The Monster Fusion performed well in all benchmarks. Since my Quake II timedemo woudn't work for some reason. I compared mutitexturing performance with the most unreliable test- the eye. When run though, the TNT card I borrowed from Ove®clck99performed noticeably faster, a bad sign showed by the Banshee's single TMU. It also lost in image quality, as the Banshee chipset, like all other 3dfx chips, cannot support 32-bit rendering, unlike nVidia's chips. 

D-Link Network Kit 14:51 pm - Kan
Kinda missed this out. AnandTech reviewed the D-Link 10/100 in-a-box network kit. Pretty good for home users as well as those mini LAN parties.

The hub is D-Link's DSH-5 10/100 5-port hub. There's an additional uplink port for network expansion through connection to another hub. Note that the uplink port and port 1 cannot be used simultaneously. All ports auto sense a 10Mbps or 100Mbps connection and, unlike some other hubs, both can exist simultaneously on the DSH-5. It's powered by an average sized AC adapter and features a small and relatively quiet fan to keep things cool. Each port has two link lights - one for a 10Mbps connection and the other for a 100Mbps connection. This link light will blink whenever there is activity on that port. Two collision lights, again one for 10Mbps and one for 100Mbps, provide collision information.

Spire Zoom Notebook Backpack 13:44 pm - Kan
This is rather interesting. Tech-review reviewed the Spire Zoom Notebook Backpack. Ideal for people who wish to climb the Everest yet wish to check their email at the peak. Check it out.

Tired of lugging that notebook computer around in a briefcase style bag that makes your shoulder and back beg for mercy? A company by the name of Spire claims that their notebook carrying cases provide maximum comfort and reliability with a lifetime guarentee to back it all up. So we got our hands on their Zoom notebook backpack to throw around and beat up. The Zoom is probably Spire's most popular carrying case and is aimed at people who want a comfortable, effiecient, and stylish way to carry/store their notebook.

Ingram Micro Showcase'99 13:20 pm - Kan
AbsolutePC written an article on what they saw during the Ingram Micro Showcase'99. Ingram Micro is the worlds largest distributor of computer parts and accessories who runs their  Showcase trade show in several different cities over the world.

Intel – This was the one I was really looking forward to but am disappointed to say that I did not learn anything new here and all the information that was presented is common knowledge or easily available over the net. They did briefly discuss Merced and said that it is the processor of the future, but isn’t that what Intel always says. They are definitely not backing down on the PIII and no mention of AMD was uttered. The only thing that presented a bit of a look to the future Intel expects were the comments that the PIII will be the industry standard (they better hope this is so…K7 anyone?), and that the roadmap for Intel in the future is the best that it has ever been (they did not convince me).

Diamond Viper Ultra 770 12:22 pm - Kan
More goodies over at WickedPC with the Diamond Viper Ultra 770 review as well as a triple fan hard drive cooler from 3DCool.

What's the 2nd hottest component in your case? Your video card is probably the number one for heat, with your hard drive (or CPU) following 2nd place. Hard drives get painfully hot, especially if you own a 7200RPM or SCSI hard drive. Owners of really fast hard drives know the problems. Frequently hard drives die or crash and also lose data because of the massive heat they create. The outside of the hard drive might not be too hot on a 5400RPM drive, but if you could only feel the temperature inside, especially since a hard drive doesn't have any vents to get the air from the inside out. It's quite safe to say that it's a furnace inside.

SCSI vs IDE 10:47 am - Kan
Noticed that FiringSquad did a guide comparing the differences between the SCSI and IDE. Is SCSI really good enough to justify the extra cost?

The other way to get SCSI connectivity is by getting a motherboard that has built-in SCSI support. That is, the motherboard has the functionality of a SCSI host adapter integrated into it, like how some motherboards have integrated video or sound (yech, by the way). Motherboards that have built-in SCSI adapters are typically higher-end, as SCSI tends to be a more advanced, and thus more expensive, technology. The problem here is that many of us are very choosy about our motherboards, because we have certain favorites that allow us to do some things. If you're not following this train of thought, what we're saying here is we like our overclocking capability. Hehe.

Pentium III 550 Mhz Review 10:44 am - Kan
Review-Zone did a review on the Pentium III 550 Mhz processor. Damn, I wish I have one to play with now (err..make it two)...

The 550 has a fixed clock multiplier of 5.5x and is designed to run at a 100MHz front side bus- that’s right, this isn't the one meant for the 133MHz FSB speed. For this to happen, you're going to have to wait for the next installment of Pentium III processors, the Coppermine series, not to mention an Intel 820 (Camino) based motherboard to house the new chips. 

