Tech News for Friday February 18th 2000.
Hitechbits Overclocking Guide is now online.
Posted: 02/18/2000
Source: N/A Added by: Kim
Heise
The CPU overclocking guide is complete
and online under the "Articles" link on the left menu. Please send me
comments or suggestions on what's missing or if anything is ambiguous.
Just a few words of wisdom here: Don't attempt overclocking if the thought of
swapping/adding a hard drive makes you nervous. If something is unclear you can
email me questions.
Over the last couple of months I've received several emails regarding
overclocking so I decided to write up an in-depth article.
TOP
Windows 2000 Soundblaster Live drivers.
Posted: 02/18/2000
Source: VoodooExtreme
Added by: Kim
Heise
Voodooextreme has posted a link that
points over at Dell's tech web site with some Soundblaster Live! drivers for
Windows 2000. This
link will take you to the Dell tech web download site for the drivers.
I wonder when Creative Labs will
post them on their site for download.
TOP
Big problems with Intel's new i820 chipset.
Posted: 02/18/2000
Source: ZDNET Added by: Kim
Heise
For those of you who where planning on purchasing one
of the second generation i820 chipset motherboards that support standard SDRAM,
you may want to read this article very closely.
The trouble arose when Intel's 820 and 840 chip sets,
which were designed to take advantage of speedier Rambus memory, RDRAM, were
configured to work with SDRAM.
According to Intel, memory errors may result from the
combined use of the memory-repeater hub (known as MRH-S), which is used to
translate native RDRAM support to SDRAM, and ECC (error correction coding).
Intel said it believes few customers will be affected since
most 820 and 840 chip set customers using ECC, commonly in workstation and
servers, are likely to have gone with Rambus memory for greater performance.
However, customers seeking a lower-cost server or
workstation solution may have elected to go with less-expensive SDRAM over RDRAM
in order to get the highest amount of memory for their money.
If the problem is actually tied to just the
memory-translation hub, it could spell big trouble for Intel, said Mike Feibus,
principal analyst at Mercury Research in Scottsdale, Ariz.
"We're predicting that more than half of the 840 chip
sets that will ship this quarter will be configured with SDRAM," Feibus
said. "So if there's trouble with the memory translator, that could pose
major problems for Intel."
A spokesman for Dell Computer Corp. said the company has
avoided packaging SDRAM with 820 and 840 chip sets after it became aware of the
problem a couple of weeks ago.
A representative at Compaq Computer Corp., which sells
workstations with SDRAM, said the company has been made aware of the problem and
is working with Intel to resolve it.
Officials at Hewlett-Packard Co., which also sells systems
packaging SDRAM with the 820 and 840 chip sets, were not immediately available
for comment.
TOP
More Windows 2000 drivers.
Posted: 02/18/2000
Source: N/A Added by: Kim
Heise
Several new official video drivers
have been released for Windows 2000.
TOP
VIA strikes back at Intel.
Posted: 02/18/2000
Source: Techweb Added by: Kim
Heise
Via Technologies fought back
Thursday against a patent infringement suit filed by Intel by filing its own
suit in a London court seeking to invalidate Intel's patent on chip timing
circuits.
TOP
AMD getting ready to ship 1ghz + K7 processors.
Posted: 02/18/2000
Source: TechWeb Added by: Kim
Heise
The whole 1ghz race is going to happen
much sooner than anticipated as AMD is getting ready to roll out the first 1ghz
(or faster) CPU's to the public.
"We intend to announce a product only when we are prepared to ship
it," said Mark Bode, division marketing manager for AMD's Athlon product
marketing, Austin, Texas.
What it sounds like, is that the AMD production plants are already producing
the 1ghz processors and the company is simply waiting for two things to happen
first: Intel to make some sort of announcement and the production on the new
1ghz chips is at a volume to where they can ship them without major delays for
the OEM's.
TOP
nVidia Windows 2000 drivers released.
Posted: 02/18/2000
Source: nVidia Added by: Kim
Heise
Download the latest Windows 2000
drivers for the TNT/TNT2/TNT2-Ultra/TNT-Vanta and GeForce drivers here.
