Topics

1

News / Firefox 1.5!!

« on: November 30, 2005, 07:32:17 AM »

In case Joseph didn't make it clear enough, Get Firefox 1.5
Small, fast and much safer than the competition. So try it now if you haven't.

2

The Private Club / Why cant I post news?

« on: March 03, 2005, 01:26:15 PM »

Happy new year guys. Ever so often I show up with a random post and go back into hiding.
But why cant I post news?

Sorry to hear bout the doggy... I think we all know how that feels.

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News / How much Graphics Power Does a PC Really Need?

« on: March 03, 2005, 01:22:31 PM »

In my travels today I came across this article at Tom's Hardware and thought it was pretty interesting.
Do we really need those $500 Video Cards?

4

News / Prescott details

« on: January 07, 2004, 07:30:11 AM »

Happy New Year to you guys and gals. And what better way to start the new year off than with some information about the upcoming version of Intel's Pentium 4 with the Prescott core?
Ace's Hardware has some interesting details about the Prescot core.

bigger D-L1 cache (16 KB instead of 8 KB) & L2-cache (1 MB instead of 512 KB) .. No comments necessary
4x Improved Clock Distribution (compared to Northwood) for better Frequency Scaling
Automated design of the functional blocks for better clockscaling
Improved Imul latency : Northwood/Willamette do their integer multiplications on the FPU, and the big latency is due routing the data between integer and FP datapaths. Prescott has a dedicated integer multiplier. (Thanks goes to Heikki Kultala).
Prescott New Instructions (SSE-3), which will not improve performance at the launch (needs optimized software).
Additional WC Buffers. Instead of sending small pieces of data to the AGP videocard, these pieces of data are stored together in buffers, and send through in one big burst. This helps to preserve FSB bandwidth as the bandwidth of the FSB is more efficiently used (less overhead from one big burst than from many small ones)
Improved Pre-Fetcher Branch Predictor. I did not get much info on this but it seems that the buffers have been made bigger so the branch predictor will be able to cope better with more then one thread.
Improved Hyperthreading: two new instructions: Monitor and Wait, which will only improve performance on recompiled software.

Have a look at Ace's Hardware for what else is new, and what performance can be expected.

5

News / Mainstream Card from NVIDIA - BFGTech 5600 Ultra

« on: May 28, 2003, 10:11:39 AM »

HardOCP has a review of the mainstream card (sub $200)  from NVIDIA, the updated GeForceFX 5600 Ultra.

\"With the 50Mhz increase the core now runs at 400Mhz stock and 400Mhz memory (800Mhz DDR)\"

To see how well it fares, and what else is new, head over to the Hard

6

News / ATI FireGL X1 vs Nvidia Quadro4 980XGL

« on: January 23, 2003, 08:32:19 AM »

Tom\'s Hardware has a review of the latest Professional OpenGL graphics cards.

\"OpenGL - the story so far: the last Quadro4 chip to predate the GeForce FX, Nvidia entered the ring with the NV28GL. ATi countered with the R300, alias 9700 Pro, for use on the FireGL X1. Seven graphics cards take up the challenge.\"

Will ATI outperform the competition with its superior hardware - the R300?

7

News / Matrox Parhelia!

« on: June 25, 2002, 10:13:08 AM »

The highly anticipated Matrox Parhelia has been released! Seems like Tom\'s Hardware is the only big site to have their take on the card. I\'m sure we can expect the remaining big players to have their articles up by tonight/tomorrow. I havent gotten through the entire article yet, but feel free to discuss it in the forum. Its been a long time guys.

8

News / Nvidia\'s GeForce 4 Revealed

« on: February 06, 2002, 08:57:00 PM »

I believe this one needs no introduction. Coming in a number of flavors, there seems to be a GeForce 4 for everyone\'s budget.
Check out the reviews at the following sites -
 Anandtech, Hard|OCP and Tom\'s Hardware.

Can you say....fast?

9

News / Windows 2000 Security Rollup Package

« on: January 31, 2002, 08:06:28 PM »

Saw this one over at Hard|OCP.

\"The Windows 2000 Security Rollup Package provides a cumulative rollup of security updates that have been offered since the release of Windows 2000 Service Pack 2 (SP2). Download now to get the latest security updates in one cumulative package.\"

Read the article and proceed with the update.

10

News / The Next \'BX\'. What do you think?

« on: January 30, 2002, 02:25:18 PM »

After a wonderful review of some seriously overclocked processors, Tom\'s Hardware comes along with something that no one should ever use, the Pentium 4 coupled to SDRAM. Read all about it here.

\"Teaming up a Pentium 4 with a SDRAM might seem like a horrible idea to anybody who cares about performance, but the industry has accepted the i845 chipset just fine. As a matter of fact, this duo has brought Pentium 4 systems to an attractive price point, which is crucial for the OEM business. For this article, we took a look at 13 motherboards with the Brookdale chipset.\"

Have a look and see just how terrible the combination is.

11

News / P4 vs Athlon XP....again

« on: January 07, 2002, 09:10:34 AM »

The P4 vs Athlon struggle has been enhanced today by the release of the 2.2GHz P4 (Northwood core) and the Athlon XP 2000+ processors. As expected, almost every site is jumping on the comparison bandwagon. Choose your favourite site to see what\'s new and you determine which processor is better for you.
Here are a few recommended links. - Tom\'s Hardware and Anandtech

12

News / Office XP SP1

« on: December 14, 2001, 06:07:46 AM »

Microsoft has released Office XP Service Pack 1.