DirectX 6.1 vs DirectX 7 Beta 10:43 am - Kan
TwinTexel sent note on their comparison article between DirectX 6.1 vs DirectX 7 beta. 

Nothing new in DirectX7.0 Beta 1 , but the final will be  improved with new software algorithms for 3-D sound and greater flexibility for managing hardware mixing capabilities. DirectX 7.0 provides hardware acceleration for the DirectMusic application programming interface on supporting sound cards, allowing users to create more complex musical soundtracks. The new version runs about 20 percent* faster than version Dx6.1, improving overall game performance.

Maya 2 00:43 pm - Kan
Realized that our girls over at Tech-Junkie did a overview on Maya 2. Now, what's Maya? It's a professional 3D rendering software from Alias/Wavefront. Is it good? Read their review to find out more!

Maya 2 builds on the orginal's success by giving more tools, easier usage and even more photorealistic rendering capabilities. Maya 2 will be available in two packages - Maya Complete, and Maya Unlimited. Complete contains everything a professional 3D artist or game developer would need, with the room to expand. Maya Artisan, Invigorator Lite and Maya Fusion Lite compositing software. Maya Unlimited includes everything in Complete plus Maya Live, Cloth, Fur, PowerModelling and two extra batch rendering Licenses. Basically, Maya Unlimited is for those at the cutting edge of entertainment.

"Minor rough edges aside, it is hard not to recommend an Abit BX6-2.0 to anyone looking for a BX board. The only other board capturing my attention is the new AOpen AX6BC Pro which comes almost on par with the BX6-2.0. While I have never used an AOpen board and have been a loyal fan Asus’s high quality boards, it’s difficult not to be won over by the comprehensive range features found on the BX6-2.0. Until I am convinced otherwise, the Abit BX6-2.0 will remain at the top of my 'A' list of Slot-1 boards.

Mechwarrior 3 21:24 pm - Kan
Speedy3D sent note on their new review on the classic game Mechwarrior 3. Gee, up till now I'm still stuck in Level 1. Damn...

The missions in the game are fairly linear, go here, blow the base up, and get out, it's all very simple. One noticeable addition though, is the mobile field base. The field base allows you to rearm, and refit your mech mid-battle, in times of extreme battle you better have some cover though, because in order to use it you need to shut down your mech for nearly a minute. The mission briefings are excellent. Despite having bad voice overs from some old guy who sounds like he is about to die, you get a brief flyby of the mission area, and detailed instructions on what you need to do.

Pure Cooling Madness 18:34 pm - Kan
Realised there are more madness over at our bud site HardOCP on a processor cooler. Damn, where the hell is the Celery hiding? Check out the pic.

Benwin BW2000 Speakers 18:30 pm - Kan
FPS3D reviewed the Benwin BW2000 speakers. Let's hear what the guys have to say on the sound quality on speakers using the flat-panel technology.

Installing these speakers were surprisingly easy. Ok scrath that, installing any speakers is, and should be easy, so no surprises here. But I almost jammed my fingers straight through the thin covering of the speakers upon removal from the box... Personally, I think they could have put some sort of plastic covering on them to prevent this.

New Voodoo INF Files for Windows 2000 18:24 pm - Kan
NT Gaming Palace kindly sent note on the new Voodoo INF files for Windows 2000. You can download the whole load from there:

• Voodoo Graphics (Glide only)
• Voodoo Graphics Q3 compatible (Glide only)
• Voodoo 2 (Glide only)
• Voodoo 2 Q3 compatible (Glide only)
• Voodoo 3 (Glide only)
• Voodoo 3 (D3D&Glide)
• Voodoo 3 Q3 compatible (D3D&Glide)
• Voodoo Banshee (D3D&Glide)
• Voodoo Banshee Q3 compatible (D3D&Glide)
• Voodoo Rush (2D only, no Glide support)

If you encounter any problems, you can hop over to their message board over there.

Soyo SY-6BA+ III 12:32 pm - Kan
Hot babes over at HotHardware scored a review on the Soyo SY-6BA+ III Pentium II/III motherboard. This one comes with nearly 30 FSB settings for you to play with!

Another feature of this board that I love are the various available PCI Bus speed settings that you can adjust in the BIOS to go along with your FSB speeds. You can relax the PCI bus speed when overclocking the CPU so that your other periphs don't freak out. Finally, the BIOS adjustable CPU core voltage settings are just what the Doctor of Speed ordered for that extra bit of stability. No, you can't take it any higher than 10% (2.2V) over CPU spec. but rarely are there any benefits to going higher than that. We once had a P2-300 that liked 2.4V but it was a little scary running at that voltage all day and we took it down for sanity.