The latest Windows 2000 drivers from nVidia are based on the latest Detonator
drivers V3.78.
TOP
Microsoft to release Windows source code to
settle with DOJ?
Posted: 02/18/2000
Source: CNET Added by: Kim
Heise
What's funny about this article is
that Microsoft openly denies that Bill Gates ever mentioned that he/Microsoft
would ever release the source code for Windows but the interview shows
otherwise. Also, I wonder which version of Windows would be released as open
source? Windows 1.x
TOP
Overclocking Guide Update.
Posted: 02/18/2000
Source: N/A Added by: Kim
Heise
The overclocking guide is now complete
and I'm just applying some minor cosmetic changes. Should be online later today.
TOP
Tech News for Thursday February 17th 2000.
Hitechbits CPU Poll results.
Posted: 02/17/2000
Source: N/A Added by: Kim
Heise
For those of you who have not checked
the latest CPU poll results, here are the results.
AMD 40%, Intel 20%, Transmeta 10% and Cyrix at 30%.
Again, please bear in mind that the sample is much too small to indicate a
market trend. Hopefully once the site grows we will see more
"trend-like" results.
Please try our new operating system poll.
TOP
AMD and Intel compete for 1GHZ.
Posted: 02/17/2000
Source: BetaNews Added by: Kim
Heise
You may have been hearing about all
the news regarding Intel's 1.5ghz test earlier this week. What's funny is that
AMD quietly demonstrated a similar 1ghz processor on the same day.
While Intel was showing off its new Willamette processor running at 1.5 GHz
at the Intel Developers Forum, Advanced Micro Devices was doing some speeding of
its own. Demonstrating two Athlons running at 1.1 GHz at room temperature, AMD
has put the pressure on Intel to keep up both in speed and production levels.
Other main courses on AMD's plate for this year include the Thunderbird
processor featuring on-die cache, the Spitfire for sub-$1000 based PCs, and the
Mustang, which will integrate up to 2MB of cache amongst other new features.
TOP
Intel re-adopts RAMBUS.
Posted: 02/17/2000
Source: EBNews Added by: Kim
Heise
This news article had me stumped. Did
Intel not learn anything through the RAMBUS fiasco? I guess not, since the CPU
giant has decided to jump back on board the RAMBUS road with the new
"Willamette" CPU. It amazes me to see how many mistakes one can make
in such a short period of time.
Intel's Timna CPU to support SDRAM, while Willamette adopts Rambus interface.
Pete MacWilliams, an Intel fellow and director of platform architecture for the
company, said that Timna will not support a Direct Rambus DRAM interface as was
originally intended. Rather, Intel has decided that a Timna follow-on, to be
introduced next year under a different brand, will connect to the high-speed
Direct RDRAM memory interface.
TOP
Palm IIIc to debut at
CeBIT.
Posted: 02/17/2000
Source: ZDNET
Added by: Kim
Heise
The wait is finally over and I can't
wait to see how the display looks on one of these new color PalmPilots. I have
no plans on upgrading to a color PalmPilot unless the price is right and the
developer community jumps aboard and creates some color Palm applications.
Just in time to make its initial public offering a little sweeter, Palm
Computing Inc. plans to unveil its long-awaited color Palm next week in
conjunction with the CeBIT 2000 show in Hannover, Germany, according to sources
close to the company. The Palm IIIc ("c" is for color) is similar in
form and function to its monochrome counterpart, but with a full color screen
and a rechargeable battery. Full story to follow. -- Carmen Nobel, PC Week.
TOP
Windows 2000 128-bit encryption pack available.
Posted: 02/17/2000
Source: Microsoft
Added by: Kim
Heise
ActiveWin
has posted this link
to Microsoft's web site to download the new 128-bit high encryption pack for
Windows 2000.
TOP
Iomegaware 2.2.1 released for Windows 2000.
Posted: 02/17/2000
Source: Iomegaware
Added by: Kim
Heise
Zip and Jazz drive owners who are
planning on upgrading to Windows 2000 may wish to take heed to this
update to take advantage of all the Iomegaware tools under the new OS.
