Target PC heeft deel 1 van z'n harddisk cooler face off online gezet. Er wordt eens gekeken naar de 3DFXCool HD Cooler, de AMK HD-3 en de Global Win I-Storm Drive Cooler. De cooler van 3DFXCool blijkt het beste uit de test:

All 4 coolers were very powerful and all had good and bad points. Now we should be ready to give the final result of our Face OFF. The Ultimate Hard Drive Cooler takes 1st place, as it was the most powerful one in its class. I look forward to seeing a new Ultimate Cooler with 3 or possibly 4 fans. If so, it could most likely surpass the AMK-HD3 on the bottom side. The second place is going to the I-Storm. It's the second best air sucker, but what I liked best of it, is that it was the quietest. The thing I didn't like about it was the odd design that sticks about 2 inches out of the drive bay. It's also expensive. Third Place is going to the AMK-HD3, which did a real nice job on the top and bottom. Fourth place is for the Lasagna. This fan does a great Job for it's size, but unfortunately it's not the best solution for cooling your hard drive.

Abit meldt dat ze een nieuwe BIOS in elkaar gesleuteld hebben voor de BX6-2 plaat. Nieuw is:

Supporting more than 32GB hard drives
Supporting Coppermine 600E/650E/700E

Klik hier om 'm neer te halen.

Thresh en Kornuiten hebben een interview met Scott Sellers van 3dfx gehad om zo eens wat meer info los te peuteren over de VSA-100 chip die straks op de Voodoo4 en 5 geplant wordt. Hieronder vast een paar vragen:

3dfx: Is the VSA-100 Engine, the chip that powers the Voodoo4 and Voodoo5, still based on the original Voodoo Graphics core, or is it an all new design?

Scott Sellers: It's somewhere in between. The VSA-100 is still based on the Voodoo Graphics core, for compatibility reasons, but we've made significant changes to the overall design. We had to build in support for 32-bit color, 2 pixels per clock rendering, new texture modes, new combine modes, tremendous scalability improvements, support for texture compression, larger texture sizes and a number of other new features. At heart, it's the Voodoo core, with lots of substantial changes. As a result, we consider it to be really close to a new architecture.

Meer info over hoe het design van de kaarten anders is dan de originele Voodoo graphics lees je hier.

Over bij Penstar Systems is een review te vinden van de populaire Asus K7M Slot A plank. Hieronder een stukkie copy/paste uit de conclusie:

Overall this is the best Athlon motherboard offering as of yet. This will most likely change (I hope) when the KX133 based boards start hitting the market. Not only will it be faster, but the features that will be included in these motherboards will far surpass today’s offerings.

If you were to go out and buy an Athlon motherboard today, the Asus is the one to pick. It has enough expansion capabilities to support all your hardware, and allows many low level settings to be tweaked. Of course most importantly it allows you to increase the bus speed easily so overclocking the Athlon does not require a fine-tipped soldering iron.

If there were one aspect of the K7M that I didn’t like, was the fact that it is still a first gen Athlon board. It is still made on the expensive 6 layer process, and is really expensive when compared to feature packed BX boards of today. This will get better and we will start to see cheaper 4 layer boards come out that supports the Athlon. Until then, expect to pay handsomely for an Athlon Motherboard.

Of all first gen Athlon motherboards, this is hands down the best offered.

Vindicator stuurde me naar Tom's Hardware Guide waar onze Duitse vriend een review online gekwakt heeft van de BCM QS750 Athlon plank. Opvallend is de aanwezigheid van 3 ISA sloten (4 x PCI), dus als je nog veel oudere kaarten hebt die je wilt blijven gebruiken is dit mobo interessant, het is namelijk één van de weinige Slot A moederborden die dit nog biedt. Voor de rest is Tommie er ook goed te spreken over:

Although the BCM board doesn't provide any fancy or innovated features, there is definitely a place for it. As far as performance goes, QS750 is among the best under Windows 98. Although the board isn't the worst performing board under NT it, like most of the others it could use some more BIOS tweaking. The one unique feature this board offers is its 3 ISA slots. In the batch of boards tested so far in our lab this one is the only product to have more than two ISA slots. The only issue with the BCM QS750 right now is it's current BIOS. Currently the BCM board doesn't function with AMD's 700 or 750MHz product. I feel that BCM should at least mention this major issue on their web page. At minimum a statement saying they have resolved the issue and a new BIOS should be put online soon.

