BP6.com weet ons te vertellen dat Abit een nieuw beta BIOS voor de BP6 en HighPoint HPT366 controller heeft gereleased. Ik heb 'm even uitgeprobeerd en het werkt 
. Voor gebruikers van de vorige versie 1.20 zal er weinig verandert zijn. Draai je net zoals ik nog een oud BIOS uit augustus, dan krijg je er een leuk config schermpje voor de HighPoint ATA66 controller bij.
Het BP6 LP BIOS + HPT366 beta BIOS v1.21 kun je hier naar beneden hengelen.
Gamespot UK heeft een playtest van de zeer binnenkort uit te komen fantasy shooter: Wheel of Time gepost. Hierin worden de levels 3, 4 en 5 behandeld. Ik heb effe een stukje geript:
Incidentally this is a perfect illustration of Wheel of Time's splendid spell effects with the fireballs emerging as kind of mini-meteors, travelling about 10 metres and then igniting into a fiery trail before smacking into the lead Trolloc, engulfing him in a resounding explosion.
Je kunt het allemaal hier lezen. Dit is zeker goede stuff als je er nog niet van overtuigt bent dat Wheel of Time zwaar gaat roeleren! 
Bij Active Hardware is een artikel te vinden met wat info over hoe je je G400 kan tweaken dmv betere cooling, het installeren van TurboGL drivers en overclocking. Hieronder een gedeelte uit de artikel:
The Overclocking tests conducted with theMatrox Overclocking Utility did not have good results. By all observations, the Matrox Millenium G400 that I tested does not lend itself well to Overclocking. What's more, testing done with PowerStrip 2.52 was awash, as when Powerstrip was active, Quake2 would not run... By the way, don't forget to bear in mind that the Overclocking of a graphic card has something to do with its brand name. As a matter of fact, while some cards of a given manufacturer may show few or no Overclocking ability, some other cards of the same model from the same manufacturer may demonstrate very good Overclocking ability. This is due to the fact that Overclocking ability depends of the matching between all the components installed on a given card. Thus, as there are manufacturing fluctuation between all the components manufactured in the same batch and between batchs it gives fluctuations in performance between in all the units of a given product. In other word, it doesn't mean that because the unit I was testing had no spectacular performance increase that all the others will have the same results. While some might even get worst results, some others might get much better results...
Klik hier voor de rest.
Guillemot heeft vandaag nieuwe drivers op z'n FTP gemikt voor de Xentor / Xentor 32 TNT2 kaarten. Meer info behalve "performance upgrade" is niet bekend. Hieronder de links:
Xentor drivers voor Win9x
Onze duitse vrienden van Elsa hebben een DDR versie van de Erazor X GeForce kaart aangekondigd:
Aachen, October 27, 1999—The GeForce 256 graphics chip of the ERAZOR Xand ERAZOR X2 features the innovative transform & lighting engine. This reduces the load on the computer's CPU and allows 3D games scenery even with over 50,000 polygons to be displayed in a quality not seen until now. The processor's QuadEngine with four parallel rendering pipelines provides lightning-fast on-screen imagery. The ERAZOR X2 from ELSA reaches still higher frame rates with 32-bit color thanks to the Double Data Rate memory (DDR) that unleashes pace-setting performance from the GeForce 256.
In particular the latest generation of 3D games based on DirectX7 profit from the blasting performance of the two new ELSA graphics boards, even with display resolutions of up to 1920 x 1280 pixels with 16.7 million dazzling colors. The GeForce 256 graphics chip is further boosted by the optimized ELSA drivers and by the 32-MB synchronous DRAM. Older games also benefit from these developments, not only from the far higher speeds, but more significantly from a far more detailed and thus more realistic display.
The ERAZOR X from ELSA provides a level of quality and performance unknown until now and meets the demands of the truest games freaks. The graphics board will be available as of early November. Rounding off the package is a comprehensive software collection including an OEM version of "CorelDraw 7" and "Corel PhotoPaint 7" plus a top game. The ELSA drivers support Windows 95/98 with support for Windows 2000 and NT pending.
The use of Double Data Rate memory unleashes even higher frame rates from the top model, the ERAZOR X2. This pace-setting board for highly ambitious gamers takes full advantage of the graphics chip's potential and will be shipping in time for Christmas. ELSA will also be supplying the ERAZOR X2 with a top game, with "Corel Select", plus the popular video-editing software "MainActor" and DVD player ELSAmovie.
