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Wednesday - June
30th
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Matrox Drivers w/Final OpenGL ICD 7:45
PM EST - Email Us |
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I noticed over at Voodoo
eXtreme, that Matrox has
released new
G100 & G200 drivers which have the final OpenGL ICD bundled as
well. Here is the info and a links to download:
With our Beta 2 ICD that was
released in May, 1999 our score in Quake II at 640 x 480 @ 16-bit was
38.2 fps. With this new driver in Win 98 we are getting a score of
47.5 fps, an increase of 25%. The ICD also includes optimizations for
other Open GL titles and support for Lightwave 3D and 3D Studio Max.
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Another Montego II Quadzilla Review 7:35
PM EST - Email Us |
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Beta Bites has
posted their review
of Turtle Beach's Montego II Quadzilla card. Seems like a lot of
these boards are going out for review and most of the sites have been
saying good things. The only thing I don't like about this card is
that it takes 2 of your expansion slots to have 4 speaker support.
Other than that, it looks like a great card with some good software.
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Transcend AZX3101 Mobo Review 7:32
PM EST - Email Us |
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CRUS has posted a review
of Transcend's AZX3101 Socket 370 motherboard which is based on the
i440ZX AGPset. If you need an ultra cheap board, this would be the
only reason to get one of these, otherwise, stick with the better
boards.
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3D Blaster TNT2 Ultra Review 5:30
PM EST - Email Us |
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The guys over at Tech
Junkie have posted a review
of Creative Labs's 3D Blaster TNT2 Ultra card. The thing I like
best about Creative is that they always have very cool drivers and
extras (like the Glide wrapper). The board itself isn't too bad
either, the only problem being that it doesn't support AGP 4X.
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Microstar MS-6163 Mobo Review 5:27
PM EST - Email Us |
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The Computing Pros
have posted their review
of MSI's MS-6163 Slot-1 motherboard which is based on the i440BX
AGPset. This board is very similar to the BH6 (including
overclocking abilities), but is a lot more stable and has more FSB
selections to choose from. The price is pretty good too!
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New Rage128 Tweaker v1.1 5:20
PM EST - Email Us |
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I noticed over at Rage3D
that a new version of the ATi
Rage 128 Tweaker has been released, bringing it up to version
1.1. This release has overclocking abilities in Win9X but not
NT. Grab it below:
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Omega PII-333MHz Notebook 5:07
PM EST - Email Us |
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While I was over at Sharky's,
I noticed that they have also posted a review
of Wintec's Omega 5000ES Pentium II 333MHz notebook. With the BX
chipset and a Pentium II CPU running at 333MHz, you should have no
problems with speed. Head over and see what they thought of the
rest of the package.
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SE's Weekly CPU Prices 5:07
PM EST - Email Us |
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Sharky Extreme has updated
their weekly
CPU price list. Small drops for this week, nothing
major. Unfortunately, there is no pricing on the K7 until it
reaches retail channels in August but they do have some estimated street
prices. I can't wait to try one of those babies!
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3dfx Interview @TigerInvestor 4:56
PM EST - Email Us |
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Tiger Investor
has conducted a very long interview
with Scott Sellers of 3dfx Interactive.
There is some pretty good information about what 3dfx is doing about
Creative Labs Glide wrapper and where Glide itself is headed, OpenGL
issues, Voodoo3 3500 availability, new technology and tons more.
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X10 DVDAnywhere Kit Review 4:52
PM EST - Email Us |
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AGNHardware
has done a review
of X10's DVDAnywhere kit. Exactly what does this DVD-ROM kit allow
you to do? This tidbit from the review should explain it:
X10 has the perfect solution for being
able to playback your DVD on your TV, thanks to a 2.4GHz system called
the DVD Anywhere. The DVD Anywhere hooks up to your computer and
transmits the audio and video up to 100 feet away from your TV. Best
of all is the transmission is a 2.4GHz RF feed, so you do not have to
worry about walls, people and anything else getting in its way. X10
also includes a handy mouse remote, a wireless RF remote that you can
program to work with your computer. This way you can pause, play and
more with the DVD on your computer while sitting on the couch in the
living room.
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InterAct FX Racing Wheel Review 4:45
PM EST - Email Us |
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Gamecenter has
posted a review
of InterAct's FX Racing Wheel. This weird looking controller has
an innovative design but when using it may be more tricky than it
looks. If you want a good racing controller, I suggest going with
something like the Microsoft Sidewinder Precision Pro but if you want to
go all out get a force feedback Wheel/Peddal system like Act
Labs Force RS.
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VIA Buys Cyrix 4:30
PM EST - Email Us |
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According to this
article over at the Register,
chipset maker, VIA has signed a letter of intent (along with National
Semiconductor) to buy chipmaker, Cyrix. This deal will give VIA
access to some Intel patents like the Slot-1 architecture. VIA has
also said that it will continue the line of Cyrix processors.