Uit een Intel-confidential roadmap mij toegespeeld door Femme (thnx daarvoor) heb ik wat info kunnen halen over de komende Intel-prijsverlagingen (op 12 december en 23 januari). Het opvallendst zijn de dalingen van de 600 Mhz-versies. De Coppermine-PIII's 600 gaan van $444 naar $316 (- 29%) en de "oude" PIII's gaan van $465 naar $337 (-28%). Ook de 550 Mhz gaat 28% naar beneden. De overige versie's dalen tussen de 5 en 20% in prijs. 1 nadeeltje: deze prijzen zijn voor de groothandel dus per 1000 stuks.... Hier heb je de een gedeelte van de roadmap (het plaatje ziet er wat brak uit omdat het fors gedownscaled is).

santa schrijft: "Sun durft het kennelijk niet aan zijn controle of een deel daarvan over Java af te staan aan een formele organisatie, zoals de ECMA.
Dat blijkt uit een artikeltje dat de New York Times hierover schrijft...":

Sun Microsystems abandoned an effort to make Java an industry standard today, flying in the face of IBM, one of the biggest fans of the software.

Lees de rest hier

molenkamp@netscape.net" rel="external">Onno schrijft: "Novell heeft een nieuwe internet mail server (NIMS) gemaakt, en om dat te vieren zijn ze ook maar gelijk een gratis mail service (www.myrealbox.com) gestart, om hun server mee te demonstreren. 10MB, geen reclame, POP. Best wel redelijk dacht ik.":

Novell Internet Messaging System is now available to enterprise customers, as well as ISPs and ASPs that want to host a fast and reliable e-mail service. Because it is based on NDS eDirectory, NIMS is able to scale to and effectively manage millions, or even billions, of user e-mail accounts. Today NIMS is available on NetWare®, with support for NT, Solaris* and Linux planned for next year.

insane schrijft: "The register verwacht dat de Merced-Itanium in oktober 2000 gaat verschijnen:":

Sources close to Intel's plans have said that the first workstation and server systems using its 64-bit Merced Itanium chip are not now expected to hit the streets until October next year.

It was hoped that some systems would be on sale by August of next year, but our source said that a more realistic assessment is now October. The reason for the delay -- if it is indeed a delay -- is because hardware vendors want to stringently test machines before they go out of the door

Meanwhile, the same source confirmed that Intel's current plans are to make its IA-64 a desktop choice by 2003, by which times the machines will have started to achieve realistic volumes. ®

Snuffel schrijft: "Leuk hebbedingetje, niet zo duur.
Wel zelf afhalen aub!":

Het raadsel van de verdwijning van de Mars Polar Lander is opgelost - tenminste als we slimme adverteerders op eBay mogen geloven. Zij bieden het tuig, dat 165 miljoen dollar waard is, te koop aan voor de spotprijs van $1 miljoen.
"Authentic Mars Polar Lander: Actual Mars Polar Lander NASA has lost. Good condition, clean, sharp, runs good. About a billion miles on it but still doing fine. Paint has faded somewhat due to Mars atmosphere entry, otherwise OK. Probably could buff out. Must pick up on Mars yourself! Final price must be agreed upon by NASA."

Dus, als je belanstelling hebt.....

VHware schrijft: "Het komt er op neer dat Gateway dus toch alleen Athlons zal gaan gebruiken in de High End-systemen. ":

It looks like Intel's i820 chipset is getting a cold reception from PC makers. The source also says that the Athlon will be the only chipset in their power systems lines. Gateway is mum on the issue, other than sales people saying they will be selling Athlon systems. All I need is another inept and paranoid computer company on my ass so don't take this post as gospel.

