Andy van BXBoards heeft een review gepost van Asus' nieuwe P3B-F moederplank met 6/1/1 PCI/ISA/AGP layout en een nieuwe versie van het Award BIOS:

Asus BIOS uses the very latest 4M/bit Award BIOS, and in truth, it takes a little getting used to. However once you get underneath the hood, the BIOS reveals what we have been waiting for from Asus for a long time - voltage tweaks!!! Selecting from 2.0v right up to 2.4v is possible for 0.25 Micron CPU's which allows a hitherto unseen amount of tweaking potential. Personally I never run past 2.2v but I have run at 2.4v for extended periods without causing damage. Its good that Asus allow the user to take responsibility and they are to be commended. The BIOS also allows for a great deal of control over SDRAM timings and also supports the ubiquitous Health Controls as well.

ZDNet heeft een artikeltje gepost over de release date van de Intel Coppermine, waarvan 4 verschillende versies beschikbaar zullen komen:

So Intel, per the request of its OEMs, will pull together four different individual processor launches based on the Coppermine Pentium III design into a single launch day in late October or early November.

On the desktop, Coppermine will produce 600MHz and faster Pentium III chips. Sources have tossed around 667MHz and 700MHz as possible speeds. It will also allow for new packaging that returns to a socket for small form factor PCs. This packaging, called "flip chip," will debut at about 500MHz.

Mobile Pentium IIIs using the Coppermine design will start at speeds as high as 500MHz. Sources said Intel will offer 400MHz and 450MHz mobile Pentium III chips as well. A 600MHz mobile Pentium III will be out in first quarter of 2000, sources said.

Het volk bij The Register probeert opwindend te zijn met een gerucht over een mogelijke overname van AMD door Intel:

The chip giant would be safe from the threat of Federal Trade Commission (FTC) action because of Via's latest acquisition -- the IDT-Centaur x.86 business line. Earlier this week, Via said it would pay $167 million for Cyrix technology.

AMD would not come too expensive. For over a month now, its share price has bumped along at a dismal $16 or so. AMD turned in a record loss-making quarter recently, and is in debt up to its eyeballs.

[...] There is another possibility, according to an ex-Intelinsider. He said that Intel was more likely to wait until AMD drifted into Chapter 11, and then come in as a white knight, thus looking a bit like the hero it wants to look like... ®

Een aantal wijze Barney's bij IBM hebben een techniek uitgevogeld waarmee de schrijf performance van magnetische media verdubbeld kan worden. The Register brengt ons het verheugende nieuws:

The technique uses an ultra high frequency AC current to flip the magnetic poles of electrons in a cobalt-copper-cobalt sandwich.

Or, as the researchers themselves put it: "Current-induced switching in the orientation of magnetic moments is observed in cobalt-copper-cobalt structures, for currents flowing perpendicularly through the layers. Magnetic domains in adjacent cobalt layers can be manipulated controllably between stable parallel and antiparallel configurations by applying current pulses of the appropriate sign."

The upshot, say the researchers, is a way of storing data twice as quickly as has been achievable to date and three times faster than currently available hard drives.

Van een commerciële toepassing is de techniek vooralsnog niet geschikt...

Alpha heeft een PIII versie van z'n indrukwekkende P125C PII heatsink uitgedokterd. Volgens Sysop Solutions zal de heatsink binnen enkele weken gereleast worden:

Some of the features of the new sink include a copper heat spreader that will greatly help to dissipate heat and a new air intake for the L2 Cache. (Can you tell we are a bit excited by all this?). Here is a pic for your viewing pleasure. I have also included a link to the new spec sheet on the product. Pricing information will be released as soon as we know more.

En voor het geval je het wegens het hete weer of een onveranwoord hoog alcohol gebruik vergeten mocht zijn: zo ziet-ie eruit:

Andy van BXBoards heeft een review van het A-Trend ATC-6240 moederbord op z'n site geplant. De ATC-6240 heeft de welbekende 5/2/1 PCI/ISA/AGP layout en voor de overklokkers doet-ie aan Vi/o tweaking:

The ATC-6240 is a well featured board with an excellent specification. Although voltage tweaks are appearing in more and more motherboards nowadays, the inclusion of VIO tweaking is not as compelling as VCore tweaks, but is still more than welcome, and gives good overclocked stability for more stubborn CPU's which require that little extra boost. Only the P3-450 @ 4.5 x 124 failed to boot in the battery of tests we run here at BXB. Although offering nothing truly exceptional in an increasing crowded market, the ATC-6240 can more than hold its own. Well worth a look.

