Nog zo'n handig Celeron overclocking artikel, ditmaal van PCPowerhouse.

Veel stuff over koeling en heatsinks:

Cooling the CPU does help in both reducing the temperature of the CPU and in allowing you to reduce the voltage needed to run at such high clock speeds. I have read where people using quality heatsinks and fans have been able to run at 464Mhz and 504Mhz with voltages of 2.2v, 2.1v, 2.05v and 2.0v without any crashes by doing this.

     With so many different heatsinks and fans on the market what should you use, and who sells such things? Ok I have looked high and low, searched newsgroups and discussion boards, and this is what I've found out so far...

CPU Central heeft wat info over Abit's Slotket, een riser kaart waarmee je Socket370 CPU's op een Slot1 plank kunt draaien:

In order to provide the most flexibility and options for the end user, ABIT has developed the Slot 1 to Socket 370 Slotket adapter card. The Slotket card is an adapter for use with Slot 1 motherboards that will allow the use of a Socket 370 CPU.

ABIT's engineer team has worked long and hard to figure a simple solution for the end-user confronted with different architectures and CPUs. The Slotket uses the same high quality engineering that you would expect from the makers of some of the most famous motherboards in the world. With this winning combination from ABIT you can purchase among Slot 1 Pentium CPU's, Slot 1 Celeron CPU's and PPGA Celeron CPU's. Now you can buy an ABIT motherboard with confidence knowing that you can definitely use the widest variety of CPU's on the market!

Why the name Slotket? If you take a "slot" and a "socket" you get a "Slotket"!

Where can you get one? Starting in January, ABIT will be including a Slotket in every LX6 they ship. Just look for the Slotket sticker on the package!

Zo hebben ook een fotootje van het ding.

Nog wat info van The Register, over de release van de K6-3:

First details of the performance of the AMD K6-3 (Sharptooth) have emerged with a review appearing on the World Wide Web.

A review on Sharky Extreme claimed that the 400MHz part, which ships in February of 1998, only needed a BIOS update to run successfully on K6-2 motherboards.

The review added that the product “now shines” as a chip for the gaming market.

Rana Mainee, European director of market research at AMD, said that samples of the K6-3 were now out with major OEMs and that it would achieve volume in the middle of Q1 1999.

He said: “Sharptooth will be head to head with Katmai (the Pentium III).”

While he refused to discuss pricing, he said that AMD will pitch it below its Katmai offerings, which will be introduced late February 1999.

Valt me trouwens op dat bij Sharky's benchmarks het verschil tussen K6-3 en PII veel kleiner is dan bij Anand's benchmarks.

Een onwaarschijnlijke creativiteit heeft dat volk bij Intel, want de Katmai gaat zeer waarschijnlijk 'Pentium III' heten. Wanneer gaat Intel ons nou nou eindelijk es effe verlossen van de naam 'Pentium'!? (begint een beetje te vervelen na 5 jaar).

The Register heeft info:

ntel will use the Superbowl game in mid-January to introduce its Katmai chip to a waiting universe and will call it Pentium III, it has emerged.

One year ago, The Register said that Katmai would be called the Pentium III. (Story:Intel to slash PII prices next month)

US magazine Advertising Age leaked the details earlier this week.

Last week, The Register published a story saying there was some internal discussion about whether to drop the Pentium III name in favour of another.

An Intel representative said today he could neither confirm nor deny that Katmai will be the Pentium III, nor whether the Superbowl would be the venue.

Ik zag op BXBoards ook nog wat stuff over de beschikbaarheid van Slot1 C300A's nu deze vervangen zullen worden door Socket370 exemplaren (en Socket 370 suckt):

r John over at our sponsor Kickassgear posted a bit of news to say that the Celeron 300A supply is still holding strong. Here is the info:

We have been keeping an eye on the supply of Celeron 300A processors at our distributors, and so far, the 300A is still in good supply. However, we do not see the supply being replaced. This suggests that when the current batch sitting in warehouses is shipped, they will be replaced with the 370 pin variety of Celeron. We anticipate that based upon the numbers of processors remaining at our distributors, that the Slot-1 Celeron A will be available through much of January, unless holiday sales diminish the stockpiles more rapidly. The good news is that the early released versions of the 370 pin Celerons can still be run with a Front Side Bus setting of 100MHz. This is not too surprising, since their overclockability has always been their best selling point. Thanks Intel!

