Messages

1

News / AMD XP 2000+ vs Intel P4 Northwood

« on: May 14, 2002, 05:09:53 PM »

HardwarePub has up a review of the AMD XP 2000+ vs Intel P4 Northwood.

In the recent past, we have seen in benchmark comparisons between AMD and Intel processors, the fastest AMD Athlon 1.4 GHz Thunderbird can easily outperform a Pentium 4 with a higher speed rating. AMD became aware of this awesome performance-to-clock ratio and decided to use a PR (Performance Rating) system. This new methodology serves to explain to the average consumer that, for example, this Athlon XP 2000+ being evaluated today, is equivalent to a Intel Pentium 4 and also an AMD Athlon Thunderbird running at 2.0 GHz. However, Intel recently released a new Pentium 4 processor, the Northwood family, that supposedly performs much better than the original Pentium 4. Thus, we will give these two processors today the opportunity to duke it out. Which will be victorious.

2

News / HP\'s Nanotech Investment Aims to Break Moore\'s Law

« on: May 02, 2002, 07:43:15 PM »

Apart from its precipitous merger with Compaq, computer maker Hewlett-Packard is betting its future in no small part on molecular electronics. HP has embarked on a 10-year plan to make the use of molecular memory and logic chips one of the standards by which computing, and HP, move beyond the limits imposed by Moore\'s Laws.

Read the whole story here.

3

The Private Club / Case Badges?

« on: April 30, 2002, 01:31:14 AM »

Since TheTechGuide t-shirts never fell through, how about getting some TechGuide case badges?

4

Tech Clinic / delete MBR, can\'t boot

« on: April 29, 2002, 07:18:16 AM »

If you have tried to boot off of everything possible, and it still does not work, try to reset your BIOS to its default/failsafe settings. If it will still not boot, you are going to have to take the HD and plug it into another computer, and try to format it like that.

5

Hardware / having troble making bios logo

« on: April 29, 2002, 07:14:49 AM »

I am not sure exactly what steps you are taking, but in my experience, the BIOS file has always been a .bin file. Where is this .awd nonsense coming from?

6

Idle Chat / DID ANYONE GET THAT BEER POSTER YET?

« on: April 29, 2002, 07:11:42 AM »

You know, I have gotten a bunch of stupid-ass posters in the mail, but unfortunatley, I have not gotten my beer one yet, and that makes me angry because I have a spot reserved for it on my wall. Have you yet received yours?

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The Private Club / New members only area

« on: April 09, 2002, 01:23:22 AM »

oh, this post is way old, whoops.

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The Private Club / New members only area

« on: April 09, 2002, 01:22:14 AM »

I like some access please.

9

News / Pentium 4 2.0 GHz Review

« on: February 20, 2002, 08:41:30 PM »

PCstats.com has put up a review of the Pentium 4 2GHz processor. It includes an extensive review, pictures, over-clocking, and a bunch of bench marks.

Check it out here.

10

The Private Club / I am off to the Olympics

« on: February 18, 2002, 01:43:27 AM »

I made it back in one piece, and the Olympics were a blast; even though, the USA didn\'t win any medals in the event I saw http://images.thetechguide.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif\' class=\'bbc_emoticon\' alt=\'\' />. I guess Utah can be a pretty fun place if you know where to go. There were no major problems on the trip besides me almost getting arrested on the way home by the Elko County police; they handcuffed me and put me in the back of the car, but then decided to let me off the hook, scariest run-in with the law I have ever had. Anyone else have any Olympic experiences?

11

The Private Club / T-shirts are coming soon!

« on: February 12, 2002, 08:41:29 PM »

If I got JT\'s permission, maybe I could just print up some iron-on transfers and make T-shirts for Open, Barret, and I, or anyone else who wanted one.

12

Idle Chat / If Windows changed its name? What to call it ?

« on: February 12, 2002, 08:38:49 PM »

How about WindHoze, or maybe even MSWOS (Microsoft Windows Operating System. Personally, I would like it much better if they scrapped Windows all together and just continued to develop DOS.

13

The Private Club / I am off to the Olympics

« on: February 12, 2002, 11:45:25 AM »

Well guys, tomorrow morning I leave for the Olympics. We are going to go see women\'s combined downhill on the 14th from 10-3:30, so look for me on NBC. Hopefully I will be able to party hard in mormon land without getting too much grief from the mormons. No offense if any of you are mormons.

14

The Private Club / T-shirts are coming soon!

« on: February 12, 2002, 11:42:23 AM »

I would like to hear JT\'s current thoughts on the T-shirts, seeing as he hasn\'t mentioned them since August.

15

News / tüplay.com Hardware Quiz

« on: February 04, 2002, 04:56:17 AM »

The folks over at tüplay.com have come up with a little computer hardware quiz, part of a new feature that they will be updating regularly.

