Incoming!     02:40 AM IDT     Adrian Wong

As usual, it's been an extremely busy time over here. But expect a review to be posted shortly. Incidentally, I'm working on a really comprehensive battery extender guide. What is that?

Well, a battery extender, as many Pocket PC enthusiasts can tell you, is a set of batteries you hook up to your Pocket PC in order to provide longer battery time for the Pocket PC. They can also tell you that other Pocket PC sites have touched on this matter a long time ago.

However, I will not just be rehashing what was already written about battery extenders. Instead, I will attempt to go further and write a definitive guide on how to build a battery extender. How successful will I be? Well, let's see in a couple of days. :D

BTW, the battery extender I built cost me only RS 154, including a set of 4 NiCad batteries. That's only RM 12.80 or USD 3.35! As you can see, it's very cheap to build one. If you don't own a Pocket PC, you might be interested to know that a battery extender also works for Palm PDAs (those with a rechargeable internal battery) and other portable electronic devices.

More On Acoustic Management     02:10 AM IDT     Adrian Wong

Hello everyone!

Terribly sorry for coming online so late. I had to study for my Pharmacology exam tomorrow. :(

Anyway, there has been no reply from Maxtor yet but I skimmed through my mailbox and the general consensus among those who have sent me the benchmark results is that disabling Acoustic Management really improves seek performance but the noise level predictably goes up as well. Even with the noise level up though, it's reportedly quieter than the older Maxtor drives.

Here are some numbers you might want to crunch :-

I know this isn't much but I haven't had the time to really sift through the information. I'll have more for you after I go through them.  But thanks in advance to all of you who have e-mailed me with your results. I really appreciate your efforts! :)

Incidentally, Maxtor also has another utility called WVSET which sets the Write Verify mode of the same range of hard disks. However, by default, Maxtor sets the drives to use Write Verify for only the first 10 cycles. After that, Write Verify is turned off for much faster write operations.

Normally, you won't need to bother with this utility since most users don't need the extra level of protection over that of the standard ECC protection. Also, enabling Write Verify slows the drive's write performance down by reading the data that was just written to the hard disk and validating it using CRC. This extra read cycle is what Write Verify is all about.

However, some users may feel that they need the extra protection offered by Write Verify. In that case, head over here to read more about Write Verify and download WVSET. Again, if anyone is able to benchmark his/her Maxtor drive for performance difference on enabling/disabling Write Verify, we would really appreciate it if you could send the number (and graphs) to us. BTW, currently, the only benchmark that I think can test the performance effect of Write Verify is the fully registered version of HDTach.

Hercules Game Theatre XP Press Release     00:55 AM IDT     Adrian Wong

Remember the press release about Hercules's debut in the PC audio market? Well, they have sent me another press release with succulent details about their audio solution for hardcore gamers! Yes, it's the Game Theatre XP that was mentioned in the previous press release! Check out some of the tidbits here :-

• the set composes of the Game Theatre XP sound card and an external rack
• supports up to 6 speakers
• includes a high-speed 4-port USB hub
• front panel game port allowing for multi-player gaming on the same machine
• Dolby Digital decoding on up to independent 6 gold-plated RCA outputs

For more details, check out the full press release!

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News From The Net

AthlonMB sent a reminder to you all that it's the last day to enter their Halloween Giveaway contest!

OCWorkbench posted a review of AOpen's AX34ProII motherboard. Check this clip out - "One of the commendable feature is Voice Diagnostics. I tried this function by taking out the SDRAM, it sounded on boot up. Although it's useful, I do not know whether how many cases can it diagnose. 5 ? 10? If the Diagnostic Led is used, it can clearly support up to 2 ^ no of leds. e.g. 4 leds give 16 combinations."

HardwareZone posted a review of ATi's Radeon 64MB DDR VIVO graphics card. Blurb - "The Radeon is a new Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) that combines all the features of nVidia, 3dfx and Matrox to become the "jack of all trades" along with a few more of its own innovation. It brings with it hardware T&L (Transform & Lighting) support, FSAA (Full Scene Anti Aliasing), EMBM, Vertex-Skinning, Key-Frame Interpolation, ATI's HyperZ Technology, hardware DVD support, and much more. ATI made quite a breakthrough here and it is ATI at its best."

CPUReview posted a review of the Epson Stylus 1160 wide printer.

Apu's Hardware posted another Week-In-Review article. This time, it's about AMD's new 760 chipset. Check it out!

Hexus.net posted the following articles :-

• a review of the 1GHz AMD Thunderbird
• the AMD-760 chipset press release

G3D posted an article called 'A Review of Every Modern Intel CPU, Ever Article'. Wonder what it is? Here's what they have to say - "A what? A Review of Every Modern Intel CPU, Ever. Damn, that's long. =). Surf on over to G3D:Gaming In 3D where those nutty, yet handsome boys have come up with a snazzy article detailing Intel's history throughout the ages. Starting out with the Pentium 60-200, we go on from there...check it out!"

Jsi Hardware evaluated Microsoft's Intellimouse Explorer. Here's a clip of the review - "After a few hours of holding and felling and moving it around a fair bit (no not that you perv) I got a good feel for the mouse and I have to say it fits in the hand much better than the oversize Intellimouse Explorer, the mouse I feel is just the right size if you have smaller hands like me then you will love this mouse."

I Am Not A Geek updated their Buyer's Guide. Check this quote out - "You might be amazed what you can get for your money. Our $500 System has a Duron 600, and 128MB ram. We have also included the much requested shipping prices. And I am ashamed to admit it but the heatsink category had slipped my mind until now. We have systems for $500, Under $1000, Under $2000, and Under $4000" 

Last Comment Posted?     03:50 AM IDT     Adrian Wong

I just posted another comment (and reply) for Chai's Affordable Water Cooling System guide. Hope this is the last one that needs to be posted manually! :)

To check out what was being discussed, head over to the comments page. To participate further in this discussion (and others as well), come on over to the forums! You will be able to post your question instantly and get a faster reply.

