Bij AGN Hardware hebben ze een review online gezet van de Intensor GS350 LX. Dit is een soort game-stoel waar allemaal speakers zijn ingebouwd. Heel raar op het eerste gezicht, maar hij schijnt best goed te werken:

Essentially the Intensor LX is a five driver audio system crammed into a plastic chair. It features a 5.25" full range driver and a 5.25" bass driver, which are placed in the seat and back of the chair unit. Dual 2" mid-range drivers are positioned on the left and right-hand side of the seat base (on each side of the users thighs), and a 2" tweeter is implanted in the top of the chair back, right behind the users head. It's a pretty clever system actually, as the placement of the speakers is what helps truly drive the audio experience that the chair offers.

The power it offers is 20 watts x4 channels, but at extreme volume levels it can be pretty blistering to the ear. It can also begin to distort if turned up too high. Thankfully, to feel what it has to offer, in most cases you'll never need to turn it up so loud that it gets distorted. I also liked the fact that the power-unit/amp offered a regular plug power connector, so it doesn't take up the space that most power-bricks would to plug it into a power-strip or wall electrical outlet.

Voor deze trilstoel betaal je toch slechts 199 dollar

Over bij Hard OCP hebben ze een review gepost van de Alpha P3 Cooler. Hier heb je een gedeelte, de rest vind je hier.

This kit that we got from Overclockers.Com contains the following: the heatsink itself, fans, fan ducting, assorted nuts and bolts. This unit also has included with it some little tabs that you can use to help stabilize the unit since it is so damn heavy. And it IS heavy. If you use the mounting brackets that come with most mainboards, mounting should not be considered a problem unless you case or mainboard will not allow the dimensions of the unit. Outside of that, it is a pretty safe unit to order. No power concerns or anything that you would find associated with a peltier device.

Bij GPU3D heeft hebben ze in een artikel de TNT2 tegenover de GeForce 256 gezet. In het artikel wordt dus uitgelegd wat er zoal nieuw en verbeterd is in nVidia's GeForce. Hier heb je een gedeelte, check de rest hier.

GeForce GPU is 256-bit architecture, but TNT2 chip is only 128-bit. The performance will be improved as the Input and Output to and from the chip will be faster. Now GeForce also can do 4 Pixels/Clock, but TNT2 only can do 2 Pixels/Clock. It guarantees the highest color quality and texturing special effects at maximum frame rate. GeForce 256 also introduces the AGP 4x with Fast Write than TNT2's AGP 4x. Maximum of the memory is increased from 32MB in TNT2 to 128MB in GeForce 256. RAMDAC is increased from 300MHz to 350MHz to deliver clearer, sharper, and better solid image quality.

De nieuwe (balloze) IntelliMouse Explorer is nu verkrijgbaar, dus GameSpot heeft er alvast mee gespeeld. Hier heb je een hap uit de review.

First-person shooters are a different animal. Anyone with serious system horsepower can run FPS titles in excess of 60 frames per second. It's well known that the default PS/2 mouse sampling rate in Windows 98 is 40Hz. This can create an odd stuttering that foils your aim when moving fast through the 3D world. This isn't a big problem when in single-player mode, but if you're playing against human players online, you're dead meat against good players.

Since the Intellimouse Explorer is a USB device, it runs with a higher polling rate. USB mice poll at 120Hz, which is more than enough. I booted up Half-Life and Tribes. Now, I'm only an average FPS player, so I generally get killed a lot, but I was able to hold my own on some servers. What was clear was that the mouse was not the problem.

The bottom line is that the Intellimouse Explorer is a radical new type of mouse that some people will love and others will probably dislike. I personally like it, but it has a few quirks that need to be ironed out before I can give it a wholehearted recommendation for most users. I suggest you give it a spin in a store, if possible. For folks who like the old Microsoft Intellimouse (not the Pro) shape, Microsoft will be using the ball-free technology in a version of the standard mouse as well.

3DGPU.com heeft een aantal screenshots gepost van het spel "Evolva" draaiend op een GeForce 256 videokaart. Ziet er best strak uit moet ik zeggen:

Voor de grotere versies, klik hier. Er is trouwens ook een preview (incl. meer screenies) van deze game, die staat bij GA-Source. Ik zal hier wat info uit de first look plakken:

Evolva pits the player against a deadly alien parasite which has infected a planet. Players create a customized set of warriors called Genohunters and then guide them into a series of confrontations with the parasite and its armies.

