Tweak 3D's videocard overclocking guide is ge-update. Het beantwoordt de meest gestelde vragen over overklokken, koeling en overklok programma's voor je videokaartje. Best handige guide dus, check hem hier!

Sharky Extreme heeft net een review gepost van de MS-6163 440BX van Micro-Star (MSI). Het schijnt een goed plankje te zijn, en biedt zelfs enige opmerkelijke opties, zoals een aanpasbare voltage amount voor de BX chipset zelf, en niet alleen voor de CPU. Ook op het gebied van overklokken zit het wel puik:

Can I get a "Halleluiah" my brothers and sisters in the congregation because the MS-6163 manages to pound out successful overclocks to FSB levels as high as 148MHz, AMEN!

[...]

Still, system stability was aces all around even with the high heat of the 3.6v overvolt.

Although the MS-6163 doesn't offer as many FSB speed settings (16) as our current champion (the Soyo SY6BA III mainboard with 27 settings) it still offers a significant degree more than your average 440BX-based product. Each of the settings at 117MHz or above can be configured to run at a ΠPCI clock divider, which keeps PCI peripherals sitting pretty as they're kept close to their stock speed of 33MHz.

An excellent CPU overclocking platform, the MS-6163 shines in any role a user could desire.

Ik lees op AGN Hardware dat Pioneer een nieuwe DVD-ROM heeft ontwikkeld, de Pioneer DVD-AO4SZ.

Pioneer Multimedia is once again proving its leadership in DVD technology by launching the world's fastest DVD-ROM drive, the 10X DVD-AO4SZ. The new drive will be bundled in retail outlets throughout Europe from October with a cutting-edge package including FOX Interactive's X-Files Game and Interplay's Baldur's Gate. Both titles are DVD-ROM versions.

With market leading transfer rates of 10X for DVD-ROM (13.5 MB/s) and 40X for CD-ROM (6 MB/s), the new drive operates more than 40 per cent more efficiently than its predecessor and supports multiple disc formats including DVD-R and DVD-RW. It also comes with improved seek and access times of 90ms and 100ms for DVD-ROM and 70ms and 80ms for CD-ROM and is completed with ATAPI (DVD-AO4SZ) interface.

The drive can read both single and dual layer DVD discs. In comparison to a CD-ROM disc, a single-sided, single-layer DVD disc offers seven times the capacity and a double-sided, dual-layer DVD disc, 26 times the capacity.

Both the X-Files game and Baldur's Gate incorporate visual and audio DVD quality and are indicative of the capacity and flexibility of the new technology. The X-Files game incorporates MPEG2 video and high quality sound. This material includes specially created footage used only for this game. The X-Files is a great adventure game that intrigues the mind. Extensive knowledge of the TV series however is not necessary.

Baldur's Gate is an exciting role-playing game in true Dungeons and Dragons tradition. The 7 disc CD-ROM version was a Top 5 hit across Europe and is now available on one DVD-ROM (DVD-5).

Chris Tampsett, Optical Systems Product Manager at Pioneer Multimedia comments, "This is the fastest DVD-ROM drive on the market, with excellent features and, bundled with such a fantastic package, we are confident that it will be extremely well received. We will be supporting it with an extensive marketing campaign.

"Pioneer Multimedia invests considerably in research and development and as a key member of the DVD Consortium, which decides the specifications for future technology, we are at the fore front of multimedia development. Our innovations this year, with our 2nd generation DVD-R writer, 720 disc DVD autochanger and now the fastest DVD-ROM drive, are clear evidence of our lead in the market."

3D Spotlight heeft een review gemaakt van deze 32MB TNT2 kaart. Hier heb je een stukkie over de overklokbaarheid van de kaart:

Overclocking the ELSA ERAZOR III was fairly easy for me compared to other reviews of the board I have seen. I promptly added a Radio Shack 486 to the surface of the heatsink before delving deep into the realms of overclocking.

