Socket370.com heeft een review van de Elite Group P6BXT-A+ moederplank in elkaar geknutseld. Het bijzondere aan dit bord is dat-ie zowel plaats biedt voor een socket370 als een Slot1 CPU! Da's handig als je nu een PPGA Celeron koopt en die later wilt upgraden naar een PII/PIII. Verder is het ding jumperless, wat handig is bij het overklokken, maar over voltage tweaking kan ik niets vinden in de review. Wel wat algemene info over het bord:

There are many good features about this board. For instance, this board is a

jumperless design. Other than that the on-board sound is amazing, because it

uses Aureal 3D sound technology. The board has two USB connectors, one CPU

Fan connector, 4 PCI, 2 ISA (1 is shared) and 1 AGP 2x slot

Volgens een posting op THG Tech News heeft Mikrosoft de release van Windows 2000 geplant op 6 oktober.

Microsoft is hoping to ship the final version of Windows 2000 on

Oct. 6, according to an article in The Standard.

The internal target date was set after Microsoft's development

team met a key milestone for the third and final beta of Windows

2000. Until recently known as NT 5.0, the Windows 2000

operating system targets the business market and is meant to

overcome many of the deficiencies of NT 4.0, its predecessor, in

handling heavy Web traffic.

The consumer version of Windows 2000, which would succeed

Windows 98, has been pushed back indefinitely. Instead,

Microsoft will release a "second edition" of Windows 98 later this

year, with bug fixes and the just-released Internet Explorer 5.0

bundled with it. The full article is available at

http://www.thestandard.net.

Wordt uiteraard weer lachen om te zien met hoeveel maanden die release uitgesteld gaat worden...

Jeremy Allford van AGN 3D heeft een korte preview gepost van de Matrox G400. De info is afkomstig van de GDC (Games Developers Conference, Thresh's Firingsquad heeft er meer info over). De G400 heeft een paar leuke features, zoals Dual Head Technology (dual monitor met 1 videokaart) en de specs zien er verder ok uit:

Even though Dualhead may sound cool to me, I am sure there are plenty of you out there that can live without it. All you want is pure 3D speed for playing your favorite games, something that the G400 is truly capable of. With an expected processor speed in the ballpark of around 150MHz, the G400 should be on par performance wise with the Voodoo 3 and TNT2. Matrox said that 3D performance should be around 3X the speed of the G200, something that only hands-on benchmarking can confirm. For those of you that are in need of some benchmarking results, the card is currently getting 5000+ in 3Dmark 99 MAX. Other results that I have seen on the web are 800+ in 3Dwinbench and 100FPS in Forsaken at 1024x768 with rear view on. Quake 2 results are missing at this time though, due to some driver tweaks that need to be done before Matrox releases them.

Zie AGN 3D voor de rest (o.a. een paar screenshots).

Planet Hardware heeft een review gepost van de Aztech PCI-368DSP. Een vrij goedkoop geluidskaartje. Nog leuker is dat-ie zowel EAX als A3D ondersteund:

Aztech latest sound board may have a say in the matter, sporting support for both EAX and A3D, DirectSound, and their own propreitary API. How is this done? With an outside source providing a objective 3D sound chipset, the QSound Thunderbird 128. On first glance of the specs, this chipset seems to hold it's own against Aureal's Vortex-2 and the Creative/Emu's EMU10K1. But executing specs into a viable product is where a company either makes a quality item or a cheap bargain basement warmer. Let's see how Singapore's Aztech has done with the Thunderbird 128 DSP at their disposal.

Stormlabs.com heeft een kleine preview van de Asus V3800, de TNT2 plank van Asus.

The RIVA TNT2 combines 3D and 2D performance with 32-bit true color rendering, 32-bit Z-buffer and a 32Mb frame buffer with Digital Flat Panel support as well as AGP 2X/4X support. The TNT2's TwiN Texel Architecture and per-pixel mip-mapping precision, offers consumers an unprecedented fill rate of up-to 350 million pixels-per-second, which is twice that of the nearest competitor. You can expect ASUS to produce a video card that will take advantage of all the above features. However, ASUS will not only be providing a video card. The ASUS AGP-V3800/TV will be designed with high quality compression technology and be bundled with Live3800, a videro capture software. The card will be able to capture motion video at 30 frames/sec in 352x240(NTSC) and 352x288(PAL) resolution as well as 15 frames/sec at 704x480 resolution.

