Iomega heeft een paar nieuwe Zip drives in elkaar geknutseld waar nu 250Mb aan warez op gepleurt kan worden. PC Magazine Online heeft een review van de SCSI versie:

The new Zip 250 Drive is the same size as the original model, and the SCSI version can connect to existing Iomega Zip Zoom SCSI cards ($50 street). The SCSI version transfers at a maximum rate of 1.7 MBps, compared with 0.3 MBps for the parallel port version. The Zip 250 Drive is backward-compatible with the original 100MB disks: On our tests, the SCSI version successfully read existing data from 100MB Zip disks and saved data on 100MB format disks that were readable on 100MB Zip Drives. If you have an existing ASPI-compatible SCSI card or a 16-bit slot and an available system IRQ to handle the Zip Zoom card for the SCSI version of the drive, the SCSI device's higher transfer rate makes it a better choice than the parallel port version. The parallel port Zip 250 Drive gives up transfer speed but is easier to move from one PC to another.

Lost Circuits heeft een review gepost van de MSI 5184 Super 7 moederplank.

To spin the thread back to the 5169, MSI, one of Taiwan’s many computer manufacturers has always produced high end motherboards. Still, high-end prices may have been one of the reasons why this board never gained the popularity it deserved, considering the outstanding performance at the time of its debut. However, now, following the trend towards higher bus speeds, MSI decided to release yet another version of a SS7 AT form factor board and, a big surprise here, in this case they went with the VIA MVP3 chipset. On paper (or screen), the new release MSI 5184 looks very appealing, baby AT form factor, supported bus speeds up to 133 MHz, 4 PCI slots and everything from MSI, that is, sort of guaranteed to work.

Considering the fact that some grades of the VIA MVP3 chipset are working quite well at the 124 MHz bus speed setting, as demonstrated by FIC several months ago, one ought to be curious what kind of magic trick MSI has pulled out of the hat to get this and the next higher setting at 133 MHz to work.

De Super 7 Hardware Guide heeft een review van de Creative Labs Graphicsblaster TNT en heeft uiteraard gekeken hoe het ding zich gedraagt in een Socket7 systeempie:

While Creative's TNT based card generated slightly lower benchmark scores than those rendered by the Viper 550, I am still favorably impressed by both the stability and included utilities and have no reservations whatsoever bestowing our Super7 Award on this TNT based graphics card.  Creative offers pretty good tech support and if you have to call you won't sit on hold for long but most major problems are covered well in the excellent user's guide.  The Blaster Control applet, as I say, can help you to generate higher benchmark scores but they can cost you a bit in the image quality department.  To make sure that the card was indeed stable on all super7 based systems I tossed it into a system incorporating ALI's Aladdin V chipset (Iwill XA100 Plus) and ran it for a few days without any major problems, however the smaller L2 cache can account for a very minor performance hit.  With prices for the retail box as low as $130.00 on the web, the money is well spent.  Especially if you intend further upgrades as 1999 wears on.  Super7 users will really see a performance increase with the release of the K6-3 just over the horizon. 

PCWorld heeft een review van de Promise FastTrack, een UDMA controller waarmee je met doodnormale IDE schijven een EIDE RAID kunt bouwen die de performance theoretisch zou kunnen verdubbelen:

Promise markets the FastTrak as an EIDE performance booster rather promoting it with its technical description, which is a smart move considering that most consumers have no idea what an EIDE RAID controller is. RAID may sound like something you'd use to keep ants out of your kitchen, but it really stands for redundant array of independent disks. RAID is a standard for using multiple smaller-capacity drives in place of one premium-priced larger drive to boost performance and improve data reliability. It's been used for years in SCSI-based network servers, but the higher cost of SCSI has kept it out of the EIDE-dominated desktop market. By striping (or splitting) files into pieces laid across multiple drives, the FastTrak adds to total data bandwidth. As an analogy, think of running water into a pool using multiple hoses: You'll fill the pool a lot faster than you would using only one hose. Promise doesn't advertise it, but the FastTrak also supports drive mirroring, or using a second drive to maintain a continual, exact copy of the first. If you mirror the drive, you don't get a speedup, but you do get the insurance of a copy in case one drive fails.

Dat ding lijkt me erg vet!

Bills Workshop heeft een review van de Gigabyte GA-630, een videokaart met Voodoo Banshee. Ter vergelijking hebben ze ook benchmarks van de Diamond Monster Fusion en Creative 3D Blaster Banshee.

Er staat ook wat info in voor overklokkers:

You can see that the Gigabyte and Diamond cards were able to run at the maximum available memory clock setting of 133MHz.  The Gigabyte tolerated higher graphics clock settings, I believe due to its slightly different fan and heatsink design.  The Diamond card has a sharp looking fan sunk into heatsink, whereas the Gigabyte fan sits on top of the heatsink in a more traditional design.  The effect of the Diamond design is that there are almost no heat-radiating fins on the heatsink or around the fan.  It’s like a copy of the TennMax Lasagna design, except that the TennMax has an array of fine fins around the fan.  The bottom line is that I don’t think the Diamond design cools the graphics chip as well.  However, you can see that the impact of the earlier graphics clock failure with the Diamond card is negligible – less than a 1% difference.

