Bij The Heatsink Guide hebben ze een vergeliking tussen 5 celeron heatsinks. Hier staat alvast een stukje :

For testing, I used a Celeron 300A (OEM, made in Costa Rica) overclocked to 450MHz. The motherboard used was an ABIT BH6. To make the CPU run as hot as possible, the voltage was set to 2.3 volts.

Five different heatsinks were tested - three dual fan units (TennMax Celeron TF, Global WIN FAB24, Vantec PIID-SL5015), and two single fan units (Global WIN FAB04, CoTech KC-266). The CoTech KC-266 is the heatsink used for the Glacier 4500C (read review). Why have I included only the KC-266 in this review and not the Glacier 4500C? Read CoTech's statement about the 4500C to find the answer to this question...

These five heatsinks tested here are already a selection of the best Celeron heatsinks available. Thus, all of them provide good performance, and as you can see, the differences between the different models are not huge.

De rest staat hier.

Sharky heeft eindelijk een vervolg op de ATI Rage Fury review kunnen maken. Deze kaart zou december 98 al uit komen maar :

Unfortunately several driver development delays and other miscellaneous issues sabotaged the Rage Fury's early January 99 introduction, and now we're finally reviewing the actual retail product just a week before the car hits the shelves.

It's been a long wait, and because of it ATi has allowed other competitors to sneak in the back door when they could have had a couple of exclusive months for the Rage Fury to dominate. Within 30 days the 3Dfx Voodoo3-2000, the S3 Savage4, and the nVidia TNT2 will all be in high-volume production, and cards based on those chips will be in stores no later than the end of March.

Has the Rage Fury arrived to market just in time, or is the window now closed in anticipation of another card?

Lees hier verder.

Ace's Hardware heeft een goede review over de verschillende problemen die je tegenkomt als je een AGP videokaart op een SS7 moederplank aan de praat wilt krijgen. Hier een intro :

Well, the number of incompatibilities between super 7 and AGP videocards have been reduced dramatically with the introduction of better AGP drivers by ALI and VIA. Ok, most of us, some after a lot fiddling (a wink to Paul), now have stable systems, but to get there a lot of you had to disable quite a few performance enhancing features in the bios.

On top of that, the super 7 memory bus is not as good as the slot 1/PII bus. The former locks the bus for each I/O activity, the latter is a deeply pipelined, transaction based bus. Hence, the slot 1 bus is better, although not much better.

And don't forget, intel is the creator of AGP, so the intel chipsets have a de facto advantage over the others. The AGP performance of slot 1 VIA chipsets is somewhat lower than the BX-chipset.

So is super 7 doomed to be a cheap but low performance alternative to slot 1? Does super 7 have any chance with all those low cost socket 370 boards out there? Should gamers consider super 7 or not? It is crystal clear that super 7 needs a fast videocard otherwise all gamers out there better buy a slot 1 + TNT combo.

De rest lees je hier.

Steve Balmer, een manager bij Microsoft heeft een paar stevige kritiekpunten op het beleid van Microsoft. Verhuld in allerlei moeilijke redeneringen zegt hij in dit artikel eigenlijk dat Microsoft slechte software maakt en niet meer helemaal doorheeft waar het nou allemaal om draait. Eindelijk begint het muntje te vallen daar, en het werd tijd ook. Hier volg een stukje :

We're at a very important point for the company's long-term health and viability," Ballmer told the 50 or so managers in attendance. "If we don't do the right thing, we just won't be in a great place three to four years from now.

Ballmer expressed concerns about both Microsoft's oldest franchise (Windows) and its newest (MSN). Its path toward unifying Windows NT and Windows 9x has been rocky, he acknowledged. And the company's "Darwinian" strategy of pitting one development team against another and allowing the best technology to triumph has gotten Microsoft into hot water, he admitted.

Lees het hele artikel hier.

Sharky Extreme heeft een review van de Kryotech K6-III 500 gepost. Dit een een naar 500MHz overgeklokte K6-III 400. Hier even de pluspunten van het ding tegenover de eerder gereviewde Kryotech K6-2 500 :

Here's a list of what the newest KryoTech K6-3 500MHz PC offers, including the changes versus the Cool K6-2 500 machine that was previously reviewed:

• WinNT Support
• SCSI Support
• Reduced price ($1,250 now, vs. previous price of $1,695)
• Faster CPU (K6-3 now, vs. previous K6-2)
• Superior Mainboard (ASUS P5A now, vs. previous FIC PA-2013)
• 5 PCI Slots (Versus previous amount of 4)
• CPU Temperature LCD display moved to unit's base (Makes additional 5.25" bay available)
• Revised CPU Thermal Jacket (Much easier to engage/disengage for CPU swaps)

As you can see KryoTech isn't deaf to the demands of their buyers, and the Cool K6-3 is a reflection of their versatility.

De rest van het verhaaltje staat hier.

Volgens EBNews vallen de nieuwe Intel Xeon processoren volgens de Amerikaanse wet in de categorie "supercomputer". Dit houdt in dat er hoge exportkosten betaald moeten worden als je zo'n ding uit Amerika wilt krijgen.

Intel Corp.'s new Pentium III Xeon processors will put high-end servers into the “supercomputer” category, triggering export restraints and creating problems for U.S. server makers looking to sell the systems overseas.