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Diamond SupraExpress 56K USB 4:26
PM EST - Email Us |
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The USB Workshop
has posted their review
of Diamond Multimedia's SupraExpress 56k USB modem. Here is what
they thought of it:
SupraExpress is a nice modem. It is easy to use, and
it does not have any potential problems. It also comes with 5 yrs
limited warranty, but there is possibly no need for that.
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Hercules Dynamite TNT2 Ultra 4:21
PM EST - Email Us |
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The Sanctum has
posted a review of
Hercules' Dynamite TNT2 Ultra card. This card is currently the
fastest TNT2 Ultra card clocked at 175/200MHz core/memory speed.
It also has a top quality heatsink/fan and, drivers which have an
overclocking slider and TV-Out. The only down side is the lack of
software bundle and the high price.
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A-Trend ATC-6240 Mobo Review 4:16
PM EST - Email Us |
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3DHardware has
done a review
of A-Trend's latest Slot-1 motherboard, the ATC-6240. This board
is based on the i440BX and supposedly very stable, but not too good for
overclocking.
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Guillemot Xentor 32 TNT2 Review 4:14
PM EST - Email Us |
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Thresh's Firing
Squad has posted their review
of Guillemot's Maxi Gamer Xentor 32 card. If you didn't know, this
card is based on the Nvidia Riva TNT2 Ultra chip and has a 175/183MHz
core/memory clock speed. So not only is it one of the fastest TNT2
Ultra cards, but its probably the cheapest too, at $199 USD after
rebate.
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Sensaura Interview @FullOn3D 4:06
PM EST - Email Us |
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FullOn3D has also
conducted an interview,
this time its with Sensaura, the company which created the Sensaura 3D
audio API. They have some really interesting audio technology
going on there, and a lot of the information is in this interview, so
you may be interested in reading it. Here is a tidbit from it:
FullOn3D: What makes Sensaura 3D
Positional Audio better than the competition?
Sensaura: There are a number of
technical things that differentiate our product from our competitors.
The first is our Digital Ear (see our web site for details) that we
use to develop our HRTF filter library. This allows us to produce more
accurate filters (than possible with the normal commercial dummy head
rubber ears) and filters with near perfect left-right matching.
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Abit BX6 R2 Slot-1 Mobo Review 3:46
PM EST - Email Us |
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Our buddies at FPS3D have
posted a review of Abit's very
well known and respected, BX6 Revision 2.0 motherboard. For quite a while,
this board was considered the best motherboard to overclock with and a good
all-around one too. Head over and see what they thought of it.
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Tuesday - June 29th
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Creative Labs Savage4 Review 9:02
PM EST - Email Us |
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CRUS has posted their review
of Creative Labs 3D Blaster Savage4 card. Earlier today, news was going
around that Creative Labs is going to stop
producing the cards because of the recent S3/Diamond partnership. S3 will
no longer be providing chips to other manufacturers like Creative Labs.
However, S3 and Creative will still provide support and driver upgrades to the
Savage4, so if you do want to get one of these (for their great price), then you
shouldn't be afraid to.
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5-Way Ultra TNT2 Round-Up 8:57
PM EST - Email Us |
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Games.net has posted a round-up
of all the TNT2 Ultra cards currently available. If you're in the money and
wondering which card you should spend that money on, head over and check out
this comparison. Here is a bit from it:
So how does this batch of cards stack up? We gathered the
Ultra version of TNT2 cards from five board manufacturers: Asus, Creative
Labs, Diamond Multimedia, Guillemot, and Hercules. For the most part, these
Ultra versions have the boards clocked at a base 150MHz engine clock speed and
a 183MHz memory clock speed. (The exceptions are the Guillemot and the
Hercules cards, which have a 175MHz and 200MHz engine clock speed,
respectively.) All the cards come with active cooling fans to chill the chip.
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Gigabyte GA-BX2000 Mobo Review 5:41
PM EST - Email Us |
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Vince over at Extreme Hardware
has posted his review
of Gigabyte's GA-2000BX Slot-1 motherboard. This motherboard is very
decent being based on the i440BX, its different because its the first
motherboard to have 2 BIOS chips in case something goes wrong during BIOS
flashing.
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Super7 Video Card Comparison 5:37
PM EST - Email Us |
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Anand Tech has posted a comparison
between high end gaming video cards on the Super7 platform.
Unfortunately, Super7 systems are often left out when benchmarking video card
performance. Anand and the crew should be given a lot of credit for
posting an article with this much detail and information. Here is a bit
from the article:
With the conclusion of round one of the
comparison, NVIDIA has taken the overall lead due to 3dfx's poor performing
OpenGL ICD. Among the important points illustrated by the benchmarks,
one of the most important is that the clock speed of your graphics processor
increases in importance as the resolution of your games increase.
