[H]ardNews 4th Edition

Opteron & Power:

Remember last June when we first showed you the Hammer cooling solutions that were spec with AMD at the time? One thing we could not get at the time, and it probably would not have been correct now anyways, was power used. Johan over at AcesHardware estimates Opteron's Power Consumption.

Based on the very rough indications we've gathered, I am inclined to say that the power dissipation of the 1.8 GHz Opteron is between...

You will be glad to know they will be less than Pentium 4s though. Interestingly enough, in a recent trip to AMD in Sunnyvale, we had a chance to speak to a lead engineer about CPUs and heat. I had my fingertips resting on a running Opteron's heatsink that was not even warm to the touch. I asked if this was going to be commonplace among Hammer CPUs. He responded that CPU temperatures could have a 20+ degree delta for CPUs with the same ratings.

New Tuner:

I am an PowerStrip man myself, but I know many folks love this RivaTuner. A new version has been released this morning.

Masters of DOOM:

Something for you gaming buffs. A book about the beginning of the beginning. Thanks Billy.

To keep DOOM's development going, however, Carmack, Romero, and the rest knew they had to deal with one pressing problem: replacing Tom Hall. As a friend, of course, Tom was irreplaceable, particularly for Romero. There was just no one who possessed that hysterically comic streak. Worse, the split from id was so painful that Romero and Tom had hardly spoken since the firing.

[H]ardNews - In The News

Up for March:

SAN JOSE -- There is good and bad news in the IC industry. Worldwide semiconductor sales climbed to $12.1 billion in March 2003, a 2.6 percent increase from $11.8 billion in the previous month, according to new data from the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) here today (April 28).

Common Crashes:

Extinct Soon:

The report, The Ever-Shifting Internet Population, found 19 per cent of people who stopped using the internet remain offline because they no longer own or have use of a computer. Another 13 per cent said they didn't like the internet, or find it interesting or useful. And 12 per cent said they didn't have the time to go online.

SiS Graphics & UMC:

Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS) has decided to spin off its graphics chip division (multimedia product division) as a new subsidiary in May or June under the name of Tu Chiang Technology (transliterated from Chinese), according to sources.

Celeron $s Down:

Intel on April 27 lowered its high-end Celeron processor prices, with cuts reaching around 20%. The top-end 2.4GHz Celeron processor is now the only one in the line priced over US$100.

I had no idea there was such a thing as a "high-end Celeron". (Rim shot please.)

[H]ardNews 1st Edition - Games

Half Life 2:

ShackNews reports today is the day that information embargo dates expire for Half Life 2. Still sTeve reports that you will likely not find much information online. Guess, they have to give that stuff to the mags first now days or no one will read them... Of course if you happened to get hold of the full scanned article from PCGamer, it was nice read with lots of good pics. Looks like those headcrabs got a bit beefier.

We should be getting a nice chunk of information on Half-Life 2 this week, the magazine's actual NDA's lift tomorrow. However most websites wont be hosting anything for a little while longer.. not quite sure how that will work out but I've been speaking with a couple of magazines in hopes of scoring some stuff for you guys.

Celebs in Games:

Gamespy.com talks about the use of big names in big games. Only seems to make sense to me. I seem to remember a company named "id" doing some NIN stuff some time ago.

However, the use of celebrities isn't just happening in the realm of story building and character portrayal. Witness, for example, an advertisement in the May 2003 issue of Game Developer magazine. It features a wild-eyed Ozzy Osbourne peeking up out of the background with the tagline: "Next time they tell you that hitmakers aren't interested in games, maybe they should talk to him."

Vice City DivX:

I know many of us are hoping to see GTA3 Vice City on our PCs soon. This time we are hoping that it even works good! Still, you can head over to this Euro-site that has seven Quicktime movies posted of the PC game in action.

They also have some hi-rez screencaps posted as well.

[H]ardNews 2nd Edition

Opteron Gaming @ AT:

I totally missed this over at AnandTech on the 24th. Anand took the time to throw a PCI card into one of their Opteron rigs and share their results. A great read for sure and maybe gives a good look into nForce3 performance and Athlon64 later this year.

