HUGE Athlon price drops; P3/K7 comparison @ CPUReview
January 31, 2000
Bill Henning has updated his Athlon/Pentium III price list to reflect the lastest round of price cutting manoeuvers. As it currently stands, the AMD Athlon 550Mhz can be had $189.00(USD), vs. $232.00(USD) for a PIII of the same clock-speed. Furthur reason, then, to go with AMD!
In related news, at AboutLinux.com, Bill has posted a letter from a reader who reflects upon his experiences working with a Linux Beowulf cluster.
Eat, Read, & Be Merry!
Posted by Colin Cordner
Ars Technica: Voodoo 3 3500 TV
January 30, 2000
Ars Technica is also featuring a review of the Voodoo 3 3500 TV card, from 3dfx. As Technica-techhead Gonzo has put the rub, though:
"The V3 3500 is in quite a unique position as a video card. It's the only card out there right now
that's a top of the line 3D graphics accelerator, 2D desktop accelerator, chunk of TV goodness, dash of digital VCR, and equipped with an FM radio to boot. This card has everything but the kitchen sink, but we wanted to know if the jack of all trades is the master of none."
Check it out, media-mavens!
Posted by Colin Cordner
SmartLink UE1205RU Review @ The Tech Zone
January 30, 2000
The TechZone has just reviewed the SmartLink UE1205SRU - a 100Base-T PCI Ethernet card. What makes the Smartlink device unique is not necessarily the technology, but rather the small package it arrives in, and the miniscule billing receipt that accompanies it. If, for some reason, you've found yourself dreaming of a low-profile, 100Base-T Ethernet card of merely $19(USD), then look no further.
Cheers!
Posted by Colin Cordner
ASUS P3C-2000 Camino
January 30, 2000
Hardware-One has wrapped up a review of the ASUS P3C-2000 Camino motherboard, which prominently features Intel's much troubled i820 (Camino) chipset. The ASUS board distinguishes itself by its ability to employ SDRAM memory, as well as more costly RDRAM, and tries hard to distinguish itself performance-wise.
With Intel's backpeddaling, and RDRAM shortages weighing on its shoulders, the Camino chipset seems to be in an uncertain place these days. It increasingly seems that wether the Camino-set sinks or swims now rests heavily on the decision of the buyer. My, my, my.....
Cheers!
Posted by Colin Cordner
Quick and Dirty Guide to Networking with a Cable ISP
January 30, 2000
AbsolutePC is presenting a new article covering the essentials of connecting a computer network to the Internet via a high-speed cable modem. Here's a quick quote from that article:
"The way we networked our apartment was EXTREMELY easy. We were paid for two additional ips so each of our three machines would have a unique identity on the net. We have a dlink 8 port hub in the living room, with the computers coming in on cat5 100mb connections."
If you were looking for another excuse to jump on the broadband-wagon, look no further!
Posted by Colin Cordner
Maximizer Gold Finger Review @ HardOCP
January 30, 2000
HardOCP is currently running a review of the Maximizer Gold Finger-device, from RoadRebel. A handy device for Overclocking the normally un-Clockable Athlon, the Maximizer stands so far above other similar "Gold Finger" devices, that Mr. Bennett hardly has a chance to rag on it. :)
Cheers!
Posted by Colin Cordner
AMD Athlon 1GHz: Running Linux
January 30, 2000
Bill Henning - CPUReview Guru, and part-time mad-scientist - has performed a series of analyses on a Kryotech unit, set to accomodate an AMD Athlon clocked to 1Ghz, and a copy of everybodies favorite left-handed OS: Linux!
A very interesting series of numbers ensued; so read, and enjoy!
Cheers!
Posted by Colin Cordner
Ars Technica: Soyo SY-6VBA 133 vs. Tyan S1854 Trinity 400
January 30, 2000
Ars Technica had this for us;
"The Soyo is one of the champs of the VIA 133 motherboards, and a pretty darn good overclocker, to boot. But, with the release of the 133A chipset, is it doomed to the great motherboard roundup in the sky? Well, the challenger is on the horizon, in the form of Tyan's S1854 Trinity 400 and its 133A chipset. Check out this battle of the VIA 133x motherboards:
""The idea for comparing these two motherboards came from discussions I've had with users on IRC, and more importantly, comments in our own OpenForum.