Kort nieuws nu: vsmb@wish.net" rel="external">ovs schrijft: "De moederbordenlijst van Slot A.com is geupdate. Er zijn nu 41 Athlon borden op de markt. " De lijst vindt je hier

hjs is kort en bondig en schrijft: "Beetje overdreven.":

In the end, this is probably total hard drive cooling overkill, but that's the way I like it! The system looks damn impressive too. The hard drive doesn't even get warm to the touch now. If you have a ultra expensive 10,000 RPM SCSI drive, you might want to consider this project. If you don't, then you might do it just for the WOW! factor.

Oordeel zelf en kijk hier

hjs schrijft: "Voor de meeste tweakers een eitje natuurlijk maar voor degene die het voor het eerst doen toch maar een uitleg ":

So you finally realized that the 1MB video card in your system just ain't gonna cut it anymore because you want to be able to run your desktop at more than 640X480 and only 16 colors, or maybe because you realize that with 5 frames per second your chances of survival in Quake are lower than a frog's on a 10 lane freeway. You got yourself the latest and greatest video card and now comes the question: How do I install this sucker?

hier vindt je het hele verhaal

Tech Report heeft een FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) online gezet over hoe je een Athlon kan overklokken, en er worden ook de basics van overklokken uitgelegd.. dus.. vragen over overklokken? RTFF (read the fine FAQ)

Welcome to TR's Athlon overclocking FAQ. Because we just can't resist the prospect of cranking up the MHz on AMD's excellent new CPU, we thought we'd share a little of what we've been able to gather about how Athlon overclocking works. Because this is an early revision of the FAQ, there may be some really useful Athlon overclocking info out there that we have yet to incorporate here. If you have questions and/or answers you'd like to see added to the FAQ, please send us some mail and let us know about it. Alternately, you can post comments here, as well. Also, we have to say it: You take the info supplied here and apply it at your own risk. Overclocking can fry your PC and turn your pets against you. Don't come crying to us if you manage to ruin your new PC. With that out of the way, let's get on to the questions..

Wederom is Napster in het nieuws:

Jason R was the first to write with legal battle news that the RIAA has filed a lawsuit against the company that makes the Napster. They are seeking damages of up to $100,000 per pirated song - Napster says that their software exchanges no files, and that they are not legally responsible for any pirating done.

Voor degenen die niet weten wat RIAA is: Klik hier.

Radforce schrijft: "Sharky Extreme heeft een review van de opvolger van Half Life gepost: Opposing forces. Ze zijn er nogal blij mee geloof ik en beschrijven alle nieuwe guns. Ben benieuwd ...":

Like it's predecessor Half Life, Opposing Force exhibits excellent game play throughout. Gearbox has listened to gamers and done an excellent job of solving the few flaws inherent in Half Life. Puzzles seem less frustrating and even the end boss is much more enjoyable this time round. The expansion has also somehow avoided cloned scientist syndrome, as you never see, or at least notice, a scientist that looks the same as the last one. The pure action scenes are also right up there with those of Half Life, with swarms of alien life forms and the odd pocket of Black Ops agents to scythe down with your extended arsenal. Gearbox also decided to take Corporal Sheppard to places gamers will remember from playing as Gordon Freeman, and you'll even catch a brief glimpse of the hazard suit clad hero himself just to remind you that you are wandering Black Mesa at around the same time. However, the whole game is far from a recycling of Half Life levels. There are lovely new locations such as aquatic research areas, power generators, sewage-processing plants and a multitude of other interesting and very professionally created locations.

The sound and graphics of Opposing Force are also right up there with Half-Life. The new weapons sound great, new voice acting sounds just right and although the Half Life engine is now almost a year old, Gearbox more than make up for this by creating some gorgeous locations and providing new weapons with some very nice firing effects.

Positioneer je muiscursor op deze link voor de complete review.