At 640 x 480 the TNT2, TNT2 Ultra, and overclocked TNT2 Ultra performed
virtually identical to one another, however at 1024 x 768 the differences grow
to 12% and 5% respectively. If you're debating as to whether or not a
Voodoo3 3000 is worth the added cost over a 2000, or whether the TNT2 Ultra is
all that much faster than a regular TNT2 for your Super7 system, ask yourself
this question, what resolutions do I plan on running at?
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Mitsubishi DP-A12 UPS Review 5:30
PM EST - Email Us |
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WickedPC has done a review
of Mitsubishi's DiamondPlus+ DP-A12 Uninteruptible Power Supply (UPS)
system. If you're running a server or a critical workstation, you should
definitely invest in a UPS system.
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Cambridge FPS2000 Review 5:15
PM EST - Email Us |
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Thresh's Firing Squad
has posted their review
of Cambridge Soundwork's Four Point Surround 2000 5-piece speaker set. If
you haven't heard by now, these speakers are awesome and there is currently
nothing better for PC surround sound/3D audio, especially for their price.
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New Hercules TNT/TNT2 Driver 5:11
PM EST - Email Us |
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Hercules has released
another new
driver for the Dynamite TNT/TNT2 (including Ultra) cards. These
drivers are based on Nvidia's 1.91 reference drivers. The great thing is
that these drivers have a built in overclocking utility and the drivers work on
every TNT/TNT2 card. Grab it below:
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Seagate Elite 47 HD Review 4:30
PM EST - Email Us |
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AGNHardware has posted a
review
of Seagate's Elite 47 hard drive. This 5400RPM SCSI hard drive will give
you 47GB of storage for a relatively low price and the performance isn't too
shabby either.
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Matrox G400 MAX Review 4:30
PM EST - Email Us |
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Tom's Hardware Guide has posted a
very long review
of Matrox's G400 MAX card. Head over and see what they had to say about
Matrox's new wonder chip.
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Leadtek S320 II Drivers & BIOS 4:24
PM EST - Email Us |
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I noticed over at AGNHardware
that Leadtek has released new drivers for
the Leadtek Winfast S320 II TNT2 cards. They have also released a new BIOS
update. Since there are too many files to post, choose an ftp server below
and download the files you need. (Win9X + the language file and the BIOS
if you like):
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Soyo SY-6VZA S370 Mobo Review 4:20
PM EST - Email Us |
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CRUS has posted their review
of Soyo's SY-6VZA Socket 370 motherboard which is based on the VIA Apollo Pro
chipset. This motherboard does come with a Creative Labs ES1373 PCI audio
chip, so it does seem like a decent motherboard for an office machine.
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AMD Interview @ SystemLogic 4:13
PM EST - Email Us |
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SystemLogic and
CTNews have conducted an interview
with AMD regarding their new Athlon (formerly K7) CPU. We all know
about the K7's features, so here is a question about pricing (what we really
care about!):
SL/CTNews: About the K7 (Athlon).
It seems to be on everyone's mind. Can you give us a price range for the K7's?
AMD: Here is the pricing for the
Athlon processor. All prices are for 1K units, so actual retail prices may
differ.
AMD Athlon 600 Mhz = $699
AMD Athlon 550 Mhz = $479
AMD Athlon 500 Mhz = $324
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Iwill ZB370 S370 Mobo Review 4:10
PM EST - Email Us |
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iXBT Hardware has posted a
review of Iwill's
ZB370 motherboard. This Baby AT Socket 370 board is based on Intel's
i440ZX chipset. Personally the Baby AT format feels a little too old for
me and troublesome, I don't know why they keep making it.
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Alpha P125 -> P3 Cooler Conversion 4:04
PM EST - Email Us |
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The guys over at the Tech Zone
have written an article
which explains how to convert an Alpha P125 cooler so that it fits on a Pentium
III. If you bought one of those awesome Alpha coolers you don't want it to
go to waste, do you? You can also check out their review of the Alpha P125
Cooler here.
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TB Montego II Quadzilla Review 3:47
PM EST - Email Us |
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3DSoundSurge has posted
their review
of Turtle Beach's Montego II Quadzilla sound card. This PCI card is based
on Aureal's Vortex2 chipset, which is probably one of the biggest reasons it
achieved a 9/10 score.
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Monday - June 28th
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AMD K6-III vs. Intel Pentium III 5:25
PM EST - Email Us |
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Gamespot UK has posted a 12
way comparison of computers which use the AMD
K6-III or the Intel Pentium III. If you
want to see where the two processors stand in comparison to each other, then
check out this article.
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Guillemot Xentor 32 BIOS Update 5:17
PM EST - Email Us |
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I noticed over at Riva3D
that Guillemot has released a new BIOS
for the Maxi Gamer Xentor 32 which fixes a lot of the problems which people have
been having. Here is the info and a link to download:
This new BIOS has been
developed to solve the incompatibility problem of some motherboards with Maxi
Gamer Xentor 32. The AGP 2.0 specification requires a power supply of 6A at
3.3 volts for the AGP port. Maxi Gamer Xentor 32 consumes up to 6A at 3.3
volts when running 3D games, but some motherboards fail to deliver more than
5A. As a result, the PC crashes in 3D games when the motherboard fails to
deliver sufficient power intensity to the Maxi Gamer Xentor 32 AGP port.