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S3 No Longer S3     03:20 AM IDT     Adrian Wong

I fondly remember my S3 ViRGE when I read the press release below. Back then, S3 was kind of like what NVIDIA is right now. Practically everybody was using S3 cards, be it the lowly S3 Trio64 or the 'higher-end' ViRGE. Of course, S3 eventually lost its ground in the graphics chip market. But nothing can be as bad as it is now - S3 finally went all the way and threw away its name.

Heheh... S3 is now called SONICblue. Weird, eh? Well, check out the following news clip from the WAVE report :-

S3 has announced that the company and VIA Technologies have completed the requirements of all government agencies for their joint venture transaction. Under the deal, Via will purchase S3's graphics chip business in exchange for returning a 15% stake it had in S3 and assuming other liabilities. The deal is valued at $323 million and is set to close by January.

S3, originally founded as a PC graphics company, used its acquisition of Diamond Multimedia to target Internet appliances, broadband communications, home networking and graphics and audio solutions. Now, renamed SONICblue, the company will change its focus to become a digital media company, with business units surrounding its Rio MP3 music players, Diamond products (Mako, HomeFree and Supra) and Frontpath Internet appliances.

The company's Rio business has begun shipping the Rio Receiver in addition to its portable devices. The receiver connects to a PC and home network to access audio files. Another SONICblue product, Rio Racks, will play MP3 files within the home without a PC. These devices will be priced around $500, with initial shipments late this year for the Christmas season.

The company will also move into the automotive space with its acquisition of MPEG, a company specializing in digital audio devices for automotive markets.

The first Frontpath appliance to be released is the ProGear, a tablet aimed at commercial buyers priced from $1,200 to $1,500. Sales are scheduled for early 2001, after a round of market trials is completed. After an initial release, the tablet will be sold to consumers at a lower price of $500, subsidized by Internet service providers.

The ProGear, couples hardware and software to deliver a wireless, portable, broadband- based product with a 10.4 inch LCD screen. It has touchscreen technology and handwriting recognition and offers email, a personal organizer, custom applications, MP3s, ebooks, and Internet access.

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Maxtor Replies!     02:45 AM IDT     Adrian Wong

My contact at Maxtor finally sent me some juicy information on AMSET! It appears that Maxtor's Acoustic Management is actually called the Silent Store technology. However, I'm not sure if Silent Store is what they have been calling the AMSET technology all along and not just something they just made up after all the sudden interest in AMSET. :)

Anyway, according to Maxtor, their Silent Store technology gives PC manufacturers the option of selecting whether to run the hard disks at maximum performance or with the lowest noise level possible. This provides them (PC manufacturers) with maximum flexibility when building their systems.

The performance (/fast) mode operates a seek profile that is fully optimized for the maximum performance while the quiet (/quiet) mode brings the seek acoustics to within one dBA of idle acoustics with as minimal the degradation of performance as possible. This allows Maxtor drives that support this Silent Store technology to accommodate noise-sensitive storage environments.

These Silent Store drives leave the factory with performance mode toggled off. Why, I don't know but with the default quiet mode enabled, the Silent Store drive's seek profile is 8% slower than when it is set to the performance mode.

With seek latencies having a major effect on hard disk performance, I must say that 8% is a real hefty number. So, if you can stand the increased noise level, I would recommend changing the Silent Store mode from the default Quiet to Fast!

Comments?

Biostar M7MIX Press Release     02:00 AM IDT     Adrian Wong

Biostar just announced the launch of their M7MIX series of motherboards for the AMD Athlon processor. Here's what the M7MIX motherboards boast :-

• Up to 4 DDR SDRAM DIMM slots
• Integrated hardware audio, RAID and STR functions
• Smart-Mix connectors that let you choose between AMR, CNR and ACR.

For more details, check out the full press release!

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News From The Net

OcShoot posted a review of the Creative Labs 3DBlaster GeForce2 Ultra 64MB graphics card. Man... where did they get all these sample cards???!!! Anyway, here's a quote as usual - "The performance the 3DBlaster GeForce2 Ultra delivers is thanks to it's 250MHz GPU and 64 MB 4ns DDR memory quite simply exceptional. High resolution performance almost 40% higher than the 3DBlaster GeForce2 GTS ! The 3DBlaster GeForce2 Ultra is not cheap with it's price tag of nearly $500, but the fastest technology available costs a lot of money - nothing new in that. By sitting at the fence and wait for a faster videocard you will be sitting and wait forever since there always will be a faster videocard under development!"

Technoyard posted a review of the Transcend TS-ASL3 Socket 370 motherboard. Here, read a clip - "Though a newcomer to the motherboard industry Transcend have in the past produced some great motherboards with impressive performance and stability.True to the word stability, this board has yet to fail in our tests"

Guru of 3D posted a small Socket A AMD Thunderbird overclocking feature. Let's see a snip of it - "When we wrap up this article we can make note of a few issues. To overclock a Socket-A CPU you need take note of several issues that need careful consideration. First of all, a good mainboard is of course very important if you want to tweak your CPU. At this time ABit's KT7 (RAID) is the mother of all mainboards. Secondly the CPU. Earlier batches of Socket-A Thunderbird and Duron CPU's where where unlocked so the multiplier can be changed from within the mainboards BIOS. I was lucky and have such a CPU and it makes overclocking the CPU very easy. If your CPU is locked then there are several ways to unlock them."

Xteme Tek posted their review of the Card Cooler XT. Here's a quote from them - "During the last couple of years, overclocking has become mainstream and something even the average Joe can do. Overclocking generally causes your computer components to create more heat. The two most commonly overclocked components are the video card and the CPU. So, what does the average guy do when he wants to cool his stuff without modifying their computer case? Simple, implement some type of internal cooling."

Apu's Hardware posted a Halloween Special on 'What Heat Can Do To Computer' Components. Here's a clip - "After we burned it for about 20 minutes, we wanted more. During the burning process the Voodoo was very loud. In fact it was MUCH louder than the CD-ROM. This bad boy cracked and crinked and spat and yelled like you wouldn't believe. It was mostly the solder melting and popping. In fact after we were done every single chip came off the PCB. That wasn't all that came off, though."