Volgens Rivastation kunnen er problemen ontstaan met de GeForce 256 kaarten in combinatie met een super socket 7 modderbord:
During benchmark tests IŽve found some compatibilty problems of GeForce on Super Socket 7 mainboards. The system freezes after some time. A Guillemot Xentor32 with TNT2 Ultra at 175/183 runs pretty stable in this system using VIA MVP3 chipset. So SS7 owners that who to buy a GeForce should be carefully....
Dit lijkt me wel interessant voor Linux gebruikers met een G400DH:
This update provides new support for the Matrox G400 DualHead board, which supports a single logical screen on two separate displays (SLS). The DualHead G400 does not support 8bpp color or overlays, and the maximum resolution per screen is 1280x1024. It also does not support HotKey resolution switching or a virtual desktop. (These are hardware limitations.) This update was tested on the Matrox G400 DualHead 32M card.
Check deze .txt file voor meer info.
C|Net heeft een hun RedHat vs OpenLinux vergelijking van een update voorzien. Hier een hap uit de conclusie:
Caldera's OpenLinux has done more to simplify Linux than any other distribution available right now. And although Linux purists may sneer at this kinder, friendlier distribution, Linux newbies and even old-school Linux users will appreciate its graphical installer and emphasis on ease. Plus, at less that $40 per copy, Caldera is not going to dent your life's savings. We only wish this distribution let you make at least a couple of free phone calls for support in case you hit potholes during installation.[...] If you're putting together a mission-critical server, though, Red Hat's your best bet of the pair. Its tech support rocks: You can actually talk to a human being about your installation troubles, should you have any; no waiting for tech support to reply to your email, as is the case with Caldera's standard support package. Plus, Red Hat throws a bunch of server applications onto its bonus CD-ROMs, so you can try loads of new software without waiting for long downloads. Red Hat 6.1's focus is on making Linux work for the IT world. We think it has succeeded.
Het complete verhaaltje lees je hier.
Koen Crijns van Hardwareinfo.net heeft laatst nog een review gebakken van de Gigabyte GA-660 'vanilla' TNT2 videokaart met 32meg. Hieronder een hap uit de conclusie:
Hoewel de TNT2 videokaarten niet meer de highend videokaarten zijn die ze een half jaartje geleden waren, blijft deze graphics chip nog een van de interessantste videokaart producten die op de markt zijn. Gigabyte heeft i.i.g. door de toevoeging van twee extra zaken (de extra koelblok en de overklok jumper) iets moois gemaakt van hun TNT2 product. Als je dus nog in de running bent voor een nieuwe TNT2 videokaart is de Gigabyte GA-660 zeker het overwegen waard. De kaart kost vrijwel hetzelfde als alle andere TNT2 kaarten en heeft hier en daar net wat meer te bieden.De vraag is natuurlijk of Gigabyte zich qua productondersteuning kan meten met de "groteren" in de videokaarten industrie. Voor Gigabyte zijn de videokaarten op dit moment eigenlijk nog bijzaak t.o.v. de moederborden tak van het bedrijf. Toch heeft Gigabyte een imago van kwaliteitsproducten met goede ondersteuning hoog te houden, dus ik neem aan dat dat ook bij de videokaarten geen probleem zal zijn.
Bij Sharky Extreme hebben ze een review online geschopt van een vet KryoTech Cool Athlon 900 systeem. Klein nadeeltje is dat de L2 cache speed omlaag is geschroefd om het zaakie goed te laten functioneren. Volgens Mr. Campanaro hakt dit zo erg in de performance dat een P3-800 / i820 het vaak wint van deze KryoTech config. Hieronder een gedeelte:
They disclosed to us that in order to hit 900MHz from a normal Athlon 700 CPU (which obviously is designed by AMD to run at 700MHz) they had to make a modification to the basic Athlon CPU's specifications.This modification is the physical reduction in speed of the Athlon's off-die L2 cache from its stock level of 1/2 of the CPU's core speed, to 1/3 of the CPU's core speed when used in the Cool Athlon 900.
While the Athlon CPU cores have proven themselves to be strong overclocking companions, their off-die L2 cache has unfortunately not, particularly in the Athlon 650 and 700 models.
Eerily similar to Katmai Pentium III 550 and 600 CPUs, which were also very limited by the speed rating of their own off-die L2 cache components, the Athlon CPUs are hampered when overclocking by the quality level and speed rating of their externally produced L2 cache.