The game uses Computer Artworks' A-Life technology to create a believable environment inhabited by intelligent creatures. As battles rage across realistic 3D locations, game genres are mixed with ease as elements of action/shoot 'em ups, strategy and adventure games are merged into a unique gaming experience.

Ik lees bij betanews een posting over nieuwe Win2k drivers voor de HighPoint HPT366 controller op de Abit BP6 en BE6:

Just got some drivers for the HPT366 host adapter, commonly found on several Abit boards. Usually, when you plug the HPT366 Ultra DMA 66 host adapter into your system and boot up the Windows 2000 system, the system will be able to detect the HPT366 Ultra DMA host Adapter automatically and ask you to install the driver for HPT366.

Ik heb 'm ff uitgeprobeerd: de hpt366.sys driver dateert van 12 augustus, dus ik betwijfel of deze nieuw is. Hij is in ieder geval wel nieuwer dan de driver die Firingsquad als meest recent online heeft staan. Met de Firingsquad driver (28/7) blijft m'n Windows 2000 Professional build 2114 hangen tijdens het opstarten (op de helft van het balkje), met de nieuwe drivers van Betanews lukt het wel om de HighPoint controller aan de praat te krijgen. Als je dezelfde problemen hebt onder Win2k dan zou het de moeite waard kunnen zijn om het drivertje uit te proberen.

BDW: als je Windoos op een NTFS partitie staat is het wel handig om toegang te hebben tot die partitie op het moment dat er iets fout gaat. Mocht dat gebeuren dan moet je de driver handmatig uit de /system32/drivers directory wegtrashen.

Ik kwam bij 3DNews.net deze posting van Mark Rein tegen, over de situatie in Raleigh. Epic is daar gevestigd en de orkaan Floyd gaat er waarschijnlijk voor problemen zorgen. Dit zou mogelijk uitstel van de release van de Unreal Tournament D3D/OpenGL demo tot gevolg kunnen hebben:

Hurricane Floyd is expected to hit Raleigh pretty strongly late this evening and throughout tomorrow. This might be my last email for a while. We're expected to get at least 10 inches of rain and hurricane-force winds. The eye of the hurricane is projected to pass one county over from us (which is VERY close!) but hopefully it will be diminished as it travels over land.

In anticipation of the first demo release tomorrow we've launched http://www.unrealtournament.com. The UT web site isn't on a server located in Raleigh so it should stay up. I'll try to update it with our progress if I can keep power. We've sent a build of the demo/test off to 3DFX that could be released tomorrow in the event that we're unable to keep power here tonight. We already experienced a 45 minute power loss but power is back on right now. There are a few minor bugs fixes that we're hoping to fix but if power doesn't stay on that won't happen and the 321 build will get released. We've set up utbugs@epicgames.com for people to report bugs and problems with the demo. We're all backed up and I'll be taking a tape backup home in a waterproof container.

For those interested in tracking the hurricane you can visit http://www.ncstormtrack.com - the internet is pretty clogged tonight with people up and down the east coast hitting the weather and news sites for information about the storm.

There is a good possibility that we'll lose power for several days which could cause the delay of the 2nd demo (all APIs). If that happens we apologize in advance for any delays. A few days extra wait for a demo is nothing like the disaster that is facing most North Carolina farmers who are expected to lose their entire crops for the year due to this storm. Our hearts and concerns go out them as well as those who will be displaced from their homes or worse.

Ok, scratch the above. The security guard for our building just came up and asked us to leave the building. Apparently they're going to bolt the doors of the building so we won't be able to return. Carolina Power & Light told them the power is likely to go out at any time. They already have 15,000 customers without power in the area. We don't know when we'll be able to get back in, hopefully Friday after the storm has passed but we'll only be able to get into the building if it has power. During Hurricane Fran much of Raleigh was without power for an average of 3 days. The authorities say that this storm will be pretty similar to Fran or maybe stronger.

