Tech News
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Intel Prescott 2.8Ghz LGA 775
Published: Friday, February 20, 2004 | By: DennisThis is a Mainland China site so most of the content is not in English, however there are plenty of photos to look at.
I've found that many motherboard makers are not very impressed with the new LGA 775 package. It would appear that more care is required when inserting the CPU since the copper pins in the socket are very soft and prone to bending.
I'd be worried about having to use a pencil eraser to clean the contacts. (Anyone have slot cars as a kid? (or adult
), I'm guessing the same sort of thing would apply) -
Soltek SL-PT880Pro-FGR Review @ The Tech Report
Published: Friday, February 20, 2004 | By: DennisSome of you may have noticed a few Soltek ads floating around with the phrase "Get Pro". Well that phrase was directly related to this motherboard series and the first board to hit retail shelves is the SL-PT880Pro-FGR (Firewire, Gigabit, Raid) The board is based on the new dual channel VIA PT800 and appears to operate much like the Springdale.
"n testing, I was able to get the SL-PT880Pro stable with a front-side bus speed of 215MHz. Considering that I've had the same Pentium 4 chip running on a 230MHz front-side bus with other boards, the SL-PT880Pro's overclocking potential doesn't look overly impressive."
I've been speaking with a Soltek rep about the PT880 and it would seem that the focus wasn't really on overclocking but in providing a well-rounded motherboard with the onboard features that most users are accustomed to seeing.
Of course overclocking would have been a nice touch but when it comes to motherboards and chipsets it usually comes down to how the BIOS is programmed. -
NL: Review Block - Misc Stuffs
Published: Friday, February 20, 2004 | By: DennisI find myself doing more and more of these silly review blocks but ya know, I don't have much of a choice.
- Enermax CS-31881TA-B3A Case Review @ TheTechLounge (yep one of them "pre-modded" cases made oout of pot metal)
- MSI FX5950 Ultra Review @ ViperLair (MSI has always had some impressive copper heatsinks, too bad copper and red don't "really" go together well)
- Maxtor 120GB DiamondMax Review @ Bjorn3D (Maxtor drives rox!, Rapters are cooler though)
- Ultra Dragon Extreme Gloss (ohhh shiny!
More review blocks than you can shake a stick at.. -
NL: Review Block - Video Cards
Published: Thursday, February 19, 2004 | By: DennisYep people are still reviewing these
Video Cards
- HIS Excalibur 9600XT @ Tweaknews
- ASUS Radeon 9600XT @ Digital Daily
- HIS Excalibur 9600XT @ GruntvillE
- Forsa Geforce FX5600 @ Techware Labs
Come on back.. -
Intel 64-Bit Not Far Off
Published: Wednesday, February 18, 2004 | By: DennisLeave it to AMD to push Intel into the 32/64 bit world and with IDF in effect we get to hear all about the cool new Intel stuff. Like Intel's 64-bit explorations that have lead into AMD compatibility no problem for Intel chip. So with that information having been "leaked" it is only natural to see this announcement "Intel reveals new 64-bit server chip".
Good times, good times.
This leaves us with Nvidia to voucher up Doom 3!. We can almost certainly expect to see desktop Intel 64-bit processors and a next generation nVidia GPU long before the hellish terrain of Mars, but that's just a guess. -
Soltek K8AN-RL Review @ x-bit-labs or Digit-Life
Published: Tuesday, February 17, 2004 | By: DennisOr whatever, they are the same site,
anyhow they have a review up of the nForce3-150 enabled Soltek K8AN-RL. We reviewed the same board not to long ago and was actually quite impressed with it.
"According to the preliminary testing this model demonstrates the highest performance level among all other boards based on this chipset. But even in the most memory-hungry applications its speed advantage is not great, and in other tests it doesn't exceed even 2%, that is why its advantage is not that grave argument."
Now if this were an ATI vs nVidia article that 2% would be night and day. -
Radeon 9600SE vs GeForceFX 5600XT @ Elite Bastards
Published: Tuesday, February 17, 2004 | By: DennisIt would seem that review sites are getting a kick of out showing how ATI is faster than nVidia. In the big picture 10fps only really matters when frames drop below 30-40fps and when that happens you have more things to worry about than framerate.
"So, with this first section of testing over, it seems fair to conclude that the 9600SE has an unassailable advantage in all situations here. This is no doubt largely due to the far higher core speed (and thus fillrate) that it enjoys over the 5600XT on show here, although its adaptive anisotropic filtering and more efficient antialiasing techniques picked up from its bigger brothers helps to keep performance hit to a minimum where possible."
btw anyone want to fathom a guess why the name of this site isn't l337 b45+4rd5?? -
IBM GXP fiasco secrets revealed
Published: Tuesday, February 17, 2004 | By: DennisI think we all know about this but for those living under a rock IBM Deskstar drives, though super fast, had a dark side... They failed, and quite often I might add. Over the years I’ve owned 4 of these drives and so far two of them have failed.
I have since bought a Hitachi Deskstar Serial ATA drive; it is just as fast (if not faster) than the IBM Deskstar and so far has been very robust. -
V-pr0n with Dan
Published: Tuesday, February 17, 2004 | By: DennisThis is work safe stuff just a small little thing about how pr0n drives technology with links to various sites, ya know typical Dan's Data stuff.
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Two FX 5700 Ultra Reviews
Published: Monday, February 16, 2004 | By: DennisThe FX 5700 Ultra is a pretty solid video card with some very respectable performance.
Inno3D Geforce FX 5700 Ultra
"Any gamer on a budget should consider the 5700 Ultra as a serious option when selecting a video card. Respectable frame rates, good gameplay, and clear image quality are among the benefits."
Ohhh, check out the red PCB!
Gainward GeForce FX 5700 Ultra Golden Sample
"Gainward has upped this card's specifications to 500MHz core and 1000MHz memory. We're not too surprised to see a core jump, but we're pleased to see bandwidth being pushed out to a theoretical 16GB/s. Lots of antialiasing and anisotropic filtering will make full use of it. "
It should be noted that the Gainward card is using a dual DVI setup making this card perfect for LCD's and high quality CRT setups. I would expect this setup to become the norm later this year.