Linux and the Gamming Community 12:28 pm - Kan
Gamecenter posted an article on Linux and the Gamming Community. So, do you know what games are available on the Linux platform?

It's clear, upon speaking to game developers about the Linux community, that the relationship between the gaming and Linux communities is on the rise, because developers appreciate the technical savvy that exists in the Linux community. According to Draeker, "Feedback from the Linux community has been tremendous, and people are very excited to play games [on Linux]. Historically, everybody said, 'Linux is a server OS'; that's because if you look at what kind of applications have been available for Linux, it's been server applications. The fact is more people are installing [Linux] on their home computers and once it's there asking themselves, 'What am I going to do now? I'm reading email and browsing the Net,' but people also like to play games."

Transcend i440BX 12:05 pm - Kan
AnandTech reviewed the Transcend i440BX Slot-1 motherboard. Transcend is well-known for their memory chips and now they are jumping into the motherboard market.

Transcend also wisely chose a 5/2/1 (PCI/ISA/AGP) slot configuration that is by far and away the most popular on newer i440BX boards. The typical 3 DIMM slots are included as well. The ATX specification is followed fairly closely in terms of layout, with just one minor change - the ATX power connector is located behind the CPU. Fortunately, it is placed on the right edge of the board, but this is still not an ideal location. The FDD/HDD connectors are located where they should be, right at the front of the board, so that these cables are not forced to run over the CPU and/or memory, minimizing cable clutter. The board extends an inch and a half beyond the ISA slots, so it should fit fine in any standard ATX case.

Monthly Hardware News 10:15 am - Kan
Our buds over at iXBT sent note on their updated monthly hardware news article. They have posted info on the coming K7, Voodoo3 3000 as well as the new Whitney i810 chipset. Also, they posed a review on the Creative TNT2 Ultra graphics card. Check'em out over here.

Frankly speaking, AMD seems to be living through a technological upsurge. To prove this statement we would like to mention the latest announcement made in the end of May about a considerable rise in processor volumes coming out, as well as the 500MHz version of K6-III, which mysteriously appeared in the market. It was actually pretty strange because AMD usually announced a new CPU far before its launching into the market. This time all the traditions were broken: the vendors were placing orders for the processor without any preliminary official introduction of the device. 

On the surface, the Microdrive would seem to compete directly with flash memory, especially since it conforms to the CF standard's physical dimensions. With an adapter, it can also fit into a PC Card slot.

"Microdrive works where flash capacity cannot be had or is too expensive," said Martin Reynolds, an analyst at Dataquest, in San Jose, Calif. "Generally, flash is better -- if you can get enough of it and you can afford it. But there is no such thing anywhere as 340 MBs in a [CompactFlash Type II] slot except with the Microdrive."

Firm Exposes NT Security Loophole 18:40 pm - Wilfred
I'm sure you've read about it or seen some of the damages of this loophole from the recent spade of attacks on several websites (even some local ones). Check out this ZDNet's article:

Believing that Microsoft "was not giving the problem the attention it deserved," eEye released not only a description of the hole but two working demonstration programs that allow anyone to break into an NT server running IIS 4.0. The break-in code appears to work on any server from which a Web page can be retrieved, even if a firewall is present.

eEye explained its decision to disclose the bug, and to publish a program that lets anyone readily exploit it, in a brief note on its Web site.

"We are a full-disclosure security team," they wrote. "If our team starts hiding the facts, we'll be no better than a software vendor that rushes insecure products to market."

AOL Sharpens ICQ Ambitions 18:34 pm - Wilfred
AOL who bought over the ever popular and indispensable buddy list software a year ago for US$271 million, is eager to recoup this money. Here's a CNet article on their ambitions!

But Leonsis said the real revenue driver is waiting in the wings: opt-in direct marketing. While not formally unveiled, the idea is to have ICQ users develop a one-to-one communications channel with e-commerce vendors or other services. For example, if a user wants to know when Amazon has a book sale, the company can notify the ICQ user through a buddy list message.

"You could envision on your buddy list your banker, stock broker, or travel agent," said Leonsis. "This would be a very convenient way to communicate with them."

Using opt-in marketing is widely accepted by privacy advocates and industry analysts as a positive way to market to Web users. Instead of sending out spam, or mass unsolicited emails that peddle goods and services, users can choose whether they want to receive offers from vendors.

MSI-6163 Motherboard 18:27 pm - Wilfred
BxBoards has done a review on the MSI-6163 Mobo, a very well regarded board spoken in the league of the BX6-2.0 and the new AX6BC Pro. Check this out!