And next year, Intel's 800-MHz Pentium III will throw desktop PCs into the supercomputer control category as well.

Executives representing major U.S. OEMs gathered in Washington easrlier this week, warning that unilateral U.S. export controls put domestic PC makers at a competitive disadvantage against foreign rivals able to sell leading-edge Intel-based PCs without constraint. U.S. companies must seek export licenses to sell supercomputer-rated PCs abroad, causing costly paperwork and delays that foreign competitors don't face.

The blitz speed of PC technology has now exceeded the control limit of 2,000 MTOPS (million theoretical operations per second) for requiring export licenses to certain countries, including China, India, Pakistan, Russia, and many states of the former Soviet Union. MTOPS is a unique government criteria to define control limits. All multiprocessor Pentium III Xeon servers will exceed this threshold, according to Dan Hoydysh, director of government affairs for Unisys Corp., Blue Bell, Pa.

Hier kan je de rest van het stukje lezen.

Vandaag is de K6-III, de opvolger van de K6-2 van AMD officieel uitgekomen. Hier een stukje info van Sharky Extreme

AMD has officially announced their upcoming K6-III processor this morning. The K6-III's most notable change over the K6-2 is the addition of 256kb of full speed L2 cache onto the die. As we predicted during Comdex, AMD is currently only shipping 400MHz variants of the K6-III, with the 450MHz not due for at least another 30 days in volume.

In conjunction, three system integrators have announced new computer models that will carry the K6-III. Systems from Compaq and Gateway will be available this week. Additionally, Cybermax, a smaller system integrator, will be offering the Enthusiast Rebel ZX and Entrepreneur Pro RL systems for gamers and professionals respectively, both powered by the K6-III.

Met de support van het dingetje zit het dus wel goed. Zodra de K6-III 450 MHz variant uitkomt is dat de snelste x86 CPU van dit moment (in zakelijke applicaties dan) totdat Intel met de PIII 550MHz komt.

Anand heeft een review van de Trident Blade3D video-chip geplaatst. Anand legt eerst even de reputatie van Trident uit :

On the low end of things, there have been a few contributors to the sub-$1000 PC campaign from video card manufacturers, one of the most popular being a company called Trident. Typically associated with the word "crap" among gamers, Trident has never truly had a competitive product on the market, and their presence in the 3D driven world of gaming is just about as prominent as that "friend" of yours that never seems to get invited to any parties. At last year's Fall Comdex, Trident's booth held the first eye catching demonstration this reviewer has seen from the company in years: a Trident video card running a game at a pleasing frame rate with a level of image quality that rivals some of the industry's bad boys. Trident had a product so eye-catching in fact, that VIA chose them, out of all of the possible manufacturers, to include this "revolutionary" (at least for Trident) product as the integrated video core on their low-cost MVP4 chipset,

Als je wilt lezen of de Blade3D nog wat voorsteld moet je eventjes hierheen surfen.

Op Wired staat dit interessante verhaal over een superchip die de Russen hebben ontworpen. Hier een voorproefje :

A team that built supercomputers for the Soviet military in the Cold War has reportedly designed a chip that promises to be more powerful than anything the West can muster.

But the company is too broke to build it.

De E2K (zo heet ie) is op papier de snelste chip in de wereld.

Op BXBoards staat een review van het Socket370 moederbord de Abit ZM6. Dit plankje is uitgerust met de ZX chipset van Intel. Hier even wat ze hebben te zeggen over die chipset :

To all intents and purposes the ZX chipset can be considered a "cut down" BX chipset lacking only the facility to be used in a SMP configuration and also the ability to use more than 256 megabytes of RAM. Although 3 DIMM slots are provided on the board, the chipset is capable of addressing only two double sided DIMMs, so if double sided DIMMs are used 2 x 128 is the maximum. It is possible to populate all 3 DIMMs on the board if single sides DIMMs are used. The SMP issue is obviously of non-relevance on a single processor board :) So basically the ZX is pretty much on a par with the BX chipset - its certainly many light-years ahead of the unfortunate EX, the low end alternative to the LX chipset.

De rest van de review kan je hier vinden.

AMD heeft een FAQ voor de K6-III in elkaar geknutseld. Niet echt veel nieuws hier, veel van de vragen zijn overgenomen uit de K6-2 FAQ. Hier ff een van de interessantere vragen :

Question: What is AMD's new TriLevel cache design? How does it improve performance?

Answer: The new TriLevel cache design of the AMD-K6®-III processor significantly boosts overall PC performance by providing the largest, fastest, and most flexible total system for Windows compatible desktop PCs. Complete details are covered in the TriLevel Cache White Paper.

De spelletjesgarnaal (!?) van de Cursor heeft een review van Simcity3000 in elkaar gedraaid. Hier een plak:

Dit spel is volledig vertaald in het Nederlands. Meestal trekt die vertaling op geen zak maar nu is het zeer goed gedaan. Het spel zit ook vol met droge moppen, zo kan je kijken hoeveel gevulde koeken per week je politiecentrale verbruikt. Ik zette ook eens een peperduur, hoog technologisch onderzoekcentrum en het eerste wat ze uitvonden was een eekhoornverjager, hehe. Niet bepaald de mop van de eeuw, maar toch nog beter dan Jacques Vermeire.