This game is a true sequel in every sense of the word. First of all, EA is sharply deviating from previous NFS titles by only including a single car manufacturer in the game: Porsche. Every single Porsche is included in Unleashed, from the first 1948 356 roadster to the speedy 959, which was banned in North America - the one that got Bill Gates in trouble. That's more than 80 in all. The game uses a brand-new graphics engine developed from the ground up, not a rehashed one from an older game. The physics have been totally revamped to accurately simulate the individual handling characteristics of each car as well. And best of all, Unleashed sheds its arcade racer skin and instead plays more like a simulator - more like the original The Need for Speed.

Wilfred Coughs #2 - 22:15 pm Wilfred
Second cough of the day?! Yeah! Oh well, the editors are all tight up with things today, so bear with us eh? Indeed, there's quite a bit of news for you. One more thing, Magix is still unbearably SLOOOOOOooooOOOOW today! Arrgggh... somebody do something!

Midiland S4/7100 5.1 - 22:08 pm Wilfred
Wow! Quite a number of audio products on parade today. AnandTech just checked out the high-end Midiland S4/7100 5.1 channel surround speakers system. Hmm.. but this system doesn't come with an onboard Dolby Digital decoder.

The S4 7100s are a decent set of 5.1 speakers that should keep most users very happy. Now, if you are the kind of person looking to shake screws loose and rattle windows, then you should probably look elsewhere. These are not meant to tear the house apart :) The construction quality seems to be quite sturdy; and overall, the design and appeal were well thought out. The control module was a great idea, but why they left out a headphone jack is beyond me. How do these compare to the Cambridge 2500? They are both very similar in sound, but the Midilands are a bit louder than the Cambridge. It's a toss up really: stands & dolby decoder vs. volume and a slick green LED :)

Marmitek Gigavideo 30 - 22:04 pm Wilfred
What's this?! Well, I spent a good 15 mins figuring out too. Hardware Central reviewed this video/audio transmitter and receiver meant to allow you to transmit high-quality movies from your PC's DVD kit to any TVs. Go over for a detailed reading.

SoundBlaster Live! Platinum  - 22:00 pm Wilfred
Where? At the Ars. So what is it with this card that you have to pay a price premium for? They developed a liking for it, so will you.

As one would expect, the card sounds great.  Since it's based on the same DSP as it's other Live! brethren (the EMU10K1), sound quality is basically as the original SBLive series cards.  No, what makes this card da ballz (pardon my French) has to be the Live! DRIVE.  I simply love it.  The 5 1/4" drive gives the Platinum more silicon on which to connect audiophile goodness, and even if it makes me the lamest person in the world, I absolutely, positively love being able to plug both my headphones and my mic right into the front of my box. 

Interview With Dan Kennedy Of Tweak3D  - 21:56 pm Wilfred
SystemLogic posted an interview they did with the tweak monkey of Tweak3D. Heh, just for interest sake eh? You want to know what goes behind the life of the webmaster?

SL: How many people do you have working for Tweak3D? Can you tell us a bit about your staff and what they do?

Tweak3D: There are a lot of people on the staff right now. Most of them aren’t even doing anything. I’m just too busy to remove their names from the About page, etc.:-)  As far as who updates the most, Chris Burek and Keith McClellan both write tons of reviews/guides. They really work hard and get a lot done. Our HTML guru and hardware editor, David, gets news posted almost every day. Lately he’s been busy though. The majority of the other guys aren’t around a lot anymore, but Nafterclifen still moderates the discussion boards, and Xero and tapped both post news and articles from time to time. I probably missed someone too, but it’s getting late.. sorry guys!

Monsoon MH-500 Speakers  - 21:52 pm Wilfred
AbsolutePC let us know that there is a new review of the MH-500 flat panel speakers at their site. Wanna hear what they have to say?

So how did these suckers perform? We had our doubts about exactly how well a 2 speaker system could perform in the days of 4 speaker surround kits, especially for a price of just under $100. Well we were pleasently surprised! These speakers sound in one word, great.

NinjaMicro Freespeed Pro - 21:44 pm Wilfred
BXBoards reviewed this nifty Athlon overclocking gadget from NinjaMicro (whoa!), called Freespeed Pro. This is pretty sweet stuff!

Right now I'm running my Athlon 500 at 700MHz with a 1.65V core voltage. In raw megahertz, that's a 40% increase! With the FreeSpeed Pro and products like it on the market, Athlon overclocking is finally made easy. Changing the core voltage and clock speed settings are accomplished via the FreeSpeed's DIP switches, something reminiscent of days before Soft Menu.

Bill Gates Steps Down as CEO of MS - 11:40 am Yingzong
Caught this piece of revelation down at ZDNet News. Bill Gates announced on Thursday afternoon (US time) that he will step down as CEO of Microsoft Corp. MS President Steve Ballmer will take over the role. Bill Gates will continue as chairman of the company and assume the role of "chief software architect". Here's a piece of the news :

The executive shuffle comes as Microsoft is facing stepped-up pressure on the antitrust front -- namely, reports this week that the U.S. Department of Justice will demand a breakup of the software giant into separate companies as part of an antitrust settlement. Ballmer responded to those reports Thursday, saying a company split would be "the single greatest disservice that anybody could do." "It would be absolutely reckless and irresponsible for anyone to try and break up this company -- there is no precedent," he said. "It would be reckless beyond belief."

Gates, meanwhile, said his "commitment to working full-time" for the company remains "100 percent" but that it was time for the management structure to evolve. Calling the move "a very exciting evolution for me," Gates cited his 25 years as CEO of the company he co-founded in January 1975 as a reason for him to take "the next step."