We hope 3DFX users enjoys the demo and we'll do the best we can to ship the full demo (with support for all APIs) as soon after Monday as possible given the events of the next day or two. Wish us luck!

Mark Rein,
Epic Games Inc.

Meneer Thresh himself heeft een hands on preview van Unreal Tournament gepost. Welke conclusies trekt de wereldkampioen Quaken?

Overall Unreal Tournament looks a lot more polished and fun to play than its predecessor. If you're looking for something different than what Quake 3 has to offer then UT is definitely worth checking out. With the demo release imminent this week, you won't have to wait long to do that. Will Epic dethrone id as the serious game of choice for deathmatch? That's a question that won't be fairly answered until both games are fully released and have been in circulation for at least a couple of months. Net play will have a lot to do with that as well, and it remains to be seen how stable UT's internet play is compared to Unreal.

De Glide versie van de Unreal Tournament moet ergens vandaag op 3dfxgamers.com verschijnen. De Direct3D/OpenGL versie komt pas later .

De mensen van The Adrenaline Vault hebben een demo van Delta Force 2 op z'n FTP geplant. Download de 31MB grote demo hier. Update: ik zie dat 3D Files de demo nu ook heeft. Ga daar heen voor meer download locaties.

In Delta Force 2, as in the original, you're a member of the U.S. military's elite anti-terrorist detachment, Delta Force. It's a first-person action game, but it's based on reality; you use real-world weapons and tactics in real-world hotspots, capturing terrorist bases, rescuing hostages, destroying enemy structures and weapons.

The pre-release version of Delta Force 2, supports a limited number of 3D cards. Delta Force 2 will support cards that are truly 32 bit color polygon renderers, including TNT, TNT2 and ATI Rage Fury. 3D card support is provided through Direct 3D. DirectX 6 or greater is required. Note that only polygon-based objects in the game will be accelerated.

Ow, je moet dus wel een 3D kaart hebben die 32-bit kleurtjes ondersteund .

Computer Games Online heeft wat multiplayer tips en hints online gegooid voor Tiberian Sun. Check de info hier.

Now we move to the attacking portion of our program. First, remember to consider force composition. Don't blindly build only Titans or airstrikes or a mob of cyborgs'll destroy you. Watch what the enemy is building (you did scout her base early on, right?) and construct a force to counter it. If the enemy has many vehicles, build units with rockets or cannons. If infantry is the bulk of his force, machine guns and flamethrowers are more effective.

Infantry make a great supplement to vehicles and they can be quite effective when used properly. GDI jump jet infantry and NOD cyborgs can avoid being run over by enemy tanks, a weakness that made ground troops in Red Alert practically useless. They are great for swarming defensive structures—they are cheap and powerful enough to easily overwhelm that pesky Obelisk of Light that keeps blowing up your vehicles.

Ik lees bij Beta News dat Creative versie 1.20 van haar Unified Beta Drivers klaar heeft.

Creative Labs has released a new version of their Unified Beta Driver for their Blaster RIVA TNT and 3D Blaster RIVA TNT 2 video cards. This version includes texture loading optimizations which should increase speed in a number of games, as well as chroma key fixes.

Downloaden kan hier, of fiets even naar de Unified Driver Beta Web Site.

Maarten Stock stuurde me een link richting deze GX server plaat van Supermicro:

Het ding draait rond een 440GX chipset met i960 I/O processor en support voor de 100MHz I2O bus. De 4 DIMM sockets bieden ruimte aan maximaal 2Gb, verder is er nog space voor 64Mb IOP (?) memory (zie de SIMM sockets). Alsof dit nog niet leuk genoeg is plakken ze er ook nog een Adaptec AIC-7896 Dual Channel Ultra II SCSI controller op.

Lekker of nie? Check Supermicro.com voor de complete specs. Oja, het aantal PCI slots mag je zelf gaan tellen .

The Register heeft een bevestiging gekregen dat AMD op 4 oktober de prijzen van de Athlon naar beneden zal halen:

We have now had independent confirmation from a number of PC manufacturers that AMD will, as we reported yesterday, cut its Athlon prices on 4 October.