Sharky Extreme heeft de nieuwe "PRO" versie van de ATI Rage Fury eens kort nader bekeken. ATI heeft in deze PRO versie de kloksnelheid van de Rage Fury met zo'n 50% verhoogd, naar ongeveer 150MHz, en de kaart biedt nu ook een Full video capture mogelijkheid.

The second major feature of the Rage Fury Pro versus the previous Rage Fury card is the inclusion of a video capturing ability that's similar to ATI's own more expensive All-In-Wonder 128 product line.

In our opinion, this is a very savvy move by ATI's design crew.What they're effectively trying to do here is take some wind out of 3dfx's Voodoo3-3500 TV sails before that part can gets well established in the market.

Whether or not prospective V3-3500 TV buyers will wait it out until the Rage Fury Pro debuts in late October though remains to be seen. If the Rage Fury Pro turns out to be a more feature rich product, which, it seems to be shaping up as based on its early specs then that wait might not seem very hard.

De kaart komt niet eerder dan eind oktober pas, dus ik ben benieuwd of we hier dan nog op zitten te wachten.

Gamers Central heeft een review geschreven van Re-Volt, een zwaar leuke racegame waarin je met kleine radio-grafische karretjes rijdt. De game komt waarschijnlijk deze maand nog uit, anders kun je ook een demo downloaden. Anyway, hier heb je een stukje uit de preview.

Of course, you are free to leave the track at any time and go exploring, to the extent that the game allows. In the version that I played, the track is set in an urban environment. Consequently, you can go off exploring other people's front yards, although there isn't really much that you can't see from the road. There are several obstacles placed around the track that must be avoided. For example, at the start, several basketballs can be seen bouncing across the road. While it is possible to hit these, I get the feeling that they are there more for the entertainment value than to pose a serious driving menace. Obstacles to be avoided include parked cars (although you can always drive under these) and the roadside curb. You can often get the edge on your opponents by mounting the curb and jumping down the other side, thus cutting the corner. The full version of the game when it's released will include 13 single player tracks set in 7 different environments including a museum, a supermarket, the wild west, botanical gardens, a toy store and a cruise ship. Not all of these tracks will be available at the beginning of the game. You will have to use your skill to earn the right to race on some of them. Pleasingly, the full version will also include a track editor, which should increase the lastability of the game substantially.

De jongens van 3D Wars hebben even gezellig gebabbeld met Keith Galocy van 3dfx. Het resultaat ervan vind je hier. Geen info over de Voodoo4 trouwens.

MB: With all these new titles coming out such as Quake 3 and Unreal Tournament that use the latest 3dfx hardware, how do you feel about 2D Civil War games that are still being published?

KG: Not all games are best represented in 3D. However, many traditional 2D games such as real time strategy (RTS) games are beginning to take advantage of 3dfx hardware. Games like TA: Kingdoms and Diablo2 use 3D for enhanced visuals and special effects but still maintain a top-down view. Other RTS games such as Pandemic's "Dark Reign 2" and Singularity Software's "Fire and Darkness" are taking a more radical 3D approach.

MB: Explain the Total Immersion program. How does it help bring the game developer community closer to 3dfx?

KG: Actually, I'd say it's the other way around. The Total Immersion developer program helps 3dfx get closer to the development community. Understanding the wants and needs of the developer has been critical to 3dfx's success. 3dfx earns the respect of the development community by providing a stable development environment through timely technical support, solid drivers and exciting technology.

Bij Games Mania hebben ze een review van de nieuwe Nomad MP3 Player van Creative geplaatst. Hij is er zowel met 32MB als met 64MB en heeft ook een puike FM tuner. Hier heb je een stukkie:

Other features of the Nomad include a number of equalizer settings, volume control, randomize, repeat and all the other standard features common to other MP3s or even CD players. The quality of the sound reproduction offered by the Nomad is good, as good as any other MP3 player or CD player I would have to say. The only thing that really makes or breaks the quality of the sound is the way the MP3 is recorded and what type of headphones you are using to listen to it. The headphones that are provided aren't bad, but they aren't the best either, about middle of the road as far as quality is concerned. The 64-MB version of the Nomad is essentially the 32-MB version shipped with a 32-MB flash card upgrade. If you haven't seen a flash card before, you will be amazed at its small size when you consider its storage capacity.