I was surprised to see that ELSA has the memory default clock set to 140MHz. It was probably made that way so they could yield a higher quantity of boards. For overclocking, this particular board clocked to 166MHz for the core stable, and 163MHz for the memory stable. Yes, yes… I do know that this doesn’t follow the ratio that NVIDIA recommends, but with overclocking you take whatever you can get. Another aspect for tweaking the board was setting the memory timings lower. As far as I know most of the reviews I have seen do not cover this. The ERAZOR III comes with some very popular RAM, Samsung G7. I used a popular overclocking and tweaking program called TNTclk.

After looking at the memory timings I was surprised to see the timing between the read and write state was set to 0. This means that the full potential of every megahertz was being utilized in this particular part of the memory.

After experimenting I found that setting the wait state from read to precharge to 0 gave me about a 1.5% to 2% increase in performance without visual distortion. Why should I care about 1.5% to 2% increase you say? Well, overclocking the TNT2 yields very little performance increases. The range in overclocking the board from its standard clock settings to 166/163 increased overall performance roughly 8% to 9%. While not a big increase, it does improve upon the fill rate at higher resolutions.

Na al het AMD Athlon geweld nu weer eens een review van een Intel chippie, de Pentium III 500. Check de review hier.

The Pentium III-500's 5X multiplier give us a fairly nice speed range to play with. To do the overclocking test, I removed the stock Intel heatsink (click here to find out how to do that) and put on an Alpha P125 cooler that I got from 2CoolTek. The P125 is really a Pentium II cooler. It wasn't designed for Pentium IIIs. I modified it so it would work on the PIII-500. Click here to find out how I did that.

Here are the results of my overclocking test.

- 5 x 100MHz = 500 MHz - 100% stable at 2V

- 5 x 103MHz = 515 MHz - 100% stable at 2V

- 5 x 112MHz = 560 MHz - 100% stable at 2V

- 5 x 117Mhz = 585 Mhz - 100% stable at 2V

- 5 x 124MHz = 620 MHz - 100% stable at 2.2V

- 5 x 129MHz = 645 MHz - POST, locks just as it's about to load Windows

- 5 x 133Mhz = 665 Mhz - POST, Locks up at Windows splash screen.

Overclockers' Workbench heeft een review geschreven van de AOpen MX3W i810 moederplank. Hier heb je een stukkie, de rest staat hier.

As from AX6BCPro onwards, the newer boards do incorporate larger range of FSB. FSBs included for MX3W: 66.8 / 72 / 75 / 83.3 / 90 / 95 / 100.2 / 105 / 107 / 110 / 112 / 114 / 117 / 119 / 121 / 124 / 125 / 127 / 129 / 130 / 133.6 / 136 / 138 / 140 / 145 / 150 / 155 Mhz.

The BIOS is also 4 Mbit BIOS instead of the conventional 2Mbit EEPROM for future expansion purposes. As per normal, the BIOS supports 3 languages, English, Chinese and German menu.

I would say that this board has great potential for overclocking. But the thing is that how far can a Celeron overclock to ? 112Mhz FSB or more ? It looks like they are likelyhood that there will be some new processors that would probably be able to use this FSB and are socket 370 in the later days.

Integrated on board is a 2D/3D Graphics Engine with Dynamic Video Memory Technology. The 4Mb SDRAM is by Hyundai and it's of 7ns.

Gamer's Alliance Strategy heeft een preview gebakken van Westwood's Command & Conquer 2: Tiberian Sun. Tja, wat valt er eigenlijk nog te zeggen, "...release die game nou eens Westwood!!!"

Anyway, dit is een van de betere previews, lees hem hier!