But the cuts this time are from a position of strength, rather than weakness, according to independent vendors of the products. Athlon products are selling well, in Europe at least. While AMD was forced in the past to cut prices in order to sell products as a result of aggressive pricing strategies by Intel, this price move is part of AMD's long term strategy, we are given to understand. [break] Verder blijkt de Athlon uitstekend te verkopen in Europa:[/break] According to another PC manufacturer in Germany, who also confirmed the price cuts, sales of the Athlon continue to be very strong: "There's practically no business on Intel 600Mhz at present -- all our customers are going to Athlon 600/650."

And an insider at Dixons' subsidiary, PC World, said that its Athlon machines were also outselling Intel's 600MHz Pentiums.

This means war, and it will be interesting to see just how far Intel is prepared to go cutting prices on its Pentium III processors. It is also likely to use every means in its extensive portfolio of disposals to prevent AMD cutting into its desktop market share

The Tech Zone heeft een artikeltje in elkaar gegooid waarin ze de performance van een PC100 en PC133 Micron DIMMetje vergelijken:

The Micron PC-100 RAM was stable up to 133Mhz. This is really good for PC-100 RAM, but then again, the Micron RAM is really PC-125 RAM. The Corsair PC-133 RAM is stable at up to 140Mhz bus.

The main problem with this setup is no AGP cards will work at this kind of bus speed. At least not AGP cards that matters. I know the Intel i740 card can run with the AGP bus set to 100Mhz, but who in their right mind would take an i740 over a Viper Ultra? Even if the RAM can work at over 133Mhz, it no good if your video card won't.

Verder heeft GamePC ook een soortelijk artikel gepost (vergelijking van Crucial, EMS en Kingmax PC133 SDRAM), alleen doen zij niets anders dan benchmarken. De resultaten zijn dan ook waardeloos, want er zijn (zoals te verwachten viel) nauwelijks verschillen in performance.

Ik kreeg van Helmut (Savage News) een mailtje met de vraag of ik een link kon posten naar de Savage Drivers Petition:

This petition has been put up to ask S3 to get their act together and give us some decent drivers. So if you're really annoyed about how the Savage3D and Savage4 drivers are slow / unstable / generally unsatisfactory, just sign your name here. The petition will be available to be signed for a period of 2 weeks starting 13/9/99 (ending 27/9/99), so sign now and encourage any SavageX owning friends to do so too. [break] Dit in verband met de driver problemen, waarvan hier een opsomming wordt gegeven: [/break] - Lack of Performance ICD for the Savage3D
- Instability of drivers
- No non-beta drivers available except the original drivers
- Latest drivers are not available through official channels (S3 website), but only through end-users trawling the Web and FTP sites
- No major bug fixes being addressed, only small bug fixes (see 6.13.27 driver release notes
- Driver performance frequently fluctuates up and down between versions
- Release notes rarely released with drivers
- No reference BIOSes available at S3 site
- Poor 3DNow! support
- Many unsupported features e.g. Anisotropic filtering, 24-bit Z-buffer, Stencil-buffer and Anti-Aliasing
- 32-bit mode laggy and slow
- No write-combining on AMD CPUs
- Buggy AGP Sidebanding support
- No 3D support under Linux via MESA

Toen je medelijden en ga die petitie hier ondertekenen .

...zegt Aureal al sinds de release van de Vortex II, bijna een jaar geleden. Volgens iXBT Labs staat het ons dan toch te gebeuren, eind dit jaar (de vorige keer dat ik Aureal iets over EAX support hoorde zeggen, mikten ze op een release in Q3 '99):

According to our source Aureal will support EAX in their products. EAX support will appear in Stratocaster card drivers first time. Stratocaster is a code name of Vortex 3500 - Vortex 2 based card with DSP on-board chip, S/P DIF coaxial out, 1024 voices support, etc. The card is expected to be released by the end of the year. Besides, Aureal is going to release A3D 3.0 with a lot of improvements.

Computer Sweden brengt ons het blije bericht dat de 17-jarige Zweed, die enkele dagen geleden werd aangeklaagd voor het linken naar MP3'tjes, is vrij gelaten. Het originele nieuwsbericht is in svenska en dat lezen we hier geloof ik niet zo goed, daarom de engelse vertaling van Slashdot:

17 year old free from charges in swedish mp3-case

The district court of Skövde announces today that the 17-year old who had using links to mp3-files on his homepage, is now acquited. Justification being that the 17-year old had only been directing to, not distributing the actual files. The classification was "crime against the copyright law through digital mp3-technics".