Many folks have doubts to the prowess of the 133A, and the overclockability of the Tyan board has been called into question on more than one occasion. Several users have argued that there's not a tremendous amount of difference between the two chipsets, and it's not always entirely clear that the major difference, AGP 4x, really has a payoff right now. To that end this comparison was born: which board is fastest, which board is more stable, and which board is most likely to satisfy an overclocker? Could it be that the SY-6VBA, based on an earlier version of the Apollo Pro 133 two-chip AGPset Chip is a better buy than the Tyan, in all of its newness? Let's find out.""
A concise review, worthy of anyone who has been eyeing the VIA Apollo Pro 133A chipset...
Cheers!
Posted by Colin Cordner
NVIDIA GeForce 256 Graphics Cards Comparison. Part 2 @ iXBT
January 29, 2000
Hio Folks,
iXBT Hardware (http://www.ixbt-labs.com) has posted a roundup on
NVIDIA GeForce 256 based Graphics Cards with SDR and DDR memory.
Cheers!
Posted by Colin Cordner
The December drawing of our GiveAway contest has a winner...
January 28, 2000
Yep, we finally have a winner for the December drawing of our GiveAway contest. The name of the winner is Stu Hemphill from Audubon,N.J.
Congratulation Stu and thanks to everybody who participated in the contest.
Stay tuned, more GiveAway contest are to come...
Posted by Chris Verr
Review of the Fic SD11 Athlon mainboard
January 28, 2000
Hi all,
We are very pleased at Active-Hardware to leave you for the weekend with a fresh new review. This time, the Fic SD11 Athlon motherboard has revealed all its secrets to us. Thus, we invite you to take a sneek at this review in the course of the weekend.
Enjoy your reading and have a nice weekend :))
Posted by Chris Verr
EPoX™ Introduces It's First AMD® Athlon Motherboard the EP-7KXA
January 28, 2000
La Habra (CA)/USA/Spring - January 20, 2000 - EPoX is proud to an-nounce the motherboard featuring the latest VIA® Apollo KX133 chipset for the AMD® Athlon platform processor.
Apollo KX133 is the ultimate chipset solution for AMD® Athlon based high-performance desktop system. It supports Athlon's 200 MHz double-data-rate Alpha EV6-based FSB, PC133, ATA-66, and AGP 4X technologies. Addi-tional features include 4 USB ports, AC-97 audio, hardware monitoring, CPU Vcore voltage |  |
setting, and power management. All the latest AMD® Athlon processors up to 800 MHz can be used with the EP-7KXA. With a high performance 128KB L1 cache, the Athlon can dra-matically deliver fast performance especially for data intense application.
The EP-7KXA is an ATX form factor mainboard with four PCI bus master slots, one shared ISA expansion slot, an AGP slot, onboard AC97 CODEC audio, and two USB ports in addition to the usual two serial plus one parallel port and a PS/2 mouse connector.
This EPoX™ mainboard is PC98/99 compliant and include advanced BIOS features to give optimised performance and reliability as well as ease of use and service. The new EP-7KXA mainboard will be available on February 2000.
*EP-7KXA renamed from EP-K7VA on Jan. 2000
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Posted by Chris Verr
Gigabyte announces the 3D Graphics Accelerators - GA-GF2560
January 28, 2000
Taipei, Taiwan, Jan. 25, 2000 - Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. today announces its GA-GF2560 graphics accelerators, powered by NVIDIA’s ultimate Geforce256 graphics processors and delivers an outstanding 3D performance to the high performance 3D gaming market.
Featuring support for NVIDIA’s latest Transform & Lighting (T&L) technology, Gigabyte GA-GF2560 graphics accelerators separates engines for transformation, lighting, setup and rendering to reduce the processing load on the computer’s CPU and provide better performance and a more realistic object | 
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behaviors and character animation. With the unique Independent Pipelined QuadEngine, GA-GF2560 offers four independent rendering pipelines to provide a very powerful, highly efficient architecture and deliver 15 million triangles per second to allow applications to represent 3D characters and environments with the highest degree of complexity possible.