This is an absolutely superb motherboard. The BX chipset is nearly a year old, and some would say coming to the end of its shelf life. However if it takes a year to wait for perfection then so be it. 5 PCI slots, 2 ISA, 16 bus speeds, selectable PCI speeds, onboard sound as a bonus - which can be disabled in the BIOS. Stable as hell - and excellent stability even at crazy speeds such as 152Mhz. Stability with all the SDRAM's was excellent, and it is the only board tested to provide a useable (and totally stable!) 152Mhz. With Camino (Intel 820 chipset) now delayed until September 1999 at the earliest, the stability of this board at speeds past 133Mhz is a decisive factor for me here.

I've tested over 40 boards and counting at BXBoards and this is the best motherboard I have ever tested! The AOpen AX6BC runs it close for sheer stability and the Abit BX6-2 is its equal (or perhaps still its master?) in the overclocking arena. You get the best of all worlds here - great stability, SDRAM compatibility, and overclocking prowess.

Five Reasons To Love Bill Gates 18:23 pm - Wilfred
Yep, this is certainly a refreshing article. We hear Jesse Berst halt his Bill bashing temporarily to reflect upon the virtues of the most successful man in computerdom.

Yes, Mr. Microsoft is arrogant, greedy and nerdy beyond description. But Bill Gates has his good points, too. Which is why I'm taking a break today from Bill-bashing. Come to the site to discover five things to like about Gates. (Then we'll resume the verbal floggings.)

Wilfred Coughs 18:18 pm - Wilfred
I shan't speak of my ordeal reinstalling Windows for the #$!^th time. Finally, I'm back in action but this will be short as I shall be traveling to Malaysia for a short drive-away holiday. Now let me post what had been accumulating in my mailbox.

3DCool Super Slot Fan 11:43 am - Kan
Over at Extreme Hardware, the guys reviewed the 3DCool Super Slot Fan. One personal opinion, this thing does take up 2 slots once you installed it.

The Super Slot Fan is installed in an expansion slot and its 2800rpm fan pumps air out of the case. The ideal use for the Super Slot Fan is for video card and/or CPU cooling. In this respect, the Super Slot Fan does its job well. It is the first cooling device not directly attached to my CPU that has noticeably lowered its temperature by several degrees, a five percent drop on average. Furthermore, the Super Slot Fan helped to cool my TNT2 enough for a few extra MHz increase when overclocking.

Diamond Viper 770 Ultra 11:40 am - Kan
FullOn3D reviewed the Diamond Viper 770 Ultra card. Pretty standard and it comes with a InControl Tools program to customize your games. Pretty cool!

Those 8 black rectangles are the Viper's 32megs of RAM, SDRAM to be exact. This is odd in my book, as a few other companies are shipping SGRAM with their TNT2 Ultras. What's the difference? SGRAM allows for block access meaning it reads and writes chunks of data at a time as opposed to SDRAM which only does it individually. Since block access reduces the amount of time spent reading and writing, it generally increases the performance of the video card by it's improved efficiency. Of course, it is more expensive too. Although I would have preferred to see SGRAM on the Viper, I doubt you will be unimpressed with it's performance

Silicom USB Phoneline Network Adapter 11:38 am - Kan
USB Workshop did a coverage of the Silicom's USB Phoneline network adapter. Basically, you just plug one end to the USB port, the other end to a phone line and you are done!

The U2P is compatible with the Home Phoneline Networking Alliance (HomePNA) 1.0 industry specifications. It supports data transmission across existing home phone wires, without interfering with standard phones, modems or fax machines. The two RJ-11 connectors (one equipped with a pass-through filter) included in the Silicom USB Home Phoneline Network adapter, allow users to make and receive telephone calls, or use a modem to dial out to the Internet, while simultaneously sharing files or peripherals and playing multi-player games.

IWILL Slocket 11:31 am - Kan
AGN Hardware posted a review on the IWILL Socket370 to Slot-1 Slocket. You can even catch the review using RealPlayer if you don't like to read. Anyway, the IWILL also supports dual Celeron processors. No extra fiddling is required.

The IWILL Slocket was actually quite impressive, especially considering the price of the adapter is going to only set you back about $15. Most Slockets are nothing but a raw PCB, which leaves you with an adapter that may fall over the computer if you move it or if your wife beats on it. The IWILL Slocket on the other hand includes a plastic casing that looks very similar to the Pentium II casing. This allows you to push the Slocket firmly into your motherboard and actually have it fasten. Although this is not a big deal for the average user, I am sure that the people who actually sell systems will be quite impressed.