The Register heeft wat info over de toekomstige Socket370 Celerons van Intel. Wel of niet 100Mhz FSB? Intel schijnt het zelf ook nog niet te weten:

Intel said today that reports it was producing 366MHz and 400MHz Celerons with Front Side Bus speeds of 100MHz were spurious.

As reported here last week, that doesn't mean that Intel will not produce 100MHz FSB Celerons. Both AMD and Intel have collided over Front Side Buses recently. (Story: AMD, Intel locked in bus war)

It's just that Intel has not made its mind up yet. A representative said: "Let's speculate accurately out there, guys.."

He added that the leak of ZD Net US "was up to its usual standard of accuracy".

Again, as revealed here much earlier, some Katmai products will have a 133MHz FSB but Intel is worried that if it produces a 100MHz Celeron, it will make ordinary people think twice about paying more for a Pentium II.

Hardware Extreme (met geript van design van Tomshardware en BXBoards (=mijn design)) heeft een paar benchmarks weten te bemachtigen van AMD's K7 en Intel's Katmai.

Hier wat informatief spul:

So far I only have Wintune 98 scores due to time constrains. Please note that the K7 is not in my lab ! The results come from one of my contact overseas which has close relations with AMD. Our systems are configured identically except for the motherboard, RAM, soundcard and CD-ROM Drives. Hard disk drives and video cards are identical.

Based on the Wintune 98 scores (for now), the K7 seems to have an edge over the Katmai especially on the Integer section. I can't confirm this but it's most problary due to the 128K of L1 cache. The FPU also shows some cool scores. Guess it's because of the fully pipelined FPU.

I will be discussing with my contact tonight to continue with the Business Winstone and 3D Winmark scores. For the BH6 owners who are eager to see how the BH6 can perform instead of the ASUS P2B, I will benchmark again after I recieve my BH6 from ABIT. Remember, I can't answer questions on the K7 as it's not here but if you want to see some pics, you can check them at http://www.tomshardware.com/.

De rest staat hier.

Hardware Central heeft een review van de Hercules Dynamite TNT.

Hier wat stuff over de overklokbaarheid van de Dynamite TNT:

Memory

Unlike overclocking a CPU, the contingency of overclocking the memory speed is based on the quality of the SDRAM. In the case of the Dynamite TNT, the quality of the SDRAM is quite high. In 2D running at a fairly standard 1024x768 with an 85Hz refresh, we were able to get the memory speed extremely high. With the STB Velocity, artifacts were observed (2D same setup as with the Dynamite) at any clock speed higher than 120Mhz. However, with the Dynamite TNT in 2D mode, we were able to run at 133Mhz (the max that PowerStrip would allow) without any observed artifacts. However, in Unreal, the highest stable clock speed that we could run at was 125Mhz.

Core

Overclocking the core clock speed of the chip depends on how well the chip is cooled as well as the quality of the chip. With the Hercules Dynamite TNT that we tested, we were able to overclock about 10%, the same as with the STB Velocity 4400. However, the temperature of the Hercules Dynamite TNT was much lower than that of the Velocity when it was overclocked. The maximum that we were able to overclock the Dynamite core clock speed to was 100Mhz. When we tested it at any higher clock speeds, the system hung.

AGN Hardware heeft btw ook een review van deze TNT kaart, die kun je hiero bekijken.

Geen reclame hoor, maar Intercom Mailorder heeft de Dynamite TNT voor FL299,-. Dat is tot dusver de laagste prijs die ik voor een TNT plaat gezien heb.

Eindelijk weer een nieuwe driver voor NT om die meesterlijke geluidskaart aan het werk te zetten

Sound Blaster Live! driver update for Windows NT4.0 (English language) SBL-NTWEB-1-US (Revision 3) Note: the Sound Blaster Live! or Live! Value drivers and applications must be installed first, before installing this update. This update adds the following features: * Dual-processor support * Additional effect: Frequency Shifter * Live!Surround * Auditioning of Environmental Audio settings * 32 DirectSound 3D Streams

Ook als je slechts een enkele CPU in je bakkie hebt zou ik het toch downloaden. hij installeert veel netter dan de november 3rd drivers.

haal ze hier: SBLive! Drivers voor NT4 22 Dec. 1998

Kleine kanttekening: zorg ervoor dat je je TEMP folder geschoond hebt, daar zou ie nog wel eens over kunnen vallen. Verder lijkt ie prima te zijn.