Shipping with 32MB of rapid synchronous DRAMs and a 350MHz of razor sharp RAMDAC, GA-GF2560 graphics accelerators provide display refresh rates of up to 240Hz on ultra-high resolutions. GA-GF2560 comes with an excellent overclock utility that automatically protects hardware from damage and also gives an easy way of optimizing the 3D performance and graphics
acceleration. With an optional TV or DVI Flat panel output devices, Gigabyte GA-GF2560 graphics accelerators not only provide a superior graphics performance but also are the perfect for end-users who demand the best quality graphics for entertainment, education, business and e-commence application.
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Posted by Chris Verr
Viewsonic PT795 19in monitor review
January 27, 2000
Bill Henning, of CPUReview fame, has taken the Viewsonic PT795 19in monitor for a spin. Click here for his take on Viewsonic's latest cathode-ray tube-in-a-box!
Posted by Colin Cordner
Alpha Socket 370 Cooler Review @ HardOCP
January 27, 2000
Kyle Bennett has devised a series of gueling, backbreaking, and unimaginably tortuous excercises; all in the pusuit of pitting the two champions of the CPU ventilator-world in head-to-head, and side-by-side competition! Here, then, is a pre-game snip from the front:
"We saw what benefits were reaped when the Alpha Cooler hit the retail market here in the States. I have been recommending them and using them myself for a long time now. During the last few months came many "Alpha Killers". Global Win is probably the best known of these. Well with the PIII going to Socket 370 almost exclusively by the end of the year, we thought we would see what is out there now and what works. We took the two kings of the hill and pitted them side by side to see who is the coolest. Literally..."
Cheers!
Posted by Colin Cordner
Hardware GiveAway Contest December drawing...
January 26, 2000
Hi all,
This is to let you know that 10 more finalists names just went to be posted on the Hardware GiveAway Contest December drawing page.
Thus, don'T waist any time and jump on to the contest page to check if your Email user name is there...
Good luck to all of you :))
Posted by Chris Verr
ECS announces P6BAP-A+ nd P6BAP-Me mainboard to support FC-PGA Coppermine processors
January 26, 2000
Taipei, January 10th - Elitegroup Computer Systems Co. Ltd. has announced the release of P6BAP-A+ and P6BAP-Me mainboard to support the latest FC-PGA (Flip Chip Pin Grid Array) processors. These mainboards are equipped with VIA VT82C693A and VT82C596B chipset that support 133MHz FSB and UltraDMA66 technology. |  |
The P6BAP series boards are designed for Socket 370 processors including the newest FC-PGA Pentium III processors as well as the Celeron PPGA processors. These boards can be operated at the speed of 66/100MHz as well as 133MHz FSB which provide the great flexibilities for the users. P6BAP-A+ is designed on an ATX (12"x8.7") platform with six expansion slots ( 4xPCI, 2xISA - 1 shared, 1AGP). P6BAP-Me is designed on a microATX (9.6"x9.1") platform with four expansion slots (3xPCI, 1ISA - 1 shared, 1 AGP). Both boards are designed with 3DIMM sockets that can support up to 384MB PC100 or PC133 memory modules.
With CMI8738 audio chip on board, P6BAP-A+ and P6BAP-Me are equipped with the brand new AMRplus technology which provides the superior audio performance. The CMI8738 audio chip provides Legacy Sound Blaster 16-bit compatible audio, plus HRTF supports for Microsoft's DirectSound 3D specification and Aureal A3D interface with 4 speakers output. Besides, these boards also support 24-bit SPDIF IN and OUT (also support optical fiber) interface offering the connection to AC-3 audio devices. Furthermore, this audio chip also built in PCtel 56Kflex/V.90 MODEM controller with the most compact and cost-effective solution for Internet connection.