This new BIOS reduces the power consumption of the Maxi Gamer Xentor 32 board
such that these motherboards will be able to supply new intensity required by
Maxi Gamer Xentor 32. To update your Maxi Gamer Xentor 32 BIOS, please unzip
the BGX329X0513.ZIP file to a directory on your hard disk, switch to Real DOS
mode and run the program 5ABIOS.EXE.
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Guillemot Xentor TNT2 Review 5:17
PM EST - Email Us |
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AGNHardware
has posted their review
of Guillemot's Maxi Gamer Xentor card, which is based on Nvidia's TNT2 chip and
has 16 MB of RAM. If you're looking for the cheapest TNT2 card, this is
probably it. A great buy for people on a tight budget.
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OnStream SC-30 Digital Tape 5:14
PM EST - Email Us |
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More storage device reviews in your face, this time its in the
form of a 30GB removable digital tape. Hot
Hardware has done a review
of OnStream's SC-30 SCSI Digital Tape storage device. I hear its a lot
better than traditional tape backup, and a lot faster too.
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Maxtor 7200 RPM 2MB Cache HD 5:10
PM EST - Email Us |
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Right behind Storage
Reviews "cache matters" article, Maxtor
announced a brand new 7200 RPM hard drive to its line up. This drive
sports a 2MB cache! Here is a bit from the press
release:
MILPITAS, Calif. - June 28, 1999 - Maxtor Corporation (NASDAQ:MXTR)
today announced the DiamondMax Plus 6800 hard disk drive, the third generation
of its award-winning DiamondMax Plus product line. Bringing server-class
features to the desktop, this 6.8GB per disk product couples 7200 RPM
performance with the spectacular data throughput afforded by Maxtor's new
DualWave multi-processor controller. The combination of these features has
been shown to increase overall computer system performance by more than 20
percent over previous generation drives.
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Cache Size & Hard Drive Speed 5:05
PM EST - Email Us |
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Storage Review
has posted an article
which explains how much of a difference the cache size on a hard drive makes
when it comes to performance levels. A very good read, especially if you're
unsure about getting a drive with 512Kb, 1MB or 2MB of cache. In the
article they compare 2 identical Maxtor 7200 RPM drives, one with 512KB and the
other with 1MB cache.
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Guillemot Phoenix 2 Review 5:00
PM EST - Email Us |
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Sharky didn't stop
with just one review for the day, they have also posted a review
of Guillemot's Maxi Gamer Phoenix 2. This board is powered by Nvidia's
Vanta chip, which is in essence a scaled down TNT2 (somewhere around TNT1
level). If you're looking for decent office solutions, this may be a good
economical card to look at.
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EZLink USB Instant Network 4:58
PM EST - Email Us |
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Sharky Extreme has
posted a review
of Anchor Chips EZLink USB Instant Network. How the heck does this kit
work? Check it out:
Basically the premise behind the EZLink USB LAN kit is
simple. First, users install the kit's included software and drivers on both
of their PCs from the CD. Then they plug one end of the 16ft. EZLink's cable
into the host PC's USB port and the other into the first workstation's USB
port. After powering up both PCs the user now finds that they own a fully IPX/SPX,
TCP/IP, or NetBEUI-compatible network.
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Update Voodoo3 Tweak Guide 4:55
PM EST - Email Us |
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While I was over at the Tweak
Monkey's Place, I noticed that he has also updated his Voodoo3
Tweak Guide. If you're looking for tips to increase your V3's
performance, this is the place to get them.
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TB Montego II Quadzilla Review 4:52
PM EST - Email Us |
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Tweak3D has done a review
of Turtle Beach's Montego II Quadzilla audio card which is based on Aureal's
tried and proven Vortex2 chip. If you're looking for a good Vortex2 card
with 4 speaker support and some extras along the side, check out this review.
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AOpen AX6BC Pro Mobo Review 4:45
PM EST - Email Us |
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Thresh's Firing Squad
has posted a review
of AOpen's AX6BC Pro motherboard. This is a great motherboard and I'm feeling
like posting my own little blab here.
This is a unique time in PC history. For the first time,
motherboard manufacturers actually have the time on their hands to sit down and
really design a good motherboard. In the past there has never been a
motherboard that does it all, but now there are so many showing up! The
reason for this is because of the big gap in processor chipset releases.
The i440BX chipset (which is a very good one I might add) has been around for a
very long time now and the engineers have become familiar with it inside out,
which is why were seeing great boards like the AX6BC Pro, Soyo 6BA+III, Abit BX6
R2 and the MSI MS-6163. Hopefully this trend continues and manufacturers
realize how much a GOOD motherboard really means to us. I think I'm going to
shed some tears ;~)
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Matrox Millennium G400 Review 4:41
PM EST - Email Us |
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CGO has posted their review
of Matrox's Millennium G400 card. They gave it a score of 4/5, and for all
its new and innovative features it definitely deserves that score. Head
over and see if the G400 suits your needs.
