Tech News
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XGI Volari Duo V8 Ultra Review @ Digit-Life
Published: Monday, February 16, 2004 | By: DennisThe initial release of this card didn't seem to turn many heads, performance was less than expected and the price tag was pretty high. Though I've always been a sucker for a SMP and the whole dual processing movement.
"Obviously, dual-processing is based on the old principle of master and save processors. They have a special internal bus between them marked as X-Link (also known as BitFluent). This is actually the internal AGP2x, 32 bits wide and working at 133 MHz. The processors work similarly to those in the ATI RAGE MAXX - everyone renders its own frame, but unlike to ATI's product, the chips do not wait for each other to sync when rendering is completed." -
Soltek SL-K8AV-R Review @ 3DXtreme
Published: Monday, February 16, 2004 | By: DennisThe 3DX gang really had some issues with their SL-K8AV-R board and really makes the review sound more like a complaint than anything else. We had the opportunity to review this board a few months back and though the board was lacking in onboard features it did quite well in the benchmark arena. Check out our review here for more information.
"Today 3DXtreme is taking a look at another AMD64 motherboard, this time around it’s the Soltek SL-K8AV-R. This particular Soltek board is based on the VIA K8T800 chipset and features a more robust HyperTransport than the previously reviewed nVidia Nforce3-150 Motherboard (Soyo CK-8)." -
NL: Review Block - Cases
Published: Monday, February 16, 2004 | By: DennisKind of a small review block considering the stuff that came in over the weekend, you'll live.
- Thermaltake Damier V5000A @ TechTastic
- SilverStone Temjin @ A True Review
- Silverstone Temjin @ Modsynergy
More of the same sometime later.. -
Go-L Out For Blood
Published: Friday, February 13, 2004 | By: DennisI posted some news a while back about Extreme Laptops and how this company "Go-L" was building some pretty sweet units. I didn't really research the company or their claims but was impressed with that the site had to say. I even thought about buying one.
"Recently a forum thread (http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=14210) was brought to my attention regarding a notebook vendor, Go-L. The thread got really nasty, really quick as tends to happen on forums. The main thrust of the thread is that Go-L, a high end computer vendor, is making claims about their computers that do not stand up to scrutiny."
I still may consider getting a Go-L laptop but not for personal use. I'd take the thing apart and find out what the truth really is.
Something tells me that Go-L prolly won't be sending a sample my way.
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No Slacking for Game Developers
Published: Friday, February 13, 2004 | By: DennisBeing a sudo programmer myself I understand that writing a game from scratch takes time but in the case of Duke Nukem Forever I think 8+ years is time enough to simply drop the project and move on.
"The main problem seems to be that development teams face growing technological complexity that only adds to the inherent unpredictability of software development. They also often have to go back to the drawing board close to release when a competing game comes out with features that have to be matched." -
Windows Leaking Again
Published: Friday, February 13, 2004 | By: DennisWell the hot news of the past couple of days is the leak of Win2k and WinNT source code to the Internet. Though its prolly not a good idea to go and search for the code I'm going to guess it won't be that hard to acquire.
Microsoft probes Windows code leak
"A spokesman said late Thursday that incomplete portions of Windows 2000 and Windows NT were illegally posted to the Internet.
"It's illegal for third parties to post Microsoft source code," spokesman Tom Pilla said. "We obviously take that very seriously."
Microsoft said it is investigating how the code got on the Internet and is working with law enforcement. "We will take all appropriate legal actions as we move forward with the investigation," Pilla said. "
And the source of the leak was later discovered.
Windows Source Leak Traces Back to Mainsoft
"BetaNews has learned that Thursday's leak of the Windows 2000 source code originated not from Microsoft, but from long-time Redmond partner Mainsoft.
The leaked code includes 30,915 files and was apparently removed from a Linux computer used by Mainsoft for development purposes. Dated July 25, 2000, the source code represents Windows 2000 Service Pack 1."
Not a good day for Mainsoft since it would appear that their cash cow is now going to turn sour and possibly crap on them.
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Intel executive touts Grantsdale chipset
Published: Thursday, February 12, 2004 | By: Dennis"Randy Wilhelm, vice president of Intel’s desktop platform group and general manager of the company’s client platform division, was in Taipei this week to promote the company’s Grantsdale chipset, due to be released at the end of April.
The Grantsdale supports PCI Express, DDR2 memory, 802.11b/g wireless connectivity and Intel’s next-generation Azalia audio system – features that will define the requirements of new digital home media products, Wilhelm said." -
Danger Den RBX Acclerator-nozzle Comparison @ MadShrips
Published: Thursday, February 12, 2004 | By: DennisKeep in mind they used below freezing air for these tests so the numbers are going to look lower than they should.
"To date I've haven’t seen a single review where the number-5 nozzle was tested, and this surprises me given the nozzle's dispersion? It should be interesting to see the difference between the included number-1 and number-5 nozzles. Unfortunately I don't have a Compu-nurse for this test, however; we can still obtain accurate data."
Switching out the acceleration nozzles is not really the easiest task. Not only do you have to remove the RBX top but you also have to install the black gasket and then leak test the setup before reinstalling.
I speak from experience, kind of in the middle of doing this myself. -
Hard Drives: Speed vs Storage @ accelenation
Published: Thursday, February 12, 2004 | By: DennisThis is a classic tale of speed vs no-speed, price vs performance, and is bigger really better?
"In the end, the Raptors are speed demons and it’s up to you if it’s worth it or not. Sacrificing 70% storage space for a 25-50% speed increase can be hard. If you already have hard drives used for storage, go for the Raptors, you can’t go wrong with them. If you don’t have any large drives, I’d suggest sticking with the larger and slower drives from Western Digital, Seagate, or Maxtor."
Simply put.., Raptor = Fast but Small, Barracuda = "No as Fast" and bigger.
My suggestion, 2x Raptors + RAID0 = teh b0mb dizzl3. Just find some other place else for your pr0n. -
Run Windows Update!!
Published: Wednesday, February 11, 2004 | By: DennisIf you run Windows, Run Windows Update. Microsoft has released a huge security patch that everyone should care about.
Oh and install a virus scanner too.