NetMeeting 3.01 Final 11:29 am - Kan
ActiveWin sent note on the official release of NetMeeting 3.01 final. If you have a fetish for these type of stuffs, you can get'em from here:

• NetMeeting 3.01 Final

Elsa Erazor III TNT2 11:27 am - Kan
More graphics cards reviews and we have the Elsa Erazor III from HardwarePros. This is is running on a TNT2 (not Ultra) and comes in the default 125/150 speed.

So at this point in time, NVidia has finally changed over to the 0.25 micron process and those 125MHz+ chips have become a reality.  The TNT2 comes in two flavors, the regular TNT2 and the TNT2 Ultra.  They are really the same chip but because manufacturing processes and silicon wafer qualities can vary, some chips will be able to reach higher clock speeds than others. 

Gainward CARDEXpert Savage4 Pro 11:23 am - Kan
Dedicated to S4 fans out there (bowwow), AnandTech reviewed the Gainward CARDEXpert Savage4 Pro graphics card.

Since video chipset manufacturers usually offer up reference board designs, and motherboard chipset manufacturers don't, it stands to reason that designing a video card is a lot easier than a motherboard. This is apparent in Gainward's strict use of an S3 Savage4 reference PCB design. This keeps costs down by reducing engineering costs. And in this case, the reference design make efficient use of space, which further cuts down on costs.

Xentor32 TNT2 Ultra 11:17 am - Kan
Our buds over at The Sanctum just finished their review on the Guillemot Xentor32 TNT2 Ultra graphics card. Damn, I'm just waiting for the prices to drop further before getting one of these.

Removing the Xentor32 from it's plastic sleeve revealed a rather medium sized video card, the same size as most UltraTNT2's being sold now. It's large protruding heatsink fan combo sits on top of NVIDIA's .25 micron'd UltraTNT2 chipset to keep it cool under high pressure situations. Generic SDRAM sat on the dark green silicon. We did have some problems with the fan upon bootup, it didn't work. When we pushed the fan power connector while it was off, then we booted the computer back up it sounded like a wounded muffler scraping on the pavement.

System Shock 11:15 am - Kan
Gamers' Crypt sent note on their review on System Shock. A classic indeed...

It was during this year of unprecedented growth throughout the PC CD-ROM industry that System Shock made a relatively low key and unassuming entry, amidst a fan-fare of praise directed mainly towards other titles. Although taking its fair share of glowing reviews and critical acclaim, Origin didn't quite secure the market owned by id's Doom, although it did manage its own cult following that has lasted equally as long. While those who missed the original cyber-punk thriller in '94 will have the chance to catch up with the System Shock universe in its upcoming sequel, System Shock II, those who have played, and enjoyed the first will take to the next in the System Shock series with scrutiny. It seems that System Shock II has big boots to fill.

Starwars: Episode 1 00:20 am - Kan
AGN3D kicked off with a review on the game Starwars: Episode 1. If you wanna be like Anakin in the movie, this is the closest you can get...

I will admit that there is a definite sense of speed. The pods do travel at an incredibly high rate of speed but the course design subdues the excitement somewhat. The physics of the pod racer doesn’t thrill me either. On the icy level there is one portion that is like a frozen lake and the pod almost completely loses control. What I don’t buy is that even though you can turn the jets on the pod completely sideways to the direction of travel, the thrust from them seems to have virtually no affect on your movement.

TNT2 Roundup 00:17 am - Kan
Noticed 3DHardware.net posted a TNT2 roundup comparing three TNT2 graphics cards. Check out whether the AOpen, Leadtek or Creative is the best.

The nVidia TNT2 chip comes in two flavours - Standard and Ultra. As the name suggests, Standard TNT2 chips are standard (duh) and cost less than the faster Ultra versions, you'll see most standard TNT2s running at the nVidia recommended speed of 125MHz for the graphics chip and 140MHz for the memory. On the other hand, the Ultra version is a buffed-up version, running at a designated speed of 150MHz for the graphics chip and 175MHz for the memory. Although nVidia has their recommended clockspeeds you will find some companies taking it one step further and offer products clocked beyond the pre-specified.

"Raising photo design and production to exhilarating new heights, Adobe® Photoshop® 5.5 expands its scope to bring you innovative artistic tools, Web-feature enhancements, and the power of Adobe ImageReady^TM 2.0 for advanced processing of images for the Web. Now you can design interactive Web graphics or prepare sophisticated images for print with the same power and ease. Let Adobe notify you when Photoshop for Mac or Windows ships."

