retailers Amazon.com and NewEgg.

A hearty welcome to ASUS in joining the Home Server family!

- Mark

The day we’ve all been waiting for—as hardware vendors, software developers and consumers—is finally here! And no one is more excited than all of us at ASUS, as it marks the culmination of the collaborative and proprietary work we've been putting into developing Windows 7 products.

Our product development team has been keeping close pace with our counterparts over in Microsoft ever since the inception of the Windows 7 project. Our mission from the outset was simple: to deliver a unique Windows 7 experience. We’ve stayed true to that purpose throughout, and our customers can be assured that ASUS products aren’t just seamlessly compatible and in perfect synergy with the new operating system, they are also designed to enhance and extend the overall Windows 7 experience.

As an example, I’d like to call some attention to the key innovations we’ve introduced to ASUS notebooks running Windows 7: FastBoot and Turbo33. Available on many of ASUS’ notebook lines, such as the new UL Series and ROG (Republic of Gamers) Series, these features work in perfect concert with—and build upon—the functionality and capabilities in Windows 7.

FastBoot is an exciting feature on ASUS notebooks running Windows 7. Through our close collaboration with Microsoft, we’ve managed to tweak our hardware such that notebooks with FastBoot can boot up to 40% faster* than similarly-spec’ed notebooks without the technology. Boot up times can be as low as 30 seconds*.

The other technology I’d like to highlight is called Turbo33. I’m not at liberty to reveal the ‘secret sauce’ behind this remarkable technology, but ASUS notebooks with Turbo33 will allow users to enjoy exceptionally smooth video playback and online video streaming, as well as rock-solid stability when engaging in processor-intensive multitasking.

These technologies have been an absolute joy to design and implement, and it has been particularly rewarding witnessing how effectively they enhance the overall Windows 7 experience. But rest assured, we won't be stopping here. If there's one thing ASUS is known for, it’s our constant desire to improve the status quo. The promise of innovation is something that customers can always count on us to deliver upon—and the same will be true for all ASUS products that run on, or support, Windows 7.

We also expect the launch of Windows 7 to usher in a new golden age of gaming on the PC platform, and are poised to provide the best hardware for all types of gamers. Over the years, our ROG brand has forged a formidable reputation in the gaming arena, first with our top-performing gaming motherboards and graphics cards, then our aggressively spec’ed gaming notebooks.

ROG products stand apart because we’ve designed them around the needs, preferences and gameplay styles of the best gamers today. We’ve gained these insights by engaging gamers at many levels and on many fronts. ASUS, for example, supports some of the biggest eSports and LAN party events in the world. Just this year, we participated in 62 World GameMaster Tournament (WGT) events around the world, reaching 4,004,892 gamers in total. We were also involved in DreamHack Winter, Sweden; ASSEMBLY, Finland; GamesCon, Germany; and Campus Party, Spain which drew over 10,000, 3,500, 245,000 and 6,500 gamers respectively.

We are also strongly committed to supporting online gaming communities. We have an ongoing collaboration with ESL, the biggest online game portal in the Europe with over 35,000 active players. We cooperate closely with top game publishers worldwide as well, including Blizzard, Ubisoft and EA. We were a Platinum Sponsor at Blizzcon09 earlier this year—a two-day event that drew 30,000 visitors—and had a solid presence at Quakecon09 which saw over 7,000 attendees.

Through the stress testing, surveys and focus groups we conduct through these events and initiatives, we are able to take away a wealth of useful and actionable knowledge—knowledge that we’ve used to make our products better. Our ROG Windows 7 solutions are the ultimate realization of all the gaming expertise we’ve accrued to date.

I’d like to extend my heartfelt congratulations to Microsoft. Windows 7 is an amazing operating system, and things will only get more exciting from here on. On ASUS’ part, you have our assurance that we’ll keep racking our brains to conceive the most meaningful and relevant products, technologies and features for today’s savvy consumers and avid gamers.

Tony Chen
Vice president of ASUS System Business Group

* System performance is subject to system configuration. This data is based on a comparison between a FastBoot-optimized ASUS notebook running 64-bit Windows 7 and an identically-spec’ed notebook without FastBoot running 32-bit Windows Vista. For detailed test results, please visit http://event.asus.com/2009/nb/disclaimer/win7/.

Working at ASUS, I have witnessed, first-hand, the great strides made in technological innovation and exceptional focus that goes into our high-quality products. Instilled with traditional values of hard work and discipline, ASUS continues to build upon its success that has made it far more than just the world’s leading motherboard company. And now with Windows 7 just around the corner, we have already been running beta versions effortlessly on our systems to ensure maximum compatibility and optimized performance. 