OcMax posted their VapoChill review - "One of the things I have been trying to find out in this review, is how much performance a cooling system like this can give you. After all, this unit is pretty expensive. Asetek is using the slogan word "Way beyond the gig". Is that true?"

ASUS EXPO 2000 Press Release     04:00 AM IDT     Adrian Wong

Got a really interesting press release from ASUS. It appears that ASUS has launched a new website called the ASUS EXPO 2000 Online Showroom. This site is dedicated to promoting the latest products. There, you can find everything you ever wanted to know about ASUS products and related stuff.

Better still, ASUS is organizing a series of contests called the ASUS Challenge in which more than 100 prizes will be awarded in 6 contests over a period of 12 days. It's open to everyone and I believe everyone here means the whole wide world, instead of just the US of A.

But hang on before you start clicking on the link! It's not opened yet! The ASUS EXPO 2000 will only be launched on the 6th of November so there's still time to sit down and start plotting how to get those ASUS goodies! :D 

Wanna find out more? Check the press release in its entirety here!

Comments?

Psion 56K Travel Modem Review Posted!     03:15 AM IDT     Adrian Wong

Okay! Here it is, the latest review by Marauder, our resident PDA guru! :D

As the title states, it's about the Psion 56K Travel Modem. Here's a clip of the review :-

"The Psion 56K Travel Modem is a modem which you can get NOW and use with ANY Pocket PC or any device that has an infrared port. The only apparent disadvantage might be the batteries but the device seems power-efficient enough and could last quite a while ("a while" being about an hour)."

So, if you are in the market for a portable modem that works with your PDA (or even your laptop), check this review out!

Comments?

News From The Net

Savagezone.net reviewed the DFI AK74-EC motherboard. Here's a blurb - "The DFI AK74-EC is an updated revision of the previous DFI AK74-SC, both of these boards support AMD's Socket A/462 CPU package. Should you consider pairing this board with your new AMD Duron or AMD Thunder Bird processor? Continue reading this review to learn the ins and outs of yet another mainboard from DFI."

AthlonOC posted :-

• a ASUS A7V tweaking guide
• a ABIT KT7 voltage mod

LittleWhiteDog posted a review of EA Sports' NHL 2001. Check this clip out - "Basically this game is pure, hard hitting, fun hockey, if you liked the previous versions of this game you will love this one. It is easier to control the action along with the desired direction of the player. The 11 camera settings give you a wide variety to choose from although the camera for the best playability as well as the stunning visual effects has to be "ACTION"."

Overclockers Australia posted several updates today :-

• a really cool custom case
• a simple mod that allows you to change the startup text in Windows
• two new GFD to their GFD round-up

The Game Den posted an article on what it's like to work in a high-tech company. Here's a quote from them - "Ever wonder what its like to work in a high tech company?  Are you one of those people thinking about moving towards a career in IT?  The Game Den has kicked up an article on Seagate Software, and covers the working environment surrounding the company known for its hardware."

Apu's Hardware just posted an update to their Driver Comparison page. It's for the new NVIDIA 6.47 drivers which showed some significant speed improvement.

GideonTech posted a review of PCmods.com's pre-wired neon light kit for the PC casing. Man... the lengths that people go to... heheh... Well, check out this snip! - "The Neon Light kit is another outstanding product sold by PCMods. It took all of 10 minutes to install the light. They have improved this light over the past products by wiring everything all up for those of us who aren't electrical engineers. It's pretty much a plug and play installation other than..."

Corrections     09:15 AM IDT     Adrian Wong

Several of my fellow editors have written to me to correct my speculation that ABIT might be having problems with SMP. It would seem that SMP implementation is easy - just use VIA's reference design. Rather, ABIT's having problems with something else.

Actually, together with the news bit about the VP6 delay, I also received some information about ABIT's upcoming @Flash technology. It was so scanty that I didn't bother to post anything about it yet. However, it appears to be the long awaited replacement for the DOS-based BIOS flash utility. According to the news bit I received, ABIT couldn't finish it up this week due to the long power cut caused by the typhoon in Taiwan. As such, they estimated that it will take them two more weeks before they are ready to launch @Flash.

So, @Flash could be the issue that ABIT is working on before they ship the VP6. I just didn't connect one news bit with the other. :) Again, it's nothing concrete and is purely hypothetical to say the least, but I think it's a more probable issue than SMP.

For that and the little bit of speculation, I apologize to you all. It wasn't the little yellow bird's fault. I just didn't ask the right questions. :D

Comments?

ABIT VP6 Delayed Again!     07:35 AM IDT     Adrian Wong

More news from the ABIT grapevine!

For those of you who are looking for new dual-processing loving after the ABIT BP6, you will have to wait a little longer. A little yellow bird told me that the ABIT VP6 is still not ready. The current shipping date is now a tentative few weeks away.

You may remember that I reported earlier that the VP6 has been delayed till the end of October due to "teething problems". There are two ways you can look at this :-

1. While it's frustrating not being able to get hold of the VP6 yet, it's good to know that ABIT is doing everything they can to ensure that the VP6 will have a smooth, problem-free launch, even at the expense of possibly losing potential VP6 users due to the long wait.
2. They are really having a lot of problems getting SMP to work with the VIA Apollo Pro133A chipset. If so, who knows when they will be able to resolve those issues and ship the VP6... :(

I'll keep you all updated on the latest developments of the VP6. Check back. There will be another news post about ABIT later today. In the meantime, you can try staving off your VP6 hunger by staring at this picture and chanting, "I CAN WAIT... I CAN WAIT..." :D

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USB Problem?     06:25 AM IDT     Adrian Wong

If you having problems using USB devices with your AMD-powered and VIA-supported system, Microsoft has just released a patch to resolve this issue!

The computers affected are those running Windows 98 SE and powered by AMD processors running at 350MHz or faster with a motherboard that has a VIA USB controller integrated. The reason for the failure of USB devices with such a configuration is a timing-specific problem in the Universal Host Controller driver (Uhcd.sys) which may prevent USB devices from enumerating under certain timing conditions.

The patch is merely an updated version (4.10.2223) of the Uhcd.sys file that fixes the timing issue. For more details and links to the patches, click here!

