AGN Hardware heeft de Abit BE6 moederplank eens getest, met onboard support voor ATA 66, errug handig. De review van deze "overclockers board" vind je hier.

Since the release of the BH6, overclocking has became a need for countless computer lovers such as ourselves all around the world. The BH6 took away the need for the pain in the behind jumpers, and allowed us to set the speeds of the CPU and more through the comfort of the motherboard’s bios. It has been over a year since a release of the BH6 and not many things have changed with Abit’s motherboards. The new BE6 is still very overclocking friendly, allowing you to do about anything that your CPU can handle without very much work to your computer. There has not been many enhancements though, considering the fact that you will be able to overclock your CPUs on your BH6 just as easily as the BE6.

Now this may change in the future as speedier processors come out with higher needs for your FSB and multiplier. With the multiplier running as high as 8 and the FSB running up to 150, you could theoretically run the computer at 1200MHz. (Just make sure you have a fire extinguisher nearby) For those of you who do not plan on super cooling your computer there is also support for 112/115/120Mhz FSB for getting a little higher performance on the PIII or other supposedly 100MHz FSB processors. Armed with my PIII 500 processor I was able to get the system to work properly at 115MHs FSB for a top speed of 575MHz. On the Celeron Side of things my 400MHz Celeron on a Slocket was running at 498MHz with no problems, not bad for an inexpensive motherboard. I did try to move both the Celeron and the Pentium III to higher speed with no luck, resulting in leaving having to hit the CMOS discharge jumper to bring the computer back to life.

Nog een review van deze Savage4 kaart van Diamond. Als je voor een savage4 kaart gaat, dit is een goede keus.

Wait. Seriously. At least until another driver update comes out, or until a game that effectively uses S3TC appears.

If you genuinely need a video upgrade now, both the 16MB TNT2's and the Voodoo3 2000 are in the same price range and are significantly faster, with more mature drivers. Even the ATI Rage Fury is just about in the same price range.

However, I do genuinely like this card. I like it enough to get rid of my TNT. I especially like its DVD capabilities. And frankly, I would hesitate to buy any card right now that does not have S3TC /DirectX texture decompression. I suspect that texture decompression will be the killer feature when Unreal Tournament comes out.

The Savage4 offers fantastic visual quality features. When is comes to speed, however, this card is a classic underachiever. The potential is there, but remains unrealized. Hopefully that means the Savage4 has considerable potential for growth as the drivers inevitably mature.

(Een gedeelte van) MSN blijkt op een Unix machine te draaien, met Apache als webserver. Kennelijk heeft Microsoft niet zo veel vertrouwen in hun eigen Windows NT + IIS.

Mircosoft scheint nicht sehr viel Vertrauen in seine eigenen Produkte zu haben: Zumindest Teile des Microsoft Network (MSN) laufen auf einem Unix-Rechner mit dem freien Webserver Apache. Ein Test ist einfach: Wenn man auf homepages.msn.com eine nicht existierende Seite (beispielsweise homepages.msn.com/nix) aufruft, erhält man die Standard-Fehlermeldung von Apache 1.3.6. Mit einem Tool wie netcat lassen sich dem Server noch weitere Informationen entlocken: Greift man mit netcat auf den WWW-Port 80 von homepages.msn.com zu, gibt sich Apache als Unix-Version zu erkennen. Ganz überraschend ist der Einsatz von Apache bei MS allerdings nicht: Selbst Microsoft-Vize Steve Ballmer hat den freien Webserver schon öffentlich gelobt.

FiringSquad heeft weer een primeur, zij hebben een exclusief verslag van de AMD Athlon 600MHz, de Pentium III killer. Het is een geweldig uitgebreid artikel, bencharks met de TNT2, Voodoo3 en Matrox G400, het zit er allemaal in. Check deze preview hier!

Once everything was installed, we prepared to run our benchmarks. The first thing I noticed was how incredibly fast and snappy the system was in Windows. Booting up was faster than with any other clean install I've performed, and the simple act of opening windows and files was instantaneous. Now, this may sound like a silly statement, but instantaneous response you get with a 550MHz+ CPU is a noticeable difference. If you think it's petty, just think about the difference a few milliseconds of response time can do to your Quake game. Instantaneous is good.

Without giving anything away, the Athlon simply breezed through most of the benchmarks. In fact, it completed most tests in such a timely manner that we never had time to turn away and do something else. Regardless of actual quantitative performance, from the beginning it was very clear that AMD has a winner on their hands with the Athlon.

[...]

The Athlon's calling looks to truly be one of gaming. The most telling numbers are in the crusher scores. Crusher is a torture test for the CPU, grinding out a worst-case scenario for Quake II, with dozens of players, entities, and effects onscreen at any one time. No matter how good the 3D accelerator, breaking 50-60fps is nearly impossible on crusher, until the Athlon 600 that is. A crusher score of 70fps is unheard of, and a testament to the power of AMD's new 3-unit pipelined FPU.