Even though he is now acquited, the court thinks he is guilty of complicity to crime against the copyright law. But since he was never prosecuted for that crime, he is released.

This is the first time in Europe a mp3-case has been brought to court. Its the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) who prosecuted the 17-year ord. The organisation has charged him with fines, but crimes against the copyright law can result in up to two years in prison. IFPI has not yet responded if it will appeal against the judgement.

Met de release van de Athlon-700 zal AMD ook de prijzen van de huidige Athlon modellen verlagen. Volgens onbevestigde info van the Register zal dit waarschijnlijk op 4 oktober gebeuren:

According to information which a dealer claimed he received from a European AMD distributor, prices of Athlon K7s will fall as the company readies its faster 700MHz Athlon.

The information, which we were unable to verify at press time, is that the Athlon 500MHz will fall to $220 ($258), the 550MHz to $320 ($465), the 600MHz to $490 ($637) and the 650MHz part to $880. We have no information, so far, about the price of the 700MHz.

(Prices are approximate -- after conversion from a European currency. The prices in brackets are the approximate current prices).

...zo zegt onze vriend Scott McNealy, CEO van Sun, in z'n speech op het IDC European IT Forum in Parijs. Hier heb je nog wat meer leuke uitlatingen van hem (wederom bruut gejat van The Register):

So far as who was in charge was concerned, it was the Web. Microsoft was trying to be in charge, McNealy quipped, but the rest of the world wanted open, multi-vendor systems. It was an HTML world, not one dominated by MS Word; Java and not Visual Basic; and browsers, not Windows. Of the $3 billion of venture capital distributed in Silicon Valley in the last quarter, McNealy didn't think any of it was for packaged software. Pure software and marketing organisations were doomed, McNealy thought: what was needed was "clicks and bricks" - with the bricks apparently being Sun's hardware, or content.

On the subject of nuclear power plants, McNealy was of the opinion that mere mortals should not be instructed how to operate them - and the same was true for PCs. After all, 40 per cent of AOL users only used AOL on their PCs, some 50 per cent of home PCs were languishing because the would-be users had forgotten how to use them - especially CTL-ALT-DEL. PCs were just too complex, the man from Sun said.

So far as software was concerned, most should be near-free he suggested, which gave him the cue to announce that in the first week and a half of Star being available free from Sun, there had been more than 250,000 downloads. One of the downloaders was McNealy's father-in-law, who had been using MS Office (which McNealy said was why he still called him "father-in-law"). Star was "just" 65Mb, though - alright for some with fibre access, but tough for others. A portal version of Star will be available in the next few months, McNealy said, adding that it was not necessary to have 40 million lines of code to run a browser. McNealy had a new joke about Linux: there were more people developing with it than the entire population of the state of Washington.

One of McNealy's envisaged uses for embedded devices was to give him control of any car driven by his son, so that it could be kept below 100 mph - and to know when his son had been downtown rather than in the library working, something he hoped would be recognised as great parenting rather than an invasion of privacy.

Questioned about the small number of thin clients (about a million in 1998) compared with PCs (perhaps 100 million), McNealy noted that "it takes as long to unravel a hairball as to ravel it, and Windows had been around for 20 years. It would still be some time before PCs were back in the hobby clubs again.

Een of ander debiel duits bedrijf is op het stupide idee gekomen om 'Linux' als merknaam te registreren. The Register heeft het nieuws:

Hamburg patent lawyers Hauck, Graalfs, Wehnert have filed a claim with the German patent office to trademark the word Linux, according to Germany's c't (story in German). The news service says that a spokesman for the partnership confirmed the application.

c't also notes that Linux is listed in the German Markenblatt (listing of brand names) dated 9th September under the software category. The trademark is said to be owned by Roy Boldt of Hamburg systems house and consultancy ChannelOne, but so far c't has been unable to contact him for an explanation.

But establishing ownership of a trademark in one country isn't always a great deal of use. Linus Torvalds owns the Linux trademark in the US, but he seems not to have gone on any kind of global offensive. German regulations allow three months for objections to the application, and no doubt there'll be plenty.