The MX64 also features 2 USB ports in the standard location, but also adds a header for 2 more ports, a feature that comes, once again, courtesy of the VIA 686A south bridge. A small cable leads to the 2 ports, which are mounted in a bracket designed to take the place of an expansion slot cover. With a little ingenuity, they could easily be mounted anywhere else in the case, such as on the front panel. Finally, the 686A provides dual channel Ultra ATA 66 support without the need for additional controllers.

ABIT BF6 - 06:27 am Kan
3dgn reviewed the ABIT BF6. This is the one with 6 PCI slots, 1 ISA slot, 1 AGP slot and it comes with 3 DIMM slots which supports up to a maximum of 768MB of RAM.

The board comes with the good stuff Abit got us used to: dual IDE cable, dual floppy cable, driver/utility CD, manual, and a thermal sensor cable. The CD contains the usual array of programs, as well as some drivers and an online version of the manual.

It’s also pleasant to see how well written the manual is; even a beginner to computers could find out how to install the BF6. It has very well done illustrations of different parts of the motherboard, and every step to correctly install the BF6 is clearly explained. This changes from some manuals where you have to flip back and forth to find what you need.

MX400 Sneak Preview - 06:06 am Kan
Hey, check out our pals over at 3DsoundSurge on their preview of the new MX400 soundcard. Gosh, I can't keep up with these sound on such technical terms. =)

Its also worth noting that like the Hoontech Digital-XG, these MX400 drivers use Sensaura's new reverb engine that supports EAX 1, 2.0 and I3DL2 along with translating A3D 1.x calls to DS3D.    In terms of API support, don't let the Monster name fool you.  The MX400 does not use an Aureal chipset and as such does not support A3D 2.0 or the upcoming A3D 3.0.

The reverb quality is improved from earlier drivers and while to our ears its still not as good as the Live or QSound's reverb,  its definitely good enough to be a positive feature.  Finally, a quick test seems to say that the Canyon3D can finally play multiple wave files as I was able to run WinAmp with waveout and have 2 other wav files going at the same time.  

128MB Compact Flash - 06:05 am Kan
Now, I know Yingzong will be jumping with joy. Spotted this press release over at Dimension X on the new 64MB/128MB Compact Flash from Transcend. Forget it, I know they will cost a bomb:

With the ever-growing popularity of both Digital Cameras and Mobile PCs (PDA, Palm PC), demand for high capacity CompactFlash (CF) Cards has also increased rapidly. The small dimensions of the CompactFlash specification means only a maximum of 4 flash Integrated Circuits (ICs) can be mounted into a single CF card. So having high capacity ICs is vitally important for the newer devices which require more and more memory for increasing numbers of applications and improved picture quality. Using 128-Mb flash ICs, the maximum capacity is 64MB. However, Transcend’s new cards use high quality 256-Mb ICs from a leading Japanese manufacturer - which means 128MB of memory in each CF card. This amount of memory will meet the requirements of digital still cameras with a resolution of over two million pixels, and easily supports the most powerful mobile PC applications.

Aureal SQ2500 - 06:02 am Kan
ArashBest reviewed the Aureal SQ2500 soundcard today. Powered by the Vortex2 chipset and supporting A3D 2.0, some of the features include 576 wavetables, full duplex 48KHz, four speaker out, mic in, Game/MIDI port, S/PDIF.

The SQ2500 utilizes the famous Vortex 2 (Rev B.) chip, which has amazingly good 3D audio in games that support A3D, such as Half-Life. The Vortex chip is known for higher than average CPU utilization, which may drop framerates in some games, but those of you with a fairly fast CPU should not worry about this. In fact, I personally think the amazing audio effects more then make up for the 1-5 fps loss. As for the quality of A3D 2.0 audio, the Vortex 2 is excellent with headphone or two speaker setups. As for the four speaker support, it is also very good, however, not the "best" when compared with other high-end cards.

The Future of Technology - 06:00 am Kan
BuyBuddy whipped up an article called The Future of Technology. So what sort of future technology enhancements do you expect to see in this new Millennium? 

As many are aware, Moore’s Law states that processing power will double in speed over an 18-month period (and/or decrease in price by 50%). This still holds true with processors such as the Intel Pentium III and AMD Athlon chips in the market. Within the next decade, Lithography--the means in which processors are produced today--will become obsolete, if Moore’s Law is correct. With microprocessors at 0.18 micron in size, and soon to become 0.13 micron, they will reach their physical limit within the next decade. Many scientists and researchers today are working on a post-lithography process that will create processors with unimaginable speeds. One of the most exciting prospects for future computing is DNA computing. While still in highly experimental stages, researchers have progressed quite dramatically and have produced working parts.

Microsoft Internet Keyboard Pro - 05:57 am Kan
Our buds over at ActiveWindows sent note on their review of the Microsoft Internet Keyboard Pro. I think the biggest attraction is the inclusion of two USB ports in the keyboard itself, allowing you to plug in other peripherals like your mouse with ease.

Once the IntelliType Pro software is installed, you are ready to use the keyboard. The Hot Keys give pushbutton access to programs and functions used every day. Some of the Hot Keys default to pre-established functions. For instance, the multimedia keys are standard controls, such as volume control or track control. most of the Internet Hot Keys are standard controls, such as back/forward, and the Web/Home Hot Key loads the Internet default home page. The Search key will either default to your Internet browser's search page of the user can define a different search engine in the IntelliType software. The Email Hot Key is defined in the IntelliType Pro software.

New 3.69 nVidia Drivers - 05:54 am Kan
Thanks to our pal over at NT Compatible, we got hold of the knowledge that 3DWin2000.de has links to the new 3.69 nVidia drivers for Windows 95/98 as well as Windows 2000!

Outrageous 3D GeForce DDR Review - 01:10 am Wilfred
Heh DemoNews, where did you find one of this??! Well, aren't you excited by the entry of a new player? So now we have another shipping GeForce 256 DDR card out there, does it offer anything different? Check out this card from Absolute Multimedia!