Ondanks eerdere berichten van ik meen 3Dzone zijn er helaas nog geen nieuwe drivers voor de TNT Videokaart, maar wie weet.

Ook Sharky Extreme heeft een review van AMD's K6-3.

Hier wat stuff over de performance van de K6-3 ten opzichte van Intel's Katmai:

One area in comparing the Intel Katmai CPUs and the AMD K6-3 CPUs that really is no comparison concerns their expected prices. Most industry analysts believe that the high end Katmai, the 500MHz variant, will debut in late February at a price point somewhere between $700 and $760. The slower 450MHz Katmai CPU is expected to debut on the same day as its faster partner, albeit with less cost, somewhere between approximately $525 and $600.

The AMD K6-3 400 CPU we tested for this article is expected to debut at the price we listed above, which is between $325 and $375. The higher speed K6-3 450 if able to be produced in the necessary yields, is estimated to cost between $425 and $500 at the time of its introduction.

Now we're no rocket scientists here at SharkyExtreme, that much is certain. But even we can do the simple math here and determine that the K6-3 400 and 450 CPUs will offer a strong price advantage over the Katmai CPUs, and will offer a comparative level of performance in both the gaming and business environment at that time provided that 3DNow! support is implemented in the apps.

When titles and applications debut that directly support the KNI instruction set, it's possible that the Intel Katmai CPUs could establish a higher level of performance that only the upcoming AMD K7 CPU could compete with or possibly exceed. Without having a hands-on look at the Katmai, along with applications that are KNI-enabled, we have no way of knowing at this time if that will be the case.

BXBoard newshound Sniffer heeft een review van ComputerNerd's BCool ER heatsink/fan combo.
Hier wat overklok resultaten met C266 en C300A:

In an effort to provide a comprehensible comparison between the 266 and 300A Celeron's I chose to benchmark with the following Bus/CPU speeds. (remember, the bus speed multipliers are locked for the Celeron's, the 266 @ x4 and 300A @ x4.5)

Celeron 266 at 4 x 103 (turbo), CPU 412mhz @ 1.95v: I believe this is probably the most commonly used speed for the majority of Celeron 266 overclockers, therefore providing a base speed to compare with when looking at the performance gain expected between the 266 and 300A.

Celeron 266 at 4 x 112, CPU 448mhz @ 2.05v: While this speed is limited to a minority of Celeron 266 users it will give a good idea as to what gain can be expected from the 128k built in L2 cache of the 300A when operating it at 450.

Celeron 300A at 4.5 x 100, CPU 450mhz @ 2.05v: Like I just said. This speed should be the best for comparing the gain when using the 300A's 128k L2 cache.

Celeron 300A at 4.5 x 103, CPU 464mhz @ 2.05v: Although I don't yet have all the #'s for this speed I've posted some to give an idea of the aproximate performance level that is guaranteed by Computer Nerd when you purchase one of their many packages.

Celeron 300A at 4.5 x 112, CPU 504mhz @ 2.20v: Certainly this bus/CPU speed will only be attainable buy a lucky minority as with the 266@448. But because I can, I did want to give an idea of the far reaching possibilities, gains and differences between running a 266 and 300A on the 112mhz bus.

Ik zag op Coolinfo nog wat spul over het prijzbeleid van Intel:

Intel told PC makers yesterday that it will slash the prices of new and existing Celeron chips to within a hairsbreadth of rival AMD's K6-2, according to a source briefed by the company. "The big news is that Intel is serious about Celeron because they're actually dropping the most popular processors in the line to at or below that of the K6," said the source. While AMD officials weren't available to discuss possible retaliatory moves, it has maintained a policy of pricing 25 percent below Intel, and accordingly, could cut prices below Intel's by January.