And even if any one company did manage to get hold of the Linux trademark, actually trying to stop anybody else distributing software under the label would be a sure-fire way not to sell any software yourself.

Ik kwam bij The Register deze nieuwsposting tegen over een erg interessante nieuwe memory technologie, die de huidige DRAM chips zou kunnen vervangen:

Boffins at Cambridge University and Hitachi say their DRAM killer will be ready to go into production within five years.

The device, called PLEDM (Phase state Low Electron hole number Drive Memory), may sound like something one would cough up after too many B&Hs, but it could have major implications for the future of electronics.

PLEDM can instantly access and record vast amounts of data - a whole film could be stored on just one chip. It also consumes very little power, useful for the increasingly mobile world.

DRAM has inherent limitations -- to provide a sufficiently high signal to noise ratio, it must be of a certain size, yet we want smaller and smaller components. The designers of the PLEDM had this in mind, and have come up with a new cell structure.

Conventional DRAMs consist of one-transistor and one-capacitor cell, instead the new PLEDM cell uses two transistors to make a 'gain cell' in a smaller area.

The boffins even reckon that one day, a fast non-volatile* PLEDM cell could replace a hard drive. *Memory is retained when the power is out. ®

Steve heeft op de Apple Expo in Parijs bekend gemaakt dat Appel is begonnen met de levering van het nieuwe AaiBoek:

Apple iCEO Steve Jobs ushered in Apple Expo here Wednesday morning with a localized rerun of highlights from his recent keynote addresses at July's Macworld Expo/New York and August's Seybold Seminars in San Francisco.

While Jobs made no major product announcements -- despite speculation that he might use the forum to unveil Kihei, Apple's (Nasdaq:AAPL) reported successor to the iMac -- he did reveal that the iBook consumer laptop will start shipping Wednesday to U.S. dealers, with European shipments to follow in a matter of weeks. Jobs said that iBook pre-orders have risen to 160,000 units, up from the 140,000 he touted at Seybold.

Nog geen nieuws dus over de nieuwe iMac II. In de tussentijd kun je voor meer info bij ZDNet terecht.

Covalent Technologies gaat vanaf eind oktober een 24-huurs support service onderhouden voor Apache, de welbekende gratis open source webserver waar o.a. ook deze site door voortgekacheld wordt:

Covalent Technologies, a Nebraska company that offers Apache add-ons and consulting services, will begin providing 24-hour technical support for the free Web server software in the end of October.

Apache is very popular among non-commercial Web sites. Yet for business users, "one of the stumbling blocks has been the lack of an actual support entity," said Randy Terbush, Covalent's chief executive and one of the original founders of the Apache Web server project, started in 1995.

The arrival of technical support for Apache is part of a trend for making free software profitable. Red Hat, a Linux operating system vendor that makes much of its money by selling Linux CDs, plans to make technical support a mainstay of its revenue stream. VA Linux Systems, which manufactures Linux-based computers, is moving in the same direction toward services and support. Linuxcare, on the other hand, focuses specifically on Linux customer services.

Open-source software has moved more into the spotlight as venture capital firms take an interest in the market. Red Hat's successful initial public offering has also raised the profile of the burgeoning open-source movement.

Het complete verhaaltje lees je in dit nieuwsartikel van News.com.

Anand heeft een review van de Enlight EN-8950 server kast op z'n site geplant:

As an entry level server case the 8950 doesn't do a bad job at all, and at a price of around $160 - $180 you can expect the 8950 to be one of the more attractive cases that offers the feature set it does. The convertible rackmount option as well as the optional hot swappable drive bay are two features that increase the flexibility of this case tremendously.

As far as using the 8950 as a case for a high end workstation or an overclocker's dream, you're probably going to want to opt for a better ventilated case as the average temperature of the 8950 was on par with that of the Palo Alto cases we've tested. While it is true that the Palo Alto cases are among the coolest running cases that we've reviewed thus far, it is also worth mentioning that the 8950 is a server case and should be a much cooler option than even the best Mid-Tower ATX cases.

