Tech News for Friday December 31st
1999.
Almost time.....
Posted: 12/31/1999 Source: N/A Added by: Kim Heise
You can tell all those Y2K paranoid people that Australia
and New Zealand have already past midnight without any reported Y2K problems.
Last report I heard was that the only problem the countries were having is
"over-greased" party people which will most likely spread globally
over the next 24 hours.
Next year will be interesting in terms of computer hardware. We will see 1000mhz
and faster CPU's, speedy new video cards and I believe the "miniaturization"
of desktop PC's. What I mean is flat screen monitors will be more affordable and
thus will be more common and I suspect PC's themselves will shrink down to the
size of pizza boxes. Then again there will always be the hardware gurus who need
those huge tower cases to upgrade all the internal components almost every two
months.
Even though technically speaking the millennium does not start until Jan 2001
I'm going to simply join the band-wagon and treat this new year as if it were
the new millennium. If you can't beat them, join them.
All the best to you for the New Year and I hope
you are not working like me on the 1st to make sure nothing decided to die.
Have a good New Year and be safe.
Hard drive cooler review.
Posted: 12/31/1999 Source: GamePC Added by: Kim Heise
People always laugh at me and think I have a
"screw loose" when I tell them that I have hard drive coolers in my
machine. Try stacking a couple of 7200rpm drives together and watch the
temperature in your case sky-rocket. Not to mention the wear on the drives themselves
and it is not unusual for these new hard drives to overheat.
GamePC has posted a review of the best hard drive coolers on the market. I can
see with the new 10,000rpm hard drives that these coolers will be more useful
than ever.
Tech News for Thursday December 30th
1999.
Netscape Communicator 4.71.
Posted: 12/30/1999 Source: N/A Added by: Kim Heise
Several web sites have posted news of an updated
version of Netscape bringing it up to version 4.71.
Netscape's official site has not been updated yet.
Creative Labs Annihilator Pro Review.
Posted: 12/30/1999 Source: nV
News Added by: Kim Heise
Mike Chambers who owns nV News has posted an in-depth
review on Creative Labs DDR RAM version of their GeForce 256 video card. Mike
logged over 40 hours of work on this article and so it's well worth the read.
It's remarkable to see how the different memory types offer such substantial
performance gains.
If you were to purchase a new video card today and had $299 to spend then the
Creative Labs Annihilator Pro has your name on it.
Weekly CPU price guide updated.
Posted: 12/30/1999 Source: SharkyExtreme
Added by: Kim Heise
If you are curious as to what current CPU prices are
doing you may want to read the latest "Weekly" CPU price article
over at SharkyExtreme. It's amazing to see how cheap processors have become
thanks to competition from AMD because Intel would still be charging us outrageous
prices on their older x86 technology.
Tech News for Wednesday December 29th
1999.
Site News Update.
Posted: 12/29/1999 Source: N/A Added by: Kim Heise
You may have noticed that since before Christmas news
has been slow. This is a yearly pattern that always takes place around
this time since everybody is on vacation. This year it is particularly
"dead" because of the Y2K scare and IT everywhere is slowing down to
prevent possible problems.
Y2K procrastinator's survival guide.
Posted: 12/29/1999 Source: Ars-Technica
Added by: Kim Heise
Waiting for the last possible minute to decide to
check your PC for Y2K compliance? Well, don't sweat since the team over at
Ars-Technica have posted a last minute Y2K survival guide.
Diamond Viper II Review.
Posted: 12/29/1999 Source: Gamers
Depot
Added by: Kim Heise
Just yesterday I was stating that the nVidia GeForce
256 is the only video card on the market that supports hardware implemented
T&L (Transformation and Lighting). Today I eat my words because the new
Diamond Viper II based on S3's latest Savage 2000 chip also supports hardware
T&L. The strange thing to note is that the current drivers for the card do
not support hardware T&L at this time. Why would a manufacturer do that?
Anyway, Gamers Depot has a review
on Diamond's latest incarnation on the Viper series video cards.
Tech News for Tuesday December 28th
1999.
Does nVidia's T&L hardware feature make a difference?
Posted: 12/28/1999 Source: nV
News
Added by: Kim Heise
Mike over at nV News runs benchmarks to see if the new
hardware feature known as T&L (Transformation and Lighting) makes a
performance difference. As you know the new T&L hardware feature is found in
nVidia's latest GeForce 256 series video cards. All other video cards on the
market have to process all transformation & lighting via software and the
main CPU, thus yielding in slower performance.
Here's what Mike Chambers has to say:
I mentioned the other day that Test Drive 6 supports
T&L via Direct 3D and includes a benchmarking mode. I finally got
around to benchmarking with and without T&L and the results are like night
and day.
On the Annihilator Pro I am reviewing, I got a result of 46 fps at 1024x768 in
32-bit color with T&L enabled. Without T&L...16 fps.
Not bad: Going from 16 frames/sec to 46
frames/sec with T&L. On the other hand it is important to note that at this
time there are only a handful of software titles that make use of hardware
accelerated T&L.