The Outrageous3D's boundle is great. You get a so called "Software's Choice". It's a piece of paper on which you can choose to buy: Supreme Snowboading (Boarder Zone), Rollercoaster Tycoon, Driver, UEFA Champions League 1998-1999, Unreal Tournament, Colin McRae Rally, SIN, TOCA 2, Space Invaders, Rollcage, Heretic II or Astroids. You can actually buy 3 of these titles for just £54.99 or four of them for £64.99. And the best of all, you can pick on for FREE if you buy this card. That's a great deal you get there. Along with the board you get 3 OEM titles and WINDVD+MP3 Software.

Well, the Outrageous 3D GeForce 256 cards is featured with an s-video out port on the back. Many card manufactors doesn't send the needed s-video cable, but Absolute Multimedia does and that's a good sign of a thoughtful company who wants the buyer to be pleased able use all the features the card have.

Diamond Viper II - 01:04 am Wilfred
You love these guys. Beyond3D reviewed the Diamond Viper II, Savage2k card. While they were decently impressed with the numbers, some issues were raised concerning the present state of things with the Viper II:

There were some rendering issues with the board in both OpenGL and D3D. For example, when using Winamp Goes 3D, the entire screen became a mess and was totally unusable. Also, in trying Need For Speed: High Stakes, having the Z option enabled totally distorted the screen, with objects showing up through other objects. Turning this off made the game much better, but still not perfect. Also, I found that both Quake II and Quake III's menus had problems when at 640x480 and 800x600. So point being, the drivers are still immature and there are problems to be resolved.

The future of the Viper II is very questionable. While it is certainly true that the drivers are very immature, is that the only thing holding it back from it's full potential? Or is bandwidth the real issue? As 3D accelerators are becoming more and more powerful, bandwidth is becoming more and more important. There is certainly a lot of potential behind the Viper II even if a bandwidth limitation exists. Driver optimization is really the key for S3 right now. A primary focus for them needs to be reducing the amount of time the CPU is forced to deal with the  drivers. If they can do that, performance will certainly go up for everyone, especially ones who don't have the absolute fastest CPU. And of course if S3 can/does get T&L going on the Viper II, that will also take the geometry load off of the CPU in supporting games.

FC-PGA Overclocking - The Next 300A? - 00:58 am Wilfred
HardwareCentral covered today's hottest CPUs (for overclocking!) and compares the PC-PGA Pentium III 500E, 550Es to the infamous 300A! Don't miss this!

Every once in a while, an excellent deal comes along. A processor much more than it actually appears, which, with a little tweaking, is a real steal. Arguably the best all time example was Intel’s Celeron 300A, which could be overclocked very easily, and at the time offered performance similar to, if not better than, Intel’s flagship PII 450 for a fraction of the cost. Of course, steals like that are few and far between, so we need to remain sharp, and not miss the opportunity when one does come along.

When Intel announced their Pentium III 500E and 550E MHz processors, a few well-trained eyes began to notice some striking similarities between them and the famed 300A, and the enormous overclocking potential of these two was quickly brought to light.

SoundBlaster Live! X-Gamer & MP3+ - 00:53 am Wilfred
Thank goodness we here in Singapore are safe from these hideously difficult to remember names and models (don't flame me if you think otherwise!). Anyway, 3DSoundSurge has a review on these cards and you will probably want to read this if you are in the market for one (outside of Singapore, that is! ;P ).

To me it seems pretty clear that unless you also want the rest of the MP3+ bundle or unless you already have the games that come with the X-Gamer,  the thing to do is buy the X-Gamer and then buy a third party MP3 player that might be Music Match Juke Box or it might be another one of the excellent programs that are available on the market.  No matter which one you pick it will cost you much less than buying the three games you get with the X-Gamer, even if you wait long enough to get the games at discount prices. What you give up by going with a 3^rd party MP3 encoder is the ability easily add EAX effects to your MP3s at high or variable bit rates. You can of course use the lite version of DAC that comes with the X-Gamer but you will be limited to a 96 khz bit rate.

ASUS V6600 Deluxe Vs ELSA Erazor X - 00:49 am Wilfred
3D Wars started a new battle between the Erazor X and the V6600 today. Well, what has the reviewer got to say about each board? Find out!

Overall, both cards are high-end graphics boards and are not for everyone. If you are a basic gamer, I would still recommend you buy a Voodoo3 or TNT2 until you were really 'into' the video card scene. On the other hand, there are many users who want performance and they want it now. In that case, it comes down to pricing as well. The Asus card is a bit over 300 dollars in retail and just under on the street. For the Elsa board, it's fewer than 290 dollars at retail and well under 250 when bought at street price. If you wanted to add the 3D Revelators to that, you would be looking to spend just about the same price for the Asus board, if not less. All in all, the V6600 Deluxe is faster than the Erazor X, has more features and comes with a bigger bundle. On the flip side, the Erazor X is a decent card, not really 'filled-up' with items that many gamers don't use. Both cards are pretty easily overclockable, so if speed is your thing, go for whichever one has the features you want.

Wilfred Coughs - 00:40 am Wilfred
After some days of quiet, 'Wilfred Coughs' is back due to popular demand (yeah right!).

Ok, what happened yesterday? Hmm, was expecting to receive my S$15 pack of ClearScreen protectors for the Palm V, which I ordered from Silicon Horizon. But hmm, was informed that it'll come later today.

Then Wy Mun let me know that the ASUS DDR GeForce is out at SLS and whoa, some pieces of the Olympus C2020Z are brought into Singapore (yeah!).