Windows 2000 Release Candidate 2 is officieel aangekondigd door Microsoft. Betanews heeft de press release, waarvan hier een stukkie:

- Steve Ballmer announced at Windows Strategy Day today that Windows 2000 Release Candidate 2 for the Professional, Server & Advanced Server editions will be available this week. Microsoft is very excited about this important milestone to deliver Windows 2000. As Microsoft gets closer to launching Windows 2000, they are pleased to announce the anticipated system requirements as well as reiterate the upgrade path. While Windows 2000 has been feature complete for some time now, Microsoft has continued to make key fit and finish adjustments and improvements to the code based on customer feedback. Below is a list of what beta customers can expect from RC 2 as well as important information about system requirements and upgrade paths.

What's New in RC 2?

Broader Hardware and Software Support: Many ISVs and IHVs have provided updated drivers since the release of beta 3 resulting in broader HW and SW support with this release candidate.

Simplified Administration: Microsoft has worked hard to simplify Windows 2000 administration tools and improved dialogue and message boxes. Connecting to the Internet and DNS configuration have been made simpler. Dialog Boxes and Messages Text have been clarified to provide users with easy to understand messages. Administrative tools, such as Active Directory Users & Computers have also been enhanced.

The focus of work between the final beta and RTM is bug fixes, improving user interface fit & finish, performance and reliability enhancements, hardware support and application compatibility.

Windows Media Services: The updated Windows Media Services provide high-quality streaming multimedia to users.

Web Telephony Engine: WTE previously known as Web IVR is a run time engine which uses the Hypertext Markup to enable Web authoring tools

Microsoft will be making the Component Load Balancing feature of COM+ for Windows 2000 Advanced Server and Data Center Server available via a technology preview from Microsoft support services. In the future it will available in the Microsoft AppCenter Server.

BXBoards heeft een review van de Swiftech MC1000 peltier cooler op de site geplant.

Results for my 300A weren't quite as good as I had hoped for, but some CPUs just aren't cut out to overclock much, no matter what. At 464, while the CPU was using conventional cooling, it would lock up randomly, however lockups were few and far between. With the MC1000, it was rock solid at the default voltage. 504, however, was a different story. While it wouldn't post with conventional cooling, the MC1000 did persuade it into booting into windows. Games were a different story though; Unreal locked up after 2-5 loops.

As you can see, the MC1000 did it's job quite well at each setting, keeping the CPU below freezing at all times. Sorry that I don't know exact CPU temperatures, I couldn't seem to get my BX6-R2 to report any temperatures below freezing in either the bios or with Motherboard Monitor. As far as condensation goes, I did find a very small trace on the back of the CPU after running the machine for 48 hours straight with the popular cooling program, Rain turned on. This condensation didn't cause any problems, but it did concern me a bit. Luckily, Swiftech seems to have beat the condensation problem in the new release of the MC1000, read on......

...en verder lezen doe je hier.

Anders Hammervald van Sharky Extreme heeft een review gepost van de Skywell Magic Theator Pro, een multimedia setje bestaande uit een geluidskaart met Dolby Digital 5.1 output voor de bijgeleverde speakers. Anders beoordeeld de set met een 6,5 - vooral vanwege de crappy geluidskaart:

Now we've covered the specs, time to answer the real question, is this board any good. The answer is unfortunately No. It's not a bad sound card but I found it lacking a lot of the things I've come to expect from a good PC sound card these days. First of all, while it boasts that it supports just about every 3D sound API out there I encountered nothing but problems trying to run A3D enabled software on this board, even applications with native Q3D coding sometimes didn't run well, this might of course have had something to do with the given application but regardless, it was disappointing.

The second thing, which in my eyes is far worse than not supporting all the 3D audio standards perfectly (because to be honest it doesn't really make that much of a difference in most titles) is that the sound board was incapable of playing multiple audio streams under Windows. Why these kind of capabilities haven't been implement in the board's Windows drivers puzzles me as the hardware no doubt is quite capable of supporting it. Multi stream playback is very useful in many cases, for one, playing Quake 3 with MP3 music playing in the background, or just a simple thing like hearing that "ohoh" sound ICQ makes when you get a new message while playing Mp3's in the background, neither of these things is possible with the Magic Sound Live!