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Seagate Barracuda 50GB HD Review 4:38
PM EST - Email Us |
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Planet Hardware has
posted a review
of Seagate's huge 50.1GB Barracuda Ultra2 SCSI hard drive. I can't imagine
what I would do with 50GB, but it sure would be nice! Here is a bit from
the review:
The Seagate Barracuda50 is one of Seagate's largest density
offerings in the workstation market. The drive itself is a 50GB drive,
spinning at 7200RPM, has a 7.4ms seek time, and a 1MB buffer. The drive
utilizes the Ultra2 SCSI LVD interface, which allows for up to 80 MB/s maximum
throughput. All of these features are somewhat standard for the 7200 RPM SCSI
drive market, but what makes this drive standout against the competition is
its large density. Seagate offers the ONLY 50GB SCSI drive on the market, with
the closest competitors being down at the 36GB level. I believe that this
density is reached through an 8-platter design, with each platter containing
6.26GB.
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Nvidia Ultra TNT2 Round-Up 4:34
PM EST - Email Us |
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The Review Zone has
posted a round-up
of some of the fastest 3D cards around. They compare the Diamond V770
Ultra, 3D Blaster TNT2 Ultra, Hercules Dynamite TNT2 Ultra, ASUS V3800 Ultra
Deluxe and the Guillemot Maxi Gamer Xentor32 all side by side. Head over
and check out which one came out on top.
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Soyo SY-6BA+III Mobo Review 4:29
PM EST - Email Us |
|
Kyle over at HardOCP
has posted his review of Soyo's new kick
ass motherboard, the SY-6BA+III. This thing has become the best
motherboard for overclocking with its numerous tools and tweaks, but it also
performs extremely well and is very stable. This says it all:
The real prize is in the 6BA+III's ability to
become the KING of the OverClocking Court. The stability that this board
has shown with multiple DIMMs stands second to none. It has been a long
time since I had a non-ABIT board in my personal box, but I tell you
what.......the SOYO 6BA+III fit in there just fine. I hope to see more
competition in the field soon.
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SysOp's Liquid Cooling System 4:24
PM EST - Email Us |
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SysOp Solutions has
posted an article
on liquid cooling a Pentium III 450MHz. This article is very detailed and
quite interesting, but I doubt very many of you will actually want to try liquid
cooling :) especially not without a backup computer.
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Sunday - June 27th
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TNT/TNT2 Reference Drivers 2.03 7:50
PM EST - Email Us |
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I don't know how they do it, but those guys at D128
keep posting the latest TNT/TNT2 reference drivers and I'm loving them for it! Today the have posted
version 2.03 of the reference drivers for both Windows 9X and NT. Note,
the NT drivers still do not work with Windows 2000 though. With that said,
grab them below:
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New Poll Question 4:45
PM EST - Email Us |
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Thanks to everyone who participated in the last poll. Not
surprisingly, it seems that the Diamond Viper V770 is the most popular card,
followed closely by the ASUS V3800 and the Voodoo3! :) Anyway, I'm going
to start archiving the results and you
can find them by clicking poll archive link at the bottom of the poll.
I've also created a new poll question, so start voting!
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Ultra TNT2 vs. PVR Neon 250 4:23
PM EST - Email Us |
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Beyond3D has posted a short
performance/image quality comparison between an Ultra TNT2 card and PowerVR's
Neon 250 card. Check it out here.
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CL 12 MB Voodoo2 For $49.99 4:15
PM EST - Email Us |
|
I noticed over at Voodoo
eXtreme that Creative
Labs is selling refurbished 12MB Voodoo2's for $49.99. Looks like an
awesome deal, here is what it comes with:
These special kits include:
- A 12MB 3D Blaster Voodoo2
- A registration card
- An installation leaflet
- SLI and pass-through cables
- A driver installation CD
- G-Police, Ultimate Race Pro
and Incoming
…in other words, everything you'd get in the retail
version, except for the fancy outer box. This special refurbished version
includes a one-year limited hardware warranty.
Order
today before the supply runs out!
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Acer Travelmate 330T Review 4:08
PM EST - Email Us |
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Wilfred over at Hardware-One
has notified us that they have posted a review
of Acer's Travelmate 330T subnotebook. If you're looking for a cheap
notebook that still does the job quite well, head over and check out the review.