There is however, one thing, that annoyed me the entire day - MAGIX! Arrggh... the DNS had some problems in the afternoon and couldn't seem to load HW1 (unless I switched to my Starhub account. Duh!). Now Magix is so AWFULLY slow and pages JUST refuse to load up, I'm back to dialup. Come on, what's wrong?!

The Game Of Monopoly - 00:33 am Wilfred
There's an editorial at osOpinion on the hot topic of a broken up Microsoft. The author doesn't think the Justice Dept's consensus would do much good and offers some of his own thoughts. Here's why he thinks splitting them up doesn't help:

Instead, we will have a software company that has the virtual monopoly of the Office software suite to power its growth, and an OS company that has the actual monopoly of Windows to fuel its advance. Competition in either market will be unaffected because neither of the new companies will compete with each other! Both of these new companies will retain their current Microsoft-minded management and business practices. Both companies will control cash cows for which there is essentially no competition.

Well, the RDJD units show themselves to be quite respectable if not spectacular. The P302 is about a degree cooler than the P301 so it appears there really is a difference between the units. The fan RDJD uses is loud though, there's a definite low-pitched buzzing sound. Given they're the same cost as the standard UltraCool unit which is better and quieter, it's hard to recommend them.

Reversing the fan didn't have a positive effect on any of the units, noise or cooling-wise.. There's some wind noise from the big fan on the modified UltraCool, of course, but it's a fairly unobtrusive hiss - and the cooling performance is very impressive. In fact, even in standard form the unit offers surprisingly good cooling. If you wanted to go for the big monster (another for the clear perspex case?) the modified UltraCool, or "Mega 80mm P3 Cooler" as it's called on the website, is probably a pretty good buy.

Pricewatch - 20:01 pm Kan
Yup, it's the time of the day in which price lists get updated. Check out CPUReview's Athlon/Pentium 3 Price Comparison as well as SharkyExtreme's Weekly CPU Prices.

Oh yes, 3DChipset also sent note on the new ASUS V6600 drivers for NT 4.0 as well as Windows 2000. You can grab'em from here.

The Time Machine - 19:58 pm Kan
3DRage dropped us a line on their latest game review The Time Machine which is developed by the dudes over at Cryo-Interactive. Sounds fun, so here's some of it:

In "The Time Machine", you portray H.G. Wells who is projected into the distant future with the time machine that was built by himself. The year is 800,000, which is pretty damn far into the future if you ask me. Upon arriving in this strange place and time, your time machine is nowhere in site, and the only thing that is present before you is a dreary world where the people's memories are scattered due to the "temporal storms". Only one being is capable of restoring the balance of time and help Wells find his own era again - a mythical being, a Demi-god, The Master of the Hourglass: KHRONOS.

Scientists Have Created a DNA Computer - 19:52 pm Kan
Wowzee! Whaddaya know. I know this will happen sooner or later. CNEWZ sent note on this article in which scientists have created a DNA computer by using strands of synthetic DNA and coaxed it into solving relatively complex calculations. 

The short-lived chemical computer has no immediate practical applications, but it nudges the fledgling technology of DNA computing further out of world of science fiction and into the realm of the possible, the University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers said.

"It's kind of a non-automated computer -- an abacus of sorts -- but it's an approach we're confident can be automated like a conventional computer," said Lloyd Smith, a professor of chemistry.

Conventional computing is driven by computer chips, but that technology is fast approaching the limits of miniaturization. Scientists dream of using the vast storage capacity that enables DNA and its chemical cousin RNA to hold the complex blueprints of living organisms.

3Dfx At MacWorld Part 2 - 19:49 pm Kan
FiringSquad covered some of the juice in MacWorld in which they discussed the difficulties in porting the VSA-100 architecture to the Mac platform. 

It happens that there's plenty of room for competition in the Mac video market. 1999 opened with great hopes for ATI's Rage 128. Finally, Apple was shipping systems with 3D capabilities that, if not at the top of the pack on the PC side, could - with faster system buses and AGP giving a helping hand -- surpass the then Mac 3D king, the Voodoo2. But whatever the success of ATI as Apple's OEM, they had problems shipping retail versions of the cards and producing quality drivers in a timely fashion, making the Voodoo3 a very popular add-on this year. With ATI's next-generation offering, the Rage Fury MAXX, reportedly suffering from a technical incompatibility with Apple motherboards, Apple might be open to new options besides ATI.

All About DVD Technology - 19:46 pm Kan
Always fascinated by DVD? Then check out CTNews3D detailed article on DVD technology. Hmm, DVD can hold up to a maximum of 17GB of data. Simply amazing...

When a movie is transferred to video, distributors have two choices: they can lop off the sides of the picture or put it in a "letter box." Cropping the picture works. That's the way that most movies are transferred and is the explanation for that message which appears at the beginning of most VHS movies: "This movie has been formatted to fit your TV." In addition to robbing you of the sweeping vistas captured by the film maker, this cropping sometimes leaves characters in conversation with an invisible partner.

Movies transferred in letterbox format include the full breadth of the movie by shrinking it until the picture is small enough that the whole width shows. The result, however, is a black band at the top and bottom of the screen: a letter-boxed movie gives you all of the movie, but wastes much of the television's vertical resolution.

EPoX EP-BX6 Review - 18:13 pm Wymun
Just received news from the folks at VR Zone that they've churned out a review on the EPoX EP-BX6 motherboard (based on the aging INTEL BX chipset). Check it out if you're hunting for a BX board.

In the Award BIOS, you will find the Sensor & CPU Setting. There are lots of settings you can meddle with to maximise your overclocking experience. There are a lot of bus speed selection to choose from with 1 MHz increments available from 66Mhz right up to 200Mhz which is over 130 FSB settings! Also you can also select CPU:AGP ratio from 1/1 to 3/2 and CPU:PCI ratio from 1/1, 3/2 and 1/4. You can also change the multipiler from the range of 3.0x to 8.0x.