Guillemot heeft een nieuw op de TNT2 Model 64 gebaseerd videokaartje aangekondigd. Hier heb je wat info uit de press release:

Wednesday, September 15, 1999 - Guillemot is showing its claws with the new Maxi Gamer Cougar(tm) graphics card based on the NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 M64(tm) chipset. The card will offer unrivalled visual quality and ultra-fast 3D graphics for only $99.99 after a mail-in rebate.

"Gamers as well as home PC users will get the best deal from the Maxi Gamer Cougar. With 32 MB of RAM, this cards offers excellent 3D and 2D resolutions and high-speed frames and refresh rates," says Parth Shukla, Product Manager for Guillemot. "The new card offers high image quality and the ability to play the latest and next generation games at their best and at a very affordable price."

Maxi Gamer Cougar

With an attractive set of features and an unbelievable low price, the Maxi Gamer Cougar will appeal to customers wishing to upgrade their systems without spending a fortune. It offers the best visual quality with photo-realistic 3D and razor sharp textures in the most demanding 3D games, as well as fast frame rates for unparalleled 3D acceleration. Using TwiN-Texel(tm) architecture with 32-bit rendering allows for high definition resolutions and extraordinary fill rate results as well as advanced single-pass multi-texturing effects such as fogging, lighting and fully operating bump mapping. The 32-bit Z-buffer also provides higher depth details. In 2D applications, the 300 MHz RAMDAC supplies outstanding resolutions up to 1920 x 1200 in 16.7 million colors.

The Maxi Gamer Cougar features:

- 128-bit 3D processor for ultra-fast frame rates.
- 32 MB on-board RAM with over 1 GB/s bandwidth
- AGP 2X/4X interface with full AGP texturing support
- 125 MHz core clock
- Complete OpenGL® ICD and Direct 3D(tm)/Direct X(tm) hardware support

Bij HardOCP zijn ze weer lekker creatief bezig geweest. Wat denk je hier van?

Site Zonder Naam heeft een review van de ATi Expert 2000 neer gemikt. Zoals we van ATi gewend mogen zijn gaat het hier niet om een snelheidsmonster: in D3D weet het ding de TNT2 Model 64 nog net bij te houden, maar in OpenGL is de performance plain klote:

Being a good multimedia card does not mean a fast 3D card. In case of Xpert2000 this is a true statement. This card can not compete with new card out there on the market. It absolutely does not mean you can not play 3D games. What it means is that you can play, but not very fast. It gives you a very good picture quality as well as high resolution in 2D with high refresh rates. DVD is one of the best I've seen using SoftDVD. And price of this card will attract lots of customers. For those of you with home use in mind this card will do just fine. But gamer has to consider the upcoming Rage Fury PRO card.

Act Labs en Europress hebben aangekondigd dat de Act Labs RS Shifter (versnellingspook voor het force feedback stuurtje van Act Labs) zal worden gebundeld met een pre-release versie van Rally Championship 2000. Hier heb je de press release:

ACT LABS Ltd. and Europress today announced that an exclusive pre-release version of Rally Championship will be shipping with the RS Shifter in late September. Though Rally Championship is not scheduled to ship until the end of October, Europress decided to showcase its software with the latest innovation from ACT LABS and bring their racing sim to the next level. The full version of Rally Championship will also integrate RS Shifter support and ACT LABS and Europress have numerous promotions lined up for Q4.

Race simulation fans have been eagerly anticipating the launch of one of the most sophisticated rally games to ever hit the market. Becky Walker, OEM Business Manager at Europress says, "The pent-up demand for this game is incredible. It is currently ranked as the #2 wanted title throughout Europe. Based on the forecasts from our distributors, Rally Championship should easily surpass 500,000 units shipped over the next two quarters."

According to Walker, the European market is filled with hardcore rally racers while the North American market isn't far behind.

For ACT LABS, securing bundle rights to an exclusive version of Rally Championship is a significant victory. Stuart Galloway, ACT LABS Marketing Manager, explains, "Because the RS Shifter is a breakthrough technology in terms of realism, we didn't want to bundle with just any race simulation. We were clearly impressed by the early versions of Rally Championship we received. It proved to be a spectacular showcase for the RS Shifter."

The RS Shifter and Rally Championship bundle will sell for US$69 list and be available in late September.