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Optimizing VCache's ChunkSize 4:04
PM EST - Email Us |
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Adrian over at Adrian's
Rojak Pot has notified us that he has posted an article
which explains how to optimize Windows 98's VCache ChunkSize. Great
information if you want to fine tune your Windows 98 performance. Here is
a bit about what the chunksize is:
But what exactly is chunksize and what has it got to do with
the disk cache? Well, to organize the data stored in the cache, the RAM used
for the cache is divided into smaller units, just like hard disk space. Each
of these units or chunks of cache are now like containers in which Win98 can
store cached data. The size of each chunk is the chunksize of
the disk cache. Like the dimensions of a container, it limits the amount of
data that each chunk can store. So, the smaller the chunksize, the less data
can be stored in each but there will be consequently more chunks per MB of
cache. But what's the significance of this fact?
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Power Conditioning Article 4:00
PM EST - Email Us |
|
Do you have one heck of an expensive machine and you want to
protect it from those nasty power surges? Dan's
Data has written an article
on a subject that is often overlooked, power conditioning. Here is an
interesting tidbit from the article:
Spikes are the real nasties. A spike is a brief
increase in the supply voltage - less than 2.5 seconds, often a lot less. For
a fraction of a second, a spike can easily subject your equipment to several
hundred volts. If this doesn’t blow something up outright, it can
progressively damage power supply and other components. So, after a few (or a
few hundred) more spikes and surges, your PC dies, for no obvious reason. You
may lose a power supply or modem; you may lose your motherboard; you may even
lose your hard drive and everything on it.
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Saturday - June 26th
|
Chaintech 6AIA S370 Mobo Review 5:32
PM EST - Email Us |
|
Anand Tech has posted a review
of Chaintech's 6AIA microATX Socket370 motherboard which is based on VIA's
Apollo Pro Plus chipset. This is the first Socket 370 motherboard I've
seen based on this chipset and it seems to be a very stable board but not up to
par on performance.
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Skywell Magic TNT2 Review @ SE 12:36
PM EST - Email Us |
|
Sharky Extreme has
done a review
of Skywell's Magic TNT2 card. Not too bad of a card if you can find it
anywhere. It does have a fan, overclocks pretty well, has 32MB 7ns SGRAM
and has TV-Out, all at a pretty good price.
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3DLabs Permedia 3 Benchmarks 12:33
PM EST - Email Us |
|
SystemLogic has posted some benchmarks
using 3DLab's Permedia3 card. Apparently it doesn't perform too well
which is kind of disappointing, but then again, this card isn't really aimed at
gamers.
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AMD Athlon (K7) Benchmarks 10:00
AM EST - Email Us |
|
I also noticed over at JC's PC News, that AMD
has posted those SPECint, SPECfp and 3D WinBench benchmarks on their
site. Check them out here
if you haven't already seem them. By the way, those graphs are way out of
proportion, but its a good marketing trick.
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Celeron SMP Capability To be Crippled? 9:55
AM EST - Email Us |
|
JC's PC News has posted
what may be some very bad news. I hope this isn't true, check it out:
Take it as you will: A friend from Taiwan has a friend who
knows somebody at Intel.... Anyway, this is probably worth listening to. For
any of you that are planning to get ultracheap SMP via dual Celerons, you
might want to buy those parts ASAP: "Intel said that they have
already started to disable the AN15 pin that allows Dual Celerons to be used
(when it is supplied with 1.5v). The story is that Intel sort of hinted that
the Abit BP-6 motherboard with Dual Socket 370's was too much for them to
handle so they decided to cut them off at the balls". Ouch!
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Win An Ultra TNT2 Card! 9:53
AM EST - Email Us |
|
AbsolutePC is giving
away a Guillemot Maxi Gamer Xentor 32 Ultra TNT2 card. Head over and enter
the contest to win.
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Riva TNT3/NV10 Preview 9:50
AM EST - Email Us |
|
KAC Hardware has posted
a
preview
of NVidia's Riva TNT3/NV10 next generation 3D accelerator. There is some
very interesting information in this article, but keep in mind, almost all of it
is speculation and may not represent the final product when its released.
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Abit BP6 Dual S370 Mobo Review 9:20
AM EST - Email Us |
|
The very lucky guys at Thresh's
Firing Squad have had the opportunity to review
Abit's new BP6 motherboard. So far this is the only motherboard which has
dual Socket 370 support as well as Ultra ATA/66 support. It doesn't stop
there, this board has tons of features for overclocking, check out this bit:
We tested overclocking on the BP6 with 2 Celeron 433 PPGAs.
One of them wouldn't overclock at all with a standard motherboard, while the
other achieved 488MHz (6.5 x 75MHz) with little problem. Using the BP6's 72MHz
intermediate, we were able to get the dual system booting at a respectable
468MHz. It's amazing to think that the most versatile overclocking motherboard
available is not just a Socket-370 board, but a DUAL Socket-370 motherboard!
Kudos to Abit for taking the Celeron seriously and treating it like the
high-performance chip Intel doesn't want us to see.