Matrox G400 Max Review.
Posted: 12/28/1999 Source: Extreme
Hardware
Added by: Kim Heise
With all the 3D video card wars going on between
nVidia and 3dFX we tend to forget Matrox who has finally ironed out the early
problems that plagued this first series of G400 cards. Early problems with
Matrox's video drivers have always been a snag with 3D performance users but
finally the company has released a faster G400 series card with tweaked drivers.
Basically the G400 Max is running 30% faster via a higher clock speed but costs
about $50 more than the standard G400. In my humble opinion it's well worth the
extra $50 for the performance increase.
Performance wise the Matrox G400 Max edges out the TNT-2
slightly in higher resolutions but loses out in lower resolutions.
At around $199.00 the Matrox G400 Max is most likely not the top choice for high
performance 3D users when compared to the nVidia TNT-2 Ultra or the GeForce256.
On the other hand the dual monitor support, hardware bump-mapping and 360mhz
RAMDAC could be rather tempting. The high speed RAMDAC offers incomparably high
resolutions with incredibly sharp picture quality.
Back in the old days when the Matrox Millennium was the video card king I
remember the super high quality in the display and it looks like the company
still leads when it comes to picture quality.
Barter Those Unwanted Christmas Presents.
Posted: 12/28/1999 Source: Betanews
Added by: Kim Heise
Saw this post over at BetaNews about some very smart individuals
who have created a site where you can trade/barter your unwanted Christmas
presents without exchanging cash. Take a test drive at http://www.Intellibarter.com/
Getting ready for Windows 2000.
Posted: 12/28/1999 Source: ActiveWindows
Added by: Kim Heise
If you are planning on adding Windows 2000 to your PC
sometime early next year you may want to read this article.
ActiveWindows has posted a detailed guide on Windows 2000 in terms of pricing,
hardware requirements and other useful information when planning an upgrade.
This is well worth the read.
To refresh your memory, here is some useful pieces of information:
(Source: ActiveWindows)
Pricing:
- Windows 2000 Professional - $319.00
- Windows 2000 Professional Product Upgrade (from Win 95/98) - $149.00*
- Windows 2000 Professional Version Upgrade (from NT 3.51/4.0) - $219.00
*After $70 Rebate
Minimum Hardware Requirements:
Windows 2000 Professional:
- 133 MHz or higher Pentium-compatible CPU.
- 64 megabytes (MB) of RAM recommended minimum; more memory
generally improves responsiveness.
- 2 GB hard disk with a minimum of 1 GB of free space.
(Additional free hard disk space is required if you are installing over a
network.)
- Windows 2000 Professional supports single and dual CPU
systems.
Windows 2000 Server:
- 133 MHz or higher Pentium-compatible CPU.
- 256 megabytes (MB) of RAM recommended minimum [128 MB
minimum supported; 4 gigabytes (GB) maximum].
- 2 GB hard disk with a minimum of 1.0 GB free space.
(Additional free hard disk space is required if you are installing over a
network.)
- Windows 2000 Server supports up to four CPUs on one
machine.
Windows 2000 Advanced Server:
- 133 MHz or higher Pentium-compatible CPU.
- 256 MB of RAM recommended minimum (128 MB minimum
supported; 8 GB maximum).
- 2 GB hard disk with a minimum of 1.0 GB free space.
(Additional free hard disk space is required if you are installing over a
network.)
- Windows 2000 Advanced Server supports up to eight CPUs on
one machine.
Flat panel speaker review.
Posted: 12/28/1999 Source: Anandtech
Added by: Kim Heise
It may be worthwhile looking at some flat panel
speakers to go along with a brand new flat panel monitor. Anandtech takes the
Monsoon MM-700 Flat Panel Speakers for a test drive and gives you some very
solid pros/cons on the product. Price $149.00
Tech News for Monday December 27th
1999.
AMD K7 price cuts by 30% on Monday 3d of January.
Posted: 12/27/1999 Source: TargetPC
Added by: Kim Heise
TargetPC reports that AMD is cutting prices on their
Athlon K7 series processors by as much as 30% on 01/03/2000. The price drops are
due to increased pressures from Intel.
Hard drive performance explained.
Posted: 12/27/1999 Source: Voodooextreme
Added by: Kim Heise
This very informative and to the point article has
popped up on Voodooextreme
which covers in detail the factors that influence your hard drive performance.
You may want read it to learn more about the different terms and their meanings
in terms of hard drives.
Dual and Quad AMD K7 Athlon chipsets in Q1 of
2000.
Posted: 12/27/1999 Source: AMD
Zone
Added by: Kim Heise
Just spotted this piece of good news over at the AMD
Zone that the new Athlon chipsets supporting dual and quad CPU mode
configurations will be shipping sometime in Q1 of 2000. I know that's a little
vague on the timeframe but it is still very exciting news. Can you imagine
running 2 or 4 1000mhz AMD CPU's?
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