Intel, as reported on CRWi last week, will introduce 366MHz and 400MHz Celerons on Jan. 4. Early introduction of the 400MHz Celeron represented an acceleration of Intel's timetable for the chip and suggested the company was becoming more serious about the low-end PC market, which is dominating sales this holiday season. According to the source, the price of the Celeron 400MHz chip will be between $150 and $160, depending on which form factor of the chip PC makers use for their motherboard designs. In a roadmap shown to CRW in November, the Celeron 400MHz was expected to be introduced at around $190.

Intel gaat binnenkort een nieuwe quad Xeon launchen:

Intel will make a big push into the server market when it launches its new 450-MHz Pentium II Xeon processor for four-way servers, which sources said is scheduled for Jan. 5. The new high-end Xeon chip follows the October release of Intel's 450-MHz Xeon for dual-processor workstations. Intel, based in Santa Clara, Calif., will offer the new chip with either 1 megabyte or 2 MBs of cache, sources said. Previous processors in the Xeon line contained either 512 kilobytes or 1 MB of cache. Tim Wenhold, president of Sintaks, a Canon USA company based in Bridgeport, Pa., said the new processor is needed. "I think it will rejuvenate the server market," he said.

Customers who want systems that can take advantage of multiprocessing capability will be very interested in the chip, he said. "If the Xeon is out there and can do multiple processors, for people who are looking to do thin client as well as heavy NT servers and even Novell this will be something to look at," he said. Audra Menuey, president of M.A.T. Microsystems, a solutions provider based in Long Beach, Calif., said the four-way Xeon processor provides a lot more flexibility and gives clients "an upgrade path."

"By giving the capability of four CPUs, they can start with one, and as their business grows and their needs grow, they just add as they go along. This is huge for the client because in our business philosophy, we don't sell them more than they need, but we always give them an upgrade path," she said. "I think there's quite a bit of pent-up demand there already," Jim Garden, analyst at Technology Business Research in Hampton, N.H., said of the new Xeon chip. "That large cache size is very important in server applications."

Intel will launch the new Xeon a day after releasing two new versions of its lower-priced Celeron processor, sources said. The chips, targeted at the sub-$1,200 PC market, will operate at clock speeds of 366 MHz and 400 MHz.

Sharky Extreme heeft een review van Tombraider III.

Dit keer geen goedkope grappen over Lara's hervormde voorgevel. Nee, hier wat info over waarom het leuk is om rond te wandelen met Lara:

Control - maybe it's fun to have an out-of-your-league woman at your fingertips. The virtual girlfriend games and those remarkably lifelike mannequins (complete with made-to-order body parts) could lead one to think that real girlfriends are on the way out. Lara doesn't want you to go shopping or take out the trash. You don't have to guess why she is upset, she doesn't want to 'talk' and she will never tell you to stop playing with your damn computer. She is also disease free.

Roll Model - These games are very popular with girls/women. Imagine being an avid gamer. Now imagine being female. Now realize that, until Lara came along, you have probably never played a game where the central character was strong, intelligent and had the same plumbing that you have (Ms. Pac Man does NOT count!).

Cross Dressing - OK so this is a stretch, but why not? Women can wear men's clothes and nobody gives a hoot but have a fellow slide on a pair of lacy panties and you'd think the world was coming to an end!

Protection - Lara kind of grows on you. After several hours of play, when you get her moving pretty well and she no longer looks like an idiot, you get a little protective and don't really want to watch her get beaned by some thug with a spiked 2 x 4.

Ook Quantum gaat eindelijk 7200rpm harddisks produceren en wel met de nieuwe Ultra ATA/66 standaard.

Hier wat info uit de press release:

Fireball Plus KA is a 7200 RPM Ultra ATA/66 HDD, in capacities ranging from 6.4GB to 18.2GB, that combines Quantum's fastest desktop performance with all of Quantum's reliability innovations including the award winning Shock Protection System (SPS™) and the new Data Protection System (DPS).

The Quantum Data Protection System quickly and easily determines Quantum hard drive functionality in PCs that exhibit system failure.

[blablabla]

Fireball Plus KA is available in capacities of 6.4 up to 18.2 GB and features magnetoresistive (MR) heads and 8.5 millisecond (ms) average seek time for fast throughput. Sohn said, "Fireball Plus KA offers workstation HDD performance for desktop systems with innovations like SPS, and now DPS, that surpass customer expectations for quality and reliability."