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1 GHz With No Special Cooling 9:20
AM EST - Email Us |
|
David over at SystemLogic
has pointed out an article
over at ZDNet which states that chipmaker Alpha, was showing off their 1GHz
21264 processor at PC Expo 99. Here is a bit from the article:
Alpha is on the PC Expo floor this week showing off its
achievement: One of its 64-bit, 21264 processor chips is running at 1 GHz. At
room temperature. No refrigerators, freezers, air conditioners, ice cubes or
liquid-bearing cooling tubes. Just some fans on the processor and a
well-vented tower box. The screen attached to the 1GHz computer was running a
program that shows just how fast it's doing its thing. Sure enough, the number
was constantly changing from something like 0.98765 GHz to 1.01234 GHz.
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TennMax Cooler Reviews 9:20
AM EST - Email Us |
|
P3D has posted a review
of TennMax's Detonator TNT/TNT2 fan and the Viva TF P2 Cooler. The TNT Detonator
fan seems to really help with overclocking, I might get one myself.
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Friday - June 25th
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3D Blaster TNT2 Ultra Driver 5:16
PM EST - Email Us |
|
Creative Labs has released a
new driver for the 3D Blaster Riva TNT2 Ultra card. Here is a the info and
a link as usual:
- Solves intermittent system lockups during soft reboot or
reinstallation of drivers
- Also solves system lockups when using applications such
as Creative Digital Audio Center
- 3D
Blaster TNT2 Ultra Driver (Win9X - 2.9 MB)
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Huge Viper V770 Ultra Review @EH 5:10
PM EST - Email Us |
|
Michael over at Extreme
Hardware has posted a huge 18-page review
of Diamond's Viper V770 Ultra TNT2 card. Here is a bit from it:
Of all the TNT2 Ultra boards available, I would
venture to say the Viper V770 Ultra is the best mainstream board. Offering
stable drivers and an excellent game bundle, the Viper maximizes the
out-of-the-box experience. Compared to other TNT2 Ultra cards, the Viper may
be slightly slower, but its real benefit is found in its software bundle. If
you've played the games in the bundle or if you are not interested in them,
the Viper V770 Ultra is probably not your best TNT2 Ultra choice. On the other
hand, if the games appeal to you, they make the $200 price tag on the Viper
much easier to swallow.
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Triple Fan HDD Cooler Review 4:48
PM EST - Email Us |
|
Our buddies over at FPS3D have
posted a review of 3DCool's
Triple Fan Hard Drive Cooling kit. Looks like some major hard drive
cooling power, head over and check it out if you have a 7200+ RPM drive.
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New S3 Savage4 Drivers 4:36
PM EST - Email Us |
|
Savage World has gotten hold of some new
reference drivers for cards based on the S3 Savage4 chip. Grab them below:
|
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ELSA ERAZOR III TNT2 Review 4:31
PM EST - Email Us |
|
Riva Extreme has posted
their review of ELSA's
Erazor III TNT2 card. They basically felt the same way as we did.
It's a decent card but nothing sets it apart from the crowd.
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New Voodoo1 & Voodoo2 Drivers 4:17
PM EST - Email Us |
|
3dfx has released some new
release candidate reference drivers for the Voodoo1 & Voodoo2 cards.
They most likely have more Quake III fixes, grab them below:
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Cyborg Stick 2000 Review 4:15
PM EST - Email Us |
|
AGNHardware has posted a
review
of the funky looking and futuristic looking Cyborg Stick 2000 game
controller. Here is what they thought of this controller:
For a budget stick that is heavy on usability, the Cyborg
Stick 2000 is un-stoppable. It is the only solution for left handed
consumers and crams in enough adjustability and comfort to easily become the
favorite for both left and right handed users. We would have liked to
see more buttons, but Saitek does offer a more fully featured version of stick
for more money. For the price and adjustability, this stick wipes the
competition in the budget market. There simply is no better controller
for $30 or less.
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Onstream SC-50 Digital Storage 4:09
PM EST - Email Us |
|
Anand Tech has done a review
of Onstream's SC-50 Digital Storage drive. I don't know what the heck
anyone would do with 50GB of removable storage but hey, the bigger the
better! And its not too much of a slow poke either.
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Abit BP6 Specs & Info 4:07
PM EST - Email Us |
|
Looking for some information on the new dual Socket 370 board w/
Ultra ATA/66 support from Abit, well the Overclocker's
Workbench has some information for you, head over and check
it out. This board looks like its going to be awesome.
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Removing a Pentium III Heatsink 4:00
PM EST - Email Us |
|
The Sysop's Guide has
posted a guide
on removing the Pentium III's outer casing and heatsink so that you can install
one of your own and get some superior cooling action going on.