PS. If you are having other problems with USB, you might want to check the Microsoft article here as well. Note that this article only covers USB troubleshooting for Win98, Win98SE and WinME.

Comments?

Terabyte CD Drive     05:45 AM IDT     Adrian Wong

Greg Milton sent me a very interesting news bit. It's about a new compact disk drive from a company called Constellation 3D that will store up to a terabyte!!! Here, check out what he has to say :-

"A great idea from the people at Constellation 3D - they have an excellent new compact disc drive and media that will hold up to a T-byte of info. How long it will take to get it to the market is anyone's guess, but let's hope it's before DVD writers are cost effective to own.

It's a good read and makes a lot of sense for mass storage in computers."

If you see an interesting product or topic, please feel free to e-mail your news to us! We will gladly post it up with full credit to you. :)

Comments?

Post-Exams Break!     05:25 AM IDT     Adrian Wong

Yup! That's why I'm still up at almost 5:30 in the morning! Just finished off my Microbiology block exam yesterday and slept the rest of the day off. :)

I'm back at work on the battery extender article. You will be surprised by how comprehensive it will be by the time I'm finished with it. Heheh... But let's leave it at that and go on to more important things...

I e-mailed Maxtor about the Write Verify option in selected Maxtor drives. Of course, most users won't want to enable it but it's certainly interesting to know just how slow the drives will be with the Write Verify enabled. And a certain group of users would definitely be interested in enabling it.

Normally, it would be better for users to benchmark the effect themselves. However, benchmarks that test the write performance of hard disks are normally destructive in the process. That means data on the hard disk gets written over if you want to benchmark its write performance. Totally unacceptable, especially if you only have one hard disk.

So, I asked Maxtor specifically for the amount of performance degradation when enabling Write Verify. It may not be as accurate as we would like but it's definitely easier on our data! :)

As of this moment, Maxtor has not replied. I wonder what's keeping them... I hope it's because they are now testing the feature for us and not because their marketing people are trying to think of a snazzy name for their Write Verify mode modification technology!

Incidentally, for those of you who are not aware of the Acoustic Management issue (now called the Silent Store issue) and are wondering what on Earth am I yapping about, you can visit the news topic about this issue and read all about it. I posted all the important news posts there.

Comments?

Finding An iPAQ In KL?     04:50 AM IDT     Marauder

Anyway the shop to look for is Media Gallery, or was it Media Plex. It's the shop beside Salem Power House in KLCC on the.... 3rd floor, same floor as Sony Wings.

They say they have 10 in stock when I asked, so hurry there and snap them up. :)

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News From The Net

Review-Zone posted an article comparing Windows ME with BeOS 5PE.

The Heatsink Guide posted an article on how to modify a Super Orb / Chrome Orb to fit the ABIT KT7 motherboard. 

PCStats posted a review of the Removable Aluminum Hard Drive Rack. 

I Am Not A Geek posted a review of the Blue Orb as well as an article on the 'Intel DDR / Rambus' issue.

HardwareZone posted a review of the Microstar K7T Master Socket A motherboard.

Case Modders Australia posted the following :-

• an article called 'Ye Ole' Lannin Guide to Gamin Heaven' - "There used to be a local games shop, and once a month, the owner had a lan in the back of his shop, it was pretty cool, a very basic lan, 20 guys in the back of a shop, laughing, shooting and having bucketloads of fun.."
• an updated Arcticooler review.

The Game Den is sponsoring a 600MHz Duron processor (overclockable to 1GHz) as well as a shiny new copy of Red Alert 2 in their contest!

Overclockers Australia posted a review about the new water-block from DangerDen. Here's a quote - "Not a bad unit, quite a clever mounting system which is simple but works surprisingly well.  I compared the unit to my existing water-block and an FKP-32 aircooler."

They have also posted a guide on modifying the HP PolarLogic AKA Panaflo Orb to fit the ASUS A7V Socket A motherboard.

Confirmation... Maybe     06:55 AM IDT     Adrian Wong

My ABIT source couldn't confirm the 8th November production date but he stated that even if the boards are in production, they won't be shipped and distributed until the end of the month. He also said that there will be some samples at Comdex so if you are in Las Vegas, remember to check out the first ABIT VP6 boards!

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Indefinitely...     06:30 AM IDT     Adrian Wong

Whoops! Capital mistake there... I think some of you will probably have misunderstood what I wrote below about the VP6. The VP6 was not postponed indefinitely (as in forever)!

What I meant was - its production was postponed until the power cuts that occurred as the result of the typhoon have resolved. That can happen at any time. Hexus says that they will start production on the 8th. That's yesterday. Will try to confirm that.

Hope you guys didn't jam ABIT's e-mail address with indignant screams of horror! :)

Comments?

On The Horizon     05:10 AM IDT     Adrian Wong

Like I mentioned earlier, I'm currently working on the battery extender guide which would give you everything you need to assemble your own. It would naturally be based on the battery extender for the Pocket PC but it will also be usable for anything else that runs on batteries, i.e. Walkmans, Discmans, etc...

As usual, while halfway through an article, I got diverted to another article - the Maxtor Silent Store guide. Not only that, I'm also working on a Pocket PC performance comparison. I'm just waiting for benchmark results from fellow ARP members before finishing the article up.

As you can see, instead of burning the candle at both ends, I'm actually burning three candles at once! Not a very good analogy but I can't think of a better one right now. :)

In any case, the Silent Store guide is almost ready. I just need some clarification of the benchmark results I received from several ARP visitors before I can post it.

Finally, I'm thinking of adding new BIOS features to the BIOS Optimization Guide. To that end, I would like to ask you to send me whatever BIOS features you would like the BIOS Optimization Guide to cover. So, hunker over your BIOS manual or squint at the BIOS setup screen and let me know what BIOS features you would like to see in the next revision of the BIOS Optimization Guide!

BIOS Optimization Guide Rev. 5.32     04:40 AM IDT     Adrian Wong

Very minor update, mind you. :)

Ryu Connor sent me updated links to Microsoft articles regarding the following BIOS features :-

• PnP OS Installed
• IDE HDD Block Mode
• 32-bit Disk Access

So, if you are interested in knowing what Microsoft has to say about those BIOS settings, then check out the links to the articles!

