Heck yeah, baby! After what felt like 48 hours of no-sleep-air-travel and a pre-expo event or two, we finally managed to get ourselves into a shower and grab a few winks of sleep just in time to make it to day one of Computex, and man, was it awesome.
We kicked the day off with a small but easily solvable camera problem because it just wouldn’t be an expo without a minor hiccup, and we haven’t stopped embracing the rush since.
After fangirling as Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, came up the escalator right in front of us, with crowds bigger than Brad Pitt could even muster, we made our way into Hall 1- GF of the expo, which housed the majority of the storage, networking and component companies.
With Lucky The Dragon from MSI guarding over us, we tackled the crowds.
A few of the highlights from our first round around the hall included Team Group, Lian Li, and G.Skill.
Team Group showed off a few of their latest RAM, cooling and storage devices for both gamers and creators alike. Their gaming range of products, T-Force, includes some new pink, white and black colourways for their DDR5 T-Force RAM modules, while their cooling options include modular, magnetised heatsinks that you can attach to your SSDs and motherboards and even a fan kit for your RAM modules that can be angled in almost any direction for the perfect blow.
Lian Li had the most stunning cases on display, including my dream case, the O11 Vision, which I was not allowed to touch but was more than happy to smell for the very first time in my life.
G.Skill was hosting an overclocking competition around the back of their stand. Some of the world’s most recognised overclockers were turning Computex into your local nightclub with the amount of liquid Nitrogen clouds they were producing. The competition was so heated that the guys were even chugging the stuff themselves, in completely safe and approved ways.
We headed up to the media lounge to rest our weary legs and feed Lucky an energy drink. There, we bumped into a few retro handheld fundis. ETA Prime, Stubbs from Retro Handhelds and Baldly Rudy all shared a Sprite with us as they all drooled over the NAG Magazine 2023 Annual we had tucked away in our bag.
After some great chats about the state of handhelds, physical gaming, and retro environments, we headed back out, this time to the gaming floor.
The floor was absolutely jam-packed, but we still managed to make our way through to some pretty cool stands, and Regardt even managed to shake hands with Linus himself on the way. Yes, that Linus.
We started off with Adata, and had a look at some of the hot new gaming and computing products that will be coming to the market pretty soon. A stunning XPG case range with the Invader X Pro, a case featuring a singular curved glass panel and award-winning environmentally friendly design, as well as the yet-to-be-released XPG NIA, XPG’s take at a handheld gaming device were our top picks from the stand. The NIA has a sliding screen that allows the user to adjust the screen angle so that you can play it comfortably in almost any position, even when you’re at your most horizontal with your double chin on show. Some of their other products included stunning-looking power supplies, sustainably constructed portable storage and RGB-fueled air cooling.
After I immediately claimed the limited edition Mera magnetic portable charger from the goodie bag, we stumbled into keyboard heaven. I was allowed to touch just a few of the keyboards and tickle one or two switches on the Gateron stand before Regardt and Lucky reminded me we still had more stands to visit.
After sadly leaving the one square kilometre of tactical heaven, we found ourselves in a little bit of shark-infested water. Cooler Master showed off some of the sickest system components we’ve seen in a while, with not one but two of their latest Shark X builds front and centre.
Shane Alborough from Cooler Master took us around the stand, where we showed off their fantastic range of products.
Cooler Master is planning to go all-in on pre-built system builds. These will be builds that are completely unique in both design and product to Cooler Master, allowing them to release chassis that look incredible but also function exceptionally well. Builds like the Sneaker X and Shark X are just two of these system builds, and at Computex this year, they announced the Cooling X, a compact and quiet chassis with liquid cooling built right into the side panels of the case.
Cooler Master also showed their latest 54-inch 4K Gaming monitor, which will put a few cockpits out there to shame. Of course, they had the Dyn X simulator seat on display, showing off the hydraulic movement in both racing and flight-simulator games.
We were also very excited to see the new Cooler Master Master Hub, a stream-deck-like device with a modular design that content creators can use to assist them during live streaming or other live-streaming practices. The modular design allows you to bolt on a variety of accessories, from differently sized touch screens, to buttons, knobs and rollers. We were lucky enough to pick one up before the show, so keep your eyes on NAG for the full review, coming soon.
After one heck of a day at Computex, we left with a bag full of swag and bellies full of excitement; although we had already managed to see some of the coolest tech out there, we had barely scratched the surface, meaning Day 2 holds some real promise.