Bij Thresh's FiringSquad hebben ze het verslag gepost van de S3 Savage 2000 Party. Ze hebben er een aantal Quake3 benchmarks gedraaid en vergeleken met de TNT2 Ultra en de GeForce 256. Hieronder de uitslag:
It's too soon to judge the Savage2000. Right now, the current numbers place the card slightly above the TNT2U but behind the GeForce in most settings. We're already seeing the Savage take the high quality scores even with beta drivers while only clocked at 125MHz. The card looks very promising, but S3 has to improve the drivers and get the clock speed closer to 150MHz or 175Mhz before we can start calling it a GeForce killer.Keep in mind, Diamond maintains that the Savage2000 isn't meant to go head to head against the GeForce 256. While GeForce 256 cards retail for around $250, the Diamond Viper II will retail at $199. We're already seeing Creative Labs Annihilator cards going for $208 on Pricewatch, and we still don't know how low the Viper II price will fall below its $199 MSRP. We would guess somewhere around $150.
Voor concrete benchmark scores moet je hier wezen.
Silicon Insider heeft een behoorlijk diep artikel gepost waarin ze de architectuur van de door Intel en HP zwaar overhypete Itanium vergelijken met die van de Alpha EV67. Hier een stukje:
The size disparity between the two processors strongly suggests the EV68 could be manufactured with much a lower silicon variable cost than Merced. Then there is performance. Won't the bigger chip have more functional units and thus higher performance? Well, from a clock frequency point of view, a smaller chip is better because it is easier to distribute a low skew clock across the entire die and propagate time critical global signals. Having lots of functional units will do precious little for performance if the memory hierarchy cannot support them. With only around 16% of its die area devoted to on-chip cache yet more integer and floating point units than the EV68, the in-order execution Merced looks like it might spend a lot of time waiting for data and instructions to arrive from off-chip sources (L3 cache and system bus).Today the Alpha EV67 provides performance levels up to 39 SPECint95 and 68 SPECfp95 at 700 MHz with higher clock rates promised. Compaq estimates that the EV68 will achieve clock rates in excess of 1 GHz and yield around 65 SPECint95 and 100 SPECfp95. But the latest estimate from MDR is that Merced will clock at 750 to 800 MHz and achieve about 45 SPECint95 and 70 SPECfp95. For a high end 0.18 um processor these results would be good but not outstanding. Certainly not enough to live up to the Intel and Hewlett Packard (Intard?, Hewtel?) hype about EPIC and IA-64. If you mention the MDR Merced performance estimates to some people in silicon valley you elicit a snicker and a reply along the lines of "yeah, when hell freezes over".
Bij 3D SoundSurge hebben ze er een review bij van de Aureal Vortex SQ2500 soundkaart gebaseerd op de AU8810 chip met o.a. A3D 2.0 en wavetracing support. Hieronder een hap uit de review:
The Vortex2 SQ2500, which carries a MSRP of $99.99, as you would expect is a new Vortex2 card, similar to their SuperQuad reference design board which Absolute Multimedia's Outrageous 3D Sound, Xitel's Storm Platinum, Terratec's XLerate Pro, Videologic's SonicVortex2 and of course Aureal with their own System Integrator board uses. Diamond and Turtle Beach's Vortex 2 based boards has the same performance as the SuperQuad reference design but a different board layout, other expansion ports and no optical out.What’s different is it includes what Aureal is referring to as a "new optimized Vortex2 chip", has a coaxial S/PDIF out instead of optical and a new expansion header. The specs also mention an improved s/n ratio of 98 dB (vs the 95 dB listed for the SuperQuad). Taking a look at the SQ2500 board we see that following the AU8830 on the Vortex 2 chip is a new letter sequence of "B0" instead of the "A2" that is on all other Vortex 2 chips. This is how you know it's one of the new optimized Vortex 2 sound processors. The chip optimizations are significant enough that reflections are handled in a different manner than with the previous silicon which caused some problems for us when we did our preview but with the new 2.25 a3d drivers included with the shipping 2040 drivers it has not been a problem.