There will be several new drivers released to the public over the next several
days. I can't keep track of them all but will post the most commonly used hardware
driver updates. Check with your hardware vendor web site for more details.
TOP
Creative Labs releases a whole series of new
drivers.
Posted: 02/17/2000
Source: Creative Labs
Added by: Kim
Heise
Creative has released updated drivers
to their nVidia series of video cards and the AGP control utility has been
updated. Download the latest video drivers here
and the updated AGP control utility here.
You can use the AGP utility to
control the AGP-"Sidebanding" function if your motherboard supports
this feature which can increase your video card performance when using large
texture sizes. I suspect that the AGP utility will work on any video card but I
haven't verified this yet.
On a related note, there is a new
tool available to enable AGP 2x support on AMD K7 Athlon systems when using any
of the new GeForce video accelerators. Download GeTune 1.0 here.
TOP
Windows 2000 released today.
Posted: 02/17/2000
Source: N/A
Added by: Kim
Heise
Today is the big day Microsoft
releases Windows 2000 to the public. Several web sites have posted reviews and
articles guiding you through the installation/upgrade process.
TOP
Tech News for Wednesday February 16th 2000.
New Hard Drive Spec
announced.
Posted: 02/16/2000
Source: Maximum PC
Added by: Kim
Heise
And I just purchased an Ultra-66
hard-drive.....
Intel and six partners want to replace your aging ATA drive interface with a
faster one . The new interface busts open the bottleneck restricting hard drives
and scales to six times current ATA transfer speeds.
The new interface, known as Serial ATA, pumps out 1.6Gbps contrasted to ATA/66
which is little over 0.5Gbs at maximum throughput. Serial ATA expects to scale
to 6Gbps and will demo this fall. Expect to see it in desktops and entry-level
RAID servers.
Apart from the speed increases, the most significant improvement is cable
design. Serial ATA reduces the number of pins from the required 24 to four pins.
The thinner cabling is expected to lower costs slightly, also.
Serial ATA disregards royalty licenses similar to IEEE 1394 which should speed
adoption within the industry.
The major companies allied with Intel are Dell, IBM, Maxtor, Quantum and
Seagate.
TOP
CPU Prices.
Posted: 02/16/2000
Source: CPU Review
Added by: Kim
Heise
CPU Review has posted the latest CPU
prices as of yesterday (February 15th) comparing the AMD Athlon and the Pentium
III processors.
| Prices as of 02/15/00 |
Athlon qt 1k AMD FAQ |
Athlon qt 1 PriceWatch |
Pentium3 qt 1 PriceWatch |
| 500Mhz |
$249.00 |
$172.00 |
$261.00 |
| 550Mhz |
$449.00 |
$182.00 |
$260.00 |
| 600Mhz |
$615.00 |
$208.00 |
$332.00 |
| 650Mhz |
|
$255.00 |
$417.00 |
| 700Mhz |
|
$434.00 |
$595.00 |
TOP
Tweaking your Soundcard and Speakers.
Posted: 02/16/2000
Source: 3D
Spotlight
Added by: Kim
Heise
If you've been less that satisfied
with your PC's sound system or would like to learn some tips and tricks to
tweaking the audio quality then you should read the "Tweaking
your Soundcard and Speaker" review over at 3D
Spotlight.
Here's a sample:
The best place to position a pair of speakers for your
PC system is at the sides of the monitor. For the best effect, the two speakers
should be near ear level, or pointing up towards your ears. They should both be
placed equi-distant from the monitor. Also, try to ensure that the 2 speakers
are in-line and level.
While positioning the speakers, ensure that nothing blocks
their path as this would affect the sound output of the obstructed speaker. Once
you get the speakers in the correct position, you may want to tilt the speakers
in slightly, so that they point towards you. This is known as
"toe-in". Experiment with the amount of toe-in until you get the most
personally pleasing sound.
Now, play some CD music. If your speakers are positioned
correctly, the voice should emanate from between the speakers where your monitor
is, and the instrument sounds should emanate from anywhere else between the
speakers, depending on the recording.
TOP
Tech News for Tuesday February 15th 2000.
Intel Demonstrates 1.5-GHz
Willamette Chip.
