The Insider heeft een review online gezet rondom de Asus' Athlon moederplank, de K7M. Ook hier valt het overklokken wat tegen, hoger dan 110MHz wil het bordje niet. Hieronder een plak uit de review, lees de rest hier.

The K7M is the first Athlon motherboard to implement an AMR slot above the AGP slot on their boards. AMR (Audio Modem Riser) slots have been in low cost Intel-based motherboards for a little while now, and even though no AMR cards are being mass produced, they'll be here soon enough. If you're unfamiliar with the concept of AMR, you're not alone. AMR cards are basically integrated low-cost audio chips with analog modems, that will be integrated onto a single PCB for low-cost computers. Interestingly enough, even though the board has an AMR slot, Asus still felt the need to put an onboard audio chip on the board. Totally un-necessary, we didn't even feel like testing it. Most likely people will stick their own 3D sound card in there, so basically we have room for three sound sources on a single board.

Pretty standard fare motherboard otherwise, 5 bus-mastering PCI slots, a single 16-bit ISA slot, 3 DIMM slots. The board has dual Ultra DMA/66 (or Ultra DMA/33 if you choose) channels, as all Athlon motherboards do. Ultra DMA/66 is built into the VIA 686A Southbridge chip, and isn't a hacked version like many Intel-BX boards are nowadays with DMA/66 onboard.

Koen van Hardwareinfo.net heeft een uitgebreide review op z'n site gemikt van de Matrox G400 Max. In zijn test staan verder ook benchmarks van de TurboGL drivers. Check de hele review hier.

Eigenlijk kan ik over de Matrox G400 MAX alleen maar positie zijn: de kaart heeft een zeer hoge performance, de allerbeste beeldkwaliteit, een prachtig Dual Head systeem en perfecte 3D functionaliteit, waaronder Environment Mapped Bump Mapping.

Het enige nadeel is de verkrijgbaarheid van de videokaart: het vinden van een G400 MAX videokaart in een computerwinkel is ongeveer net zo moeilijk als het zoeken van een treinconducteur met humor: er zijn er nu eenmaal niet veel van. Zodra de kaart in grote getale beschikbaar is kan ik hem iedereen van harte aanbevelen. Op dit moment kan echter nog niemand zeggen wanneer Matrox' leveringsproblemen verholpen zullen zijn.

Uiteraard zijn nieuwe chips, zoals de nVidia GeForce 256, ook alweer op komst. Als Matrox de problemen echter snel opgelost krijgt is de G400 MAX nu nog een van de meest interessante videokaarten die je op dit moment kunt kopen: vandaar absoluut een Hardwareinfo.net Recommended Hardware label!

Rivastation heeft een flinke zooi OpenGL benchmarks lopen draaien op een PIII-500 en met TNT2 Ultra en Guillemot 3D Prophet (120/166MHz, SDRAM). Hier de conclusie:

WOW! - But whereŽs the snag? Well, itŽs D3D. The D3D drivers still need some work. The v3.48 driver is faster in DirectX7 games but in DX6 games v2.08 is faster. But this is only an matter of time until weŽll see better performance here. The OpenGL benches show the potential of the Guillemot 3D Prophet and NVIDIA GeForce - even in SDRAM version. You can also see it this way: DonŽt upgrade you main system with a faster CPU. Just buy a GeForce.... for OpenGL games this already has come true.

Check het artikel voor de cijfers.

Ik liep bij Betanews tegen een handig proggie genaamd 'AutoDefrag voor Windows 2000', dat zoals de naam doet vermoeden automatisch je schijven kan defragmenteren (net zoals Diskeeper dat doet, alleen dit is freewaren):

Many people have complained about the lack of functionality in Windows 2000's built in defragmenter. Well now, with AutoDeFrag, these problems no longer have to be a reality. Instead of shelling out $40+ for the full version of Diskeeper 5, just download this simple utility. This small freeware program has the capability to not only schedule when you want defrag to run, but also what drives are defragmented.

Het proggie kun je hier naar beneden hengelen.

FPS3D.com heeft een review gepost van de 3DCool Twin Turbo coolers, waarmee je hard drives, CD-ROM writers e.d. koud kunt houden:

If it's hard drive cooling that's a concern, just buy some mounting brackets for your hard drive (if it's retail it probably came with some), and stick the Twin Turbo above. I tried it on my Quantum Fireball Plus KA and it was no longer warm from heat, it was actually cold. As you can imagine, the Twin Turbo is a nice investment for those with 10,000 RPM drives.

One really sweet application for the Twin Turbo that I found is to cool CD-R and RW drives. As anyone knows, CD-Rs get damn hot while they're doing their recording business! This can results in a distorted disc, and ultimately an expensive coaster. So I popped the Twin Turbo above my HP 8200i and the same results as the hard drive came forth.