Scott Miller van 3DRealms heeft een .plan update gepost met o.a. wat stuff over de copy protection in Duke Nukem Forever. Waarschijnlijk gaat er een CD Key / WON achtige beveiliging gebruikt worden:

...I've been watching the debates regarding QA3's server key validation because Duke Nukem Forever will likely use some form of copy protection too. Software theft (mostly casual theft, such a making a copy for a friend, family member, or co-worker) has become such a huge problem that developers and publishers can no longer release games without protection of some sort. Hit games used to sell many more copies than they do nowadays, and a good part of the dramatic drop must be due to the proliferation of CD-ROM burners.

Gamers aller landen verenigt u, en flikker die pasgekochte Plextor uit het raam .

Gamer's Alliance Strategy weet blij te vertellen dat Westwood een update voor Tiberian Sun (een of ander vergeten RTS spel, kan ik me herinneren ) heeft klaar gebakken:

Westwood Studios today announced an upgrade for Command & Conquer Tiberian Sun that increases the speed of multiplayer games over the Internet. The upgrade is automatically installed into the game when a player starts the Tiberian Sun program and logs onto Westwood Online, the free multiplayer game service. The upgrade is also available for download at www.westwood.com in the File Updates Section of Tech Support.

The upgrade also includes several improvements to the multiplayer game interface, giving players more game speed options and network latency adjustments.

Players who install the upgrade will also get a new short game option, which will declare a defeat after all a commander's buildings are destroyed. (Normally, a defeat is declared once all a commander's units and buildings are lost.)

Martin schrijft: "Sun heeft nu een eigen versie van het Java 2 Platform in elkaar gebrouwd. Samen met Inprise hopen ze zo de gemiste boot bij te roeien denk ik. Het is nog wel 'early access', maar zoals we van Sun gewend zijn is die al vrijwel compleet en af":

Sun is proud to announce Release Candidate 1 (RC1) of the Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition, v 1.2.2 for Linux, now available on the Java Developer ConnectionSM web site. Co-developed with Inprise Corporation, this port includes all the powerful features found in the currently available Java 2 SDK Solaris and Windows releases.

Parakip (lekkere nick, ik ben toch vegetariër) komt aanwandelen met dit nieuwsartikel van Wired News. Dit keer is de encryptie van GSM telefoongesprekken slachtoffer geworden van een kraakactie:

Israeli researchers have discovered design flaws that allow the descrambling of supposedly private conversations carried by hundreds of millions of wireless phones.

Alex Biryukov and Adi Shamir describe in a paper to be published this week how a PC with 128 MB RAM and large hard drives can penetrate the security of a phone call or data transmission in less than one second.

The flawed algorithm appears in digital GSM phones made by companies such as Motorola, Ericsson, and Siemens, and used by well over 100 million customers in Europe and the United States. Recent estimates say there are over 230 million users worldwide who account for 65 percent of the digital wireless market.

GA-Source heeft een aantal nieuwe screenshots van Carmageddon TDR 2000...

...en Soldier of Fortune neer gemikt:

Persoonlijk vind ik de nieuwe Carmageddon stijl helemaal nix, SoF zou nog wel eens errug bruut kunnen worden .

Niels de Koning schrijft: "Internetten gaat weer als vanouds traag, omdat een of andere vissersboot 2 kabels verneukt heeft. De eerste ging er eerder deze week al aan, en gisteren om 11.30 de tweede ook":

Het is niet ongewoon dat onderzeese kabels beschadigd worden. "Statistisch gezien komt het maar eens in de 100 jaar voor dat twee kabels gelijktijdig doorgesneden zijn," verklaarde Henjo Groenewegen van KPNQwest tegenover de Wall Street Journal.

Dataverkeer wordt nu via andere kabels gesluisd. Bandbreedte was echter al schaars, tot de KPNQwest kabels weer gerepareerd zijn, kan de gebruiker dus langzame verbindingen met de VS en Groot-Brittannië verwachten.

"Blij dat mijn server in nederland staat ".

