Hardware Central heeft een preview gepost van de Asus V3800 TNT2 kaart. Het model dat Hardware Central testte werd geleverd met 3D glasses:

The model HardwareCentral received had both the 3D glasses, and TV out, which we can say are both spectacular. The black backgrounds showed up as black on the TV, and although the TV-out cuts out at over 800x600, we still think produces one of the best quality TV-out pictures we have seen. The stereoscopic glasses are another story. Right now, they are only supported under D3D, but the rumor is that OpenGL support is being worked on. I must say the result is quite amazing. You can almost feel the overhanging trees brush past you in Tomb Raider3, and the explosions go right over your head in Incoming. The overall effect is quite impressive, but probably a bit eccentric for most of us.

Verder vind je in de preview de gebruikelijke benchmarks enzooi.

The Register heeft uit betrouwbare bron vernomen dat IBM de Cyrix divisie wil overnemen van National Semiconductor:

IBM formerly manufactured processors for Cyrix as part of a fabbing deal set up before National Semiconductor bought the chip company.

Under that deal, IBM was allowed to take half of the wafers produced at its fabs and re-market them as the IBM 6x86 brand.

If the rumours are true, it would mean that IBM could, once more, become a real player in the x.86 industry.

And such a deal would change the fundamental balance of power in the processor market.

Iomega en Sega werken aan een Zip-drive die gebruikt kan worden met de Dreamcast, Sega's nieuwe game console:

omega Corporation (NYSE: IOM - news) today announced that Iomega and Sega have signed a non-binding letter of intent to include Iomega's popular Zip® 100MB drive in a new collaborative product that will be designed to attach to Sega's Dreamcast system.

The new product will also be designed to dramatically increase the capabilities of not only game playing, but Web-based activities such as content saving of e-mail and Web searches. In addition, Sega intends to sell private label Dreamcast Zip 100MB disks, offering both the device and disks in game-oriented channels.

The collaborative product is expected to be offered as an option to Sega Dreamcast customers in the third quarter of 1999. Dreamcast began shipping November 27, 1998 in Japan and is expected to begin shipping in the U.S. and in Europe during the third quarter of 1999.

Anand heeft de April aflevering van z'n
SDRAM comparison gepost. Dit is erg handige info wanneer je op zoek bent naar nieuwe DIMMs (vooral nu de geheugen prijzen weer aan het zakken zijn).

The beta Samsung PC133 modules were a tad more stable than the older SEC originals at the 133MHz FSB frequency, unfortunately they did not remain crashless as the Corsair-Micron PC133 samples did during the tests. The stability of the modules can definitely be expected to improve as they grow closer to their final release date, the thing to remember here is that the force driving the need for PC133 SDRAM is not Intel, in fact, Intel won't be abandoning PC100 for around 6 more months, instead, VIA will attempt to convince the industry that the move to PC133 now, is a wise one. Can VIA accomplish the task? For their sake, we'd like to hope so, however until then, the sweet spot for any SDRAM purchase is still the 124MHz mark. If you can run at 124MHz, you should be fine with your current setup, there's no need to lose sleep over not having true PC133 SDRAM just yet.

HardOCP heeft een stuk tekst in elkaar gezet met info over heatsinks enzo:

How do you recognize a good heatsink from a not so good one, and more importantly what makes a good heatsink work. Is it the material used, the way it is build, or simply how powerful its fans are. These questions come around quite often, I get mails on a regular basis from people asking if they should spend that extra cash on a heatsink made out of some special aluminum alloy or even copper. Is there any gain if your heatsink is made out of copper, does this really affect performance that much. I’ll try to shed a different light on things and give you the lowdown on how to recognize a good heatsink from a not so good one, and I’ll throw in a review of some of the most used Celeron heatsinks as well as the best Celeron heatsink available.

Check de frontpage van HardOCP.com voor de info. Ze hebben ook een paar pics van de super wrede Alpha P125 cooler.

AGN Hardware heeft een review gepost van de 10.000rpm IBM Ultrastar 9LXZ 'Mako' U2W scsi drive. Hoe doet de IBM schijf het in vergelijking met de Seagate Cheetah die eerder gereviewed werd door AGN HW?

The results pretty much speak for themselves: the Cheetah is faster on most tasks. This was to be expected, as the 3rd generation Cheetah has some new features that set it apart from 2nd generation drives. What does stick out about the Mako in these tests are the facts that the Mako out-performed the Cheetah in Microstation and SoundForge, two applications that require quite a bit of data transfer.  It is here that you can see the advantage of the additional cache on the 9LZX.