The Tech Zone heeft een korte review van de 18,2Gb dikke Quantum Fireball KA ATA66 schijf neer gelegd. Het ding draait op 7200 toeren, heeft een toegangstijd van 8,5ms en gaat vergezeld van een 512Kb kleine cache:

Under real world gaming situations, the drive performs great. I was always among the first to get onto each Quake 3 level. I also notice a nice speed increase from Unreal Tournament. With my old drive, which only spun at 4,500 RPM, Unreal Tournament was very choppy. The choppiness disappeared with the Quantum drive.

Great performance, great price, good warranty and lots of storage space. There's isn't much missing from drive. The icing on the cake is the Quantum KA is very quiet for a 7,200 RPM hard drive. With a street price of about $180, I can't see how you can lose going with the Quantum 18 Gig KA.

Hmm, Bill heeft een nieuwe, best wel schmutzige strategie gevonden in z'n strijd tegen het Amerikaanse Ministerie van Justitie... Lees dit artikel van News.com:

A newspaper report that Microsoft lobbyists and allies are pressing Congress to reduce funding for the Justice Department antitrust division sparked anger among antitrust lawyers Friday.

"It's like the Mafia trying to defund the FBI," said a prominent member of the Washington antitrust bar, who asked not to be identified, condemning the lobbying effort. The Washington Post reported that Microsoft representatives have urged House and Senate members to cut $9 million from President Clinton's proposed budget for the antitrust division in fiscal 2000.

[...] Albert Foer, president of the American Antitrust Institute, said in a statement that "Microsoft's salvo is clearly an attempt to leverage its position through intimidation."

En nu ik toch bij JC rondliep (zie vorige posting): hij heeft ook nieuwe Coppermine benchmarks binnen gekregen:

And to really rile you, we may just have some real world Coppermine scores. And this is with the GeForce, I might add. According to they, Coppermine (on a MSI 6163 Pro) garners a very sweet 15.8% boost over a similarly clocked Katmai (these were 500MHz parts) at 640x480 Normal and 8% faster at 640x480 High Quality.

15%, da's zeker niet slecht!

Ik kwam via JC bij deze twee artikelen van EBNews en Silicon Investor. Beide berichten dat industrie support voor DDR SDRAM stijgende is:

Hoping to stimulate sales of higher-speed memory, Micron Technology Inc. said it may put its double-data-rate, SDRAM-enabled Samurai chipset out for license to accelerate the market's adoption of PC266 DDR devices.

Dean Klein, vice president of the integrated-products group at Boise, Idaho-based Micron, said the company “isn't in the chipset business, but [wants] to enable the early penetration of DDR memory into the market.” Klein said widespread availability of DDR chipsets is the gating function to ramping up PC266 sales.

Even sooner, perhaps by the end of this year, Klein said, point-to-point DDR SDRAMs operating at 300 MHz or more will be adopted by graphics-board suppliers for use as dedicated frame-buffer memory. Dedicated chips can operate at higher speeds because graphics memory doesn't have to adhere to the many additional specifications required for PC266 main memory, according to the company. [break] Interessanter is dat artikeltje van Silicon Investor (ik rip 'm gewoon helemaal ): [/break] Just as Advanced Memory International Inc. (AMI2) endorsed Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) for its double data rate (DDR) DRAM chipset this week, sources say Apple Computer Corp. has rubber stamped its own plans to implement the next generation DRAM technology into future Apple computers. Apple is not expected to detail its plans until the first half of next year.

The news could be another indicator that DDR will make an impact next year in the marketplace, perhaps sooner than anticipated by companies and analysts alike. At the Microprocessor Forum last week, AMD revealed it would be manufacturing its own DDR chipsets for PCs. AMD expects to have DDR chipsets available by the middle of next year. It remains unclear whether Apple will develop its own chipsets for the technology or if it will use chipsets supplied by third parties. Though Apple commands a relatively small share of the total computer market, the well-known computer vendor's endorsement still provides a boost to the DDR camp. [break] Go Steve! [/break] In a side note, DRAM vendor Hyundai Microelectronics said it plans on shipping more DDR parts than RDRAM parts next year due to the current delays that have hit the next generation DRAM technology. Other DRAM makers have put their RDRAM plans on hold with some saying that current inventories are sufficient to satisfy demand for this year regardless of when Intel lifts its Camino chipset delay.

Dresden heeft de eerste koper samples van de Athlon afgeleverd, zo weet Ace's Hardware ons te vertellen. De fabriek in Dresden loopt op schema, maar het gerucht (van The Register - wie anders) dat er volgende week al met produktie wordt begonnen zou bullshit zijn:

Sources in Dresden confirmed: AMD Austin tested Dresden's first silicon, copper K7's, Friday and the results were extremely encouraging.

The rumor that production of copper K7's will begin this week was probably based on this fact, but totally wrong. The exact date when actual production will ramp is not known. You must not forget that product development and process qualification is a very slow and difficult procedure. Our sources underlined that Dresden is right on track!