Elsa Erazor X2 DDR GeForce Review - 18:10 pm Wymun
Looks like Anandtech are starting the year with loads of reviews.  This time round they put Elsa's DDR GeForce through its paces.  Hmmm...Expect one soon from our own "gold-fish" webmaster too, and you can then compare their findings....

The 166MHz setting was the highest we were able to push the 6ns Infineon DDR SGRAM to which was pretty much expected.  The performance improvement was noticeable but not tremendous but since it came without the sacrifice of stability you can consider it to be something for nothing. 

Athlon Overclocking Goodness - 18:03 pm Wymun
The Tech Zone have posted their own little review on a nifty overclocking gadget for Athlons by Ninja Micro - FreeSpeed Pro.  This simply plugs into your Athlon CPU and allows you to change both multiplier and voltage settings!  

FreeSpeed Pro won't let you overclock your Athlon higher than any other methods. How high your Athlon can overclock is still determined by the quality of your CPU. FreeSpeed Pro is just a nice simple way to go about overclocking. Using the FreeSpeed Pro I was able to get my Athlon 550 to 700Mhz using the big Alpha P3125 cooler

NV11 and NV15 Preview - 12:40 pm Wymun
Just saw that iXBT Labs has a sizzling, hot article on Nvidia's upcoming graphics processors - NV11 and NV15.  It seems that graphics chips are becoming obsolete far faster than CPUs these days!!

The new GPUs will be manufactured with 0.18 micron technology. In fact, it has been known for a long time. The shift to a new technology will allow increasing the graphics core clock frequency and reducing the die size, the power consumption and power dissipation. For example, NV15 will dissipate twice as little power as GeForce256, and NV11 - 30% less power than NV15. And as for the mobile NV11, it will dissipate even less power. Besides, the manufacturing of the new chips will require much less financing.

AOpen AX6BC Pro II Millennium Ed  - 08:27 am Wilfred
Our bud at BXBoards also got his paws on the ultra-sleek collector's item motherboard, so go check out his review and win yourself a piece of this in his giveaway lucky draw! It's no longer the fastest sports car out there, but there's always room for classics.

Nevertheless the boards overclocked stability is exceptional due to its excellent stability at high bus speeds, with the board doing particularly well up to around 150Mhz. This product is probably aimed at the out and out overclocker, and this limited edition board will surely fly. However I feel that while this is a great board, the is not enough room in the market for yet another revision of the AX6BC Pro. If you need ISA, or onboard Ultra/DMA66 then either the Soyo SY-6BA+ IV or Abit BE6-2 will probably the better choice.

IWill SIDEpro66 ATA66 Card  - 06:42 am Kan
Lots of IWill products today, including the review from ActiveHardware on the IWill SIDEpro66 ATA66 card. Here's an excerpt:

The idea of adding an ATA66 card to one's PCI slot is more interesting in terms of expanding the number of devices one's system can support - rather than being enticing for its offered performance increase. In fact, I don't think that the performance gains are enough to be readily noticed under normal operating conditions. Then again, the immediate ability to add an another 4 devices to one's system is nothing to sneeze at. Anyone who often needs to use a CD-ROM, a DVD-ROM, and a CD-R simultaneously can well imagine the benefits. In short then, anyone who is, or will be looking to add a device or 4 to their system, and take advantage of the ATA66 standard, need look no further for a solution...

Promise Ultra ATA-66 PCI  - 06:38 am Kan
If you are looking for an ATA-66 controller card for your mobo, you can check out the Promise Ultra ATA-66 PCI card reviewed by PlanetHardware. This one provides an additional 2 ATA-66 channels to support up to 4 hard disks.

I don't know how many people may have put in PCI cards or hard drives...but it's actually very simple. Put them in. The important thing is with linux you may not want to plug in the hard drive just yet. This is because of a nasty error I got when I tried to run it without proper configuration. When you boot your machine it should say something about plug-and-play mass storage controller. Make sure the IRQ isn't being shared. This can be accomplished by adjusting IRQ settings in the BIOS (mine was PIRQ_SLOT1 yadayadayada). Once you get the card all worked out (drive still not plugged in to the card) boot your machine.

Another IWill Socklet II Review  - 06:30 am Kan
Yep, we have another review of the IWill Slocket II review from Scott's Hardware. There's also a helpful guide on how to relocate the capacitors on the Iwill Slocket II adapter card to the back side in case you want to use an oversized heatsink.

The Iwill Slocket II comes in a cardboard sleeve, which has basic instructions printed on the back, which outline the steps for installing your processor into the Slocket II circuit board. The Slocket II features 31 adjustments for voltage, choice of 3 FSB speeds, support for FC-PGA or PPGA processors, and the choice of using either an Intel or Cyrix processor. These selections are all accessed via 9 3-position jumpers, which are placed along the right hand side of the board. Iwill includes a jumper setting sheet which outlines the options and their corresponding jumper settings.

To sum things up, there's an article on how to lap your CPU to improve heat transmission. So, remember to check'em out!

Soyo vs ABIT  - 06:27 am Kan
GamePC reported a fight (err, roundup) between the Soyo Sy-6BA+ IV and the ABIT BE6-II motherboards. Both motherboards are well known for the features and stability. 

The biggest differences lay within the motherboard's BIOS's, both offer jumperless overclocking abilities, as well as the ability to tweak voltages, SDRAM timings, all the nerdy goodness you can handle. Of course, Abit has some large advantages over the Soyo, including FSB speeds up to 200 MHz in 1 MHz incriments, along with an external dipswitch pad at the top of the motherboard for tweaking settings without having to flash your BIOS if you overclock too far. Now, it sure sounds cool that the BE6-II can reach 200 MHz FSB speed, but in reality you'll never reach even close to 200 MHz.