Ik lees dat Creative nieuwe SoundBlaster Live! drivers heeft voor Linux, download ze hier.

Alex "Sharky" Ross heeft een asociaal groot artikel gebouwd over Intel's plannen op het gebied van CPU's, Chipsets en Grafische Accelerators voor de komende 12 maande, incl prijzen en codenamen.

Lately the news has contained hints and bits of what is to come…Intel's 'sudden' increased interest in both Internet and mobile computing, for example. But on the concrete side, apart from the introduction of a 733MHz Coppermine by Q2 of next year, their latest plans focus upon price cuts over the next few months and might seem to be more conservative than usual. We've followed up with several meetings with sources close to Intel (you knew that was coming) and it seems as though some CPU, Mobile CPU, chipset and Graphics plans have been changed from our previous speculation. As you know 'plans' and 'roadmaps' change as frequently as the weather in Britain but we'll do our best to sum up what we think we know. A good place to start is with the significant changes…

Ace's Hardware heeft de officiële specs van de MS-6167 Athlon moederplank van Microstar:

Northbridge: AMD-751 Irongate with 200 Mhz EV6 interface speed, 100 Mhz SDRAM, 2X AGP

Southbridge: AMD-756 Viper with UDMA-66, OHCI USB, APIC, ACPI Power Management

5 PCI/2 ISA/1 AGP and 3 DIMM (up to 768 MB PC100 SDRAM)

100 Mhz FSB, with DDR to 200 Mhz for the EV6

2 IDE, 1 floppy, 2 serial, 1 parellel and 4 USB ports with 1 IR connector

CPU speed auto-dectection.

Also, I learnt from Happy Cat that Microstar also has a micro-ATX version of K7 motherboard in the works, MS-6191. The details on that board are still sketchy at best: 2 DIMM slots with built-in ES1375 sound, and also based on AMD's 750 (i.e. viper + irongate) chipset.

iXBT Hardware heeft een review klaar van de Creative 3D Blaster Riva TNT2 M64. Nou dit is geen gewone TNT2 kaart, maar een gestripte versie. In plaats van de 128bit memory bus van de TNT2, heeft deze een memory bus van 64bit. Deze kaart heeft verder 16MB 7ns geheugen draaiend op 150Mhz, en de core draait op 125MHz.

Well, let's sum up. nVidia Riva TNT2 M64 is a very strange chipset, which can be positioned somewhere between nVidia Riva TNT and nVidia Riva TNT2. The only advantage of our hero over its fellows is the price. However, we can't say if the price-to-performance ratio of nVidia Riva TNT2 M64 based cards will be very attractive, because they are not supplied yet. But we are pretty sure that nVidia Riva TNT2 M64 can have any real future only if it costs as nVidia Riva TNT (or only a bit more).

Moreover, we don't quite understand what nVidia was aiming at with this new chipset. It seems that the company tries to bury the market under the whole bunch of various chipset mutants, which hardly differ. The saying of most PC manufacturers, which sounds as "The cheaper, the better!", doesn't fit here. (Of course, if nVidia Riva TNT2 M64 cost less than nVidia Riva TNT, we could probably justify the launching of this new chipset).

Well, and to conclude with we would like to give you good advice: be very attentive while buying a graphics card based on this chipset. TNT2 M64 is also a TNT2, so check the chipset modification before buying the card, otherwise you may be greatly disappointed with the purchase.

FPS3D.com heeft een review gepost van de 3DCool Ultra Thin Exhauster, da's een harddisk cooler:

Hier een stukje copy/paste uit de review:

The Ultra Thin Exhauster is whisper quiet. With my side case panels on, I couldn't hear a thing (except for the power supply fan). The Ultra Thin Exhauster is also what I would call a "Space Saver." It's about as thick as a CD jewel case, and I'm not over-exaggerating. Space will not be not a problem for most people, you can always find an open 3.5" bay with room for the Ultra Thin Exhauster. It also handles heat very well. I noticed a big change in temperatures with both of my Maxtor hard drives.

Gamecenter heeft een lijstje met 10 Deathmatch Geboden samengesteld. Hier heb je een stukje:

Knowing the level is key. Learn the locations of powerful weapons. Learn how to get to health and power-ups quickly. Learn the sounds of the level, such as the noises of certain doors or elevators. Finally, work out a couple of patterns. Think of them as routes between important waypoints you should hit: rocket launcher, then health, then shield, then the overlook to snipe, then rocket ammo, then back to the beginning. It's not terribly unlike Pac-Man: You can play a level improvisationally, making up your route as you go, but the really good players run in patterns. Note, however, that the better players spot someone else's pattern and use it against them. The best players vary their patterns, running through a handful of different ones.

Computer Time, een Italiaanse site, heeft een preview gepost van de Athlon-550. De tekst is in het Italiaans en zal voor normale hollanders niet echt lekker leesbaar zijn . Natuurlijk hebben ze ook van die leuke benchmarks grafiekjes die wij wél snappen en daaruit blijkt dat de Athlon een flink stuk sneller is dan de PIII-550: 35,6% in Winbench CPU Mark, 15% in FPUMark. Verder nog een paar game benchmarks, waarbij de Athlon niet dramatisch veel sneller is (op 1024x768, waarschijnlijk fillrate limited).