Volgens dit nieuwsbericht op Techweb zal Intel in september een 600MHz versie van z'n PIII releasen. Het ding zal draaien op een busspeed van 133MHz met 256 full speed L2 cache. Dit is dus de veelbesproken Coppermine:

The 600-MHZ Pentium III, the first high-end Intel chip to be united with its secondary cache, will be priced at $761 in quantities of 10,000. Integrating the L2 cache onto the processor die tends to significantly increase processing power. Current Celeron processors with 128 KB of integrated L2 cache can closely match performance of a Pentium II with 512 KB of L2 cache on the Slot 1 module, for example.

The new processor also bumps up clock speeds significantly, helping Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel distance its processors from rival Advanced Micro Devices' CPUs.

At the same time, Intel will reduce pricing on its existing Pentium III processors. The 500-MHz Pentium III, initially released in March, will drop about 50 percent, from $625 this month to $299 in September.

Sysopt.com heeft een review van een 19" Princeton EO900 in elkaar gezet:

The picture quality is very good, vibrant, and like most 19" monitors, easily customizable to your own comfort level.  However, the Video Bandwidth test used by ZDNet had noticibly poor uniform smoothness in the last 3 inches of the screen on both the left and right-hand sides.  At those sides, the image was noticibly lighter and had a pronouced jagged pattern.  With nearly all normal images and in real-world use, this is not noticible, however, for discerning graphics professionals, I cannot recommend this monitor.

I was impressed at how few moiré patterns there were in the images even with the moiré reduction turned off.  For some images which did have moiré patterns in them, adjusting the moiré reduction controls took the pattern to a nearly   indistiguishible level, although the Video Bandwidth shortcomings were never able to be fixed.

De stroom V3 reviews is nu echt zwaar op gang gekomen, verwacht er de komende tijd nog zo'n 10.000. iXBT heeft ook een review. Er zitten benchmarks bij van de (oude) TNT, Rage128 en V3-2000 op 143 en 175MHz. Het ziet er naar uit dat de V3-2000 erg goed zal zijn te overklokken:

Undoubtedly, many of you paid attention to primarily chipset and memory frequencies displayed on the screenshot: 174MHz (frankly speaking, it implies 175MHz). And many of you are definitely puzzled because all this seems absolutely impossible, especially when you know that the chipset is initially designed for 143MHz. And the explanation is very simple: it is a special Voodoo3 overclocking program that is to blame - Voodoo3 Overclock Property Page (by Gary Peterson). It is installed separately and creates another page in monitor settings list.

Here we get the whole set of cool options. We may not only smoothly change Voodoo3 chip performance and memory frequency from 120MHz to 200MHz, but also disable Vsync (monitor refresh rate synchronization with RAMDAC). After changing the frequency, the PC should be restarted. By simply trying all the suitable combinations we managed to find the maximal frequency - 175MHz, when the card shows a rather stable performance. It even exceeds the nominal frequency of Voodoo3 3000 (166MHz), which is very pleasing for all overclocking fans.

iXBT heeft tevens een paar screenshots waarmee je de beeldkwaliteit van de TNT en V3 kunt vergelijken. Lees de review hier.

Sharky Extreme heeft een Voodoo3 overclocking guide gepost, waarin de V3-2000 en V3-3000 onderhanden worden genomen. Hier een stuk over de V3-3000:

The 3000 (default clock at the 166MHz frequency) didn't fair quite as well in the overclocking tests. It went as high as 180MHz but absolutely no further. At 185MHz it simply locked up indicating that some things just aren't meant to be. Nevertheless if you do own a 3000 then at least you'll know that you can push the card a little bit further (if for some reason it isn't fast enough for you at 166MHz).

As explained later on- it really is so simple to adjust the graphics and memory clocks of the Voodoo3 since they are synchronized. And the gain? Well, almost 10 fps in Quake 2 demomap demo1.dm2. It's not that the 2000 isn't fast enough but this just shows that you can push the limits that bit further. With cooling aids on the way such as Tenmax's Voodoo3 cooler, we suspect that there might well be a little bit of 'oomph' left in the 2000 and 3000.