Posted: 02/15/2000
Source: CNET
Added by: Kim
Heise
With all the hype Intel could muster,
the company demonstrated a proto-type "Willamette" processor running
at 1.5ghz.
The Willamette chip barely hit the 1.5-GHz barrier today. The chip went to
1.499 GHz, and then dropped to 1.492 GHz before popping to 1.5 GHz.
TOP
Windows 2000 and Soundblaster Live!
Posted: 02/15/2000
Source: Creative Labs
Added by: Kim
Heise
Saw this link
over at nVNews that points to a FAQ at
Creative Labs regarding Windows 2000 and the Soundblaster Live. Here's a clip
from the FAQ:
Q8. When can I download Creative's
Windows 2000 drivers for my sound card?
The tentative dates for the release of these drivers are:
Mid March, 2000 - Sound Blaster Live! series of cards
Late March, 2000 - Sound Blaster PCI series, Sound Blaster Audio PCI series,
Sound Blaster Vibra 128
Late April, 2000 - Sound Blaster 16 PCI
Please check back often at Creative.com (http://www.creative.com/)
for the status of these drivers.
What I did find odd is why Creative Labs is not releasing the latest
Soundblaster Live! 3.0 for Windows 2000.
Q13. What Live!Ware version does the
Live!Ware for Windows 2000 update correspond to?
Applications listed in Live!Ware for Windows 2000 are similar to those releases
found prior to Live!Ware 2.0.
For example, Creative Mixer replaces Surround Mixer seen on
Windows 98 platform and Live!Task is not available in Creative Launcher.
As with the Live!Ware program, users can expect better
functionality from the Sound Blaster Live! in Windows 2000 through future
Live!Ware updates.
TOP
VIA To Introduce Joshua Processor.
Posted: 02/15/2000
Source: PCExtremists
Added by: Kim
Heise
Ladies and Gentleman: We have another
new processor about to debut on the market. Just one more CPU to confuse the
issue of what to buy and when.
Not sure how much you have heard about VIA's new CPU called "Joshua"
that uses the socket 370 design for a low price with excellent performance.
Here's a piece from the article to help refresh your memory:
VIA will be
introducing their new low-priced processor codenamed "Joshua"
next Tuesday (Feb. 22) at a news conference in San Jose. Initial clock speeds
are expected to be around 433MHz and 466MHz with 500MHz and 566MHz slated for
later this year. Here’s what we do know; Joshua is manufactured using a
0.18-micron process, it will have a 64K L1 cache (on die) and an integrated L2
cache of 256K. It will also incorporate both 3DNow! And enhanced dual pipelined
MMX technologies. The new processor is based on the Cyrix Cayenne core, supports
a 133MHz front-side bus and will utilize a socket 370 design. Via acquired both
Cyrix and last year to make all of this possible.
TOP
Preview the latest build of Internet Explorer
5.5.
Posted: 02/15/2000
Source: Microsoft
Added by: Kim
Heise
If you would like to test drive the
latest beta build of Internet Explorer 5.5 you can visit this link
for downloading instructions. Please remember this a beta product so be sure to
backup your system before testing.
TOP
Tech News for Monday February 14th 2000.
Asus K7M Athlon Motherboard review.
Posted: 02/14/2000
Source: CPU Review Added by: Kim
Heise
If you are out on the prowl for a new computer system
that you plan to build yourself you may want to take a look at this
very reliable and powerful AMD Athlon K7 motherboard. This
is the motherboard I have my eyes on......
CPU Review takes the Asus K7M Athlon motherboard for a test drive. Read the full
review here.
If you are looking for a solid Slot A motherboard based on the AMD 751
Northbridge, you can't go wrong with an Asus K7M.
TOP
Hitechbits Overclocking Article (Update).
Posted: 02/14/2000
Source: N/A Added by: Kim
Heise
Just a quick update on the
Overclocking article: It's a little over half-way done and I hope to have it
completed before the end of the week. Some research is taking longer than
expected.
TOP
Major AMD Athlon K7 price cuts.