Het Italiaanse Athlon verhaaltje vind je hier.

JC heeft de belangrijkste punten, die uit de de AMD Conference Call naar voren zijn gekomen, op een rijtje gezet. Het ziet er allemaal erg positief uit:

Communication group went up in revenue by 10%, and Memory by 30% (for a long while, these have been down or flat)

- As expected, hundreds of thousands of high-ASP K7 parts in Q3

- Instead of 1 million aggregate high-ASP K7 parts, now 1 million in Q4 alone (note: with only one recent exception, AMD has a general tendency to underestimate with shipment projections)

- K6-x expected to retain current market share in Q3, perhaps grow in Q4

- K6-x will live through to at least Q1 2000

- Atiq will likely continue association with AMD in the future, thinks that K7 has tremendous potential for success, is leaving for wholly personal reasons

- Atiq asserted that Intel's only response to K7 is Willamette in 2001

- Dresden will start depreciation no later than first Q of 2000

- K7 has successfully run over 25 OS

- A version of K7 to hit 699 and 899 price point towards the middle of 2000

- K7 is currently yielding very well, there should be no problem meeting demand. 1 million in the 4th quarter is not a "ceiling".

- "Tremendous" amount of K7's in 2000

- Copper process and Dresden fab in general are doing very well also. Achieved yields on copper SRAMS are as high as ever observed on aluminum parts!!!! Good copper processed K6's already yielded.

- There will be copper K6 from FAB30

- Copper will do 1 ghz K7 2H, 2000

- "Several major OEM's" will offer K7's, no problem getting design win for the K7 so far.

Sala Magazine heeft een artikeltje in elkaar geklust over de (te?) sterke positie van Red Hat in de markt van Linux distributies. Hier heb je een hap:

Still, now more than ever before, Red Hat is facing pointed scrutiny, and not just from loudmouth programmers trolling online discussion forums. Red Hat's competitors are also asking questions. Does Red Hat support efforts to create a common standard for Linux? Or does its high-profile employment of top "inner circle" Linux hackers give the company an unfair advantage in determining just what that standard is? Is Red Hat purposely making it hard for other distribution vendors to keep up? Is it positioning itself to be the single dominant player in a market that prides itself on its wild diversity?

Judging from a close look at the evidence, the answers to these questions are mixed: Yes, Red Hat is striving as best it can to gain a competitive advantage, but no, it is no Microsoft. And it may well never be -- as long as the code stays free.

Creative heeft nieuwe drivers voor z'n Soundblaster PCI64 klaar gebakken. Hier heb je de info van Betanews:

Creative Labs posted the latest Sound Blaster PCI64 update for Windows 95/98 which includes:
- Latest drivers (v4.05)
- Sound Blaster PCI64 Mixer
- Creative Configurator
- Improves 8-Bit recording quality
- Improves DirectSound Capture support
- Fixes audio problems in popular games such as FIFA99, Red Line Racer, Half Life

De drivers kun je hier van Creative's website neerhalen.

Ik lees bij Matrox Users dat er nieuw G400 Tweaktooltje gereleased is, waarmee het o.a. mogelijk is om de G400 te overklokken:

Shiba dropped me a line to announce a new release of the G400 TweakTool. TweakTool is similar to the Matrox Overclock program and is a utility to set various PowerDesk 5.xx registry options and also allows overclocking of the G400. At present it is a Japanese only version. [break]Nu is het nog wachten op de eerste resultaten van G400 gebruikers (ik heb begrepen dat de eerste pre-order exemplaren inmiddels geshipt worden).

Tevens bijij Matrox Users deze info over de SingleHead G400 OEM versie, is wellicht handig om rekening mee te houden wanneer je een goedkope OEM G400 wilt halen: [/break] There have been one or two annoyed people in the forums recently who having purchased a G400 feel, some rightly some wrongly, they have been sold a pup. So here are a few cautionary words...

If you buy an OEM G400 SingleHead board it is not upgradeable with a Rainbow Runner-G, it does not have TV out, it does not support multiple displays. An upgrade will be available at some point to add DualHead and TV out but even with the upgrade you will still not be able to add a Rainbow Runner-G.

If you buy a DualHead G400 to use in conjunction with your Rainbow Runner-G, while they are compatible they are currently not a working package as far as the Rainbow Runner-G goes. Matrox have said they will release a new set of Video Tools sometime in July which will work with the G400/RR-G combo.

Soltek vond de blije PC'99 kleurtjes blijkbaar nog niet vrolijk genoeg en heeft nu een nieuwe slot1 plank in de maak waar ze op eigen iniatief een transparant blauw gekleurde slot bracket op geplakt hebben... Cute

Hij zou het ook goed doen in een hamsterhok...