IWill Slocket II Review - 06:24 am Kan
HardwareCentral reviewed the IWill Slocket II card which supports the new FC-PGA Coppermine processors. From the looks of it, the guys think very highly of it. Here's an excerpt:

Firstly, to run an FC-PGA processor, the motherboard in question must be mechanically capable of accepting a Socket 370 style processor. Thus, the base for the Slocket II is a standard adapter card, similar to Iwill’s own Slocket I, allowing Socket 370 processors to be utilized in conjunction with Slot 1 motherboards--no problem there.

Secondly, the current crop of FC-PGA processors require a cool 1.6V core voltage setting, something not supported by most current Slot 1 motherboards. So, voltage modification capabilities were added to the adapter as well, allowing it to deliver the required 1.6V to the processor, even if the motherboard itself does not support such a setting.

Benwin BW2000 Speakers - 06:20 am Kan
SystemLogic brought us a video review (their first actually) of the Benwin BW2000 Speakers. If you are shopping for satellite speakers, you may like to check the review out:

Slow Connection

http://192.41.37.137/slow/reviews.ram

 

Fast Connection

http://192.41.37.137/fast/reviews.ram

AOL and Time Warner Merger - 06:18 am Kan
If you read from the newspaper etc, you will know about the AOL and Time Warner merger. CTNews written an article discussing the impact to the industry with this move:

The first thing to remember is this, AOL has realized it is in trouble for some time now. 56k modems are dying out, and broadband is quickly taking over. The need for speed is incredible in the computer world. All computer buyers know enough to ask "how fast does this machine go" or "how fast will I be able to download this or that." We are becoming a pampered generation, used to having information at our fingertips. Waiting has become a thing of the past. Now, back on topic, I came across a ZDNet article which pointed out something I completely looked over. Time Warner owns cable systems. AOL is looking to get into the cable modem market. Hmm, do I sense something brewing here? They have even begun commenting on this publicly. Road Runner users, I pity thee.

Annihilator Giveaway - 06:17 am Kan
nv News sent note on their Creative Annihilator GeForce giveaway. If you reside in the States, this is your chance to grab a piece of this baby!

Wow... The action really heats up with free shifting! The number of times I slam the gears in a single race is uncountable. Whenever I'm going fast and see a sharp 90° turn coming up, I will do one of those 6th to 3rd gear changes, Daytona style! It's really satisfying to see the rig you're in doing a power slide to negotiate that sharp bend. The "snick" coming from each gear change sounds great too. Some getting used to the gear positions is required to remove constant attention on the RS Shifter during gear change. The gear stick at rest positions itself midway between the 3rd and 4th gear positions.

Home DSL for a Dime - 21:00 pm Kan
Digital-Clips wrote an article on how to setup your DSL modem and have them working with the rest of your computers in your local LAN. Pretty detailed, except that DSL doesn't cost a dime over here. It costs a bomb! :(

“…Simply put, xDSL uses advanced line coding algorithms to effectively divide the spectrum on copper phone wire between voice and data. As shown in the figure below, voice transmissions reside in the baseband (4 KHz and below) while upstream and downstream data channels are in the higher spectrum (300 KHz and above). The end result is that service providers can deliver multimegabit data rates while leaving voice services intact; all on a single line. ADSL is connecting two worlds, voice and data, by facilitating simultaneous activities over a single physical access line”

CES 2000 Part 2 - 20:58 pm Kan
FiringSquad is back with the second CES update in which they covered even more MP3 technology. Pretty interesting, so check it out:

The LANSONIC Digital Audio Server (DAS) connects to your Local Area Network (LAN) and is able to play MP3 files directly from PCs on network. No hard disk is needed, but units will be available with 13GB+ drives. The DAS doesn't have an internal CD player, but you can use it with an external player or the CD-ROM of a computer on the network.

Casio has a new WMP-1V Wrist Audio Player that functions as a watch, stopwatch, alarm, and MP3 player. Sure beats that geeky calculator watch doesn't it? (No offense to any current or past calculator watch owners out there. I though they were cool once, but then I turned twelve.)

Arswards '99 - 20:10 pm Wilfred
Ho! Well, hoping to be the tech industry's 'most coveted' award, Ars Technica rates what we had the last year that defined Geek Life for us, in their Arswards '99. It's a hefty listing, so be sure to take a look! Whoa! ME - Webmaster of the year?! (nah.. just kiddin'!" ;P).

From deep within the steel bowels of Olympus Mons, our top secret orbiting headquarters, we at Ars Technica monitored the entire year in tech. We tested and tweaked and benchmarked every product we could get our hands on; we scrutinized technology trends, product announcements, corporate mergers, stock prices, controversies, and the CINEMAX channel (we had to have something for Gonzo to do). Finally, when the year ended at midnight on December 31, 1999, we retired to the Ars Senatorial Chambers to debate which technologies, products, people, and events deserved to be honored with the tech industry's most coveted award: the Arsward.

IBM is increasing its bet on Linux by adopting software's counter-culture as a primary operating system for the Internet. This turns a series of initiatives within IBM into a strategic, company-wide embrace.

Gabriel Knight 3 - 19:55 pm Kan
Those professional gamers over at FiringSquad just posted their thoughts on Gabriel Knight 3. Darn, I thought I just completed Gabriel Knight 1 last night? 

The 3rd installment in the Gabriel Knight series is set shortly after the end of the second game. Gabriel's assistant and erstwhile romantic interest, Grace Nakimura, encourages Gabriel to start rubbing elbows with the local nobility. At one such gathering, the duo pick up a job from Prince James Stewart. Apparently the royal family has experienced an on going problem with "night visitors." Victims in the family awaken exhausted and pale…with a pair of small wounds in their neck. It all sounds disturbingly similar to the work of vampires.

