Tech News
-
Intel Tejas Pushed Into Q2 2005
Published: Friday, January 23, 2004 | By: Dennis"After numerous delays faced by Intel’s Pentium 4 “Prescott” and “Dothan” processors, it is not really big news that Intel is pushing code-named Tejas processor into the second quarter of 2005, about half a year later than according to the original schedule."
Who didn't see this coming? Just means that the current Pentium 4 will enjoy a little longer life, not necessarily a bad by any means.
Read more at x-bit. -
NVIDIA to Return Dual-Chip Core-Logic Products
Published: Friday, January 23, 2004 | By: Dennis"A company who demonstrated an important trend towards single-chip core-logic products is likely to step back a bit from this promising initiative this year, as high-performance DirectX 9 graphics core NVIDIA wants to incorporate into its upcoming product is too complex for an already feature-packed media and communication processor for AMD64 CPUs."
I suspect that this will only effect the IGP version of the nForce3 which begs the question as to why they even bother "integrating" the graphics into the chipset.
Read more at x-bit. -
Anodized Aluminum Prep for Paint @ PimpRig
Published: Thursday, January 22, 2004 | By: Dennis"Right on the box it says "Anodized Aluminum", after a bit more work I decided that they are actually 'hard' anodized. "Hard-anodization is an electro-chemical process that hardens the surface of the aluminum. (Hard-anodized aluminum is 30% harder than stainless steel)."
I liked this article (strange I know) the author claims to be a pro and I would tend to agree. He uses top shelf products and makes things happen. The thing I don't get is how does anyone not know that you have to remove all of the anodizing before you can paint, sheesh.
-
Athlon 64 Motherboard Shootout @ Hardware Zone
Published: Wednesday, January 21, 2004 | By: DennisThe Athlon64 has been gaining popularity in the retail market and even though it is not suggested that the mainstream user take the Athlon64 plunge it is still good to see what kind of motherboard offerings are available. This article features 15 Athlon64 (754pin) motherboards from various mfgs. Though the overviews are very brief and miss many features the side by sides are interesting to see.
"In addition to that, the BIOS did not come with any option that allows the user to disable the Promise RAID controller. This is an important feature as we've heard countless users complaining about slow boot-ups due to the fact that the Promise controller's BIOS was slow to detect drives. Soltek should have allowed some sort of disabling for those who don't intend to use the controller. "
Actually there is an onboard jumper to take care of this. Good looking out guys.
-
A Guide to a Successful Review Site @ Hardware Pacers
Published: Wednesday, January 21, 2004 | By: DennisEver wonder what kind of politics are involved in the "review" industry? give this article a look. Many of us will not agree with anything the author says, though you can be assured that other sites will take this information as gold.
"This is the biggest mistake that owners do where if you receive a product, the best solution is to review it in less than a week. The PR who sent the product out, will be really happy. In some cases if possible, review it in the next 24 hours, the PR will even thank you."
ummm........ -
CES 2004 and Cyber-X Games Coverage @ GruntvillE
Published: Wednesday, January 21, 2004 | By: Dennis"They had over $10,000 in tournament prize money to give out for Counter-Strike and other games as well as a huge BYOC LAN party. Unfortunately I got there late, so while the tournament was still going on, it seems most of the BYOC folks had called it a night."
I was curious about the huge BYOC LanParty and honestly was one of the real reasons I wanted to go. Alas the Cyber-X Games was a flop and hardly anyone showed up for the BYOC LAN. -
Intel to cut P4 price ahead of schedule
Published: Tuesday, January 20, 2004 | By: DennisTo make room for Prescott. Yay!!
"Many local companies have been caught off-guard as Intel is bringing forward its next round of price cuts and positioning the high-end 2.8GHz Pentium 4 chip to enter the mainstream.
The chip giant has decided to cut its existing P4 processor prices on February 1, ahead of the planned February 15. In this round of price cuts, the 2.8GHz P4 will be priced the same as the current mainstream 2.6GHz chip. The price of the 2.6GHz chip will remain unchanged."
Sux for some but is cool for most. -
Soyo SY-CK8 Dragon Plus Review @ ExtremeMhz
Published: Monday, January 19, 2004 | By: DennisThe Athlon64 platform is still a pretty expensive move though for anyone wanting to get on the leading edge, it is a pretty easy move to make.
"We were able to bump up the FSB up to a maximum of 215FSB while maintaining 100% stable operation bringing our AMD64 3200+ up to 2.2GHz. That's equivalent to the speed of the recently released AMD64 3400+. These results were achieved using stock cooling."
215Mhz FSB doesn't equal 2.2Ghz but is a very standard overclock for the a64 3200+.
I also like how Soyo has kept with the original DRAGON colors. We had the opportunity to review one of the first DRAGON boards back in 2001. -
PolarFlo Waterblock Review @ PimpRig
Published: Monday, January 19, 2004 | By: Dennis"In all honesty the original PolarFlo block debuted with more of a whimper than a roar. But the latest version is putting up some stellar numbers in recent testing. Even edging out the famed White Water block in a recent review. No doubt in part due to PolarFlo’s new “Super Finish” process."
Here is another almost local company doing some good work in the watercooling world. It is kind of neat to see 3 waterblock mfgs within a short radius from Ninjalane HQ.
Two words... Send Samples
-
Sapphire Radeon XT Reviews @ HardwareZoom
Published: Monday, January 19, 2004 | By: DennisAlien invasion according to the Sapphire box, though it could be a cleaver marketing ploy to get Sapphire XT cards into Alienware systems.
"Ok..this is the big guy, the giant among all the Radeon series. Considering the 9800Pro hasn't got enough firepower to overcome the nVidia 5950 Ultra, the 9800XT was born to take over that 5950 killing task. "
and kill it does, kinda.