In addition to the environment deformations, the game makes use of a very intricate 3D physics engine, creating several other environmental effects and making the game even more enjoyable and realistic. Occasionally you'll fall victim to meteor showers, which can destroy your base, but replenish the supply of Tiberium. Walk a lone infantry unit out onto the middle of a frozen lake, and there's a slight chance he'll break through the ice. Wait for a waterfall to freeze so you can climb up and over it, surprising your opponents. Bounce your grenades off hills, around corners, etc. Start a raging forest fire, engulfing the enemy base. Winds carry poison gas clouds, and, to add an element of randomness to the game, there's also lethal Ion Storms, which are similar to the old Ion Cannon blasts in the original Command and Conquer. These Ion Storms randomly appear at different places on the map, paralyzing all the units nearby. The harsh effects of the volatile Tiberium are reproduced perfectly in the game, and add a great new element of chance to Tiberian Sun.

The environments are great, but what environment would be complete without day and night? Tiberian Sun includes full support for the rotation of our humble planet. At night, lines-of-sight for the various units are significantly truncated, providing for some amazing strategies. Wait for nightfall to sneak in that pack of engineers, or go during the day, but provide a distraction? The possibilities are limitless - this is strategy at its finest.

[break]Overigens, Avault heeft ook een update over deze game. Dit zeggen ze over de release date:[/break]

During a recent visit to Westwood Studios' development offices in Las Vegas, Nevada, the Adrenaline Vault was able to glance at the upcoming Tiberian Sun and discuss the title with its creators. First, a late August release date is set in stone; this can definitely be considered fact.

[break]En als laatste, Next-Generation Online heeft meer goed nieuws:[/break]

One of the best selling PC series of all time may finally have its sequel soon. Command & Conquer 2: Tiberian Sun, over a year late, is likely to hit the shelves next month.

A source close to Westwood Studios tells NGO that the game is almost completely finished and ready to go to production, meaning gamers are most likely to have the title in their hands next month.

In addition, our source indicates that Westwood will have a massive launch event in New York City in Time's Square to celebrate the release.

We will give you more information as soon as it's available.

Zou het echt zo zijn? Volgende maand? Fingers crossed...

Enige tijd geleden meldde deze site al dat Playboy een foto shoot had van "Lara Croft", Nell McAndrew. In Engeland moet playboy op de cover van het blad de namen 'Lara Croft' en 'Tombraider' afplakken.

A judge has sided with Core Design, owners of the popular Tomb Raider franchise, who are trying to conceal the name of sexy heroine Lara Croft on the cover of Playboy magazine. The Associated Press is reporting that a judge Wednesday granted an injunction brought by Core and ordered that adhesive labels be placed over the "Lara Croft" and "Tomb Raider" names on the cover of 20,000 copies of the August edition circulated in Britain. Playboy connected the names to a nude layout of model Nell McAndrew, said by the magazine to be real-life incarnation of Lara Croft. She was actually previously Core's official model for the digital charcter.

The judge had been told by George Hamer, attorney for Core, that Lara's clean image would be tarnished for all time by any association with Playboy. Core, because of practical considerations, did not pursue injunctions covering the photo feature on two inside pages. The ruling does not apply to copies of the magazine circulated outside Britain.

Gelukkig geldt dat alleen maar voor Engeland, dus als je hier in nederland je geld wilt verkwisten aan dat blad, dan is je cover tenminste niet beschadigt.

De eerste aankondiging van Diamond van een nieuwe kaart sinds de overname door S3, is een... S3 gebaseerde kaart.

Het gaat om een PCI versie van de bestaande Stealth.

Diamond Multimedia Systems is shipping the new PCI version of the Stealth III S540. This configuration featuring S3 Incorporated’s texture compression technology offers PCI and non-upgradable AGP system owners the opportunity to leverage “high-performance graphics at an attractive price point,” said the company. The Stealth III S540 PCI graphics accelerator comes with 32MB of onboard memory and full support for Intel and AMD processors. With Savage4's unique DirectX 6.0 feature, S3TC, the accelerator can deliver up to six times the image quality of competing products. The 3D imagery includes the use of large texture maps at sizes previously accessible to AGP system-users only, including 2048x2048.

Een nieuwe software fabriek, gevuld met mensen van Microsoft:

Trade publication CTW is reporting that a number of top Microsoft Direct3D developers have got together to form Qube, a brand new games and technology company that will develop cutting edge software for PC and Sony’s PlayStation 2 console.