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ASUS V3800 BIOS Updates 3:55
PM EST - Email Us |
|
ASUS has released new bios
updates for its V3800 TNT2 cards. Grab them below:
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Thursday - June 24th
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Cambridge FPS2000 Speaker Review 10:25
PM EST - Email Us |
|
The Review Zone has
posted their review
of Cambridge Soundwords (Creative Labs) Four Point Surround 2000 5-piece speaker
system. There's not much we can say about these speakers, other than they
ROCK! Check out this bit:
Apart from the low-quality speaker stands and a
little drop in audio quality at very high frequencies, there is really little
to complain about with these speakers. With excellent 3D sound positioning
capabilities based on four speakers rather than two front speakers trying to
emulate it, and introducing a digital interface, these speakers are definitely
a very, very good buy! I strongly recommend the FPS 2000 for gamers and to
anyone else wanting good sound and a bit of gaming for a low price.
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ASUS P2B-F Slot-1 Mobo Review 10:22
PM EST - Email Us |
|
The Sanctum has posted a review
of ASUS's new P2B-F motherboard. This board is a refinement of the
very stable P2B board. It now has 5 PCI slots, a bunch of FSB settings and
some other cool features. The only problem is that ASUS boards cost too
much.
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MS DSS 80 Speaker Set Review 10:18
PM EST - Email Us |
|
Haven't seen one of these for a while! 3DGaming
has posted their review
of Microsoft's pretty cool looking Digital Sound System 80 3-piece speaker
system. This system also has a USB connection for digital audio.
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EPoX EP-BX3 Slot-1 Mobo Review 10:16
PM EST - Email Us |
|
The High
Performance PC Guide has done a review
of EPoX's EP-BX3 Slot-1 motherboard which is based on the very popular (and
proven) i440BX AGPset. Seems like a good board, but then again which 3rd
generation BX board isn't?
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AMD K7 (Athlon) Pricing 10:08
PM EST - Email Us |
|
Wondering how much the K7 will cost ya? Well, here is some
pricing info from the press
release:
The 600-MHz AMD Athlon processor is priced at $699, the
550-MHz AMD Athlon is priced at $479, and the 500-MHz AMD Athlon is priced at
$324, each in 1,000-unit quantities. End-user systems based on the AMD Athlon
processor are planned to be available in Q3.
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Unlocking A CPU's Clock Multiplier 10:03
PM EST - Email Us |
|
Hardware Central has
posted the first
part of a series of articles which explains how to remove the clock
multiplier locking circuit from your CPU so you are no longer limited to FSB
speeds alone when overclocking. Pretty interesting stuff, head over and check
it out.
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ELSA 3D Revelator Review 9:56
PM EST - Email Us |
|
PC Paradox has posted
their review
of ELSA's very nice 3D Revelator LCD glasses. These things really do make
games feel real, and believe me, I've tried them! The only downside is no
OpenGL support and you need an ELSA video card.
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AOpen PA3010 TNT2 News 9:53
PM EST - Email Us |
|
SystemLogic
got some feedback from AOpen about the review
of the PA3010 TNT2 card. Here is the info from an AOpen rep, sounds pretty
good:
I have read all of it. Thanks for the good
review efforts for PA3010 being the fastest card reviewed with overclock
160/160. Not just in U.S., a Korea's BBS reported Aopen PA3010 was the fastest
card in the Korea.
I believe we will beat all the competitors on
the performance.
1. The sample you sent to David is the first
lot of production, there is only quick installation guide in it. After the 2nd
production in beginning of May, there are both quick installation guide and
user's guide insite PA3010-A. If possible, can you mail one piece of the
manual to David, which tells how to put the card into a box as well as how to
use the PA3010 utility.
2. After we produced the first lot of PA3010-A
card, we have phased in -6ns DRAM from beginning of May so it will be
able to overclock more than -7ns DRAM.
3. Starting from this week, we set the default
clock now to 125MHz/core, 160MHz/memory clock. Given widely feedback of the
leading performance on PA3010, I believe it is a safe and winning mode. The
PA3020 will be set at 150MHz/core, 190MHz/memory for default.
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3-Way Hard Drive Round-up 9:52
PM EST - Email Us |
|
The Upgrade Center has
posted a round-up
of 3 pretty common and affordable IDE hard drives. If you're looking for
the best performance out of an affordable hard drive, head over and check out
this comparison.
|
|
ASUS V3400/V3800 Beta Drivers 3:58
PM EST - Email Us |
|
ASUS
has released a bunch of new drivers for their
V3400/V3800 TNT/2 cards. They are probably based on NVidia's 1.91 reference
driver. Here is the info and a links to download:
- AMD K6-2 / K6-III - 3DNOW! Support for OpenGL
- Intel Pentium III
- KNI Support for OpenGL
- New OSD (better D3D & Stereoscope performance & effects)
- Live: Faster Capture Support with better quality
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AMD Expects 2nd Quarter Loss 3:58
PM EST - Email Us |
|
This doesn't come as much of a surprise, AMD
is fearing a huge second quarter loss of around $200 million dollars. Read
the full story in this article
from CNN.
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|
Alpha P125 Cooler Review 3:54
PM EST - Email Us |
|
The Tech Zone has posted
their review
of Alpha's unique P125 Pentium II/Celeron cooling device. From what I
hear, this huge thing cools very well.
|
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