Tech News
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Gigabyte GA-8PE800 Ultra Review @ Hardware Zone
Published: Tuesday, May 20, 2003 | By: DennisQuite a few of the i845PE boards in existance will support the 800Mhz FSB right out of the box with the help of a simple bios flash. I was always curious as to how well the boards would OC if you used an 800Mhz P4.
"The overclockability of the board was good and it managed to let users reach a system bus setting of up to 210MHz (820MHz FSB). For those thinking of overclocking their 533MHz FSB P4 would surely find a lot more headroom in overclocking with the GA-8PE800 Ultra."
Not sure I like how everyone is running benchmarks with the "unlocked" 800Mhz Pentium 4 but I guess complaining won't get me anywhere.
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Gainward FX 5600 Ultra Review @ NordicHardware
Published: Tuesday, May 20, 2003 | By: Dennis"As always Gainward have that great looking red PCB and red/purple heatsinks. This time the core heatsink looks like a giant flame, pretty nifty. One thing that I really liked with this product was the fact that Gainward stopped using thermal pads, instead they are using high quality thermal paste and the heatsinks are easy to detach without having annoying sticky "pad-goo" everywhere."
This is a NV31 card and depending on what you are doing may or may not be as fast as the Ti4600 but does support all of the cool DX9 stuff and enhanced AA.
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Theory of LCD Love @ DansData
Published: Monday, May 19, 2003 | By: DennisDan's theory as to why people like LCD monitors.
"People like LCD monitors.
People are idiots.
The above two statements are not connected. Well, not necessarily. Liking LCD monitors does not make you an idiot."
This is an interesting read to say the least. Personally I hate the color rendering of an LCD, it just doesn't seem to produce the same colors as a CRT. -
WD Raptor 10,000rpm HDD
Published: Monday, May 19, 2003 | By: DennisThis is a first of its kind, and likely not to be the last." The results speak loud and clearly for themselves. The Western Digital 10,000 rpm Raptor is a stellar performer leaving the 7,200 rpm competition far behind. This Western Digital harddisk drive is a must for the enthusiast desktop user."
The initial cost of a Raptor was $250 but has since dropped in price. I found one last night for $152 with free second day air.
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A Block of Reviews
Published: Monday, May 19, 2003 | By: DennisWithout comments, no mercy
Thermaltake Volcano 11+ review @ PC Tech Zone
RaidMax LP-6100D 400w ps Review @ True Review
Memory Timings Analysis @ Techware Labs
Platinum XP Case @ The Tech Lounge
Dynatron DC1206MB-Y Review @ Ohls Place
The New nForce2 @ Rojak Pot
And of course the ever popular link back to me. -
XtremeDDR PC2700 Review @ Unique Hardware
Published: Monday, May 19, 2003 | By: Dennis"XtremeDDR has created a wonderful stick of RAM! Not only did it crush the standard 2100 in every test, it won't cost much more then standard PC2100. It's about 20cents more per 3DMark in 3Dmark03, then the 2100. So better performance for your buck! Need I say more?"
Interesting conclusion. -
Ninjalane Back Online
Published: Monday, May 19, 2003 | By: DennisWell after another weekend of downtime Ninjalane.com is back online. Now if my webhost doesn't fuck with the server anymore I might get the uptime that I pay for.
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USA Soltek Office Closed
Published: Friday, May 16, 2003 | By: DennisI knew of this for a few days now but decided to wait in posting the news until something drastic happened to make the "rumor" official.
Soltek has decided to move their US offices back to TW.
Update: If you caught my first post on this subject you might have been confused as to the reasons for the Soltek USA branch was closing so suddenly. As it would turn out I was rather confused as well. Here is a paraphrase from a reliable source.
"Here are the problem
1) Newegg
2) Low Sales
3) Payment.
1) As we all know, Newegg is direct with Soltek TW and is actually competition to the US branch. Eigther Newegg plays ball nice and follows a MSRP as they were instructed to many time before. But refused. Causing the US branch's customers like Googlegear low sales.
2) Soltek Really never took-off with the OEM and system builder market and Newegg is taking most of the end-user sales. Hence the reason why the US branch has low sales.
3) The US branch wants to pay with net terms rather than all up front. Soltek TW doesn't want that. That's actually the main argument they are having.
Going by Soltek's attitude, I doubt that they would do net terms and shut down the US branch."
Not having talked with Soltek directly about the matter I cannot confirm or deny any of the items above but we do know that currently the SoltekUSA website is down and I'm willing to bet that it won't be coming back up. -
Impostor 865PE Motherboards in China
Published: Friday, May 16, 2003 | By: Dennis"Although Intel will not release its 865 series (Springdale) chipsets until May 21, first-tier motherboard makers noted that the Springdale-platform market has already experienced some commotion with a batch of cheaper “865PE” boards recently distributed in China’s clone market."
This is strange, I bought an Abit IS7 (Springdale) board from a US based online retailer just last week.
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Playboy: The Mansion
Published: Friday, May 16, 2003 | By: Dennis"Slipping into Hef's silk pajamas, you'll face the challenges and rewards of building the Playboy empire.
One of those rewards will be building, expanding and living in the Playboy mansion, something that should be pretty straightforward to players of both "The Sims" and world-building "Tycoon" games. As your income increases, you'll be able to add things like tennis courts, a zoo, the famous back lawn and a game house – and extra bedrooms for your guests. Since you're Hef, of course, you'll always have houseguests -- both "celebrities" (such as tennis star 'Borris McEnroe') and Playmates -- and host lavish parties. "
Nice
