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In pictures: Intel's Aussie Haswell launch

Next generation Core processors.

By Juha Saarinen on Jun 13 2013, 11:35AM

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Intel's new "Haswell" range of Core processors promise slightly improved CPU performance and much faster built-in GPU over the previous Ivy Bridge range, but lowered power usage is the key feature.

Intel ANZ technical manager Graham Tucker, managing director Kate Burleigh and APAC general sales manager Gregory Bryant answer questions about Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system causing PC sales to tank.

Bryant said Intel decided to add further integration by bringing the voltage regulator on chip despite Haswell already being in the works, to get further power and space savings.

Many of Intel's large OEM customers had packed up their systems displayed the week before at Computex in Taiwan and shipped them to Sydney for the Haswell launch.

Touch screens are the big thing for PC vendors this year, but also unusual design experiments such as the HP Rove that can be used as a desktop all-in-one computer with the kickstand out, or flat as a "tabletop" one.

Acer showed off several portables, including this slimline Windows 8 combo tablet/laptop model with an innovative hinge design.

The Haswell launch wasn't just about skinny power misers that last seven hours or more on battery. Dell-owned Alienware put Haswell chips into their new, chunky and powerful gaming laptops as well.

It wouldn't be an Intel processor launch without an outrageously overclocked and lit up desktop, and Clayton, Victoria-based Scorptech Computers didn't disappoint. Sales manager Tom Western's workstation features a water-cooled processor, dual Nvidia graphics cards, 16GB RAM, two SSD drives and a 1200 Watt power supply, yet is whisper quiet.

Despite Haswell's improvements and new features, Intel and its OEM partners face an uphill struggle in a market where customers are either going for ARM-based tablets or smartphones, or simply not upgrading their old customers. Whether or not the new Haswell-based systems will break the spell remains to be seen.

Intel's new "Haswell" range of Core processors promise slightly improved CPU performance and much faster built-in GPU over the previous Ivy Bridge range, but lowered power usage is the key feature.