Comments?

The ABIT Grapevine     04:10 AM IDT     Adrian Wong

Just got confirmation that the original delay to the VP6 was due entirely to the BIOS. And the current delay is due to the typhoon that's causing havoc over in Taiwan. The VP6 was supposed to be sent to the DIP process last Wednesday but due to the power cuts and all that's happening over in Taiwan, that has gotten delayed indefinitely. So, I guess we will be seeing the VP6 out as soon as the typhoon blows over. :)

There's also some news about @Flash, ABIT's upcoming BIOS flasher. At the moment, ABIT will only be launching @Flash for selected motherboards. Among the motherboards mentioned were the KT7/RAID, the range of i815 motherboards and their last 430BX motherboard - the ABIT BX133.

Finally, ABIT will most likely be coming up with a motherboard based on the i815EP chipset. The motherboard's name and time of shipping is still, as yet, unknown. Although they did not mention it, the cheaper cost of the chipset plus the removal of the video-out connector will probably mean that this motherboard will be cheaper than the other ABIT i815 motherboards.

Comments?

News From The Net

G3D posted some pictures of the Claw - a replacement for the keyboard and mouse combination.

Hexus.net posted a review of the Super Orb. Here's a clip from that review - "Well I'm using that very motherboard and upon first glance you'll notice that a row of capacitors look very close the 462pin socket on the board? yep too close for my liking ;(  A test placement of the Super ORB reveals that some modifications will have to be done to either the ORB itself or the motherboard?"

FrostyTech posted a review of the ThermalTake Blue Orb chipset cooler. Here's a clip - "A relatively new product in the world of PC cooling has arrived, Thermaltake's Blue Orb is a new BGA chipset (read: northbridge or video chipset) cooler. Why would anyone want to overclock their video card's chip?"

Guru of 3D posted a review of the Gladiac Ultra from ELSA - "What can we say more than this is the best card to own at this given moment. Overclocking will allow you to boost 15-20% more out of the card and with our testing methods you can rest assure that the card will be stable at ~ 290MHz for it's core and ~490MHz for it's memory in any given system."

3Dn is giving lots of prizes in their November Giveaway. Go check it out!

Apu's Hardware posted an updated FAQ for the ABIT KT7 motherboard.

OCWorkbench posted a review of Soltek's SL75KV2-X motherboard. Man... where did they come up with such a name??? Can't they try something more pronounceable? Anyway, check this clip out - "This board actually surpasses the EPoX 8KTA+ in terms of the functionality but lacks behind ASUS A7V or ABIT KT7RAID. It has ATA100 performance by incorporating the latest VIA South Bridge 686B. Most of the overclocking functions are manipulated from the BIOS except for VI/O and multiplier. It would probably be better if it is incorporated within the BIOS."

LittleWhiteDog.com posted a review of VMware for Windows NT/2000. Here's a blurb from the - "Either way, I'm sure you will be very pleased with their latest article. Not only will you finish the article with a very good understanding of whether or not VMware is right for you, you will also have more than enough information to get started. The article takes a very extensive look at VMware itself, along with a mini-guide covering installation and configuration. So if you've ever thought about loading Linux, or anything else for that matter, but were too afraid to setup a dual boot configuration, this is the article for you!"

Overclocked Cafe posted a review of the new HP Jornada 720 Handheld PC - "As for overclocking, I am seriously exploring programmatic means of adjusting the clock speed upwards.  Just because.  With my Palm, I was able to use the Afterburner hack to bump the speed from 16 up to 25 mhz.  I am currently starting to explore the architecture involved in the Jornada, as well as Windows CE in general, to see if this can be accomplished.  Again, just because.  If any of you fellow geeks have code to that effect, or ideas, then send 'em on in!"

ABIT Motherboards @ Comdex      09:45 PM IDT     Adrian Wong

OK! This is the news we have been waiting for! I have just received the complete specifications of ABIT's seven new motherboards which will be displayed at Comdex. You should know the specifications of ABIT's soon-to-be-shipped dual processor VP6 motherboard. But do you know about the specifications of the SA6PR, the SA6R-1394 and the SV6? Or their OEM-only DDR-SDRAM motherboards - the VR-20 and the KG-20?

According to ABIT, these boards haven't been announced yet so this should be the first news posts about these boards. Here's a brief summary of each motherboard :-

ABIT VP6

• Dual FC-PGA processor motherboard based on the VIA Apollo Pro 133A chipset
• 4 SDRAM DIMM slots (up to 2GB)
• 4 Bus Master ATA/100 IDE controllers (2 supporting RAID)
• 1 AGP / 5 PCI slots

ABIT SA6PR

• FC-PGA processor motherboard based on the Intel i815EP chipset
• no integrated graphics core
• 4 SDRAM DIMM slots (up to 512MB)
• 4 Bus Master ATA/100 IDE controllers (2 supporting RAID)
• 1 AGP / 6 PCI / 1 CNR slots

ABIT SA6R-1394

• FC-PGA processor motherboard based on the Intel i815E chipset
• 4 SDRAM DIMM slots (up to 512MB)
• 4 Bus Master ATA/100 IDE controllers (2 supporting RAID)
• 2 P1394s fully compliant cable ports (100/200/400 Mbits/s)
• 1 AGP / 6 PCI / 1 CNR slots

ABIT SV6

• Similar specs to the SA6R-1394 except for the following :-
• only 3 SDRAM DIMM slots (up to 512MB)
• 6 channel audio connector card and codec included
• only 4 PCI slots instead of 6 PCI slots

ABIT VH6-II

• Socket 370 processor motherboard based on the VIA Apollo Pro 133A chipset
• 3 SDRAM DIMM slots (up to 1.5GB)
• 2 Bus Master ATA/100 IDE controllers
• 1 AGP / 5 PCI / 1 ISA / 1 AMR slots

ABIT VR-20

• FC-PGA processor motherboard based on the VIA Apollo Pro 266 chipset
• 3 DDR-SDRAM DIMM slots (up to 3GB)
• 2 Bus Master ATA/100 IDE controllers
• 1 AGP / 3 PCI / 1 CNR slots

ABIT KG-20

• Socket A processor motherboard based on the AMD 761 chipset
• 2 DDR-SDRAM DIMM slots (up to 2GB)
• 2 Bus Master ATA/100 IDE controllers
• 1 AGP / 3 PCI / 1 CNR slots

As you can see, the SA6PR is merely a SA6R with the cheaper i815EP chipset. Since the i815EP lacks the graphics core and there's no longer a need to attach a VGA connector, ABIT says that there will be quite a substantial price difference between the SA6PR and the SA6R but couldn't confirm just how much the difference would be.