If AMD can launch the Athlon 64, even at 2GHz, it could be competitive with a Pentium 4 3.0C across the board; we'll have to wait and see what will be necessary for AMD to remain competitive once Prescott hits later this year.

Cooling:

CoolerMaster Blower HSF Review in German - Glacial-X Radiator Review @ ModTheBox - Use Paste on your GF4 @ TechIMO

Modding:

Raidtronics Case and 400watt PSU @ ViperLair - Turbo XSonic Aluminum Case @ TweakNews - Crystalfontz LCD @ WildReviews - Clear PC Case @ PCTechZone - Pretty Fans @ KepTech

Etc.:

Lighted Keyboard @ 3GM - Removable Drive Bay @ WinHQ - Trek Thumb Drive @ R&B

[H]ardNews 3rd Edition

Truth Revealed:

Everyone had wondered how Pecos could pull off those 18 hour BF1942 CTF marathons without going AFK once.

Moths + Flame

The first lesson of Internet is...Don't believe everything you read. The second lesson of Internet is...Don't believe everything you read. But it is fun to see who will actually buy it.

My buddy who works for ___ was in town, and paid me a visit, and I got to play a little bit with a new Radeon card!!!

1700 OCing:

WinHQ is simply showing off what is a beautiful thing. Get you some of these lucky 1700+s before they are all gone.

Here we are going to take a look at one of the hottest new processors out, the DLT3C model JIUHB stepping Athlon XP 1700+. I specify DLT3C because it is different from the more common DUT3C model. What the change in letter from U to L means is that the default vcore is now 1.5v (the L) instead of the more common 1.6v (the U). Here is a useful resource for identifying what other letters mean.

File Sharing Tech:

I am sure the RIAA loved this one... Thanks Joe McGuire.

Lap It Up:

This is an especially good idea if you are working with a HSF unit that sucks, and may not be a bad idea for some that don't. If you really want to get into mating surfaces (insert your own bad joke here) go for the gold and lap that CPU too.

Lapping a heatsink is basically sanding it until it is perfectly flat. This requires several grades of sandpaper, from about 600 grit to 2000 grit and 10,000 grit polish. The higher the grit, the finer the sandpaper, and the smoother the sanding job.

Head'um Up:

More Longhorn screenshots and changes are revealed over at FlexBeta.

To my surprise, the Longhorn that Winbeta.org generously leaked to the internet was actually an upgrade rather than the full version. Luckily, I still had my Longhorn 4008 installed on my D drive.

[H]ardNews - Blair Ed.

Really Really MMOG:

Really Really Good Ethernet:

Many RDMA Consortium members believe the technology when applied to TCP/IP will make Ethernet the most compelling of multiple emerging interconnects to link servers, switches and storage devices in future data centers.

DIE SPAMMER DIE:

One tactic is to don the spam invisibility cloak. Spammers used to depend on harvested e-mail addresses, which meant spam was sent exclusively to people whose names were gleaned from a mailing list or a Web site or via Usenet. Not so anymore. Spammers are utilizing dictionary attacks to send spam to anyone at a given domain name .

It has been a light spam day here, as my personal box only got 496 spams in the last 18 hours.

Fight for Your Right:

Microsoft hasn't been too friendly toward those efforts. Last fall, it shut down a maker of "mod chips" -- circuitry that can be soldered onto the motherboard of the Xbox to make the machine run Linux. The letter politely demanded that Microsoft stop "restricting choice" -- and rid itself of the mod market to boot -- by publishing the code required to run unapproved programs without modifications to the Xbox.

Broadband Sucks?

Don't believe all you've heard about the end of the broadband boom. Two studies released this week show that interest in broadband connections is climbing, and subscriptions to high-speed services are on the rise. But while we're still shelling out for high-speed connections, the actual speed those services provide may vary greatly.

[H]ardNews 1st Edition

Arctic Silver Voids Warranty:

I guess if you burn up that AMD CPU, don't expect them to give you another if it has silvery slop left on top. XtremeTek points out what AMD sez:

Artic Silver is made up of a matrix with conductive particles. There is the possibility of creating electrical shorts on the package. Any failed processor used w/ Artic Silver or any other thermal grease other than Shin Estu G 749 would be subject to warranty voiding.