AOpen 9420 CDRW - 19:49 pm Kan
Another CDRW this time by Systemlogic on the AOpen 9420 4x4x20. Hmm, 4X seems to be rather slow nowadays with the gaining popularity of 8X drives.

In my opinion speed is the most looked at feature, and in reality the most important, especially if you are going to shell out the money and buy a drive. Of course reliability is important as well. I know that nobody wants to sit on their computer waiting for a CD to record, so the higher speed the CD drive is, the less you are going to wait.  For example a Plexwriter 8X which has 8 speed recording, can copy a whole CD within 9 minutes, while the 4x we tested took somewhere between 15-20 minutes, you'll see more in the benchmarks. Although, realize this, not only do you have to worry about the drive itself, but you'll need to make sure you get the right blank CD. For example, say you have the 8x Plexwriter, you'll need to get blank CDs which support 8x drives, otherwise you will be recording at the max speed for that CD, making you wait just as long as you would have to with an slower drive.

nVidia GeForce Links - 19:47 pm Kan
Jukka sent note on the compiled links for reviews on the GeForce graphics cards found in the web. If you wanna a quick link to the various reviews out there, check it out.

Maxi Sound FORTISSIMO - 19:45 pm Kan
AbsolutePC just dropped us a line of their latest review on the Maxi Sound FORTISSIMO soundcard. Powered by the new Yamaha YMF744 chipset, it supports EAX, A3D 1.0 as well as Sensaura Interactive Positioning on 2 or 4 speakers or headphones 

The Yamaha YMF744 audio processor, which combines support for EAX, A3D 1.0, DirectSound, and Sensaura positioning does a decent job in 3d postitioning sound, however it is an area that we found lacking when compared to the SB Live and Aureal Vortex 2 cards. The rear speakers for the most part, mirrored the sound of the front speakers, which is not true 3d postitional sound. In certain games we were pleased with the effects, In Quake III and Unreal Tournament, shots could be heard from every direction. It was a joy to know just where those fellow fraggers were hunting us from. The CD/MP3 playback was excellent as the card provided no apparent background noise and sound was full and very pleasing.

X-Win32 Review - 17:55 pm Kan
StarNet's X-Win32 is one of the programs I can't live without. CPUReview took the chance and reviewed this piece of X-terminal emulation software for the Windows platform. Here's what they have to say:

X-Win32 assumes that you will use XDM, rsh or rexec to start your X session; unfortunately the default configuration opens a separate Windows window for each X11 window; filling your screen with tiny windows if you run KDE or Gnome.

Fortunately X-Util32 allows you to configure X-Win32 to use a single window to hold your X11 desktop; I strongly recommend you do this if you run one of the more advanced Unix/Linux desktops.

New Reviews @ HardNews - 17:50 pm Kan
Alright, there's a few new reviews over at HardNews. First it's a review of the 3Dfx Voodoo3 3500 TV graphics card, the Act-Labs Gun GS System as well as the ASUS P3B-F motherboard. Oh yes, the boys are officially launched today, so check it out!

The V3500 is a 3d gfx (graphics) card, meaning that you plug it into your machine and it will render scenes involving polygons and fuzzy little animals. All other sites assume you know this, but I assume otherwise considering you're a moron if you're trusting my opinion. :). Anyway what the voodoo 35000 does is it renders the polygons at a faster rate allowing the games that you play to add more effects because they don't have to worry about speed. 

Quantum Fireball Plus KX - 17:46 pm Kan
TheTechZone started off with another review on the Quantum Fireball Plus KX 7,200 rpm hard disk. It comes with only 512KB (I prefer a 2MB cache) of cache and scores under 8.5ms for average seek time.

Well it’s pretty evident from the above benchmark that this is a solid performer and deserves serious consideration for any future hard drive purchases you may be considering.

Regardless of your motivation for wanting to get this hard drive, be it to have the most hard core system you can put together for gaming (which is my driving force in life..haha…) or if you have less trivial pursuits in improving your computer then you will be very happy with the Quantum Fireball Plus KX.

Elsa Erazor X SDR - 14:53 pm Wilfred
AnandTech is on a roll today. Check out their review on the Erazor X SDR card. You see many of these boxes around but wonder if it's worth the extra dollar? Decide for yourself!

The choice to buy the ELSA ERAZOR X over a comparable GeForce SDR card is not an easy one to make. On one hand, the ELSA card contains excellent monitor tweaking utilities, the ChipGuard utility which prevents the card from ever becoming a coaster, and fits NLX form factor. On the other hand, the drivers are a convoluted and the ChipGuard feature is not that useful in normal circumstances. Then there is the final line: price. The ELSA ERAZOR X actually runs on the more expensive side of SDRAM based SDR cards with no video features. This is most likely due to the high quality of products that come out of ELSA, making a first time buyer a life long supporter. In addition the price increase may be due to the design and test processes that come along with the production of a board. Most companies simply use NVIDIA's reference design, however to make the card NLX form factor ELSA had to produce and test their own design.

3DCool Super Duper Slot Fan Review - 14:49 pm Wilfred
Whoa! I wonder who came up with this name - super duper? Heh! Ok, BoomGames has a review on this slot fan meant to exhaust the hot air from your system, through any slots on your PC.

First and foremost, note that this sucker is quiet. It's nice to have this sort of power not make much noise. Remember that this is not a video card fan.

To test this cooling solution, we ran the system with and without the SDSlot Fan. First, we tested the system with the fan and after running the 3DMark2000 demo 5 times, the system temperature was at 32 degrees C. Note that this system is highly overclocked. Without altering anything except removing the fan, we ran the tests again. This time, after booting, we already noticed the system temperature at 37 degrees, a quick, fast rise from its room temperature value. After the tests, we found a 42 degree temperature! The system was still running stable, but no one knows how long it would take that temperature to get any higher.