The SA6R-1394 is a SA6R motherboard with an integrated IEEE-3194 controller. The next further evolution of the SA6R is the SV6. Although the completely unrelated name may suggest a radically different motherboard, the SV6 is actually an ABIT SA6R with a 6 channel audio connector card and codec; and only 3 SDRAM and 4 PCI slots.

On the lower end, you have the ABIT VH6-II. Based on the VIA Apollo Pro 133A chipset, it offers an affordable solution for Socket 370 processors like the Intel Celeron and the VIA Cyrix III.

Now for the OEM-only motherboards. Since DDR-SDRAM will be hard, if not impossible, to come across in the market when DDR-SDRAM motherboards are released, it's natural that ABIT would start off by manufacturing only DDR-SDRAM motherboards for OEMs. Only the OEMs will be able to get their hands on the limited supply of DDR-SDRAM DIMMs. For these OEMs, ABIT offers a motherboard each for the Intel camp as well as the AMD camp.

The DDR-SDRAM motherboard for Intel processors is the ABIT VR-20. It is powered by the VIA Apollo Pro 266 chipset. Offering up to 3 DDR-SDRAM DIMM slots, it is almost similar in specifications to the DDR-SDRAM motherboard for AMD Socket A processors - the ABIT KG-20. The only notable differences between the two motherboards are, of course, the different chipset and processor socket; and number of DDR-SDRAM DIMM slots (there are only two in the KG-20).

Well, that's the end of my commentary on the motherboards that you will see displayed at Comdex by ABIT. For more details, click on the highlighted motherboard names. They will bring you to the complete specifications of each motherboard as issued by ABIT.

Comments?

VideoLogic Digital Radio Tuner Press Release     08:05 AM IDT     Adrian Wong

Just received a press release from VideoLogic about their new DRX-601E digital radio tuner. Check these juicy details out :-

• costs only GBP 299!
• crystal-clear reception and high-detail digital-quality sound
• integral LCD screen displaying station identification, track listings, traffic and news data or other text
• IR remote control
• 24-bit / 96 kHz delta sigma DACs
• S/PDIF digital output (48Khz)
• loop through circuit for external FM/AM tuner
• RF connector for DAB antenna connection

For the more details, check out the full press release!

Comments?

Back!     07:15 AM IDT     Adrian Wong

Sorry for the disappearance yesterday. Meant to come online but couldn't make it at the last minute. Anyway, I'm back and let's get back to work! :D

I'm currently reading all the accumulated e-mails. I noticed several entitled, "My Christmas List Of BIOS Features". Heheh... will be working on them ASAP. In the meantime, keep them coming in! Send me all the BIOS features that you have always wondered about. But please don't send me BIOS features that are already covered in the BIOS Optimization Guide! :D 

There will be some exciting news about ABIT's new upcoming motherboard. It has yet to be announced and I hope I will be the first to do so. Anyway, check back in a while. There will be lots of news posts today!

News From The Net

Jsi Hardware posted a review of the ThermalTake Blue Orb. Check out this clip - "Thermaltake shot into the heatsink scene a while back when they released the Golden orb, one of the coolest looking and best price/performance coolers available for your socket 370 cpus. After that they released more orbs such as the chrome and super orbs for socket A cpus. At the time when the Super orb was released they had just released a product onto the market that looked very promising, the Blue Orb."

G3D posted a review of the Addtronics 7869A full tower server case.

Apu's Hardware is giving away prizes to the top four players of Counter-Strike on their server. For more info, check this link out. They also posted a review of CPUFX's silver paste cleaning kit. Here's a snip - "Most of us use thermal compound these days. With the recent Thunderbird and Coppermine FCPGA chips thermal compound is a necessity not an option. So what do you do when you want to remove that compound from your CPU? This is where CPUFX comes in."

LittleWhiteDog.com posted a review of Vantec's In & Out PC Air Circulator. Check this clip out - "The In & Out PC Air Circulator basically consists of two 40mm fans, mounted on separate twin air tubes that provide airflow in and out of your case simultaneously through the backplate. One fan blows inward to bring in the "outside" air, while the other blows outward, pushing out the air from "inside" the case. Fans are mounted on a pivoting mechanism that allows you to point them to the areas of your case that needs cooling the most."

Overclocking.dk has just launched their English section. Lots of goodies like the 1st official pictures of the new VapoChill cooler and a review of the Soltek SL-75KV2 motherboard. 

TweakTown posted a review of the Epox EP-8KTA2 Socket A motherboard. Here's a clip - "Epox went out of the loop when the overclocking stage of things came since Epox didn't produce many overclocker friendly motherboards. Epox have put out some very good motherboards in the past and now with the future looking to the overclockers market Epox have again listened to the market and have made a name for themselves again."

GideonTech posted a guide on how to remove the retail SECC2 heatsink. Here's a blurb - "Removing the retail SECC2 heatsink can easily be done without breaking
anything. You can even reuse the stock HSF\cartridge if needed. All that is
required is a pair of curved needle nose pliers. Straight nose can be used
but..."

Hexus posted a networking article with troubleshooting and configuration guides.

Maxtor Silent Store Guide Posted!     03:10 AM IDT     Adrian Wong

Finally finished it! Now, you can read up on the whole Silent Store issue and get back the 8% (actually the average drop is much higher) of seek performance that you never knew you lost! :)

Here, check out this clip of the article :-

"7,200 rpm IDE hard disks have an average seek time of, at most, 9ms. If Silent Store reduces seek performance by 8%, you can expect an 8% increase in seek time. This translates to a seek time of 9.72ms! That's close to what 5,400 rpm drives are capable of. In short, the speed demon you thought you had in your system might actually be performing like a 5,400 rpm drive with 7,200 rpm transfer rates."