Build your own System 23:20 pm - Kan
FiringSquad has another new article, this time on how to build your own computer. If you still don't know how to build one, you should be reading that article. :)

If you've never opened up a computer case, we don't recommend trying to build your own system just yet. Start small. First try upgrading a few components. Install a new sound or video card, maybe a memory upgrade. Try some minor overclocking; it'll familiarize you with motherboards and configuring jumpers. We hope this guide will tell you everything you need to know when you're finally ready to build your system, but it still doesn't beat having an experienced friend watching over your shoulder.

3dfx Interview 23:19 pm - Kan
PCVelocity sent note on their interview with 3dfx's Brian Burke on the Voodoo3 as well as future technologies.

PCV: In your opinion, how well does the Voodoo3 stack up against the competition performance-wise?

3dfx: Voodoo3 is the performance leader. There was a lot of misinformation about the TNT-2 board early on. Now that the boards are starting to ship, we see that the TNT-2 boards are not shipping at the exurbanite clock speeds that consumers were lead to believe they would ship at. Now that the product is out, we can see that these claims where overstated, and the numbers do not lie.

Satellite Radio 15:39 pm - Kan
How does this sound to you? Crystal clear reception/quality and you never drive out of range from a local broadcasting station. Time Digital has an article on what the future of satellite radio holds for us.

Satellite radio is just what it sounds like -- radio signals broadcast from an orbiting transmitter -- but it'll have huge advantages over conventional radio. Satellite radio can blanket the country with its signals, so you'll never drive out of range of your favorite station; zones that a satellite can't reach, such as areas with tall buildings, will be taken care of by ground-based relay stations. Satellite radio is also much clearer than conventional radio, and it can offer hundreds of different channels, some of which (or so its promoters promise) will be commercial-free.

Pioneer 6X SCSI DVD 15:38 pm - Kan
I will personally give a thumbs up for this DVD-ROM drive. AGN Hardware did a review of it as well as a review on the ATI All-in-Wonder 128 graphics card.

Of course, certain features of the drive are shared between both versions. Both drives feature a slot-less design that has no tray mechanism. Instead, Pioneer has included a dust skirt that helps to keep the disk dust free and cleans your disk as it is inserted. Getting used to this slot-less design took a little while. The disks are just grabbed and pulled in much like a car CD player. The action is a bit jerky but we performed this task countless times with both versions of the drive and never once received an error or scratched a disk. Jeremy reported that the skirt even removed a fingerprint from one of his DVDs!

Promise Internal-to-External IDE Converter 15:35 pm - Kan
Noticed that AnandTech posted the Promise Internal-to-External IDE Converter review. 

The case is plastic and secured by two screws to a metal frame. On the back, there's a 50-pin centronics connector, two RCA jacks, a fan exhaust, and a power switch. The card features an external 50-pin high density SCSI connector for connection to the outside world. A standard power connector from the PC power supply plugs into the card and power is carried over the 50-pin cable to the device.

Unfortunately, the solution is not exactly ideal. The card takes up a valuable slot, while the ISA interface limits transfer rates to about 5 megabytes/s - faster than USB or parallel, but still fairly slow for a hard drive. ISA also means high CPU utilization compared to a PCI bus mastering solution (like that featured on current motherboards). Finally, since the custom ISA IDE card must be used for the interface, the external device will not be portable to other machines unless they also happen to have this same kit installed.

Yamaha Waveforce 192 Digital 15:28 pm - Kan
Buds over at 3DsoundSurge took a look at the Yamaha Waveforce 192 Digital soundcard. 

The most sophisticated member of the WaveForce family, the WaveForce 192 Digital uses Yamaha 724 chip which is featured on several other OEM products and motherboards. This PCI card features a S/PDIF with an optical output connector, a 16 bit digital to analog and analog to digital converter (DAC/ADC), Yamaha's XG synthesizer, Yamaha’s exclusive physical modeling synthesizer and positional 3D technology from Sensaura (using DS3D).

Reah - DVD Edition 15:25 pm - Kan
Check out ActiveWin review on the DVD edition of Reah from Project Two Interactive. Take a look at the stunning graphics!

Finally we get a new DVD-ROM title that takes advantage of the excellent space provided on a DVD disk. The game consists of over 87,000 frames of 3D rendered animation plus 40,000 frames of video sequences giving over 127,000 frames in total - this is definitely not an interactive slideshow. These are real numbers not the values "created" by marketing people. There are over 400 sound effects and similar number of spoken phrases - audio data occupies over 280 MB. Actually the developer had problems fitting the game on 6 discs.