De release zal naar verwachting plaatsvinden ergens halverwege April.

3D Concept heeft op de CeBIT stand van Metabyte een paar benchmarks weten te scoren van een in "SLI" mode draaiend Banshee systeem:

Incoming Lux-et-Labour without/with "SLI" 1024x786: 39,97 / 64,42 fps (+60%)

Quake II Timedemo1 1024x786 without/with"SLI": 27,5 / 36,5 fps (+33%)

3D Mark 99, 800x600 without/with"SLI": 2287 / 3135 3dmarks (+37%)

Het complete verhaal lees je op 3dconcept.ch.

Dell gaat pc's leveren met Linux pre-installed. Hier de info van THG Technews:

Dell Computer Corp. is getting ready to preinstall the Linux operating system on its Optiplex line of desktop PCs. The company has been pre-installing Linux for large customers for some time, and it claims to be one of the first top-tier PC makers to make the open-source OS available as an option on its workstations and servers. Dell's midrange Precision 410 and high-end Precision 610 workstations are available with RedHat 5.2 OEM System Builder Edition. The models running Linux are available with a single Pentium II or Pentium III chip from Intel Corp. and a Diamond Multimedia Permedia graphics card. RedHat 5.2 OEM System Builder Edition, which includes additional drivers for SCSI devices and graphics cards, will also be available soon on entry-level Precision 210 models as well, according to Dell officials. In order to get Linux preinstalled on their machines, users must pay a $20 fee -- that's $20 more than a system with Windows NT preinstalled. A full report appears on http://www.zdnn.com.

The Sanctum heeft een review van de ATI Rage Fury in elkaar gepleurd. Hier een hap uit de review:

The biggest hype surrounding ATI's Rage Fury is without a doubt 32-Bit rendering. Although most people don't see a major difference between 16 and 32, and the games out now supporting 32-Bit rendering are far and few, it's a good feature to have. ATI's Rage Fury makes good work of 32-Bit rendered video-games, the problem is in the process of making 32-Bit look good it left out 16-Bit.

ATI's Rage Fury overall is a nice card. The glaring problem we tossed around with it is current driver release. The drivers have almost no tweekablity to them. They are also very buggy. Funny being that this videocard is a final release. We wonder if ATI is going the route of releasing a product still in a beta form and leaving it's owners to beta test it.

Ik heb het ding trouwens nog nergens gezien hiero in de polder (niet dat ik daarom care; ATI sucks imho).

WickedPC heeft een editorial over het Pentium III ID nummertje en alle ophef die daarover gemaakt werd, in elkaar geknutseld. Hier de intro:

So, do you want your microprocessor talking about you behind your back? I sure don't, but that's too bad for me I guess. The trend toward user ID technologies built into microprocessors--designed to provide a numerical ID when, say, you make an electronic transaction on the Web--is catching on. Privacy groups are up in arms. Intel recently got into a sling with several privacy groups because of the Pentium III's unique processor identification numbers and random number generators, which are used to track and validate electronic commerce transactions. The numbers are meant to help identify the owner of a chip to a Web site when a transaction is to take place, or to locate stolen processors when a 'thief' fires up his hot pc to the web. The ID is a 64-bit number within the chip's wiring, designed to create a 96-bit unique serial number, accessible by software, to identify the user. In an attempt to keep privacy groups less violent than abortion groups, Intel also produced a software utility designed to let users erase their ID numbers, but that wasn't enough for some, including the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the American Civil Liberties Union. Responding to protests, Intel scaled back its effort and decided to make use of the IDs voluntary. The Pentium III will eventually ship with the feature disabled, enabling customers to turn it on if they want.

AGN 3D heeft een 28Meg dikke demo van X-Wing Alliance gepost. De bijbehorende info:

The immersive single player story begins with you as "Ace" Azameen, in training to join your family's Twin Suns Transport Services business as a pilot. Your immediate family will assist you as you learn the ropes, along with MK (your droid and constant companion.) As the game progresses you will be drawn into the Rebel Alliance's fight for survival from the encroaching Galactic Empire. The corrupt Viraxo family's schemes compound your problems as they continue with their mission to destroy Twin Suns. The choice is yours and so are the consequences.