Comments?

News From The Net

Technoyard posted a review of the Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 45. Check out this clip - "The DiamondMax Plus 45, Maxtor's newest addition to the world's popular 7200 RPM hard drive family is finaly here. Boasting 15 GB per platter and traditional award-winning DiamondMax Plus features including the high-performance Ultra ATA/100 interface this sure is a great competitor to IBM's Deskstar 75GXP."

Overclockers Australia posted the following articles :-

• a tip on how to get DOS support in WinME
• a review of the 2CoolPC Turbo cooler

HardwareZone posted the following articles :-

• review of PowerQuest's Drive Image Pro 4.0
• Live from Las Vegas (Day 0) article

PCStats posted a review of the 700MHz Duron o/c to 1GHz. Here's a clip - "The sheer power that a 1Ghz CPU provides is staggering. Resizing images in Photoshop was once a mundane and arduous task, but not anymore, it just zips right by!"

ASUS CUSL2-C Press Release     04:10 AM IDT     Adrian Wong

Here's some info on the newly released ASUS CUSL2-C motherboard!

• based on the Intel i815EP chipset
• 1 AGP / 6 PCI / 1 CNR slots
• 4 USB ports
• lower price!

For the more details, check out the full press release!

Comments?

ABIT Motherboards @ Comdex     03:55 AM IDT     Adrian Wong

Just updated and posted my report on ABIT's new and unannounced motherboards that will be shown at Comdex Fall. So, if you can't make it to Comdex and want to see what ABIT will be releasing in the coming months, check it out!

Comments?

News From The Net

After reading our news-breaking Silent Store guide, Ben of Rizenet tried the tip out and received a 32% increase in disk access time! He has also written a short article about his experience. Check it out if you want to see how others are faring with Silent Store!

The Cold Shop took a look at the Arctic Silver thermal compound.

Overclockers Australia has some preview info of the Titan Majesty twin-fan cooler - "Imagine a Super Orb lying on it's side - it looks much like that, but fans blowing inward together.  Designed for SocketA chips from 1.1GHz to 1.5GHz, but makes less than 25dBA of noise. Certainly looks like the next big thing!" 

OCWorkbench posted a review of the MSI K7TPro2/2A motherboard.

G3D posted an exclusive article on the NVIDIA GeForce 2 GTS keychain.

Hexus posted a review of the IBM Desktar 75GXP hard disk.

More On Maxtor Silent Store!     04:10 AM IDT     Adrian Wong

I have just posted revision 1.1 of the Maxtor Silent Store technology. There's a new updates page with some really interesting new information on Silent Store. Do other hard disks support Silent Store? Will AMSET work with other hard disks? Check out the updated Maxtor Silent Store guide to find out!

Comments?

Gigabyte GA-60X and -60XE Press Release     03:30 AM IDT     Adrian Wong

The latest press release from Gigabyte has just been posted. It's about their i815EP-based motherboards. Here are some juicy specs :-

• Intel 815EP chipset
• Smart Card Reader & Information Appliance Ports
• EasyTune III & @BIOS
• Creative Labs CT5880 sound chip
• Dual BIOS

For more info on Gigabyte's latest motherboards, check out the whole press release!

Comments?

News From The Net

Apu's Hardware just updated their KT7 and KA7 FAQ. They have also posted an article on how to create your own video RAM heatsinks.

Active-Hardware posted a review of the Soyo SY-7VCA motherboard. Check this clip - "The Soyo SY-7VCA is the latest of ATX-style motherboard from Soyo, and the latest to feature their "Soyo Combo Feature" function within its BIOS. As a result, the SY-7VCA has quite a package of features packed into a single menu, including the ability to adjust the CPU latency - a feature that has, until now, been common only to Abit boards."

Technoyard posted a review of Diamond Multimedia's Rio 600 MP3 player. Here's their blurb - "Diamond Multimedia, one of the forerunners of the portable Audio world revolutionised the MP3 industry with the introduction of the Rio 300 PMP player a few years back. Here's their latest introduction; the Rio 600 which is no doubt one of the most affordable and best performing players so far in the market."

Overclockers Australia posted a big Socket cooler roundup.

Both TweakTown and OCWorkbench posted "exclusive" pictures of Iwill's KA266-R DDR-SDRAM motherboard.

G3D posted a review of PelTEC's developmental combination of an 80mm fan and the Alpha PEP66U cooler. Here's a clip - "As you can tell from the picture, the plate basically holds onto the heatsink and makes enough space for the 80mm fan. You use 4-40 1.25" with #4 lock washer and nuts to hold the fan in place and then your set!"   

HardwareZone posted Day 2 of their Comdex 2000 coverage here.

ABIT Motherboards @ Comdex     11:55 AM IDT     Adrian Wong

Made a mistake in the specs of the ABIT SA6PR. Well, actually ABIT made a mistake in their specs sheet. They said that the ABIT SA6PR supports only 512MB of RAM. However, the i815EP chipset supports up to 1.5GB of SDRAM so the SA6PR should support 1.5GB of RAM as well. Actually, I updated the relevant pages with this info but forgot to post it. Well, it's posted now! :D

Comments?

News From The Net

GideonTech posted a review of Corsair's Value Select PC133 SDRAM. Here's a snip - "The Corsair Value Select is a good product, it was found to be stable at all the o/c settings that it could handle Win98 with. The form factor of the Ram itself would also appeal to those who are using an Alpha cooler on the CPU, as it might allow..."

Rizenet posted a review of ThermalTake's Super Orb.

G3D posted an article on how to make a case mod. Here's a clip - "The first thing I recommend before you begin on your case mod is to get another case and set up your computer on it for backup sake or if you're thinking about making this a long-term project."

The Cold Shop posted a review a 2CoolPC unit. Here's a quote - "Heat inside your computer is the root of all evil and should never be aloud to roam free (unless you own an un-haxored Compaq in which case you have no choice). That's where products like the 2COOLPC come in."

