Tech News
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Gainward GeForceFX Press Release
Published: Monday, February 3, 2003 | By: Dennis"All of Gainward’s FX PowerPack! products feature a radical new design of cooling system delivering maximum performance and incredibly low noise levels. Owing to Gainward’s advanced R&D skills the maximum noise is reduced to only 7db, the same as a human heartbeat. Competetive products maximum noise levels can be rated as high as 70db the same level as a domestic vacuum cleaner."
There is nothing like telling the chip mfg "Umm, We can do this stuff better than you".
Personally I'm a Gainward fan and can't wait to see what they come up with. -
AMD CPU Identification
Published: Monday, February 3, 2003 | By: DennisFor those of you that what to know everything about your AMD processor AMDboard.com has something for you.
"Since the good ol' K5, decyphering an AMD CPU has always been tricky and AMDboard has setup a Special Identification page where all the codes are explained along with examples of every chip (Athlon, Duron, XP, etc.). It's simple and efficient and will save you time and energy." -
Space Shuttle Disaster
Published: Saturday, February 1, 2003 | By: DennisAll 7 Astronauts die, as the space shuttle Columbia breaks apart while re-entering the Earth's atmosphere.
"The catastrophe occurred 39 miles above the Earth, in the last 16 minutes of the 16-day mission as the spaceship glided in for a landing in Florida. In its horror and in its backdrop of a crystal blue sky, the day echoed one almost exactly 17 years before, when the Challenger exploded."
I remember watching the Challenger explode during my lunchtime in school. Not a good time for all.
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Slow News Day - Chinese New Year
Published: Friday, January 31, 2003 | By: DennisIts holiday in the East, Chinese New Year! So as expected tech news is a little hard to come by. To pick up some of the slack our associate editor Justin aka Breakdown has posted a couple short and sweet accessory reviews so be sure to check them out. (hint: they are posted in the top story section of the site, just look up ^)
This next week should be really exciting, we have 2 nForce2 boards on the schedule along with a few other things for review in the following weeks. I will announce more when I can, until then take care.
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CoolerMaster RamSink Review Posted
Published: Friday, January 31, 2003 | By: DennisThese little guys are quite interesting, and much to our surprise stick very well for just using thermally conductive two-sided tape. If you have a need for a small and very versatile set of heatsinks CoolerMaster has your solution.
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CoolerMaster Alloy Bezel Review Posted
Published: Friday, January 31, 2003 | By: DennisSo what do you do with those ugly plastic bezels that show on your slick new Aluminum case? Aside from the stealth drive mod that has become quite popular lately you could simply cover them up and this product from CoolerMaster could be just the ticket.
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Springdale Chipset Shipments in March?
Published: Thursday, January 30, 2003 | By: DennisDigitimes is reporting that Springdale, and Canterwood chipsets could be shipping as early as March of this year with offical launches sometime after that. Digitimes has also posted possible processor prices due to Intel price drops in February and March.
"For the new platform, Intel is said to plan to release both 533MHz and 800MHz FSB versions for processors running at clock speeds of 2.66GHz and above. Its chipset offerings also include both RAID-enabled and disabled editions for each chipset in the 865 and 875 lines. Chipsets with RAID are priced US$3 higher than the non-RAID products."
The price chart shows 2.4Ghz 800Mhz versions of the P4 at only 178 bux.
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Carmack on the NV30
Published: Thursday, January 30, 2003 | By: DennisJohn Carmack has posted his little writeup on the NV30 in his latest .plan update file.
"At the moment, the NV30 is slightly faster on most scenes in Doom than the R300, but I can still find some scenes where the R300 pulls a little bit ahead. The issue is complicated because of the different ways the cards can
choose to run the game. "
--snip--
"The current NV30 cards do have some other disadvantages: They take up two slots, and when the cooling fan fires up they are VERY LOUD. I'm not usually one to care about fan noise, but the NV30 does annoy me. "
--snip--
"For developers doing forward looking work, there is a different tradeoff -- the NV30 runs fragment programs much slower, but it has a huge maximum instruction count. I have bumped into program limits on the R300 already.
As always, better cards are coming soon. " -
Logitech Z-640 Speaker Set Review @ 3dXtreme
Published: Thursday, January 30, 2003 | By: DennisNow I have gotten this press release 3 times during the past week so I'm hoping if I actually post it the emails will stop.
Anyhow normally I wouldn't post a review on speakers since the best speaker system for you is chosen by you and you alone. Granted reviews might help you learn more about them but really all you need to know is already posted on the speaker mfg’s. website. Now you could head down to your local computer store and take a listen to what they have and compare prices but keep in mind they won't sound the same when you get home, so what is the best way to shop for speakers??
Look at power output, frequency response, speaker configurations, subwoofer box type, and available sound inputs.
Here is what to look for:
-Higher power = better sound due to reduced distortion.
-Wider frequency response = better sound range and quality.
-Configuration = 5.1 is pretty standard but look at how you want to use your sound system. (i.e. do you even have a place behind you to put the surround speakers?)
-Subwoofer box type = if you can see the woofer you'll have a wide range of sub base frequencies but it won't hit as hard as a bandpass design (you’ll just see a port) These designs have a narrower frequency range but have awesome power. (I won’t go into speaker box theory at this time)
-Available inputs = if you have digital outs on your sound card make sure the speakers have inputs for them otherwise you will be stuck with analog.
Make sense?? -
Corsair XMS3500 Review @ ExtremeMhz
Published: Thursday, January 30, 2003 | By: Dennis"The XMS3500 has allowed us to take our system to new levels. Is the upgrade from XMS3200 to XMS3500 worth it in terms of the performance gain Vs the upgrade cost? Probably not, but if one is upgrading from a lesser quality memory, then the answer is a resounding yes."
I would have to agree.