Personally, I have used Windows 7 on a number of our notebooks and have truly enjoyed the streamlined features and incredible performance that makes my already fast notebook even faster. Loading programs, finishing my work, or just surfing the Web - Windows 7 simply makes everything looks better, perform faster, and is much more intuitive than other operating systems. Meeting the great people at Microsoft, I can see the amount of detail and research that has gone into making Windows 7 into what I see today. Building off Windows Vista, Microsoft further refined and finessed the architecture to create an easier so that everything I want to do is done better. 

ASUS is thrilled to provide users with a new experience - based on high-speed, innovative ASUS technology and reliable Windows 7. The benefits are numerous. I have had the privilege of using Windows 7 on ASUS notebooks and would recommend it to anyone that’s interested in eye-catching style, ultimate performance, advanced security, and reassured dependability.  

Marcus Teixeira
Marketing Team at ASUS

Just how important is a keyboard? Well keyboards are the standard modes of interface and normally, people could care less of what makes them different from others. In fact, it seems that most keyboards are alike and it is just the brands that are vying for price comparison.

There are also keyboards that vary in terms of crisp and keystrokes. Some computer users prefer softer and some great key stroke pads that make composing and typing a breeze. In short, there will always be a specific requirement that keyboards have and apparently that is why some manufacturers vary in pricing.

As for the latest keyboard in the market, Asus has unveiled one of its own. Just recently, they have released the Eee keyboard, a computer built entirely into a keyboard. Many caught a glimpse of it at the recently concluded CES and it offers something different.

This isn’t the first computer to be crammed inside of a keyboard, however, it’s most certainly the best-looking to date. Packing a 1.6GHz Intel Atom CPU, 1GB of DDR2 RAM and either a 16GB or 32GB SSD drive, this will be comparable to some of the other Eee line. Other features include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0, Wireless HDMI and a 5-inch touchscreen. It also has a regular HDMI port, VGA, 3 USB ports and audio in/out jacks. We’re still not sure what the price tag is going to be, but if they can keep the pricing close to what we’ve seen in some of the other Eee products, this could be very promising.

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It looks like laptops are expanding their use and it has become a preference even for people who want a laptop mainly for gaming. And though laptop manufacturers would want these mobile gadgets mainly for business use, it is one demand aspect that is certainly hard to pass up.

So the solution here is to really try and gear up the internal peripherals from the motherboard, memory and video card requirements to adhere to the demand of mobile gaming geeks. And it looks like the long rumored release of the Mobility Radeon 4870 X2 is why such has been announced.

Initially shown at this year’s CES as part of the performance powerhouse Asus W90 notebook, the Mobility Radeon 4870 X2 should become AMD’s top performing part in the mobile world, most likely surpassing Nvidia’s current mobile performance king, the GeForce 9800M GTX SLI.

This new Radeon notebook friendly graphics chip ships features core and memory clocks of 600 and 900MHz, respectively, with 1GB of graphics memory available to its disposal.

The Asus W90Vp notebook just became available today on newegg, confirming earlier rumors of this GPU release. For $2200, Asus packs a Core 2 Duo T9600 processor, a huge 18.4″ Wide UXGA screen, 6GB of memory and a single 320GB hard drive. A DVD superdrive and multiple connectivity options become obvious additions in this large, 11+ lbs. heavy chassis.

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If you talk about the main board of most computers these days, chances are you will be offered two boards that have good following. There are a lot of motherboard manufacturers today such as ECS and Jetway but the best bet for motherboard preferences today for middle-end quality would have to go to Asus and MSI.

Years back, these motherboard players were in equal footing but branding still has a great bearing on reliability. That is perhaps one reason why ASUS and MSI are leading the pack. They are known brands in the technology sector and apparently people do their research as well.

However, if you look at the boards, they provide practically the same features. The only thing different among them is perhaps durability and the life span of the parts used in assembling them. There will be defects at times but as long as they are discovered and occur within the warranty period, they can be easily replaced by the vendor concerned.

Apparently, most people today want to avoid these inconveniences. They are sure to be something that can leave a PC owner scratch his head for these inconvenient matters. But when you buy a computer, these are included. The only thing that has to be cleared is if and when they would occur.

So if you want some free tips, these are the hottest motherboards in the market today. Reviews are available and depending on the specs you need, they are bound to have one suitable for you.