Jsi Hardware posted a review of the GlobalWin FOP38 cooler. Check this clip out - "Now I may not know much about fans but I do know that the black label can only mean one thing?  YEP! this was a DELTA Fan....."

Apu's Hardware posted a review of the Mouse Bungee. Here's what it's about - "The Mouse Bungee is a little device which holds the mouse cord up about three inches with a very loose spring. This means smoother and more precise mouse movements - all without snags."

Whoops!     03:10 AM IDT     Adrian Wong

Hello everyone!

Been very busy these few days. I just gave the Chaintech 60JV2 motherboard another shot. But it still won't boot up so I guess that's the end of the 60JV2 review. :(

I have also been busy with the Wheel Of Time. Yeah... I know. The game's at least 8 months old but I only recently installed and started playing it. Just like Robert Jordan's incredible fantasy series, it's really, really addictive. Great story, great gameplay.

Oh yeah... I made a truly big mistake...

Contrary to popular rumours, the i815EP does NOT support 1.5GB of SDRAM. There was nothing wrong with ABIT's press release. But after receiving a "correction" from fellow editors and some concerned readers, I changed the memory limitation of the ABIT SA6PR i815EP motherboard from 512MB to 1.5GB. I didn't consult ABIT first because at that time, my contact wasn't back from Comdex yet.

But as soon as he got back, I asked him about it. He reiterated that the specifications are correct and redirected me to this chipset comparison. Just to be extra sure, I downloaded the i815EP datasheet and true enough, the i815EP chipset supports only 512MB! Take note, everyone!

Comments?

News From The Net

Apu's Hardware has a new section called Dukes of H4x0r - "I started my first h4x0r with a hex editor (aka h3x 3d1t0r). I fired her up in my Windows '95B (back then it was called "Windows '96" by us l33t h4x0rs) and began the hack. I opened aol.exe in the h3x 3d1t0r and proceeded to "get my hack on". I changed pretty much all the "B"'s to "C"'s! That will teach her!"

FrostyTech posted an article about a CPU fan of Death! - "Ironically if it wasn't for the smell of the burning plastic, my little ol' FCPGA PIII 700Mhz processor might have become a hood ornament. Regardless, the culprit was removed in time. Looking closely at the fan - an unknown Taiwanese company makes the 12V 0.13A, 14 CFM 50mm fans (pictured below) that we highly suggest you avoid at all costs - we saw some damage immediately"

TweakTown posted the following articles :-

• The Complete EverGlide Review - "In the complete Everglide review, TweakTown check out the all the Everglide pads, Mouse Bungee Mouse Cord Guide, fUnc sUrface1030, Everglide Wrist Rest Plus and the Everglide LANbag!"
• a review of the MSI K7T Pro2A motherboard - "This motherboard has all the nice features such as ATA100, 5 PCI slots, 4 USB ports, AGP4x plus more all fit on to a board measuring 30.4cm x 20.3cm. They put the board up against a MSI K7T Pro, ABIT KT7, FIC AZ11, Epox 8KTA2 and a Gigabyte GA-7ZM..."

Bandwidth Indian Style     10:45 PM IDT     Adrian Wong

And that style is slow and intermittent! :(

It took me over an hour and over a dozen disconnections just to upload the Windows 2000 Hints & Tips guide! I'm not sure why but even though India already has nuclear weapons and a great reputation for software development, it's always a wonder to me why they can't set up a proper Internet connection. Maybe they should spend a little less on the nukes and a little more on infrastructure.

Anyway, if you see incomplete or corrupted pages, just check back in a few hours. Although the article has been posted, a few pages were incompletely uploaded due to the many disconnections. I will keep trying to upload but this could stretch till tomorrow...

Comments?

Windows 2000 Hints & Tips     09:15 PM IDT     Adrian Wong

Just finished off some hints and tips for Windows 2000. If you want to know how to regain your mouse's pixel-level accuracy, change drive letters, improve CD audio quality and other things about Windows 2000, check this guide out!

Comments?

News From The Net

G3D posted a review of the Claw. Here's a clip - "The Claw is a gamepad designed designed to replace your keyboard in first person shooter games. Basically what this means is that you'll be using the Claw to perform manuevers such as jumping and strafing while your mouse is still used for aiming."

HardwareOC reviewed the 733MHz Intel Celeron processor.

PCStats reviewed the Napa DAV309 CD/MP3 player - "This little puppy plays CD's, MP3 files burned onto CDR and CDRW, and also plays VCD's - built-in output to a VCR or TV."

Rev. 1.1 Of The Win2K Hints & Tips Guide Posted!     03:10 AM IDT     Adrian Wong

Worked on two new tips for the Win2K Hints & Tips Guide and also posted some additional notes about improving CD audio quality. Check out the new addition and the updates here!

Comments?

Phew!     02:50 AM IDT     Adrian Wong

Yeah! My Net connection's back online at last. My main ISP was down for the last 2 days and my backup ISP kept disconnecting me every 3-10 minutes. If you think that's during the peak period, think again. That was what I experienced when I tried to log in at 2:30 in the morning...

Anyway, let's get back to the updates before the ISPs here screw up again. :)

Comments?

News From The Net

Active-Hardware posted a review of Gigabyte's GA-GF2000 graphics card.

Technoyard posted a review of the Palm m100 PDA.

AthlonOC is hosting a competition to see who can submit the best hardware destruction pictures. For details, click here! 

VIAHardware posted a review of the Transcend APM3 motherboard. Check this clip out - "One problem that has always plagued the VIA chipsets is memory performance. We showed the importance of Cas 2 and 4-way memory interleaving in our memory tweak guide. Thankfully Transcend was smart enough to include the 4-way memory interleaving option in their bios."

AwareMag posted a review of Taisol's coolers. Here's a snip - "It seems we may have a challenger to our previous Socket A air-cooling champion, the FOP38! These results are great news for everyone out there that has a FOP38 but can't get to sleep at night because of the loud whine it emits."

PCStats posted an article about the prototypes shown at Comdex 2000.