Saitek ST110 Digital Stick & Throttle - 14:45 pm Wilfred
Any budget conscious flight-sim buff will want to examine this review at ExtremeHardware. Well, a point brought up - this is NOT for lefties!

If you’re in the market for a basic joystick that will let you dabble in a wide variety of casual gaming interests, the Saitek ST110 is an excellent candidate. The fact that it’s available at such a low cost should be regarded simply as a bonus.

3DCool Tornado 1000 Casing - 14:42 pm Wilfred
The chums at SharkyExtreme got to play with the Tornado 1000 casing from 3DCool. High-quality stuff with excellent cooling, definitely one you can trust your o'c-ed system to.

3DCOOL.COM has taken this design and added four 80x80 mounted fans, supplying 172 CFM (Cubic Feet per Minute) of total airflow. The first fan is located at the front of the case and enables cooler air to blow inside the case and onto the motherboard. The second fan is on the back of the case, near the CPU, and exhausts warmer air outside of the PC. These two fans would be more than enough to cool a standard PC, but 3DCOOL.COM has also cut dual blowholes to the side of the case and installed fans in each. These dual fans flood cool air onto the motherboard, CPU and AGP video card, creating a great deal of cooling power. All four fans used in concert supply the incredible 172 CFM of airflow through the case, with the intake fans supplying cool air, while the outtake fan and power supply exhaust the internal warmer air.

Seagate U8 ST317221A - 14:39 pm Wilfred
StorageReview has a new HDD evaluated today, the 'value' 18.2Gb ATA/66 drive. I'm still saving up for a new HDD boy! :)

The Seagate U8 isn't a performance leader. It isn't one even when the field is restricted to value-class drives. Then again, performance isn't the end-all when it comes to drives like this. SR caters to a large audience of hardware enthusiasts; our tests have evolved from the desire to pinpoint performance differences between drives. Our test suite, however, is unfair to value units. We run tests and evaluate these drives only to put the differences between value lines and performance units in stark, objective light. This isn't a drive that we'd recommend to the typical SR reader.

Tyan S1854 Trinity 400 Apollo Pro 133A - 14:33 pm Wilfred
I told you before, this is one board contending for your attention if you are out shopping for the right board to match that new CuMine 500/550E. Of course, there seem to be issues even with this popular choice from Tyan. AnandTech has this review (reads more like a superset of the overclocking guide they released yesterday) you might want to check out!

The Tyan Trinity 400 was the first Apollo Pro 133A available and was chosen by Micron for its top of the line Millennia MAX. The vote of confidence from Micron goes a long way to show just how good the Trinity 400 is. It does have a few quirks when it comes to overclocking, but all around there's no doubt that it's a solid board. In fact it's quite possibly the best overall solution from the first wave of Apollo Pro 133A boards. The biggest problem with the Trinity 400 may be finding one of these in stock as they seem to be flying off the shelves at the moment.

Backup Strategies - 06:35 am Kan
Ever wanna know how to backup your data in the correct way? There's an article over at Mars Technologies on some of the backup strategies we ought to know:

Since media is relatively inexpensive when compared to the value of your data, it is a good idea to periodically backup your system on media not used in the media rotation scheme and store it permanently.

The threat of viruses is an issue here also. Some viruses take effect immediately, while others may take days or weeks to cause noticeable damage. Because of this, you should have at least the following backups available to restore at any time.

3DCool Product Line Overview - 06:32 am Kan
This caught my eye as AGN Hardware did a roundup on the 3DfxCool line of products including the Ultimate Hard Drive Cooler, Ultra Thin Slot Cooler, Monitor Cooler and Mini Cooler etc.

All fans consume power. This power must be drawn from your power supply. If you're running two hard drives, a CDR, a DVD, a TNT2 board and an Athlon 700 plus 4 fans you'll probably find that even a pretty sturdy 250 Watt supply can be pushed to it's limits. If you find you're getting lots of blue screen error messages in Windows (aka blue screens of death) or random restarts, a power supply taxed to it's limits may be the cause. This is the drawback of adding fans to your system. It's probably going to help you but it might cause problems you didn't have before especially if you already have a loaded system and a weaker power supply. Just something to keep in mind before you buy that fifth or sixth extra fan.

ABIT BE6-II - 06:28 am Kan
T-Break wrote a review of the ABIT BE6-II motherboard. Ah, this board has been mentioned many times before, so I leave it to you again to read thru yourself.

Also present are the four IDE ports, first introduced in the original BE6, out of which two are your standard UDMA/33 and the other two UDMA/66 powered by the High Point HPT366 controller. What’s worth noting is that the motherboard came installed with the latest firmware version of the HPT Controller – something a lot of other hardware vendors so easily oversee. Also, since you need a special cable to use UDMA/66 devices at full speeds, ABIT thankfully provides one in the package. Besides that cable, you also get a Thermal Sensor Cable that measures the temperature of your CPU - very handy for overclockers.

Build your Own Network - 06:25 am Kan
PCMech released their tips on how to Build your Own Network. So, you need NICs, cables, and probably a hub/switch. Can be pretty fun, check it out:

Now that you've settled on what type of Ethernet to use, (thanks to me) you'll want to get some Network Interface Cards for each computer you plan to put on your network.  Network Interface Cards, are just that, they are a card that interfaces your computer with the rest of the network.  If you can, get cards that will fit into a PCI slot in your computer, if your computer has such slots.  PCI Network cards are much easier to use than any other type of card..  If you can't get PCI, I recommend ISA cards made by 3COM. They are just as easy to use, and require no jumper configuration.  If you can't get either, it's time to shop around, or save up your money.

AOpen AX6BC Pro II - 06:02 am Kan