That is pretty cool, he ? ... All we need now is more Slot A motherboards and we got, for the first time, a strong competitor for Intel in the CPU market.

The Register bericht in een wazig nieuwsberichtje dat Intel waarschijnlijk begin volgend jaar met 512Kb en 1Mb versies van de Cascades (Coppermine Xeon) zal komen. Blijkbaar gaat het hun dankzij 0,18micron technologie lukken om (met redelijke yields) 1Meg L2 cache op de chip te prakken:

As we reported last Sunday, Intel will introduce its Xeon Coppermine processors with 256K of cache on die on the 25th of October next. These were formerly codenamed Cascades, or Cashcades as we prefer it and will neatly sit in Slot 2 of 840 mobos, as revealed earlier.

We will see 512K and 1Mb versions of these chips with much higher clock frequencies probably in Q1 of next year, as Intel tweaks its .18 micron (Coppermine/Goldmine) technology. The Celeron III will also benefit from this ramp and have 128K of cache within the processor.

[...] Sources close but friendly to Intel tell The Register that the i840 chipset was not designed by the same gang that is currently walking the tightrope for the i820 debacle. Unlike the i820, the i840 Carmel will use dual channel Rambus and is a different kettle of fish altogether.

Hmm, Steve is geloof ik een beetje in de war. Eerst degradeert hij alle G4 modellen met 50MHz en kickt-ie alle openstaande G4 orders. Als gevolg hiervan wordt-ie, zoals te verwachten viel, ondergepoept door allerlei boze reakties en besluit vervolgens om de G4's niet te cancellen...en nu zegt The Register dat de orders toch gecancelled zijn!:

Now, less than 24 hours later, the Mac maker has changed its mind again and stated that all deals are now off, and buyers will have to re-order new, slower machines after all.

An Apple spokesman told Web site MacWeek: "We are honouring [advance] orders from just a small number of individuals."

He said that the email from the AppleStore had been a mistake since the production process made it impossible to fulfil all but a few now non-standard configurations. So much for Apple's build-to-order system, the whole point of which is to produce non-standard configurations. If it can't delay orders for old-configuration models and re-route them through the BTO channel, it's a very poor do.

Meanwhile, US dealers contacted by MacWeek said they too were now being forced to contact customers to tell them their existing orders can no longer be fulfilled.

Hehe, dit is wel grappig . Billie stuurt een paar Microserfs richting San Francisco City Hall om daar een actie te houden tegen het illegaal kopiëren van (Microsoft) zachtwaar, waarbij het de bedoeling was dat mensen hun illegale waren konden inleveren, in ruil voor een legale licentie (met de ingeleverde software wilde Billy dan middels de serials de originele koper gaan tracken of zoiets). De actie werd weer eens een doorslaand succes [NOT] ...

Microsoft Corp. attorney Anne Murphy was hoping people who were using pirated software would drop on by Justin Herman Plaza to turn in their illegal booty.

But to perhaps nobody's surprise but her own, yesterday's mildly publicized ``Ask If It Is Licensed'' event did not draw one single repentant soul.

There were plenty of folks who came for the free T-shirts and free software. And at least one man was more concerned about a different sort of intergalactic fraud.

Maybe Microsoft should have called the event ``Ask, But Don't Tell.''

``We're disappointed,'' said Murphy, the chief anti-piracy enforcement official for the Redmond, Wash., software colossus. She said a similar event in San Diego drew about 40 computer sellers who wanted to see if their software was legit, and ``the vast majority was counterfeit.''

Sukkels . Check het complete verhaaltje bij de San Francisco Chronicle.

Hot Hardware heeft wat zitten ouwehoeren met een ventje van Soyo, waar o.a. deze info over een Soyo Athlon plank uit naar boven gekomen is. Soyo maakt de laatste tijd best wel relaxte overklokkers borden en hopelijk gaan ze hiermee de Athlon oc'ers 'bevrijden'. De MSI en FIC borden waarmee we op dit moment zitten opgescheept zijn niet helemaal ideaal voor dat doel, en Asus houdt zich onzichtbaar in stealth mode, plus die plank schijnt het niet te trekken boven 110MHz):

* Athlon is coming -- In time for COMDEX there will be a new family of Athlon boards. the first generation will feature AMD chipsets, the next gen will have VIA chipsets. Even though this is "6-layer" technology, Soyo will come in at a price point that will make both sytems integrators and endusers drool.

* New Soyo boards with VIA chipsets will support 4x AGP. Soyo's SY-6VBA 133 with its 2x AGP support is a sound board. However, in time for COMDEX or for upgrade freaks who want to put a little extra graphics performance under the Christmas tree will be Soyo models to support VIA 4X AGP.

Verder hebben ze ook nog wat info over borden met de i820 chipset. Check 't bij Hot Hardware.