There are several common features designed on P6BAP-A+ and P6BAP-Me including Magic Setting IV, Suspension Indicator, Keyboard Power On, LAN/Modem
Power On, and Hardware Monitoring capabilities. The "Magic Setting IV" provides the end-users or system integrators the convenient way of adjusting the CPU core voltage and CPU frequency through the BIOS setup program instead of the annoying jumper settings. The green LED on the board is the "Suspension Indicator" which indicates the system power saving status. It is designed to prevent the add-on cards from damaging by the current follow during the hot-plug process for SI/VAR or the DIY market. You can simply press a hot-key or type a pre-defined password to power down or power up your PCs with "Keyboard power on" capability. With LAN/Modem Power On function, systems can be easily waked up from its "Sleeping Status" while receiving in-coming fax, voice-mail and data transfer. These boards also equipped with the hardware monitoring function that provides the abilities of detecting system voltages, system temperatures, chassis intrusion and the speed of the fans. It is a good feature for users to thoroughly monitor the system condition and take required actions prior to any damages may occur.
For more information, please contact:
Sales Inquiry E-mail:mkt_tpe@ecs.com.tw
Tech. Support E-mail: support_tpe@ecs.com.tw
WWW Service: www.ecs.com.tw
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Posted by Chris Verr
DFI laumches CA61 and CB61 socket 370 motherboards
January 25, 2000
Taipei To fulfill Intel socket 370 CPU transition, DFI is going to release two motherboards- CA61 and CB61, supporting FC PGA Pentium III as well as PPGA Celeron CPUs. DFI's flexible product strategy meets the future motherboard development trend.
Despite the mixed packages of Pentium III processors, there is no doubt that Socket 370 CPU package will be the mainstream soon and will supercede slot 1 package in first half of this year. To fit the market trend and prevent the trouble of upgrade for end users, DFI transits the mainboard to support socket 370 processors.
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DFI CA61 mainboard has VIA Apollo PRO 133 chipset and socket 370 to support PPGA Celeron and FC PGA Pentium III processors at both 100 and 133MHz FSB. For main memory, it has got 3 DIMM sockets to support PC66/100/133 SDRAM with a maximum capacity of 768MB. In addition, it supports faster ATA66 hard drive. This model targets the high-end market whose users need good performance.
DFI CB61 belongs to the economical and upgradable class. It includes an Intel 440BX chipset and supports all Socket 370 processors including PPGA Celeron and FC PGA Pentium III at 100MHz FSB. The memory supports PC66/100 specifications up to 768MB by three DIMM sockets.
Both CA61 and CB61 are in ATX form factor and have implemented one AGP slot, four PCI slots and three ISA slots.
In order to maintain the system stability and safety, both models provide hardware monitoring function to check the processor/system temperature, core voltage, and CPU/chassis fan speeds. Moreover, it controls processors/chassis fan on/off automatically and will activate the alarm under overheat conditions.
These two boards feature wake-up function on LAN, keyboard, mouse and modem. It allows users to set the system boot up time. Hence, DFI mainboards fulfill not only the maximum flexibility/upgradability but also Internet application demand.
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Posted by Chris Verr
ABIT Anxious to Ship New Graphics Card Family
January 25, 2000
Taipei Taiwan, R.O.C. Jan, 21st, 2000With only few days left until the first shipments of ABITs Siluro graphic card line, ABIT staff members are getting increasingly excited about this new development in the product range of the company. We will have our first batches of Siluro GT2 Ultra leaving the factory end of next week", says ABIT's Product Managment department Leader Jane Lu. |  |
Production will increase afterwards, and products should hit the local market shelves 2-3 weeks later.
Parallel to the launch of the products, ABIT is getting it's final touches to a special graphic card section on it's website. Designed with special aim at gamers, it promises a interesting view for all visitors.
The above is a picture of the front page, which offers a sneak preview of the new page which will be launched soon in a multilingual version, just as as the entire ABIT website.
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Posted by Chris Verr
ABIT® Announces the SlotKETT!!! Adaptor
January 25, 2000
Taipei, Taiwan,R.O.C. Wednesday, January 18th, 2000 With great shifts taking place in CPU architectures, ABIT® continues to help bridge the gaps between them with their introduction of their new SlotKET!!! adaptor card. |  |
Previous SlotKET converters were able let Celeron PPGA CPUs run in Slot 1 mainboards. The new SlotKET !!! allows you to do the same with Intels new line of socketed Pentium® III Coppermine CPUs. This architecture, termed FC-PGA or Flip-Chip (as opposed to the PPGA Celerons), is supposed to gain more precedence in the future, but the SlotKET !!! lets you enjoy it on your current Slot 1 motherboard.