\"Office XP Update: Service Pack 1 (SP-1) provides the latest updates to Microsoft Office XP. SP-1 contains significant security enhancements and stability and performance improvements. Some of the fixes included with SP-1 have been previously released as separate updates. This service pack combines them into one integrated package, and it includes a number of other changes designed to improve the reliability and performance of your Office XP programs.\"

Download the service pack here (18MB)
For those into the administrative updates, download here (39MB)

13

News / General Hardware

« on: November 28, 2001, 09:30:38 AM »

In case you guys were wondering, I am still around. Its a bit slow in the hardware arena, or is it? I\'m sure you\'re following the Radeon 8500 and the infamous ATI drivers. Surprisingly, they were able to actually give a performance increase with the last release, and it wasnt through game specific optimizations as in Quake 3 with older drivers.
In the motherboard department, Tom\'s Hardware has recently posted a VIA KT266A/NVIDIA nFORCE 420D \"Mega Test\". As always, Tom\'s Hardware calls it like it is, so dont expect a beaming recommendation of the nvidia chipset. Finally a site that provides reputable benchmarks and a sensical conclusion. The final result is quite eye opening, so I strongly recommend that you have a look.

14

News / Athlon meets Pentium 4

« on: October 31, 2001, 01:16:49 PM »

Tom\'s Hardware has done a huge comparison of these processors. From AMD, the entire Athlon XP line is tested along with the Thunderbird 1.4GHz. From Intel, we have every P4 from 1.4GHz up. Head on over for an interesting shootout, and a not so surprising conclusion.

15

News / Late again.

« on: October 09, 2001, 08:40:20 PM »

Once again SIS has done quite a good job in the motherboard department. The SIS 645 chipset for the Pentium 4 seems to be a stable and fast platform for the P4, with the added advantage of support for DDR333. Lets hope they can actually deliver the chipsets to motherboard manufacturers so we can actually benefit from it.
AMD has released the long awaited AthlonXP. Its a wonderful processor, easily beating the Pentium 4 in performance and price. I wonder if AMD fixed the thermal issue?
Get you fix at Tom\'s and Anand

16

News / Mid week roundup

« on: October 03, 2001, 04:42:05 PM »

I have not been able to live up to last week\'s resolution, but I will try. The pressures of working life can adversely impact the time available for other activites. (Like you didnt know).
Intel has released the Celeron 1200MHz based on the Tualatin core, packing 256kB of L2 cache. Once again, it cannot compare to  a lower clocked AMD Duron in the majority of benchmarks. At least it overclocked to 1500MHz. Once again, if you want a system on the cheap, Athlon 1.4GHz is the way to go. Do not even consider the castrated Celeron or Duron.
Storage Review does their typically excellent review of the Fujitsu 15000 rpm hard drive, the MAM3367. Seagate gets some competition, but seeing that Fujitsu isnt going to be around much longer in the hard drive market, you make the call.
One that I am sure you didnt miss was the launch of nvidia\'s titanium line. The Geforce 2 Pro has been labelled the Geforce 2 Ti, and we get two versions of the Geforce 3. The Gefroce 3 Ti200 is an underclocked, original Geforce 3, while the Geforce 3 Ti500 is what we all know to be the Geforce 3 Ultra. There was massive coverage on monday, so choose a hardware site and have a look. Just in case you were wondering, the ATI Radeon 7500 is available today at retail.

17

News / Mid-week\'s action

« on: September 26, 2001, 12:49:03 PM »

Due to the events over the last couple weeks I have not been able to post as much as I had wanted to. Lets hope things settle out smoothly. And forum users, please respect the rules. The last few weeks have brought a number of reviews, too much to mention, so just head over to the respected hardware review sites and take a look. This week has been quite busy and you are going to have a number of articles to digest. My advice is to stay away from any motherboard using SDRAM on the Intel 845 chipset. The low memory bandwidth of this combination cripples the Pentium 4. NVIDIA\'s nForce chipset with the dual DDR channels does not look so high performing anymore, with VIA\'s KT266A giving it a good run, and most likely cheaper too. However, I expect very good performance should NVIDIA couple it to the Pentium 4 which can take advantage of the memory bandwidth possible with the dual DDR channels. Posts as usual later this week.

18

News / Intel baffles - Pentium 3 Tualatin 1266MHz

« on: September 19, 2001, 05:42:19 PM »

Intel continues to confuse us with its actions as of late. Not only did they renew their contract with questionable Rambus, but also release a new version of the Pentium 3. Known as the Tualatin, it comes with both the standard 256KB of L2 cache and a breath taking 512KB on the server version. The Tualatin and the Coppermine share the same core, with the Tualatin sporting a die shrink to 0.13 micron. Despite this, current Penitum 3 motherboards will not support the Tualatin due to a lower voltage requirement and altered pin configurations. The only Intel chipset to support the Tualatin is the 815 B step. As most already know, the 815 supports only 512 MB of RAM, which is entirely not sufficient for a server. (which happens to be what the Tualatin 512KB was aimed for) Thankfully VIA has a Motherboard to support the Tualatin. Intel does not plan to release any higher clock speeds than 1266MHz, once again leaving simple upgrades out of the question.

Have a look at the review over at Tom\'s Hardware

19

News / Sound Blaster Audigy reviews

« on: September 18, 2001, 12:36:38 PM »

Game PC has a review of the Sound Blaster Audigy. It comes as no surprise that every sound card review makes mention of the now defunct Aureal.

You can get a second opinion over at 3D Sound Surge with their impressions of the Audigy

\"We are calling this an early impression only because we plan to test the card in even greater detail over the coming weeks before following with the final review\"

Great!

20

News / Business as usual?

« on: September 13, 2001, 04:51:04 PM »

After the terrible events earlier this week, can we ever get back to business as usual? This was by far the worst terrorist attack in history. Loss of life and property has been tremendous. I urge you to donate whatever you can to the relief agencies.

But remember,life goes on. Tom blurbs, Storge Review reviews