Asus Offers Premium Service For ‘Enthusiast’ Motherboards

Taipei, Taiwan-headquartered ASUSTeK Computer Inc has announced a new service for owners of certain classes of motherboards. Christened “Asus Premium Service” (APS), the program offers a limited warranty service allowing cross-shipment on its top-shelf motherboards: the Republic of Gamers (ROG) series such as Crosshair II Formula, Maximus II Formula, Rampage /Extreme /II Extreme and the Striker II NSE / II Extreme / II Formula, and the P6T series such as P6T Deluxe and /OC Palm.

Of these, P6T Deluxe and Rampage II Extreme are X58 iCore7 motherboards that house Intel’s latest iCore7 series CPUs.

The offer stands for a period of one year after purchase. Customers wanting to avail of this service are required to return the defective / non-functional parts within 14 days of submitting the warranty replacement request.

Founded in 1989, the company is a leading manufacturer of PC motherboards, and has a preferred business relationship with Intel for all its CPUs. Asus has manufacturing facilities in Taiwan, mainland China, Mexico and the Czech Republic with a total monthly production capacity of 2 million motherboards and 150,000 notebook computers.

Read  more about the new service from Asus here.

ASUS Launches B80A Notebook

Taiwan-headquartered AsusTeK Inc. has launched a new notebook – the B80A – aimed at businesspersons and people on the move. This sub-2.5 Kg (with 6-cell battery) tool measures 34.1 cm by 24.5 cm by up to 3.7 cm height, making it a true-blue notebook in its range.

The machine is powered by Intel Centrino 2 Processor T9400, and also comes with the T5850, P8600 and P7350 variants, which also affects the price tag. The motherboard has mobile Intel GM45 Express chipset and Wi-Fi Link 5100 for wireless internet access. Users can buy versions with SATA 250 Gb with an rpm of 7,200; or they can go for SATA 160 Gb / 250 Gb / 320 Gb, each with 5,400 rpm. You can avail of main memory of up to 4 Gb of DDR2 800 Mhz RAM.

The machine comes with a widescreen display of 14.1″, with a choice available between WXGA or WXGA+. Throw in a optical drive (DVD Super Multi) and an optional video camera (built-in 1.3 M pixel camera),  with a built-in Bluetooth V2.1 (EDR+ is optional), and the notebook is complete.

Interesting features include an optional docking system that provides connectivity to your other peripherals, and a built-in LED system in the keyboard, making working in the dark seminar rooms possible.

Read more about the product here.

Submit Your ‘Dream’ PC Idea – And Win A Prize!

Santa Clara, California-based Intel Corporation and Taiwan-based AsusTeK Computer Inc. have launched a website – http://www.wepc.com/ – which invites technology-lovers and computer-savvy netizens to submit their most creative, zany and innovative ideas on how the next futuristic PC should look like and function. The two companies have announced prizes for the best submissions. This is part of an overall strategy to design and construct the world’s first community-designed computer.

Besides being a site where you win prizes for dreaming the wildest dreams, WePC.com also positions itself as a global meeting ground for people to share their thoughts about emerging trends in the computing world, especially with a dominant focus on Notebook PCs, Netbook PCs and Gamer PCs. While on the site, feel free to vote on concepts and ideas submitted by contestants, and feel inspired to add in your own take on how the next PC should be designed.

The only constraint that contestants need to bear in mind is the range of processors their dreams can be shaped around: for “the world’s first community-designed computer”  will be built upon any of the three (or all the three) Intel-developed processors: Atom, Centrino 2, and Centrino 2 Extreme.

Read more about the site and the competition here.