GIGABYTE Ultra Durable 5

In the world of popular high-tech components, brand names and marketing messages might be a good way to get the attention of enthusiasts, but unless companies can back up their slogans and specs sheets with solid

hardware that delivers tangible results, power users will quickly move on to the next big thing that’s courting their favor.

        GIGABYTE clearly has this figured out and has taken it to heart, as it has maintained a strong brand loyalty with its Ultra Durable brand of motherboards. Six years since the release of the first Ultra Durable motherboard, GIGABYTE now has released Ultra Durable 5. The Ultra Durable brand has remained strong, something that isn’t easy to do in the enthusiast market over a period of more than half a decade. The company estimates that it has shipped as many as 100 million Ultra Durable motherboards, and there’s no
sign GIAGBYTE has any intention of letting up. Ultra Durable 5 includes the best features of the previous versions of Ultra Durable motherboards, as well as one significant new feature aimed at providing strong and consistent power delivery to the motherboard, which leads to a cooler overall system and greater overclocking capabilities.

Rosewill RHTS-8206 Vibrating Headset

Gaming Device Features Built-In Subwoofer

As gamers look for new ways to more fully immerse themselves in their games, they’ve had the option of turning to vibrating headsets over the past several years. With the attached microphone, these headsets are great for interactive online gaming. Finding that right combination of comfort and features has been difficult, though. A new gaming headset from Rosewill, the RHTS-8206, hopes to find that sweet spot. It includes a control module that allows the gamer to use one of two settings for the intensity of the vibration, which gives it an interesting feature vs. many other vibrating headset options. It also has design features aimed at keeping

the user as comfortable as possible. “We wanted something that was modern and stylish,” says Brian L. Chan, product specialist for Rosewill. “That’s the direction we want the company to go to.”

Sweating The Details

Chan says the RHTS-8206 sprung from Rosewill’s design and engineering teams’ desire to perfect the concept of headphones with a vibration capability. Development of the headphones required several months,

Chan says, and the designers at Rosewill put together quite a few different design ideas before settling on the current configuration, which was released in May with a suggested price of about $60. “We’ve always wanted to do something like this, but we didn’t see the technology where we needed it to be,” Chan says

of developing the headset’s vibration mechanism. “We worked through different prototypes to get the right comfortable feel, 5.1 sound, and vibration. We didn’t want it to be gimmicky or something that was just there.”