Downen kan hier.

Microprose heeft een nieuwe patch voor Falcon 4.0 gereleased. Er staat niet bij wat-ie doet, maar je mag verwachten dat het 'goed' is. Fiets ff naar de Falcon 4.0 download page als je 'm neer wilt halen.

AGN 3D heeft op de nieuwspage een korte preview gepost van de ATI All-in-Wonder 128. De kaart heeft een Rage128 aan boord, maar wat 'm echt bijzonder maakt zijn z'n TV/vidieo mogelijkheden. Je kunt TV kijken op het ding en video's capturen, net zoals bij bij de Matrox Marvel G200 en Asus V3400TNT/TV:

Being such a big fan of video-in on my computer, I was very happy to see that ATI was showing off their All-In-Wonder 128 video card at the GDC. The All-In-Wonder 128 is the newest version of ATI's family of TV/video cards aimed at the consumer who wants everything in a single card. The first version of the All-In-Wonder 128 will show up on the store shelves in April with 16MB of memory. The card will carry a MSRP of $249 and include a Brooktree Bt829 for video decoding and a ImpacTV2 for video output. June will bring us the next version of the card that will include 32MB of memory and the all new ATI Rage Theater chip for everything having to do with the video. The card will sell for a MSRP of $299 and will include a SP/DIF out for those of you who want to have the best quality sound output.

Meer info vind je bij AGN 3D.

Beyond3D heeft op de CeBIT een paar benchmarks gescoort van de Videologic Neon PowerVR250:

System Specs:

Pentium III 500

128 Megs RAM

PowerVR Neon 250 (early drivers)

Quake II Timedemo 1 - Beta MiniGL

1024x768x16: 61.8 fps

800x600x16: 95.5 fps

640x480x16: 118.2 fps

Quake II Crusher

1024x768x16: 49.7 fps

800x600x16: 55.0 fps

3D Mark 99 Max

800x600x16: 4202

Bleem.com heeft een paar screenshots gepost van Bleem, een emulator waarmee je Playstation games kunt draaien onder DirectX. Check out Bleem.com voor de pics.

Sharky Extreme heeft een preview gepost van de langverwachte Permedia 3 videochip van 3DLabs. Hamvraag is of de Permedia 3, met z'n 250Mtex/s fillrate, bij z'n release kan concurreren met de TNT2 en Voodoo3. Afgezien van dat heeft-ie wel een paar leuke features, waaronder "Virtual Textures":

Things get even more interesting with the Virtual Textures feature of the hardware, which enables high-quality high-resolution textures and manages them in a very efficient way. It allows for more textures per scene and smoother rendering by allocating up to 256MB of virtual texture. In a nutshell, textures are snipped up into small bits and demand-page loaded with logical-physical address mapping. So if you only need to render the sleeve of Our Hero's shirt for a particular frame, you don't have to load up his whole skin map. This feature enhances bandwidth of the AGP bus and optimizes on-board memory utilization. Best of all, it is automatic and therefore completely transparent to developers under DirectX or OpenGL.

Zie Joan's review @ SE voor meer info.

Voodoo Extreme hobbelt gezellig achter de rest aan en doet ook een review van Kryotech's nieuwe Renegade koelsysteempje. Hier wat basic info over het ding:

The Renegade comes in two variations or two configurations. There are the ATX-SE and ATX-PE models, each of which can be ordered for either Slot 1 or Socket 7/370 applications. The Standard Edition (ATX-SE) is the more economical of the two, offering just the cooling unit and case. The Premium Edition adds a built in cold plate temperature monitor, and firmware to shut down the system should that temperature ever reach 55ºC. Both come with a one-year, return-to-factory warranty. Personally, I think the extra $50 for the PE unit is a bit extravagant, but if it's nothing but the best for you, then the ATX-PE is what you'll want. I suppose if you’re spending $359 on a cooler ($349 for the Socket version) that doesn’t do much for performance, but rather increases stability, then you can probably justify the added expense as a safety measure.