Bij Wicked PC hebben ze nog even snel een kleine review gedropt van de Intel Celeron 466MHz Processor. Dit waren hun overklok resultaten:

For overclocking we found the Celeron 466 samples to reach two different levels, 525MHz and 583MHz. Each CPU we tested was fitted with a Socket Sinker from 3DCOOL.COM for optimal temperatures, and tested for a few hours. The first CPU we tried worked great and stable at 583MHz, but the second wouldn't go stable above 525MHz. This goes to show that heat isn't the only factor limiting the CPUs, as the Celeron core is almost maxed. If you get over 583MHz with the 466 in any case, we would be quite surprised. The yields of the Celeron 466 are coming out pretty steady though, and 525MHz seems to be the keynote for over 2/3 of the Celeron 466s on the market today.

Bij SystemLogic hebben ze een review geplaatst van de Logitech Quick Cam Pro USB webcam. Hier heb je wat over de performance, de rest vind je hier.

The only problem I really had with this USB camera was its frames per second rate. At first, I thought something was wrong with the camera or my software configuration. But after looking over everything, I began to notice that the only way you're going to get true 30fps is to use really small resolutions with the least amount of colors. I guess the 640x480 resolution is more or less designed to be used with still pictures only, not video. Other than that, I was delighted by its quality picture and speed at lower resolutions. With Microsoft Netmeeting 3.0, I was sending and receiving two video streams on a 56k connection without a hitch. I would have liked to have seen better performance at higher resolutions, but you can't get everything in one try.

Guillemot heeft in samenwerking met Falcon Northwest een nieuwe, nòg snellere versie van de Xentor32 gebouwd, de "Falcon SE Xentor". Sjek deze features:

The fastest 3D chip clock to date - NVIDIA's RIVA TNT2(tm) chipset running at a minimum of 195 MHz core chip speed.

The fastest RAM ever used on a graphics card - 32 MB of 4.3-nanosecond video RAM running at a minimum of 235 MHz memory clock.

True AGP 4X compatibility - no need to upgrade or modify your settings to take advantage of this innovative feature on upcoming motherboards.

Advanced cooling - a custom fan on the core chip and individual heatsinks for every memory chip pair. Smart power management - the cooling fan runs directly off the power supply to allow more processing power for the graphics engine.

Hij is leverbaar vanaf de 2e week van augustus en kost 349 Dollar. De press-release staat op The Tech Zone

Jason van AnandTech heeft een review gepost van de MC1000 en MC2000 Peltier coolers. Vooral de MC2000 is een errug heftig koelertje:

The MC2000 certainly performs well. It kept the P3-450 a little cooler than the MC1000. But as I said, it was very difficult to get accurate readings on this particular unit. This was not the fault of the unit at all - it is just sealed extremely well. When you start adding up the cost of a power supply and a case that will accommodate this unit, it gets to be expensive. The case is important here because the MC2000 needs to breathe. It puts off a fair bit of heat from the heatsink. It is because of this that not everyone can afford to put one of these units in their machine; but if you can, then you will not be disappointed in its performance.

While testing this unit we found some very interesting results with the Pentium 3 450. The success rate in getting to 600Mhz is not as common as it should be. Out of four P3 450's, only two made it to 600Mhz. Other people in the overclocking community have confirmed that the consistency of achieving 600Mhz is not very common. This is something to keep in mind when making your purchase decision.

The Tech Zone heeft een artikeltje gepost waarin ze het performance verschil tussen 128 en 256Mb RAM bespreken. Als benchmarks gebruiken ze Quake, Unreal en 3DMark99. Persoonlijk lijkt het me nogal onzinnig om te upgraden van 128 naar 256Mb puur voor extra game performance. De benchmarks onderschrijven dit ook (maar liefst .3fps extra in Unreal ):

As you can see, the scores are pretty much a wash. Adding another 128 megs of RAM to the computer made for almost zero gain, unless you can see the difference between less than one frame per second. Of course this was just a testing for game performance and nothing else. Having 256 megs of RAM did help PhotoShop when working with very large (and I mean VERY large) image files.