You might check out Nanotherm as it is a great alternative.

Mashie Ultra Mod:

Leave it to Johan "Mashie" Grundstrom to come up with a mod that is truly original. You just need to see it to believe it. Here is a sneakpeak while you guys hammer his server into oblivion.

i865 Seen Not Heard:

This chipset has not been officially announced by Intel as of yet, but you can buy it over at NewEgg. Thanks Jim Montague.

Specifications: Supported CPU:Intel Pentium 4 Processor (supports 800MHz Chip), Chipset: 865 PE, FSB: 800,533 MHz, RAM: Dual DDR.

Pipe Your Heat:

While this has nothing to do with your girlfriend, this unit reviewed over at 3DXL may be quite the opposite as this HSF is silent when it is all warmed up.

What can I say about the ZM80A-HP? - It performs on par with your stock cooler, and is silent - That's what it's supposed to do, but when you put your head next to your case, is it really your VGA card's fan that you can hear?

Traveling Web:

Click the block on this link to see what is a very interesting project brought to you by the guys that showed off the self destructing webserver not too long ago.

For alpha 3.8, tsunamii.net propose, over the course of one month, to electronically migrate their site from webserver to webserver in countries around the world. After each migration, they will change the DNS address to reflect the new geographic location from which the site is served. tsunamii.net will negotiate contractual arrangements for this cyber-migration from Singapore to Cambodia to London to Alaska to Palestine to Belarus, among other countries, documenting and probably challenging the extent to which a frictionless, borderless economy "really" exists independent of national boundaries, international regulations, and local customsÑi.e. translocally. - excerpt from website Emerging artists / Emergent Medium .

[H]ardNews 8th Edition

ASUS V9900 Review:

Our buddies across the pond have posted up a no-nonsense review of the ASUS V9900 Ultra GFFX. The fellas pulled no punches in this review laying out what they found troubling about the card.

Sadly for Asus the V9900 Ultra massively underperforms. The NV30 has been a complete mess for NVIDIA and one wonders why it's being rolled out with performance that is clearly substandard when anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering are enabled. When we looked at the MSI Geforce FX 5800 Ultra, we saw a card that is quite capable when FSAA and AF are disabled, and with the V9900 Ultra it is the same story, as shown by the Unreal Tournament 2003 results.

VisionTek & Alienware:

VisionTek has announced a partnership with Alienware, maker of high end enthusiast computers. Should be a match made in heaven, fast graphics with fast PCs. I don’t know about you, but I have got to get me one of them cool ass new cases Alienware is sporting.

VisionTek, a division of Hartford Computer Group and a leading supplier of advanced PC graphics cards and memory solutions, today announced that its advanced 3D graphics accelerator, the XTASY 9800 PRO will be integrated in to Alienware Corporation's high performance line of gaming systems. This unique combination provides the fastest 3D gaming card in the fastest 3D gaming system. "Hard core gamers care about 3 things; speed, speed and more speed," remarked Michael Innes, director of sales and marketing for VisionTek. "Alienware® systems are the fastest rigs money can buy, and our XTASY 9800 PRO is the fastest 3D gaming card. The combination is almost dangerous and I sure wouldn't want to be in a death match against it." The XTASY 9800 PRO delivers the fastest and most visually advanced performance of any graphics processor.

Mods & Ends:

Zippy EL-610 Lighted Keyboard @ Tech-Report - Sunbeam Lighted Components @ Moddin’ Net - Hitachi 17" CML175B @ Accelenation - CoolerMaster Cool Drive @ A True Review - Copper Core HSF Mod @ Silent Hardware

[H]ardNews 7th Edition

May NV35 Launch:

Digitimes is reporting a mid-may N35 launch. There isn’t a whole lot of info, most of it is reposted below:

Nvidia is set to formally introduce its new NV35 graphics chip at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), to be held in Los Angeles from May 14-16. Due to SARS concerns in the Asia-Pacific region, Nvidia will not hold a product launch conference in Taiwan. The chip adopts the same core as Nvidia’s NV30 (GeForce FX 5800 series) but delivers much improved performance, sources said. According to graphics card makers, the NV35 will support the more popular DDR memory standard, rather than the DDRII architecture supported by the NV30.