It was impossible to fit the data on "standard" DVD-5 single sided disc after decreasing compression rate in order to take advantage of better DVD-ROM performance so Project Two have put it on one DVD-10 Disk (Which means you can turn the disk over to play the other side).

Coppermine Delayed 15:22 pm - Kan
Gee, I'm sort of expecting this. According to an article from Techweb, Intel confirmed that Coppermine will delay till November.

A desktop version of the Coppermine -- the generic codename given to a 0.18-micron Pentium III with on-chip level 2 cache -- was originally expected to ship in September at 600-MHz using Intel's 0.25-micron process. Instead, a 600-MHz Pentium III without on-chip cache will ship in September, and the Coppermine's ship date will be pushed out until about November, an Intel spokesman said.

Desktop CPUs - A Gamer's Perspective 15:19 pm - Kan
PCParadox posted an article on a brief history of CPUs and what the future will hold.

Before jumping straight into the good stuff, maybe a little history would be in order to set the scene. The first single-chip CPU was made by Intel way back in 1971. It was called the 4004 and was a 4 bit processor intended for use in pocket calculators. More recently came the 8088 and the 8086, Which were 8 bit CPUs used in the first PCs such as the IBM XT. The progression through 80286, 80386, 80486 was more evolutionary than revolutionary, as processors went from 8 bit to 16 bit to 32 bit architectures. Competitors sprang up, such as Zilog, AMD, NEC and Cyrix. Some of them are still players in today's PC CPU market, while some decided to pursue other ventures.

AOL's Dream 15:16 pm - Kan
Our pals over at ArsTechnica posted a commentary on what-the-heck is AOL up to this time on their recent shopping spree, buying up companies like Mirabilis, Netscape and Winamp.

Let's face it - all of these things are replaceable.  Those of us using Linux know all too well that ICQ is but one of many Internet messaging tools available (and we also know how easy it is to find a compatible client that works with Mirabilis' servers, too).  Opera and Internet Explorer have already demonstrated that Netscape isn't the lone ranger we once thought it was, and Winamp, well, c'mon folks, it plays MP3s (among other things)!  In other words, its not as if there aren't already alternative to all of these proggies.  So why buy?

Battlecruiser 3000AD 15:14 pm - Kan
Gamers' Crypt scored a review on the developers edition of Battlecruiser 3000AD. 

Going in guns ablaze, and manual still in its shrink-wrap on the floor by your feet may work for 99% of the titles out there, but in comparison to BC3K, they are merely the kazoos of the gaming industry. The 40 page out-of-the-box manual is little more than an overblown reference card, for it’s the 170+ page online manual included on the CD that truly explains the guts of the game. Every single word of that manual is relevant to your BC3K experience, and every single word needs to be memorised like the bible. Take it to the toilet with you, read it on the train to work, or enjoy sleepless nights in front of your computer wading through the endless flow of information.

Corsair PC133 11:38 am - Kan
DemoNews posted 2 new articles. The first one is the Corsair PC133 128MB RAM module as well as the Skywell TNT2 graphics accelerator card.

Corsair's PC133 modules are fully compatible with current Intel (INTC) PC100 modules that support most of the Intel chipsets today. Additionally, according to Richard Hashim, the Director of Memory Products at Corsair, there are real measurable benefits to use PC133 modules in Intel's PC100 compatible systems, "The Corsair PC133 modules offer enhanced operating margin in today's PC100 compatible systems. The enhanced operating margin provided with PC133 will be most noticeable to high power users looking for the maximum reliability/speed in their systems and applications".

They also told us that there are two new programs over at EnTech Taiwan. The new EnergySaver as well as OSD.

OSD is: For those of you with older, but perfectly serviceable monitors that lack the digital amenities of OSD is a little 123kb freeware utility that will provide, well, an OSD (OnScreen Display) of the horizontal and vertical frequency you're monitor's in. It works with practically any graphics card that's register-level compatible with the original IBM VGA.

The EnergySaver makes the DPMS services provided by the PowerStrip available to mainstream NT users and administrators in a lower-cost and more compact package. Designed to operate as a familiar screen saver, the EnergySaver can be configured to power down Energy Star compliant monitors when not in use, extending monitor life-span while reducing electricity expenses. Direct hardware manipulation of vertical and horizontal sync signals supplement full support for industry-standard VESA hardware and software power management protocols to ensure the widest possible compatibility. Graphics chipsets specifically supported include those from 3Dlabs, 3dfx, ATI, Cirrus Logic, Intel, Matrox (single and dual monitor configurations), NVidia, Rendition, S3, Trident and Tseng Labs.