Posted: 02/14/2000
Source: The Register
Added by: Kim
Heise
On February 28th AMD will announce
some major price drops in the Athlon series CPU's. Here's the scoop from the
Register:
The 500MHz Athlon will drop to $54, the 550MHz to $70, the 600MHz to $189,
the 650MHz to $243, the 700MHz Athlon to $344, the 750MHz Athlon to $474, the
800MHz Athlon to $672 and the newly released 850MHz to…err $850.
I did fix a typo above in that The Register posted the 550mhz as a 533mhz
and to my knowledge, there is no such chip.
TOP
Extreme PC Cooling: Water Cooling.
Posted: 02/14/2000
Source: 3D Wars
Added by: Kim
Heise
Anandtech pointed to a web site that
talks about cooling your PC using water. No, that's not a typo - they use
water!! Take a look at the article here
and be awed.
The AquaStealth has a big bonus and downside to it. As you can see, it will
give a clock speed is out of this world. I moved up 220MHz and had a stable
system with the water-cooling. However, this does not come at an easy price. For
starters, the kit costs 120 Dollars. If you are not planning on overclocking
your CPU at least 150MHz, you'd just be better off buying a more expensive
processor. Secondly, it's a very dangerous kit and can easily ruin your system
for good. If each connection is not fully secured, the water can come out of the
tubing and destroy your PC components. Naturally, the company does not take any
responsibility for mess-ups because it is a kit, so use it at your own risk.
TOP
WinAmp 2.60 released.
Posted: 02/14/2000
Source: WinAmp Added by: Kim
Heise
Don't usually post too many software
releases here but this one is a "must-have". Nullsoft has released WinAmp
2.6 this morning and it has a couple of new features, including bug fixes.
Download the latest version here.
Nullsoft Winamp is a fast, flexible,
high-fidelity music player for Windows 95/98/NT. Winamp supports MP3, CD, WMA,
Audiosoft, Mjuice, MOD, WAV and other audio formats, custom appearances called
skins and audio visualization and audio effect plug-ins.
TOP
Countdown to Windows 2000.
Posted: 02/14/2000
Source: N/A
Added by: Kim
Heise
Just three days remaining until
Windows 2000 hits the store shelves. I suspect that the sales will be much
slower initially than Win9x because most people don't need the additional
features and the price for the new OS is outrageous.
Read the CNET article regarding the Windows
2000 launch.
TOP
Dell's negative comments about AMD.
Posted: 02/14/2000
Source: N/A Added by: Kim
Heise
This topic is a couple of days old but
I feel like throwing in my two cents worth here.....
A week ago Michael Dell (CEO of Dell Computers) took some underhanded
"pot-shots" at AMD stating that systems based on the AMD K7 Athlon
CPU's were unstable.
Let's look at the facts first: Early AMD motherboards were unstable but these
can be solely attributed to first generation motherboard "birth
pains". Every new chipset grows through a period of ironing out the bugs
that were missed because there are so many thousands of possible PC
configurations and it's impossible to catch all issues on the first try. Intel
is no exception here - how about the Intel RAMBUS and i820 chipset saga? Current
AMD K7 chipsets are substantially more stable and the 2nd generation
motherboards will be out shortly.
Dell should be very careful throwing rocks at AMD when currently Intel is
unable to keep up the demand for CPU's. Intel's shortage of CPU's is costing
Dell millions of dollars. I know several people who have turned down new Dell
systems because of the 4 week wait on new systems and at least a handful of
those people are looking for AMD based machines for more performance than Intel
can currently provide.
Last I heard is that AMD's market share is well over 20% and growing fast. Why?
Faster CPU's, lower prices and you can find AMD CPU's in stock. It's simple math
here and the competitors have understood this. At that rate Dell is going to
eventually fall behind.
This is not a article against Dell or Intel but a comment regarding the senseless
business decisions some companies make.
TOP
Viper II vs. GeForce 256 SDR.
Posted: 02/14/2000
Source: Firing
Squad Added by: Kim
Heise
If you're in the market to purchase a
new video card you should read this
article comparing the two most recent video card releases. The bottom line is
that the GeForce SDR kills the Viper II in pure performance but at a steep
price. The question in this article is to try and help you decide which card
gives you the most "bang" for the buck.
TOP
| 