[H]ardNews 6th Edition

NVIDIA / SEC Deal:

NVIDIA and SEC have reached an agreement to bring the investigation into their accounting practices to a close. Apparently NVIDIA must “cease and desist” any activities that are in violation of the SEC rules. No fines are imposed, which has to be a big plus. Here is a clip from the article:

Nvidia said on Friday it reached a tentative deal with U.S. regulators who were planning to recommend enforcement actions against the chip designer. The company, whose accounting practices have been under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (news - web sites) since early 2002, said in a regulatory filing that it had received a "Wells notice" indicating that the agency's staff was going to advise the full commission to take enforcement action related to the probe. Shares of Nvidia fell nearly 4 percent. Nvidia said in an annual report filed with the SEC that it then reached a tentative deal with the agency this month. The Santa Clara, California, company said it would not have to pay any fines or penalties, but must agree to a cease-and-desist order against any future violations of certain federal securities laws.

[H]ardNews - Blair Tech Ed

Robot Soccer:

The competition has become more intense, the passes and shots faster and more accurate, and the players — well, they no longer catch fire. Carnegie Mellon University will play host to the first American Open of robot soccer next week, a regional competition leading up to the international RoboCup 2003 in Padua, Italy, this summer. Robotics experts say technology has advanced greatly since the first RoboCup in 1997, when a handful of teams from the United States, Australia and Japan competed for the first time.

Hyper Transport Tech:

An industry study to be released next week estimates that the global port count for Hyper Transport switch fabric will exceed 30 million ports this year. International Date Corp. (IDC) said the forecast comes as other alternatives such as Infiniband are still struggling to produce the silicon they need to support the demand for a high-speed interconnects. By 2006, the IDC projects the number of ports will reach 200 million.

Fast Turnaround ASIC:

Fujitsu Microelectronics America Inc. unveiled a new fast-turnaround ASIC architecture designed to head off encroaching gate array and FPGA vendors in the high-performance, mid-volume market segment. AccelArray, introduced this week at the Embedded Systems Conference here, uses 0.11-micron process technology to support 333MHz core operating speed and density up to 3.8 million ASIC gates, while pre-diffused embedded blocks cut design cycles from six months to two months.

Robot Swarm Technology:

A battalion of 120 military robots is to be fitted with swarm intelligence software to enable them to mimic the organised behaviour of insects. The project, which received funding this week from the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), is aimed at developing ways to perform missions such as minesweeping and search and rescue with minimum intervention from human operators.

[H]ardNews 4th Edition

Radeon 9700Pro A-I-W:

When it comes to all-in-one video cards, the ATi Radeon9700Pro All In Wonder is the kind of the mountain by a long shot. For people wanting top notch gaming, ViVo, and a TV Tuner built into one card, this is the only way to go. Check out the full review.

Although there isn't such a thing as a perfect piece of hardware, the ATi All-in-Wonder 9700 Pro comes pretty damn close. It is extremely fast, and will have no problems playing any of today's games at high resolutions, and with the eye-candy turned on.

GeForceFX 5200 Review:

Our friends over in Ireland have busted out a review of the Inno3D Tornado GeForceFX 5200 this afternoon. You have to see the massive passive heatsonk on this bad boy…pretty funny, in a cool way of course.

Having a DirectX9 capable graphics card in the low end, mid range and high end markets encourages game developers to include more DX9 features as more people will see the effect of those features than just the small percentage of gamers with Radeon 9700 Pros or Geforce FX 5800s. In short, although the Geforce FX 5200 is the baby of the family it offers adequate performance for the casual gamer with good overclocking potential yielding a 10%-15% performance increase in most games on a typical P4 2.53Ghz.

CFI e-Cube S768:

Got the urge to go small form factor? Bitbenders is looking at this mini-PC that looks good and is very portable.

Being a SFF (small form factor) case, you only get enough free bays to install one of everything. There is space for one cd drive, one floppy, and one hard disk, as well as one free pci slot, for the likes of a video grabber, or modem. Basically, if you intend to use this machine as a full function pc, then you will need to think out your peripheral purchases fairly carefully.