News.com heeft een nieuwsbericht over Redhat Linux 6.0, die maandag gereleased zal worden:

ersion 6.0, code-named Starbuck, incorporates the new version 2.2 of the Linux kernel and will offer improved capabilities for multiprocessing. The CD version of the OS will also probably cost more than Red Hat's current flavor of Linux, said chief executive Robert Young. The product is expected to be available in stores May 10, he said. The current version retails for $50. Young also said the new version will be downloadable for free. [..]he fight over whose graphics interface should lie atop Linux is moot, Young said. Red Hat heavily backed the Gnome effort to improve the graphical user interface, but in version 6, Red Hat will include installation options for both Gnome and KDE. KDE is based on software libraries from Troll Tech that don't pass open source muster, but Troll Tech's next version of those libraries won't have those proprietary concerns, Young said. Another change in the new version will be a remote installation utility that lets people install or upgrade Linux on remote servers via the network, Young said.

Review Zone heeft een vette graphics chip comparison in elkaar geknutseld. Besproken worden de 3dfx Voodoo 3, nVIDIA TNT2/TNT2 Ultra, Matrox G400/G400 MAX, ATI Rage 128 Pro, S3 Savage4 GT/Pro, NEC/Videologic PowerVR2 en 3D Labs Permedia 3.

Over de V3 en TNT2 hebben we de laatste tijd al genoeg gehoord denk ik. Daarom hier een stukkie over de G400/Max:

When they announced the G400, it seemed as if it was going to fill the same place in the new generation lineup that the G200 held in the previous one. Now, this is not a bad thing at all. There is definitely a need for graphic cards with good performance but outstanding image quality. But Matrox have decided that they want to hit the top end of the performance spectrum as well. For this, they announced the G400 MAX. This is quite a product. With the fillrate matching a Voodoo 3 3000 or a TNT2 clocked at 166MHz, this card definitely no slouch. The only thing to worry about is that its triangle throughput is not as high as its competition. How and where this will affect the MAX's performance is to be seen but it may not be the best choice for CAD type work, which requires a lot of triangles to be moved around. Having said this, it would also be a very tempting card to use in this type of situation because of Matrox's DualHead technology which allows the single card to support independent displays on two display devices. And these don't have to be matched. You could, for example, use a TV or flat panel with a monitor.

Goeie soep, daar bij Review Zone. Check 't zelf.

3DHardware.net heeft een review gepost van het Act Labs Force RS stuurwiel. Het ding kost 139 dollar en is daarmee een van de goedkoopste force feedback sturen. Wat heeft dat tot gevolg voor de kwaliteit?

The wheel itself is a very qualitative construction. Although it was initially supposed to built entirely in metal, and come with a real leather grip, the solution ACT Labs finally delivered doesn’t leave you let down. The wheel base is large and sturdy, and is fastened to the table with relatively large rubberized metal clamps, making it stick to the table even during the most violent treatment. The actual wheel is of a diameter of about 10.5 inches, making it a bit smaller than your ordinary car steering wheel, but big enough to feel realistic. One of the nicest touches to the wheel is the grip. The wheel is covered with a padded synthetic leather, preventing the grip from becoming sweaty and uncomfortable during long driving sessions.

The wheel base is quite large, making it a bit clumsy for your average computer table, but also a touch of arcade feeling, something which is undoubtedly positive. The wheel hosts a total of ten buttons, a swivel arm behind the wheel and what Act Labs call a Point of View Hat, basically a gamepad controller hat at the center of the wheel. The hat is quite a funky feature as it lets you check opponents on the sides and in behind very easily. The swivel arm is placed there instead of the gear shift, something I felt quite let down over initially. But as with everything else with this stick, ACT Labs have something up their sleeve. They are set to produce a gated (the good, real-car style) gear shifter for the Force RS, to make this the ultimate (as if it wasn’t already) PC racing solution.

In een thread op GoT (ons forum) heeft blabla (?) wat info over de prijzen van de Asus V3800 TNT2 videokaart:

Femme als je perse die Asus wilt hebben. De Asus V3800 TNT2 32mb Videokaart kost 449 ex de btw bij de groothandel. De groothandel van Mycom dus. En dit is de stuksprijs. Voor tien stuks gaat er nog 5 pieken eraf. De kaart is volgende week maandag leverbaar. Maar wil je perse deze uitvoering hebben? De TNT2 16mb kost nu 230 gulden ex de btw. Deze is nu al leverbaar. Volgens mij is dat veel voordeliger. Heb je uberhaubt wel wat aan die 32mb? Guillemot heeft volgende week ook een TNT2 32mb. De prijs weet ik nog niet.

Gezien de marge die MyCom toepast zal de prijs ongeveer op 569 inclusief de btw moeten zitten denk ik. Als ze tenminste slim zijn. Dat zou een veel leukere prijs zijn. Maar ik denk het niet. Ze willen hun advertentiekosten eruit halen.