Check it out here.

Find out how smart (or dumb) you really are. If you flunk, then you need to hang out here for an extra 4 hours a day.

16

News / A discussion of the Geforce 4

« on: January 31, 2002, 11:55:03 PM »

I found this post in the forums at iNFAMOUS NETWORK. It is pretty interesting if it is all legit.

As we (and not only we) have already told you, in the beginning of February, to be more exact on February 5 in the USA and some time on February 6 in Europe, NVIDIA will launch its new solution for hardcore gamers – GeForce4 chip aka NV25. Today we got the opportunity to tell you a bit more about this new product.

Read the whole post here

17

Hardware / A discussion of the Geforce 4

« on: January 31, 2002, 02:12:27 AM »

I found this post in the forums at iNFAMOUS NETWORK. It is pretty interesting if it is all legit.

As we (and not only we) have already told you, in the beginning of February, to be more exact on February 5 in the USA and some time on February 6 in Europe, NVIDIA will launch its new solution for hardcore gamers – GeForce4 chip aka NV25. Today we got the opportunity to tell you a bit more about this new product.
Just like in case of Titanium chips family, the graphics cards makers are most likely to launch several products on NV25 at a time, which will differ by the chip and memory working frequencies as well as by the size of the graphics memory used. We will now touch upon the fastest model of this family, as we believe it deserves most attention and describes all the peculiarities of NV25 architecture.
So, the new NVIDIA graphics chip, just like GeForce3, will be manufactured with 0.15micron technology. However, the number of transistors used in it will reach 63 million, and the working frequency will be increased up to 300MHz. Here the natural question arises: how on earth NVIDIA managed to increase the chip working frequency so greatly without shifting to a new finer manufacturing technology, especially since NV25 should be more architecturally complex than GeForce3? The answer to this question is pretty original: we will see a new packaging in NV25 – PBGA with integrated heatsink. In other words, NVIDIA decided to enhance the heat dissipation process in order to be able to speed up its chips. For the same purpose, NVIDIA will provide its NV25 chips with a special NVIDIA thermal control system.
NVIDIA will increase the memory (DDR SDRAM) working frequency as well, which will work at 650MHz on the fastest solutions. This way the memory bus bandwidth will make 10.4GB/sec. Memory chips used on the graphics cards (at least on those following the reference design) will feature BGA-packaging. NV25 based graphics cards will get up to 128MB DDR SDRAM.
NV25 will feature 4 rendering pipelines with 2 TMUs each. This will make the new chip similar to GeForce3. However, due to higher working frequencies and improved technologies, the fillrate is claimed to equal 4.9 billion AA samples/sec.
Besides significantly higher working frequencies, NV25 will boast some fresh new features and technologies, though it will remain very much like its predecessor, GeForce3. First of all, we have to mention Lightspeed Memory Architecture II, the technology aimed at unloading the memory bus. It includes loss-free Z-buffer compression with 4:1 ratio, 2nd generation Occlusion Culling and Quadcache Architecture, which saves even more memory bandwidth.
Thanks to another significant performance and memory bus efficiency increase, NVIDIA managed to implement a new more progressive anti-aliasing method in its NV25. It is called Accuview AA. This method will use new subpixel locations mask and feature NVIDIA’s patented and optimized for the best performance and quality algorithm.
As for the T&L unit, it has been changed significantly compared with that of GeForce3. Now it is called nFinite FX II and features 2 vertex shader pipelines. Higher clock frequency will triple the performance in those applications, which use the second computing pipeline, making it three times as fast as that of GeForce3. Moreover, increasing the chip frequency will speed up the operations with pixel shaders by 50%.
Besides that, NVIDIA also claims that its new solution will support Z-Correct bump mapping feature, which is still a mystery to all of us. We will not speculate here now, as you will learn everything very soon: on February 5
The performance solutions from NVIDIA have now also got dual-monitor support. NV25 will boast nView technology, the next stage in the TwinView evolution. It will have richer features and will be much easier to use.

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News / Linky for ZZZ Online issue #114

« on: January 28, 2002, 11:33:40 PM »

Check out ZZZ Online issue #114

In this issue, they discuss:
A speed running suit from Nike,
VR training for military and police,
and space junk.

19

The Private Club / T-shirts are coming soon!

« on: January 23, 2002, 09:59:20 PM »

What happend to the shirts JT? I have been saving for months to get one. I will slap Barret so he will kick his ass in gear.

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News / ZZZ online issue #113

« on: January 23, 2002, 09:26:31 PM »

Issue #113 came out a couple of days ago; check it out here.

In this issue, they discuss:
magnetic fridges,
power generating mud,
and review a portable writing tablet

Also Issue #112 is available here.