Azqi schrijft: "Platenmaatschappijen en CD zaken snappen het dus nog steeds niet":

CAPELLE A/D IJSSEL (ANP) - Cd- en videoverkoper Free Record Shop ziet de komende jaren verkopen via internet zeker niet de overhand krijgen. Op dit moment verkoopt het bedrijf minder dan een half procent via het wereldwijde computernetwerk, over een jaar of vijf zal dat voor de hele branche 10 tot 15 procent zijn, verwacht topman H. Breukhoven.

,,Mensen willen producten toch zien en voelen'', aldus de topman tijdens de presentatie van de jaarcijfers. ,,Internetverkoop krijgt een aanvullende functie, zoals bestellen en later ophalen bij de winkel. Met een dergelijke dienst beginnen we volgend jaar maart. Maar domineren, nee. We hebben nog nooit zo'n goede sinterklaas gehad als dit jaar.''

Breukhoven ziet wel een belangrijke rol voor het direct branden van cd's in de winkel. ,,Dan moeten er wel supersnelle cd-recorders zijn. Daarmee kunnen direct moeilijk verkrijgbare titels branden. Het wordt voor ons een zeer belangrijke activiteit.''

"Toekomst is nummers van Hoge kwaliteit thuis branden tegen kleine vergoedingen. Ik hoef zo'n hoesje niet te voelen hoor. Ik print het wel op mijn kleurenprinter. Geen distributiekosten.":

Heijx schrijft: "Vond dit artikeltje bij CDR-Info. Een 5-wisselaar versie van de 20x4x4 rewriter en een combo van CDRW, CD-R en DVD-ROM drive voor eenieder die weinig plaats maar wel grote plannen heeft...":

Ricoh MC104S 5-Disc CD-ReWriter

Ricoh released 1st SCSI CDR with 5 Disc support. Even the Specification page is written on Japanese we could read that it has 2MB buffer, support 4x write, 4x re-write and reads 20x (7040 Mechanism).Maybe can also be upgraded to 7060. Price is estimated at 79,800 Yen (around 775$).

Ricoh Announces Shipping for CD-R/RW/DVD-ROM Combo

".Ricoh announced shipping for its new four-in-one, CD-R/RW/DVD-ROM combo drive. The company anticipates widespread retail availability by the end of January 2000. Called the MediaMaster MP9060A, the CD-R/RW/DVD-ROM combination will enable users to read DVD-ROM and CD-ROM, write to CD-R and rewrite to CD-RW media. Ricoh's MP9060A drive will have a 6X CD-Recording speed, 4X CD-Rewriting, 24X CD-ROM reading and a 4X DVD-ROM reading speed.

GA-Source meldt dat Hasbro heeft aangekondigd dat het 2200 banen gaat dumpen. Ook in de games divisie vallen slachtoffers: het complete Falcon 4.0 team kan vertrekken:

Reuters is reporting that Hasbro will slash 2,200 jobs, or 19 percent of its workforce, and close two plants as the world's No. 2 toymaker moves to expand its offerings of software and electronic toys.

Hasbro will take a pre-tax charge of $141 million in the fourth quarter to cover costs associated with the job cuts, the plant closings in Tijuana, Mexico and Ashford, England, and the phasing out of certain underperforming toys.

Much of the manufacturing will be shifted to Asia, where a large number of technology goods are produced. Of the 2,200 jobs that will be cut, about 1,850 are manufacturing positions.

Like many toy companies in recent years, Hasbro has been stepping up its high-tech offerings to make playtime more entertaining and challenging for today's computer-literate kids. Hasbro also manufacturers many of the toys tied to popular entertainment properties, including ``Star Wars'' and Pokemon.

In addition to the job cuts and plant closings, Hasbro also said today that it plans to discontinue some of its toy offerings, including Formula One racing toys, some of its large dolls and a flight simulator, said Hasbro spokesman Wayne Charness.