Gamers Central heeft een preview van Unreal Tournament op hun site gedumpt. Alle wapens worden uitgelegd, net als de gameplay modes. Best een goede preview met wat mooie screenshots, check hem hier.

It all looks like there is a rock-solid base for hours and hours of fun. The promises made by the features of Unreal Tournament might indicate that it is going to be a huge hit. However, if that will be the case will be totally up to the on-line community. Sure, the game is bound to be incredibly popular when it just has been released, just like SiN, but will the popularity last? That is something that only time can tell, but I have a good feeling about this one. I can see Lady Fortune gently smiling towards Epic MegaGames... things are looking good!

Whoa, goed nieuws! In de laatste Q3Test status update wordt er gezegd dat id Software eind deze week de nieuwe Q3Test gaat releasen. Er zal o.a. een nieuwe 1 on 1 map in zitten en ook de teamplay code. Ook staat er iets in over de Athlon (en een of ander ATI kaartje), die hier nog de K7 wordt genoemd:

Speaking of the AMD K7, I got to play Quake3 on a K7 600mhz along with the new ATI 3D card (ATI Rage128 Pro) which has not been announced yet. You can expect the announcement for the new card at QuakeCon this year though, which all of the tournament machines will be using. The word on the new ATI cards is that they are of course faster than the current Rage128 cards, feature improved 16bit dithering and minor bug fixes. They aren't quite as fast as the TNT2 Ultra cards though. The K7 machines were absolutely HAUL ASS fast, believe the hype and benchmarks guys. Those K7 machines rock, the moment they can be bought make sure and pick one up if you're looking for serious framerate.

Op Sharky Extreme staat een uitgebreid artikel over nVidia's TNT grafische processors. Ook de minpunten komen aan bod. Het is best wel heavy stuff, maar voor de liefhebbers altijd interessant. Hier is de link.

The vertex cache of the TNT is probably the largest among the graphic processors, being able to accommodate 16 vertices. Perhaps the sheer size of the cache helps TNT2 achieve a peak triangle throughput of 9 million triangles per second. The increase from 6 million triangles per second in the original TNT is mostly a function of clockspeed. The 'advanced floating point setup' forms part of the 'TwiN Texel pipeline'. As 'advanced' as the floating point setup may be, one of the main bottlenecks in graphics involves transferring triangle vertex data across the AGP bus. In a presentation by NVIDIA, it is estimated that transferring 2 million triangles in one second requires a system memory bandwidth of 0.6 to 1 gigabyte per second; a value that will completely saturate an AGP 2x bus.

Bij Maximum PC hadden ze een boel nieuws, ook dit stukje heb ik 'gejat' bij hun. Het gaat over een press release van Fujitsu over hun nieuwe harde schijven. Meest opzienbarend aan dit alles is wel de 18,1GB harddisk voor notebooks.