You may ask what is the impact of the fan? When the fan disconnected from power, the Gigabyte locked up at 117 instead of 123MHz graphics clock setting in 3DMark99.  So, it adds about 5% the to the graphics chip's clocking ability.  However, this adds only about 1% to the overall performance of the card.

Gamespot UK heeft een preview van Unreal Tournament, het vervolg op Unreal dat net zoals Quake III Arena op multiplayr gefocused is:

Unreal: Tournament will include styles of play such as Capture the Flag, Domination, and Assault, where players attempt to either attack or defend a fortress for a specified amount of time. There's also a vastly improved user interface, as well as several new weapons and 35 new arenas.

In single player mode players guide their team of AI buddies against hordes of space-hooligans in a fight to the death. On the multiplayer side GTi claim that most players will be able to find and join a fast-moving, low lag Deathmatch server.

Next Generation Online heeft een interview met Team 17 over Stunt Grand Prix. Ziet er best grappig uit:

"The overall plan for SGP was to try and do something that looked, felt and played very differently to all the other racers, whilst retaining all previous cool elements. It's a racing game with a number of unique twists, not least of which is the ability to collect "aeromiles" by performing spectacular stunts and tricks by using the track sections like a skateboarder or snowboarder would. These are completely optional should you not be interested, but they bring their own rewards in terms of how the game progresses.

"The game takes place in its own world, based on remote control cars. There's a full catalogue system which allows upgrading, refining, millions of upgrade combinations, new tracks, layouts and special features to earn, buy or trade.

"The real action is of course on track and it's here where we consider we're streets ahead. SGP plays and feels superb. It looks gorgeous, especially when you consider that there are very few special effects in there right now and now special texture passes going on - highlights, lighting and all that will be added in time, right now we're getting the gameplay as good as it can be. When it's finished it will be jaw dropping!"

AVault heeft een preview van Simcity 3000 gepost.

Hier wat stuff:

One of the first things you'll notice is that the appearance of the game has been updated. The 3D rendered buildings are much more engaging and detailed, and there's also a lot more activity in your cities than ever before. Pedestrians are everywhere and reflect the areas in which they are seen. Said Ocean Quigley, the game's Art Director, "We've created dozens of Sims to make neighborhoods come to life. For example, around hospitals you'll notice tiny doctors, nurses and patients. In a residential neighborhood, you'll see kids on skateboards, bicyclists, and couples walking hand-in-hand." This is also true for vehicles throughout the game. "We built a bunch and picked up others from various 3D model collections," added Quigley. "Again, the vehicles reflect the state of your city and particular neighborhoods. Put a landfill in your city and you'll notice garbage trucks. Place a school and you'll see little school buses."

More enhancements can be seen in numerous other areas as well. Tornados actually pick things up off the ground and fling them around and UFOss will fly in and create crop circles in your fields (the first time I saw this I busted out laughing). The tile set is much more extensive than in SimCity 2000, and neighborhoods look more realistic as a result. Much like in many neighborhoods, you can have a grouping of homes that look exactly alike or those with slightly different designs. This is all moderated by rules that determine how a zoned area will look, depending on its size. I've noticed that neighborhoods of all kind -- commercial, residential, or otherwise -- seem to have more character than before and flow better from one area to the next.

Ook AGN 3D heeft wat zitten oc'en met de nieuwe Celerons. Hun eerste ervaringen:

After hearing all of the hoopla of the Celeron 366 and 400 processors on every single major news site, I decided that I had to get 1 of each to try them out so that everyone could be more educated. Unlike the Pentium 2 line of processors, the Celeron line has a 66MHz Front Side Bus (FSB). This may change in the future, but currently Intel has reserved the stardom of the 100MHz FSB to its P2 and Xeon processors. The new Celerons also come in two different chip types, the familiar Slot 1 and a new PPGA form factor, which is basically a slightly larger socket 7 setup. I would recommend the Slot 1 version over the PPGA for anyone, because there is more upgrade and cooling options with Slot 1.

In order to get the higher processor speeds out of the chip, Intel has introduced higher clock speed multipliers, 5.5 and 6 for the new Celeron chips. The higher multiplier actually makes the Celeron 366 a much better buy for the overclocker, because it should be more overclockable. Currently the only chip I have is a Celeron 400, sent to me by the folks over at Multi Wave ($135 for 366, $185 for 400), a pretty sharp mail-order outlet. They have the 366 and the 400 in stock now for the lowest prices on pricewatch. I also ordered online and had a confirmation email a few hours later and a Fedex tracking number an hour after that. This type of service is what helps to restore faith in the online shopping community.