JC heeft de belangrijkste punten die vannacht bij de Intel Webcast naar buiten kwamen, op een rijtje geparkeerd:
- P3 at 800Mhz in 1H 2000
- Williamette at or above 1Ghz in 2H 2000
- Timna(single chip PC) in 2H 2000
- Itanium in 2H 2000
- 100% FC-PGA in Q4 2000
- They want Internet access to be synonymous with Intel Architecture INTEL's new mission: "Do a great Job for our customers, employees and stockholders by being the preeminent building block supplier to the Worldwide Internet Economy"
Weinig concrete info dus.
Bij lost Circuits hebben ze een review online gezet van de FIC KA6110 mobo met de VIA 693A chipset, een soort uitgebreide versie van de Apollo Pro Plus. Het kleine plankje heeft 4 DIMM sloten en support voor 133MHz FSB en ATA/66.
The FIC KA-6110 is a high performance board geared towards the 133 MHz bus speed to achieve its full performance and that translates into "Coppermine". The BIOS is tweaked towards optimal performance, which causes the board to behave a little on the capricious side without being unstable per se. The overall performance is above average. The main argument brought forward against the KA-6110 is the lack of a manual override of the CPU settings in form of a jumper / dip switch to enable the 100 / 133 MHz clock. This omission is the main reason for failure of the current PPGA Celerons to boot on the KA-6110, with the caveat that this may depend on the slotket used. No problems are observed with the SEPP line of Celeron except that the 100 MHz clock cannot be accessed even by pin taping. Likewise, with the current generation of 100 MHz PentiumII / Pentium!!! the 133 MHz clock and its derivative bus frequencies of up to 150 MHz cannot be accessed via the Soft BIOS. Thus, one is stuck with the 1/3 PCI divider and the resulting 2/3 AGP speed.
VooDoo schrijft: "Iedereen is bezig Unreal Tournament met Quake 3 te vergelijken, maar Half Life is volgens Gamespy het nog altijd de meest gespeelde multiplayer game. Hier wat info over de nieuwe addon voor Half Life, Opposing Force:":
Right off the bat in the demo version you are treated to an in-game cut scene similar to the one in Half-Life. You and your squad are flying over the desert in a troop transport about to drop down on Gordon Freeman and his scientific friends and open up a whole Can o' Whupass. Your Sgt. barks orders at you as your squad mates chatter amongst themselves over the roar of the chopper blades.The quality of the modeling and animations in your new team is just the first indication of the lightning fast sucker punch that Gearbox is about to pull on you. After the intro animation, you are into the game and like Half-Life, you are totally sucked into Freeman's world once again.
Everything here is amazing, from the models, to the level design, to the complex scripted sequences and the engaging storyline. Surviving here means listening to the people you encounter and working together with them to solve the problems you will face. In one scene, a soldier with a flamethrower is your only way to cut through a high security door, in another your whole squad works together to defeat a pack of deadly new enemies.
With new weapons to wield and a new alien menace to defeat, it looks like Half-Life is about to get a booster shot of pure gameplay. Don't look at Opposing Force as an addon pak, look at it like a whole new game.[break]In de preview staan ook nog twee pagina's met screenshots van een officiële demo cd:[/break]
Hans Gelders schrijft: "Hier staat een te gekke review online over de Diamond Stealth III Xtreme!":
De Diamond Stealth III Xtreme is zeer zeker een perfekte 3D kaart voor alle mogelijke toepassingen die je maar kunt verzinnen. De kaart levert top prestaties die vrijwel gelijk zijn aan de grote concurrent van Nvidia, de TNT-2. Als we de resultaten bekijken en vergelijken met die van de TNT-2 kaarten als bijv. de Viper V770, dan kunnen we zeker zeggen dat deze kaart een echte concurrent is voor de huidige TNT-2 kaarten. Vooral de toevoeging van S3TC en DVD Hardware geeft een extraatje aan deze kaart. Het enige minpunt is dat er geen TV-Out op zit. En uiteraard zijn niet alleen de prestaties belangrijk, maar zeker ook de prijs en bij dit kaartje kun je er zeker van op aan dat de prijs/prestatie verhouding perfekt is, als je bedenkt dat je voor Fl. 299,- inclusief BTW een supersnelle 3D kaart in huis haalt die gelijke prestaties neerzet aan de Viper V770.Ons advies voor de maand november: Koop een Stealth III Xtreme! Vandaar het Mic's 3DZone Recommended Logo voor deze kaart.
Nou nou, zo geweldig issie nou ook weer niet hoor 
. Check de hele review hier.