Pricing and Availability

Quantum's Fireball Plus KA is backed by a three-year limited warranty. Fireball Plus KA drives are available for customer evaluation with full volume availability in late first quarter 1999. Estimated retail pricing for the 18.2 GB is 399.00

Die groende doos van Apple is nog steeds erg populair. Best Buy ging 'm verkopen onder de verkoopprijs maar dat vond ome Steve niet fijn, aldus dit artikel van The Register:

US retailer Best Buy's attempts to bring iMac prices down to between $1099 and $999 (see today's story iMac top-selling PC in US) appear to have incurred the wrath of Apple.

According to "retailer sources" cited by Mac Web site MacOS Rumors, all Best Buy stores should have re-priced their iMacs back up to $1279, though they will now come with a bundled scanner by tomorrow.

The move was made following aggressive negotiations over the weekend between Cupertino and Best Buy.

The same sources also claim Best Buy was losing "hundreds" of dollars on every machine sold, even those offered at $1099, just $200 below the recommended price.

The Register heeft wat info over de roadmap van Cyrix:

NatSemi subsidiary Cyrix has clarified its roadmap for next year, in the buildup to multimedia extensions it has.

A source told The Register today that it will release MIIs in 333, 350 and 366MHz flavours throughout Q1 of 1999. It will also release a 400MHz flavour in Q2.

MXi samples will come in Q1 and be produced in Q2, according to National Semiconductor.

The Jalapeno MIII flavours are still on target for Q3, the source said.

Yesterday, an Intel representative sneered at NatSemi's ability to do that.

But he ignored the fact that NatSemi has .13 micron fabs already.

Ik zag wat info op Coolinfo over Opera 3.5, wat best wel een leuke browser is (vooral errug snel):

Opera Software has unveiled version 3.5 of Opera, the minimalist Web browser software. As reported previously by Newsbytes, Opera was developed for the millions of users of PCs whose machines are not really capable of running "bloatware" Web applications such as Netscape Communicator 4.x and Microsoft's Internet Explorer 4.x. The package was originally developed for users of 386-based and 486- based PCs, typically running under Windows 3.xx, in Eastern Europe, Russia, Asia and those parts of the world where older PCs are still in widespread use.

Although shareware in nature, the software has gained millions of devotees, mainly because of its simple user interface and the ability, for example, to toggle graphics on and off from an icon on the main page. Version 3.5 of Opera sees the arrival of support for Java, file upload, CSS1 and TLS (Transport Layer Security) 1.0 -- technologies, Newsbytes notes, that are usually found only in the latest editions of the Netscape and Microsoft Web browsers. In parallel with the launch of the new version of Opera, the company has also unveiled a Web-based e-mail service called OperaMail, as well as a customized version of PeopleLink's Instant Messaging application and service.

Interestingly, Opera Software says that Opera 3.5 actually outguns Netscape Communicator and Internet Explorer in several of its features. The firm says that the implementation of CSS1 is state-of- the-art, and that it is the only browser to support Transport Layer Security, the successor to Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). In addition to this, Newsbytes notes, because Opera does not fall under the restrictive US export limitations, it integrates the latest 128-bit encryption protocols without requiring additional modules. Other new features include an offline browser mode, name completion, and a turbo mode facility. There is also a new download window feature, plus support for all available Web browser plug-ins, the firm says.

Roastercoaster heeft een review van Logitech's Wingman Force.

Hier wat info over deze vibrerende pretpook:

This is where I talk about the Force Feedback.  Microsoft's Force Feedback Sidewinder is, from what I have gathered, an impressive FF joystick, despite its age.  But Logitech expanded on Force technology by ten-fold.  Instead of using gears and whatnot, the Logitech Force uses a steel cable driven system, and man is it gentle.  We have what is now the definitive in Force Feedback.  But the joystick can be made by God himself, but if the software has sucky support, what good is it?  Here is what I tried, and how it rated:

 

Need For Speed III:  

5 / 5

   Wow.  I stopped playing this game, until I got this stick.  I can't put the game down now.  Take Hometown with its covered bridges and cobblestone sections, you will be amazed at the DETAIL the Force shows you.  Cobblestone?  Yeah, you feel every stone under you.  One of the coolest things is to fishtail around a corner, feel you lose grip on the road, and then the stick jumps as soon as you regain your grip.