Fujitsu unveiled its latest hard drive offerings Wednesday, including the world's largest notebook hard drive at 18.1GB. Fujitsu's new hard drive lineup will target three markets and are all based on the company's third-generation GMR head design and will utilize the new UDMA 66 interface. The new mobile series will come in a high performance 9.5mm form factor (z-height) and a high capacity 12.5mm form factor. The XP High Performance desktop series (MPE3xxxAH) offers some beefy specs such as 7,200RPM spindle speeds, 2MB of cache, 8.5ms seek with up to 6.8GB per platter (areal densities of 5.38Gbinch2). Fujitsu is touting data rates in the 40MB/sec range for this drive. New to the series is a streamlined cover that improves acoustics and a self-diagnostic utility. The drives will ship in capacities of 10.2GB, 13.6GB, 20.4GB and 27.3GB. The Fujitsu XV Mainstream desktop series (MPE3xxxAT) offers much of the same with a reduced spindle speed of 5,400RPM. The data rate for this drive is 30.4MB/sec with drives being offered in capacities of 17.0GB, 20.4GB and 27.3GB. The Fujitsu XV Value desktop series (MPE3xxxAT-AL) is "streamlined" for value. Spindle speed is in the 5,400RPM range while the cache is reduced to 512K. The cool streamlined case has also been yanked while the motor and actuator design is deemed "efficient." This drive also has a lower platter count. Seek times are said to be in the 9.5ms range while the data rate is not talked about. On the mobile front, Fujitsu is taking a strong stance. Fujitsu improved ruggedness by offering a non-operating shock tolerance of 700 G at 1ms and performance with an outrageous areal density of 9.3 Gbinch2. Fujitsu claims this density translates into data rates of 22.4 Gbinch2. The 9.5mm series will be available in capacities of 6GB, 9GB and 12GB while the 12.5mm series will weigh in at 18.1GB. Both should have an average seek of 13.0ms and will only consume 2.3 watts of power and less than a watt of power in both idle and sleep modes. New technologies include a fourth generation stiction free slider with edge blend that eliminates pressure points that could cause media damage, the third-generation spin-valve GMR head and repeatable run out compensation. Pricing is being held until the drives are released in August for competitive reasons.

Wowoah, wat nu een 'stukje qouten'... Gewoon alles gecopierd

Nuja, ditzelfde stuk vind je ook hier.

Ik lees net dat er een nieuwe versie is van Performance Tuner, een uitgeklede versie van Powerstrip. Met Performance Tuner kun je heel makkelijk de core en memory speed van je videokaart tweaken. In deze laatste versie is ook G400 MAX support ingebakken.

Haal hem hier naar beneden.

In een bericht bij Maximum PC over 256MB dimm's van IBM, die samen een 1GB dimm vormen (puff), staat ook nog wat leuks over 512MB DiMM's.

IBM also announced a line of 512Mb DIMMs with 72 and 64 bit data paths, and said its 256Mb ramp should be in full production by the end of 1999.

ComChip heeft een kleine review geschreven van de Yamaha 6416 SCSI brander. Het schijnt echt een erg stabiele schrijver te zijn, buffer underruns zijn wellicht verleden tijd?

This drive is solid as a rock! With the old IDE drives with 1M buffer, you always burn coasters, but you are pretty much able to do anything while burning. With the whole SCSI bus at its disposal and the drive's 2M buffer, this drive will practically never get interrupted. I've even tried playing Kingpin while burning and it still worked! Now that's amazing.

Lucent, de grote amerikaanse jongen, heeft weer een nieuwe aankondiging gedaan over een 'baanbrekende' technologie. D.m.v. laser stralen kan Lucent 10 GB per seconde aan data transport behalen, over een afstand van 5 kilometer.

Using lasers mounted on rooftops, Lucent said it is about to begin testing a system that will eventually beam 10Gb, or about 15 CD-ROMs, through the air in a single second. Called WaveStar OpticAir, the system will begin testing in December. Those scared OpticAir's laser energy would fry planes, birds and the planet Yavin need not worry, Lucent says. The system uses "expanded-beam" lasers that are supposed to be environmentally safe. The system is based on dense wave division multiplexing and can carry voice, data or video. The technology isn't designed for long-range communication but to compete with microwave devices that send data between office buildings in metropolitan areas. The initial WaveStar OpticAir product will hit 2.5Gb/s and will be available in March. By the summer of 2000, WaveStar should hit 10/Gb and have a range of about five kilometers.

Onze Amsterdamse vrienden van Philips hebben een nieuwe Audio CD-Player chipset in elkaar geknutseld, waarmee het mogelijk moet worden om Rewritables in een normale CD speler af te spelen. Hier heb je een blurb uit een nieuwsbericht van EETimes:

Philips Semiconductors this week launched a new CD audio player chip set designed to handle all forms of CDs including rewritable CDs (CD-RW).

The new chip set is the first in the industry to address the re-writeable CD compatibility for CD audio players, according to the company.