Op AnandTech Webnews is een press release van Guillemot gepost (uit het Frans vertaald) waarin Guillemot de overname van Hercules bekend maakt. Yep, heel het zaakie gaat naar Guillemot toe, hieronder heb je de hele press release:
Guillemot Corporation acquires Hercules, the inventor of the graphics board for PCCarentoir, October 28, 1999: Created in 1982, the American company Hercules Computer Technology Inc conceives, manufactures and diffuse in the whole world of the graphics boards and the accelerating cards 3CD It realized in 1998 a turnover of 20 million dollars. The anteriority of Hercules Computer Technology Inc and its positioning in the top-of-the-range products ensure to him a world notoriety near the users as well as manufacturers and integrators of PC.
This acquisition makes it possible Guillemot Corporation to associate with its technological know-how in the 3D a mark of foreground and thus, to accelerate and extend its international development.
This acquisition could be carried out under very favorable conditions because of financial difficulties encountered by the company Hercules Computer Technology Inc during last spring. Guillemot Corporation thus acquires the whole of the credits of the company Hercules Computer Technology Inc of which the mark, the domain name, all designs and patents, goodwill, stocks and the appropriations customers for an amount of 1 million and half of US dollars.
Guillemot Corporation conceives, manufactures and diffuses a range of hardware and accessories for PC and game consoles. Currently present in 10 countries, the group distributes its products in 35 countries on the whole. Guillemot Corporation has as an ambition to be located, from here 2001, like one of the first five world manufacturers of hardware and accessories of interactive leisures.
Guillemot Corporation is with dimensions at the New Market of the Paris Bourse, codes SICOVAM 6672. [break] Update [16:22] van Femme: Guillemot's engelstalige press release, direkt van Mechteld
« Our objective in acquiring Hercules was to reinforce our products branding worldwide », explains Claude Guillemot, President of Guillemot Corporation. « We intend to continue to build on Hercules’ name for high performance graphic products ».
Established in 1982, Hercules Computer Technology Inc. can be credited with starting the PC graphics add-in board business. Hercules created, manufactured and marketed graphics cards and 3D accelerators throughout the world. In 1998, the company had a turnover of $20 million (US) and its status and product positioning in high-end graphics market ensured worldwide notoriety with PC users and system builders.
Guillemot is planning to revitalise Hercules’ business to what it was in the past through significant capital and R&D backing, therefore all assets obtained in this transaction including brand name, patents and designs will be enhanced to meet our consumers needs. Guillemot Corporation has acquired all assets of Hercules Computer Technology Inc, including the brand name, all designs and patents, business funds, stocks and receivables for US$1.5 million.
Goh, The Register is er na de Intel webcast van vannacht zelf ook achter gekomen dat hun Willamette verhaaltje bullshit is. De Willamette zal gewoon in de 2de helft van volgend jaar, dus niet eind dit jaar, geïntroduceerd worden:
The most interesting slide Intel showed, as it happened, was the last in Craig Barrett's presentation, which presented some details of Intel's future roadmap and scotched the Willamette processor by the end of 1999 canard.The slide showed Intel producing a Willamette at a greater speed than 1GHz in the second half of next year; along with that, there will be Pentium IIIs at speeds greater than 800MHz. [break] In hetzelfde artikel ook wat info over nieuwe Celerons en de 64-bits Itanium: [/break] In the first half of 2000, the Celeron 500MHz will move into the value desktop space (isn't it already there?), while the mainstream desktop space will be a 800MHz Pentium III, presumably in its Coppermine recension. A similar Xeon at 800MHz will sit in the server space.
The Itanic, formerly known as Merced, is positioned as being in the high end server space in the second half of next year. Intel said the Itanic is already running Oracle 8, Apache IIs and other applications.
Gamespot heeft een hands-on preview van de Diamond Viper II gepost, inclusief vergelijkende benchmarks met een Guillemot 3D Prophet op 120/183MHz:
While not exactly showing off GeForce-level benchmarks, the Viper II is impressive nonetheless, especially when you take into consideration S3's track record for chipsets that perform at a less-than-average level. The Viper II especially shines in multitexture games like Quake III Arena; while playing several deathmatch sessions of the game, we saw that our real-time frame rate counter consistently pegged 100fps.We were surprised to find that Diamond has scaled back its original clock-rate estimates. Gone is the predicted 160-200MHz clock rate of the Savage2000. Instead, the shipping version of the Viper II will operate at 155Mhz at the memory and only 125Mhz at the core, dropping the card's fillrate from 800mp/s to 500mp/s. The good news is that Diamond will be bundling an overclocking utility that'll let users incrementally ratchet up the internal and memory clock speeds up a few notches.