Joshua van AGN Hardware heeft een review van Creative Lab's TNT plank in elkaar gedraaid.

Hiero wat info over de 3D performance:

The 3D results recorded were more like what I am used to seeing come off of a TNT platform.  While the Creative drivers seem to be a little under snuff on OpenGL tests, they are reasonably faster in Direct X based games than the previously tested Diamond V550.  The differences may be due to the older drivers on the Diamond board, so I have not ruled out that possibility.  One benchmark in particular is the Forsaken Mark, that put the Graphics Blaster TNT way ahead of the pack.  The reason is the added compatibility of the TNT with Forsaken after applying the patch provided by Acclaim.  The Diamond V550 was not tested with this patch, and serves more to show a comparison between the patched vs. non patched game.  Just for reference, a Voodoo 2 SLI (with the new multi-texturing drivers) scores about 160-170 at 640x480.

Ik zag op AGN Hardware wat info over de prijzen van Intel's nieuwe Celeron's op 400 en 366MHz. Info is afkomstig van Techweb:

According to the source, the price of the Celeron 400-MHz chip will be between $150 and $160, depending on which form factor of the chip PC makers use for their motherboard designs. In a road map shown to CRW in November, the Celeron 400-MHz was expected to be introduced at around $190.

AMD's K6-2 400-MHz chip is priced at around $154, the source said. In addition, Intel will lower the new Celeron 366-MHz to a new introductory price of between $120 and $130, a price on par with the AMD K6-2 366-MHz introduced this fall. Intel's previously anticipated introductory price for the 366-MHz was $162.

Intel will also lower the Celeron 333-MHz to a price ranging from $84 to $94, slightly above the $82 AMD charges for its equivalent chip. Previously planned pricing on the Celeron 333-MHz was $124 (it's currently around $160).

C400 en C366 worden waarschijnlijk waardeloos aangezien de multipliers te hoog zijn om het ding op 100MHz FSB te kunnen draaien. Meer dan 83MHz kun je er waarschijnlijk niet uit trekken...

Ars Technica heeft een artikel gepost met wat info over nieuwe processors die we de komende tijd mogen verwachten: K6-3, Dixon, Katmai enz.

Hier wat off-topic info over een Slot1 riser card voor Socket370 CPU's van Abit, vond ik wel interessant (nu de Slot1 Celeron's gedumpt worden):

At the low end, Intel is now offering socketed versions of their 128K Celeron chip at 366 and 400MHz.  Plugged into a brand-new socket dubbed Socket 370, these CPUs should cover the very bottom end of the market quite well by dispensing with the cost (and mounting problems) associated with the Slot-1 interface.  Performance is identical to slot-based Celerons at the same clock speed, with Intel specifying a 66MHz bus and a slightly crippled motherboard chipset for the socketed Celerons.  However, manufacturers are starting to line up with BX chipset-based Socket 370 motherboards, and Abit has announced a Slot-1 card that will house a Socket 370 Celeron, so you can plug 'er right into a BH6.  

Eric van Fastgraphics heeft een comparison tussen Diamond Monster Sound MX300 en Creative Labs SBLive in elkaar gegooid.

Hier wat stuff over EAX en A3D2.0:

The biggest difference between the SoundBlaster Live and the Monster Sound MX300 is the API that they use: The SB Live uses DirectSound3D EAX 1.0 (2.0 coming Q1 1999) while the Monster Sound MX300 uses A3D 2.0... Game developers have indicated that EAX is easier to work with than A3D 2.0, and it's likely that EAX will be more widely supported... So Creative has done a good job right?

Ehh... yeh, they've developed a cool API which is embraced by the industry, but their next move is not so smart: They've licensed the EAX API to Microsoft for usage in Microsoft's Direct Sound3D EAX. And guess what? The Diamond Monster Sound MX300 has 100% hardware support for the DirectSound3D EAX API. With other words, Creative had a real good API which they might have chosen to use exclusively (like 3Dfx exclusively uses Glide) but they made it publicly available...Hmm... So basically it's like the SB Live supports EAX whereas the MX300 supports both A3D 2.0 and EAX. Trying the special EAX version of unreal which was shipped with the SB Live on the MX300 lead to perfect 3D sound reproduction in EAX.