Computex 2010 Coverage

TACENS

The coolest products TACENS makes (no pun intended), may be its fans. TACENS was showing off two fans at Computex, Spiro and the not-yet-released Ventus II. The Spiro is a 120mm fan that features seven airplane-wing designed blades that reduce air resistance and thus provide unprecedented silent operation. It features the exclusive Fluxus PRO II bearings, professional anti-vibration screws, and Noise-RPM reduction cable. Spinning between 1000-1500 RPM, it pushes 43 - 70 CFM at a mere 8 dBA - 14 dbA. There's also an ICE model, which contains four white LEDs.

The Ventus II is a thing of beauty. It contains fifteen overlapping fan blades that each contains three grooves to improve aerodynamics and reduce air resistance. Product specs should be available some time next week, but I was told that the Ventus II features a proprietary bearing that has an outstanding lifetime (over 200,000 hours), and ultra low friction and noise. The bearing is a minor update to the Flexus PRO II, having the same structural design, but with better oil, which is what contributes to the longer lifetime and stability.

TACENS also has a few accessories in its repertoire. The Vectrix 2.5 Lux is a USB2.0 2.5" external hard drive enclosure. It supports a 2.5" hard drive up to 2TB, is made of black aluminum for improved heat dissipation, and is wrapped in a black rubber frame for shock and vibration absorption. It also features One Touch Backup (OTB) functionality, and comes in a stylish PVC/leather cover with the USB cable acting as the clip, which means you'll never have to worry about losing a USB cable like you have to with other enclosures.

The Portum Liber is a dual-SATA docking station that allows you to directly connect any two SATA devices to your PC through its USB2.0 interface. Connect two SATA 3.5" or 2.5" hard drives at the same time for multiple backups, data transfers between your computer and both hard drives, or hard drive cloning. It also supports optical SATA devices, so you can easily connect external DVD/Blu-ray readers and writers. The Portum Liber features activity LEDs for each individual drive, an on/off button, and OTB.

The last product from TACENS I was shown was the Sagitta II Lux case, which features the Sagitta II Panel. The case itself features nine external tool-less 5.25" drive bays (although two are taken up by the Sagitta II Panel), and three internal 3.5" drives with the included anti-vibration adapters. The case features seven PCI slots, top I/O ports containing two USB2.0, one eSATA, and headphones and microphone jacks, and comes with one 120mm TACENS Aura Pro Ice fan in the rear, with the option of adding one 120mm fan in the front and two 120mm fans on the side transparent window. The case also features a full black chassis, both external and internal. There's also the non-Lux version, which swaps out the side-panel window for a side panel containing a giant 40cm fan that pushes 250CFM

The real star of the show, however, is the Sagitta II Panel, an innovative multi-function touch-panel. The high-definition round touch LCD can be operated using your finger or the included stylus, which is stored within the panel (that little nub in the bottom-right corner). There's touch switch on/off and reset functions, four sets of fan monitoring and speed control, and four sets of temperature monitoring and alarm system. The fan monitoring/speed control and temperature monitoring/alarm system can be maintained automatically or controlled manually. The alarm protection for computer fans and temperatures is fully programmable.