Meer info lees je bij Gamespot.
Ook 3DHardware.net heeft een review gepost van de Soyo SY-6BA+IV plank met onboard HighPoint ATA66 controller. Zoals we in de review van BXBoards al hebben kunnen lezen heeft dit bord een aantal erg handig overclocking features:
As part of their plan to make ABit fall, Soyo have integrated the ability to set over 30 different FSB speeds into the SY-6BA+IV. Everything can be set from the software BIOS setup, which, by the way, has been further improved from the boards predecessor, making the hardware monitoring statistics easier to read, amongst other things. As usual, we tested the board with two Celeron 300A's, one 'normal', which we could push to 4.5x112=504Mhz (with a 2.2V core voltage), and one horrible, namely our very own BastaCelly. This little bastard processor is rarely (like not even BH6 rarely) stable at anything above an 83Mhz FSB (374Mhz). Thanks to the wide range of FSB's of this board, we managed to take it up to a stable 405Mhz, using the unusual 90Mhz FSB. This needed a 10% voltage tweak, but was rock-solid without any extra cooling, apart from the standard Celeron fan|sink. Does this make Soyo the king of the hill? Yeppers. Well, at least if we are to trust the BastaCelly…
Corsair introduceert een PC133 DIMM met de erg relaxte capaciteit van 256Megabyte (en Fempie zat te denken wat de Sint 'm moest gaan schenken...). Euh, hier wat spul uit de press release:
Corsair Memory Inc., the industry leader in high density DRAM Dual In-Line Memory Modules (DIMMs) has announced that it is now shipping fully qualified production units of 256Mbyte PC133 memory modules which use 128Mbit DRAM components. The Corsair 256Mbyte PC133 modules are designed to support the new VIA PC133 chipset, and latest AMD chipset on motherboards with the 133MHz memory bus, like the Tyan S1854 Trinity 400, AOpen AX63 PRO and the Microstar MS-6167. These modules are also backward compatible with motherboards designed to support PC100 compliant modules.Most PC133 compliant motherboards are designed to support up to 768Mbytes of memory. The Corsair 256Mbyte PC133 module allows these motherboard to be fully populated with the maximum amount of allowable memory. Because the Corsair module is built with high density PC133 128Mbit DRAM components, the modules can remain ‘Unbuffered” and can be used together with 64Mbyte and 128Mbyte PC133 modules.
The Corsair PC133 256Mbyte module part number is CM654S256-133. These modules are available for shipment immediately. The Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) as of October 28, 1999 is $643.00.
Okee, beetje off-topic, maar wel opmerkelijk: Coca-Cola gaat een automaat bouwen die automagisch de prijs berekend afhankelijk van de temperatuur. Gunstig in dit brrrr...bibberland?
Coca-Cola Co is working on a vending machine that automatically increases the price of the soft drink when the temperature rises.Coke chairman Doug Ivester told the Brazilian magazine Veja the machine was designed to reconcile supply and demand by raising the price when demand increased.
"Coca-Cola is a product whose utility varies from moment to moment," he was quoted as saying.
The machine has been tested in Japan and the company is still evaluating the technology.
Nog een review van BXBoards, met ditmaal de Shuttle 56x CD-ROM drive als slachtoffer. Hier een stukje:
This is certainly a fast drive, although in our tests it did not really live up to its "56x" designation. Speed is good, especially the access time which the benchmarks showed were between 83 and 88 M/S - not far of the 80ms quoted speed. Often many high speed CDROM's are either noisy or suffer vibration problems but luckily the Shuttle 56x is afflicted by neither. This is not a "true" 56x device, so 56x speeds will only be encountered on the outer tracks of a CD under the most optimum of conditions. Calling this 56xMax would be more accurate.
Andy van BXBoard heeft een review van de Soyo SY-6BA+ IV op z'n site geplakt. Dit 440BX plankje wordt geleverd met een onboard ATA66 controller van HighPoint (goh, waar hebben we dat eerder gezien?). Andy beoordeelt 'm, dankzij de hoge stabiliteit en uitgebreide overclocking features, als het beste BX bord van dit moment:
Where to start with the raves about this board? Firstly, its super stable, at all bus speeds save 155Mhz. Its fast, and posted the fastest ever BX board benchmark we've obtained - breaking the 34 point Winstone 99 barrier for the first time with a Pentium III/BX combination. The UltraDMA/66 controller works well, and due to the design (the BIOS "thinks" its a SCSI device!), it is bootable too. Nice job! The BIOS implementation is superb and is wonderful for overclockers, with no need to delve inside the case at any time.