As more consumers begin to tune into music delivered via Internet and download music files into their CD-RW drives, they are starting to demand that such home-recorded discs can be played back on a variety of audio CD players, including portable CD players, radio-CD cassette boom boxes, or in-car entertainment systems. But many CD audio players cannot play discs recorded on CD-RW audio recorders. That's because discs written by CD-RW drives reflect a much lower level of light than pressed CDs or those written with a write-once CD recorder. That results in the generation of a lower-level electrical signal.

Featuring a new CD-RW decoding software and a new data amplifier with adaptable voltage capability, Philips' new chip set, designated CD10, allows consumer system OEMs to design an audio CD player that can also play back CD-RW discs.

AMD heeft vertrouwen in de capaciteit van z'n Athlon produktielijn: voor het vierde kwartaal van dit jaar verwacht het 1 miljoen processors te kunnen produceren:

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE:AMD - news) Chairman Jerry Sanders said on Wednesday he was confident the company could make more than 1 million of its next-generation Athlon processors in the fourth quarter.

He made the comments on a conference call with analysts and investors after AMD released its second-quarter results. Analysts have said the Athlon chip is AMD's last chance to compete effectively with its chief rival Intel Corp.

Op de homepage van Nero, vond ik een nieuwe versie van dit perfect brandprogramma. Natuurlijk verkrijgbaar in verschillende talen, ook Nederlands voor diegenen die liever geen engels zien.

Down 'um hier.

Ik las een klein beetje bij Generation K7, en daarna bij JC: IDT wil Centaur verkopen.
JC zegt dat IDT aan Centaur 'autonomie', oftewel zelfstandigheid wil geven, maar bij GK7 hadden ze het er over dat IDT alleen maar denkt aan verkopen. Dat laatste zou het slimste zijn, vooral omdat Centaur winstgevend is, en er dus vast wel enkele overname kandidaten zijn.

Aaaah! There's too much news today! IDT posted some really good quarterly numbers but spontaneously decided to give up on x86 and make Centaur (the x86 wing of IDT) total autonomy. It is now the Centaur WinChip 4 that I hope doesn't get lost to the wind, as events like these could easily end up destroying itty-bitty cpu design groups (you might remember that Cyrix avoided such a fate by the skin of their teeth only last month). I'll try to find out more about what's going on, this is rather shocking for me -- at the least, I may have to pay up on a bet regarding IDT and Rise that I made with Steve Porter.

Niet echt nuttig, of overtuigend, wel grappig om te lezen: Overeenkomsten tussen Apple en AMD.

klik hier.

Hoewel Atiq Raza had gezegd dat hij in Augustus (q3) de snelste processor wilde hebben van de hele markt, zal hem dat niet lukken door zijn eigen actie: Atiq Razza stapt op als president.

Dit nieuws volgt na de bekend making van AMD's financiele resultaat over Q2/H1 van 1999. Geheel naar verwachting was het verlies groot.

AMD today announced that S. Atiq Raza has resigned his positions of president, chief operating officer and chief technical officer for personal reasons. Raza also resigned his seat on AMD's board of directors. Raza will begin a personal leave of absence on Monday, July 19, and will be assessing a possible future role with AMD.

Raza is aan boord gestapt bij AMD, na de overname van NexGen door AMD.

Hoewel we ons hier meestal aan feiten houden, wil ik wel kwijt dat ik persoonlijk denk dat hij (A.Raza) is 'weggejaagd' door Sanders III, de CEO van AMD. Er wordt namelijk al sinds de komst van Raza gezegd dat hij aast op de positie van Sanders. Sanders houdt op dit moment een record van langst zittende CEO in sillicon valley, en zal dus graag dat nog wat langer vol willen houden.

Het kan natuurlijk ook duizend keer iets anders zijn, maar dit lijkt mij een van de meest logische verklaringen. Ik sta open voor andere suggesties (dit is dus een puur persoonlijk idee, niet een standpunt van deze site!).