Given the results I got, I don't really see a reason to get 256 megs of RAM over 128 megs if games are what you will run. If you're a graphic professional who works with large PhotoShop file you'll see a benefit going from 128 to 256 megs of RAM.

The Register heeft een nieuwsposting over een interessante nieuwe IBM dual core PowerPC CPU met een bus van meer dan 500Mhz. Jammie!

IBM will next week unveil its latest Power CPU, the chip line that formed the basis for the PowerPC family. The Power4 processor will beat Motorola to the goal of unveiling a multi-core PowerPC chip.

According to EE Times, Power4 will contain two cores and an L2 cache on a single die constructed using a 0.18 micron process and copper interconnect technology. The chip is scheduled to be unveiled at a paper given at the Hot Chips conference next week.

Members of the chip's development team said the chip will support a bus speed of greater than 500MHz, and while they would not confirm the chip's clock speed, they did say their goal was a bus speed half the frequency of the clock speed, clearly implying CPU speeds of 1GHz or more.

The Register heeft een nieuwsbericht geplaatst waarin een Intel juffrouw een verhaaltje vertelt over de uitgestelde release van de Coppermine processor:

Our source, who wishes to stay anonymous because she wants to keep her job, but who is nevertheless, extremely reliable, said: "I can assure you that Coppermine's delay had nothing to do with marketing. For once, Intel's PR is telling the truth. There was a RASH of unexpected problems with it, mostly due to last minute problems hitting the frequency target."

She said that Dixons early success was because it failed to fully exploit the .18 micron P858 process.

Coppermine, which does (or perhaps should) fully exploit P858, showed a number of problems with both process and design.

Coppermine will launch at 667MHz because of the holdover P856 version, she said.

Intel will take a rather standoffish position towards AMD's Athlon, she said. There will be no official reaction while architects, engineers and designers "fab out" (make) faster and faster Cumines until Willamette emerges.

And the engineer further claimed that there is nothing in AMD's Fab 30 that Intel hasn't already tried. However, she added, Intel doesn't promise things it can't produce...

AMD heeft een lijstje met aanbevolen Athlon mammaplankjes op z'n site geparkeerd. Op dit moment valt er nog niet al te veel te beleven: het lijstje bestaat uit 3 mobo's, nl de FIC SD11, Gigabyte GA-7IX en MSI MS-6167.

Codemasters heeft bekend gemaakt dat het in 2000 een vervolg zal uitbrengen op Colin McRae Rally. Het nieuws van AVault:

The original game's producer, Guy Wilday, is leading the development and resources have been increased for the sequel, which is slated for release in 2000, with a 30-strong core development team. Although a final title has yet to be confirmed, the McRae headline name will remain. Nonetheless it is understood that the team emphasis moves from Subaru to McRae's 1999-2000 season Ford Focus team.

Graphically, Codemasters is promising an impressive racing experience. A refined graphics engine will allow “for incredible depth of detail and speed of movement" with all cars appearing far more realistic due to a significantly higher polygon count. Additionally, a new reflection-mapping technique will be included, as will all-new scenic detail, which will use photographic references from the geographic locations featured in the game. [break]...en nu we toch met Rally gaming bezig zijn pak ik ook maar meteen een posting mee van Rallychamp.com, over een demo van het veelbelovende Rally Championship '99 (check eerdere nieuwsberichten voor geile screenies): [/break] A fellow RC fan has confirmed that the 100th issue of PC Format will have an exclusive playable demo of the Seat Ibiza on the Clocaenog Special Stage. It should be in shops on September 7th. I'll post the news of its release and my first opinions here. I can't comment on availability in the US or other countries outside the UK, but our host, GA-Sports is looking into scoring a copy of the demo asap.

Magnetic Fields had made a comment on PC Format in the High Gear RC forum, but this is the first confirmation on the actual plans. Remember, you heard it here first!

Please note, these things can (and often do) change and this news is certainly not set in gold, yet!