3DGPU.com heeft een review van de Guillemot 3D Prophet gepost. Hier een stukje over de overklokbaarheid:

Now, I'm sure you are wondering how well the 3D Prophet does in the overclocking arena. After enabling the registry entry to add the overclocking tab in the Display properties, began increasing both the Core and Memory Clock settings. After each adjustment, I ran both 3D Winbench 2000 and looped 10 Q3Test timedemos looking for stability and graphic glitches. I successfully reached 135 Core Clock and 185 Memory clock with no stability or graphics problems whatsoever. Increasing either core or memory above this resulted in lockups during Q3Test. The memory clock setting is right at the 5.5ns memory's 186 theoretical maximum. Overall, not too bad.

Verder hebben ze een aantal handige vergelijkende benchmarks met een GeForce DDR kaart.

De Mars Polar Lander kan als overleden beschouwd worden. De Nasa is er niet in geslaagd om contact te leggen met het arme beessie en heeft de hoop opgegeven dat dit alsnog zal gebeuren. De twee kamikaze probes die bruut de Marskloot moesten doorboren zijn tevens omgekomen. Totale kosten van deze verzameling ruimteschroot: $265 miljoen...

PASADENA, Calif. (Reuters) - The loss of the Mars Polar Lander spacecraft has dealt a crushing blow to NASA's Mars exploration program and could result in the postponement or cancellation of the next planned trip to the red planet, a top space agency official said Tuesday.

``This has been a wake up call and we are going to respond to it. We are not going to sit back and blandly go forward,'' Ed Weiler, deputy director of NASA's Office of Space Sciences, told reporters from the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

The lander mission's fate was sealed at 12:30 a.m. PST (3:30 a.m. EST) on Tuesday when the craft failed to get in touch with the Mars Global Surveyor satellite circling the planet. It was the seventh attempt to get the spindly, three-legged craft to call home following its arrival on Mars on Friday.

Two microprobes sent to the surface by the lander also failed to communicate with Earth.

OpperTom heeft het tweede deel van z'n Comdex report gepost, met info over de waren die de diverse moederbord fabrikanten drie week geleden op de Comdex ten toon stelden. In het artikel vind je vooral stof over i820 mobo's, over Athlon borden wist Tom weinig nieuws los te peuteren. Tom concludeert:

Consumers are going to avoid the i820 boards like the plague. With Coppermine parts and RDRAM at their current pricing and availability, people will not be happy campers paying almost $2,000 just for a CPU, motherboard and memory, when they can get nearly the same thing from a new BX motherboard setup costing less than half that. Even going with an i820 and using PC100-SDRAM with the MCH will be avoided due to the horrible memory performance that it offers at the higher price tag.

Athlon support from the motherboard manufacturers is finally coming around and it should help relieve the need for motherboard support. I know many of you mail us asking what, when and where we will see things happen so I am telling you right now, companies are working on it. The thing to keep an eye out for will be the VIA KX133 based motherboards coming out next year with PC133 and AGP 4X support. With AMD working closely with VIA, things might just come together for Athlon owners.

Altogether we should see exciting issues unfold next year with various chipsets fighting for mainstream and AMD trying to capitalize on what I feel are big mistakes made by Intel. I am extremely interested in seeing how Intel will redeem itself at this point. They know what is wrong and competition is not going to sit around and wait for them any longer.

Beyon3D heeft het derde deel van hun T-Buffer Investigated artikel gepost, met wederom erg goede en diepgaande info. Hier een stukje over het effect van full-scene anti aliasing en motion blur:

First of all, Full Scene anti-aliasing, this doesn't need many explanations since it removes annoying visual artifacts, artifacts that distract you from the gaming environment and the game play. Nothing is more annoying than an ugly jagged line popping-up. Texture shimmering (a surface pattern that seems to move or flickering) completely kills the experience and anti-aliasing stops this. Do note that these effects don't come through in the MPEG files that 3dfx made, this is due to the limitations of the MPEG compression used. I watched the actual demo and this has a mayor impact. Basically, the environment looks a hell of a lot better and that's a good thing.

Motion Blur was a huge disappointment, it didn't convince me at all for the fast movements. I saw the demos at full 30 fps on the simulation hardware and the 4 buffer images were very easily recognizable as in the image below it completely ruined the experience:

Verder gaan ze uitgebreid in op de T&L vs fillrate discussie.