K7 Site 11:32 am - Kan
Looking for more info on the K7? Well, wait no more. Generation K7 is a site dedicated to the K7 and include daily news on the K7.

Hardware-One: Microsoft Midtown Madness 02:45 am - Wilfred
Check out Yingzong's totally crazee review on Microsoft's Midtown Madness! It's not your everyday driving game! Here's the milder bits:

"... there’s a sense of freedom in the game unseen by other games. You can be the law abiding driver and meekly totter your way through the streets of Chicago or break the rules by inventing your own. That’s the essence of the game: It is no holds barred when you’re out there; You enjoy the freedom of safely driving like a manic because there is no possibility of doing so in reality."

Matrox G400 At Thresh's 02:38 am - Wilfred
Oh my! I can't wait for this card to arrive. But before that, check out what the FiringSquad whipped up for us! Those 'bumped' candy sure made my day! With the vanilla G400 alone, it kicked so much ass in their benchmarks, just wait for the G400Max to do its stuff!

The Matrox G400 is an incredibly future-proof card. With the revolutionary features that it offers, it gave us excellent performance as well as outstanding image quality. Users who would buy this card are those interested in image quality, without having a huge emphasis on framerates. While slower CPU systems may want to think twice, fast, high-end systems can squeeze out good performance.

BattleCruiser 3000AD V2.0x - Developers Ed 02:25 am - Wilfred
Gamer's Crypt has smacked up a review on BattleCruiser 3000AD V2.0x Developers Edition. It's not a game for everybody, read this and decide if you are up to it....

It is discouraging to no ends to see review after review cite BC3Ks learning curve as one of the main stumbling block of this game. ‘Steep’ it’s called, as if to denote an uphill battle. It stands to reason that the deeper the game, the more satisfying the experience. Yet the deeper the game, the higher the ‘learning curve’, and the more mental resources and commitment it takes to play. Do the means justify the ends? Apparently not. Those who have stuck with BC3K, have bothered to read the manual and thus understood the mechanics of the game, have all unanimously agree that BC3K is a fantastic title. The depth of a game is almost directly proportional to its longevity, just as it is directly proportional to its challenge. To acknowledge the depth and challenge of the title, and then condemn it for having a ‘steep learning curve’ shows that many reviewers have simply missed the point altogether.

Who Do That Voodoo Like STB Do 02:16 am - Wilfred
As usual, an unusual title from Kyle, your favourite hardware site next to your porn dens. He's checked out the Voodoo3 and you will want to find out what he has to say after you seen this pic!

		Well lets just tell it like it is. Is this card a good/great video card? I think so. Would I buy one? I am not real sure. This is going to highly depend on what gaming camp you sleep in.
At this point, if I was looking to purchase a decent card, or did not have a lot of dinero to spend, I think I would still go with the Voodoo3 2000 because the performance to cost curve leans so far towards the buyer's favor. Although $40 extra bucks could get you a lucky V3 3000 with awesome ram and then all of a sudden you are waxing the upcoming V3 3500 MHz levels.....  You also have the issue of no 32 bit color support which you will most likely not find as a real world hindrance if you are an online gamer. I don't know too many people that are gonna sacrifice that many FPS for a little bit more fancy colors anyway.

Gigabyte GA-5AX V1.4 Mobo 02:08 am - Wilfred
Extreme Hardware tested out the Gigabyte GA-5AX, revision 4 of its Aladdin V Super7 motherboard. Quite a lot of enhancements were squeezed into this revision. The snips:

In addition to the usual bug-fixed and overall increased stability, Gigabyte added a few key new features. The most obvious upgrade is the move to a 5/2/1 (PCI/ISA/AGP) expansion slot design, instead of the older 4/3/1 design. Additionally, the bus speed support has been increased to support speeds over 100mhz, including 105, 115, and 120mhz. Other minor improvements include keyboard Power On and Off functions, a CPU temperature sensor and monitoring, and an expanded voltage range (1.3v – 3.5v).

Leadtek WinFast S320 II 02:01 am - Wilfred
Here's GameWire's take on the first TNT2 card to arrive on the scene - Leadtek WinFast S320 II. Some thoughts on V3 vs TNT2:

This certainly was unexpected, after all the hype around the TnT2 made most users think that it would be about 150% of the performance of the Voodoo 3. Well let's look at it this way, the Voodoo 3 may have been marginally faster but its image quality is nothing compared to that of the TnT2 which means the TnT2 is actually pumping more power. On top of that our tests are using a Voodoo 3 3000 in original anticipation they were probably comparing it the weakest Voodoo 3 there was, the 2000.