After making the purchase of the processor, I started getting a little bit worried. After all the processor was a 400 with a 6.0 multiplier and my Abit BH6 only supports a 5.5 multiplier. This would basically make the CPU worthless to me until Abit released a bios update that allowed for the higher multiplier. After receiving the processor this morning I was determined to get it running, so I played around to see if there was an imaginary 6.0 setting. There actually was, by setting the CPU to 4.0 with a 66MHz Bus, I was able to get it running at 400MHz. A quick test showed that it worked fine at 400MHz, so I decided to go the next step. Here is what I have succeeded in doing so far:

- 4(6)X66 Runs at 400 – Works Fine

- 4(6)X75 Runs at 450 – Works Fine, not quite

300A@450 level performance though due to the fact that you are on a slower 75MHz FSB Bus.

- 4(6)X83 Runs at 498(500) – Would not boot Win98 – Removed my network card and it worked… could not get it to continue running though with my retail fan. When I get the new fan, I will do further testing.

- 4(6)X100 Runs at 600 – Gets to the post and goes to start Win98 but locks up.. processor is VERY hot… gotta get a real fan one of these days J

- 4(6)X103(Turbo) RIP – Will not even post

Hercules heeft nieuwe drivers gereleased voor hun Dynamite TNT kaart, gebaseerd op de .48 build van de nVidia reference drivers (die het trouwens perfect doen met mijn Dynamite TNT).

De nieuwe Hercules drivers kun je hier halen.

Ace's Hardware heeft een artikel met info over nieuwe CPU's die we dit jaar kunnen verwachten. De CPU waar iedereen met de hoogste verwachting naar uit zit te kijken is ongetwijfeld de K7 van AMD. Hier wat info:

AMD K7, why would you beg to get one? 

Because It will be the best performing x86 CPU in '99, integer and floating performance-wise.  Unless SSE is, from the the launch of the PIII, highly supported by most games and 3D-applications, the K7 will be king of the x86 hill in '99. 

This monster will combine a screaming triple issue FPU, deep buffers, aggressive out of order execution and three integer units. Make no mistake, a huge 128 KB L1-cache will boost your applications AND gaming performance quite a bit. 

If you were at our Online hardware Conference with representatives of AMD, you will know that the K7 will start at nothing less then 600 mhz! 

With a programmable L2-cache speed, you can probably (slightly) overclock the L2-cache too. The price will follow the PIII price, making it the CPU that offers the best bang for (a lot of) bucks. 

De geruchten waren er al, maar nu zijn er ook serieuze berichten die deze geruchten bevestigen: de Katmai gaat Pentium III heten. Poe, wat zijn ze origineel bij Intel.

C|Net News.com heeft het nieuws:

Pentium III will be the name of the next-generation chip from Intel, sources close to the company have confirmed, a marketing decision that allows the company to use its most successful brand name a fifth time.

Code-named Katmai, the processor will become the standard-bearer for Intel's performance desktop chip line. It's based around a Pentium II core, but contains 70 additional instructions that boost multimedia performance.

Video will run more smoothly on a Pentium III, for example, because a given computer can process more frames per second. Game programs will also be able to incorporate algorithms that improve how objects appear to move.

As reported earlier, the chip is due in early March and will come out running at clock speeds of 450 MHz and 500 MHz. It will then reach speeds of more than 600 MHz before the end of the year, Intel has said.

Initially, the upcoming chip will cost more than $500 but will likely sink to the $200 range by the third quarter, according to analyst Ashok Kumar of Piper Jaffray.

Giki's Gold heeft een zooi benchmarks van de Asus AGP V3100 Savage 3D,
Diamond Viper V550, Asus AGP-V3400TNT en Creative Labs 3D Banshee. Er zit geen tekst bij, dus er valt weinig te quoten...

Anand heeft z'n Socket 370 C366 binnen en heeft er wat mee zitten spelen. Binnenkort mogen we een review verwachten. Hier alvast zijn eerste bevindingen:

I must admit that it is difficult working on three different reviews at once, however I've been informed that I'm receiving another Socket-370 motherboard tomorrow so I'm going to hold off on the Celeron 366 (Socket-370) review until after I've finished playing around with that board. To tide you over until the review, I've got a few things I can tell you about the Celeron 366 (Socket-370):

- The processor is clock locked at 5.5x, however it is not bus or frequency locked, meaning you can overclock it just like any other Celeron processor

- Cooling the chip isn't too big of a problem, you can still use older Socket-7 heatsink/fan combos, however they will fail to cover the entire surface area of the chip.   In my tests, this hasn't hindered stability at all, but you're better off getting a true Socket-370 fan to be on the safe side

- Unoverclocked, the Celeron 366 is a nice medium between a Celeron 300A and an overclocked 450A, when overclocked using the 83MHz FSB speed the Celeron 366 does distance itself from the 450A, and, 550MHz is a possibility. 

- I'm going to wait until I get a couple more samples of the Celeron 366 before commenting on how stable the processor will overclock to 550MHz, however it looks like the Celeron 366 @ 550 will soon replace the our beloved 300A @ 450MHz.