Ojee, dit gaat weer een paar van die die-hard NT admins onblij maken: Nerdperfect.com heeft een contest opgezet met een zoektocht naar de traagste WinNT server op deze aardkloot:
Anyone who has ever dealt with Windows NT as a server can attest to the fact that its reboots are numerous and slow, especially when there are applications running. So, I thought, this would be a great idea for a contest.I want you to send me the slowest documented reboot time for any NT servers you have to deal with.
When submitting, time your warm-reboot from the moment you select "yes" to reboot the server to the point where the desktop is up, with nothing further to load (no hourglass). Login times are included, but cold-boots are not.
This contest starts on October 26th and ends on November 26th with the winner taking home a one-off Nerdperfect t-shirt, and heartfelt pity.
Het record ligt op dit moment op 49 minuten en 13 seconde . Meedoen kan hier.
De Shugashack heeft een paar quotes bij elkaar gezet afkomstig uit reakties van George Broussard op het Shugashack artikel over de PC Gamer DNF cover:
>>another fun factor in the original duke nukem 3d was the weapons designs... so many different types of weapons, not just ones that fire at your opponent... like laser tripmines and stuff like that..We\'re definately keeping that mindset in DNF. You need variety in weapons. You need in your face blasting action, but also the ability to be sneaky and set traps (ala pipe bombs and laser trip mines -- both replicated verbatim in Half Life BTW
>>#23 - When it\'s released, it\'s gonna be like C&C Tiberian Sun... look how much it SUCKED. and we waited so long in anticipation for such a piece of shit... why can\'t developers learn that they need to develop innovative AND fun games at the same time? AKA Quake 3 and HOPEFULLY Duke 4??
Agreed. That\'s why DNF is taking so long. We flat out refuse to make a TC for Unreal. Innovation and fun take a long time to create.
De rest lees je hier.
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AMD Zone heeft wat info gepost over nieuwe Athlon borden van FIC:
- SD-11 Is the Current Full ATX, 6 layer board.- SD-13 Is Full ATX same is the SD-11 but a 4-layer board (just a less expensive SD-11 with 1 more PCI slot maybe)
- SK-11 Is Full ATX with the Via KX133 chipset, and maybe 1394 Firewire
- SK-31 is Micro ATX with KX133 and on board Audio and also maybe 1394
It looks like they may have one more in mid-2000 with integrated video and audio MicroATX
Er waren meerdere personen die met dit nieuws aan kwamen zetten, maar hjs had de beste info: "Zag op 3DFiles dat er neue voodoo3 drivers zijn":
New Voodoo3 2000 or 3000 AGP/PCI-based Accelerator drivers. New is seperate kits for DirectX 6 and DirectX 7 support, fixed desktop corruption issues and fixed power management and screensaver issues. NOTE: These drivers will NOT work with: Voodoo Banshee, Voodoo2, Voodoo Rush or Voodoo Graphics based cards. These drivers are not compatible with Voodoo3 3500TV. Installing these drivers with a 3500TV board may cause compatibility problems. Here a link to CDROM.COM and Telepac where we have the DirectX 7 version drivers. DirectX 6.1 users need to hit download below and grab em from 3dfx.
De DX6 versie kun je hier neerhalen en de DX7 versie staat daar.
Brain of J schrijft: "Nog een paar dagen en dan komt Fifa2000 in Nederland uit. Om het weekend toch een beetje door te komen kun je alvast de sfeer proefen met de demo die later vandaag [lees vrijdag] beschikbaar zal komen, dus hou Fifa2000.net in de gaten als je interesse hebt.":
Good news guys. According to www.fifa2000.com, EA's Official FIFA 2000 Website, the Demo will be released this Friday, October 29th. Make sure you all stop by here on Friday, because we'll be posting a number of links to world-wide servers, where you can all download the demo at high speeds.
Update [17:23] van Robin: de demo is inmiddels te downloaden van Fifa2000.net. Aan snelle mirrors wordt gewerkt (hoop ik ).