In addition to Flip-Chip Coppermine support, another new addition to the SlotKET !!! is core voltage adjustment capabilities, for further stability and control. Sets of color-coded jumpers allow you to select from 32 different voltage settings between 1.3 and 3.5v, including an auto select option. As with previous SlotKETs, dual CPUs are possible. In addition to the Coppermines 133MHz front side bus speed, the SlotKET !!! can be set at 66 or 100MHz instead, to comply with motherboard support.
With this new solution from ABIT® a person can purchase among any of the Slot 1 or Socket 370 CPUs on the market (be they PPGA or FC-PGA) and not have to worry at all about compatibility with whatever motherboard they have.
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Posted by Chris Verr
ECS Announces New Color Box for Millennium
January 25, 2000
Taipei, Jan. 15th - Elitegroup Computer Systems Co. Ltd. has announced its newest packaging box for mainboard products. The design is simple and clear, demonstrating that ECS is the leading manufacturer of mainboard who always meet customers' requirements . |  |
(We Know You by Heart) The choice of colors, blue and yellow, generates an eye-catching visual effect for display purpose. Overall, the new color box effectively communicates ECS' ambitious plan and long-term vision as a rising star in fast-paced industry.
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Posted by Chris Verr
AMD Athlon 800Mhz and Gigabyte GA-71X Athlon mainboard
January 25, 2000
Hi all,
It is with a great pleasure that we publish our very first article about the AMD Athlon processor and an Athlon based motherboard. This double article is including both a short review of the AMD Athlon 800Mhz processor and a detailled review of the GA-71X Athlon motherboard.
Enjoy your reading :))
Posted by Chris Verr
A Look at Transform & Lighting @ HardOCP.
January 24, 2000
HardOCP is featuring an article that looks at Transform & Lighting, and the graphics cards that make it happen. Here's a snip:
"Now when it comes to video cards we are NOT going to sit here and tell you we know all there is to know about these things. If fact, a lot of the buzz terms we hear still elude us. What we are sure of, is that we know what looks good and plays smooth. This is one thing I think we ALL WANT when playing a 3D game. Is it going to stay that way or has nVidia put too much weight on this T&L thing? I have a Guillemot Prophet SDRam card in my system right now and I must say it is a rather sweet piece of equipment. We were running some benchmarks over the past weekend and noticed something that I am not quite sure how to translate it into what it really means, but we will shed some light on the subject."
Cheers!
Posted by Colin Cordner
Report From Vancouver Comdex
January 24, 2000
The TechZone has posted up a review of the century's first Comdex.
Posted by Colin Cordner
Transmeta Crusoe Review @ iXBT
January 24, 2000
And so it begins... :)
iBXT has finished, and posted an indepth review of the Transmeta Crusoe processor(s). They essentially provide a concise rehash of the Transmeta announcent, with a focus on the Crusoe's unique wiring, the instruction-set translation technique known as Code Morphing, and the Crusoe's potential market.
Cheers!
Posted by Colin Cordner
Review of the Fic KA-11 mainboard
January 24, 2000
Hi all,
Among the new series of motherboards developped by Fic lately, we have reviewed theKA-11 wich is based on the VIA Apollo Pro133A chipset. Thus, the KA-11 offers support for ATA66 hard disk drives, PC133 memory and AGP 4X graphic cards.
This review is available Online right now for your reading pleasure.
Have a nice day :))
Posted by Chris Verr
A Geek's Analysis of the Transmeta Crusoe
January 20, 2000
In what is sure to be only the first among many reviews of the Transmeta announcement, UGeek has posted up a synopsis, and commentary of the "Crusoe" unveiling.
For those amongst us unfamiliar with either of the above, Transmeta is the recent start-up that has long been the focus of industry buzz. This not only due to the incredible secretness of the "Crusoe" project, but also for the involvement of key industry figures, such as Linus Torvalds - creator, and spiritual leader of the Linux operating system.
The now unveiled Crusoe chip is a truly fascinating beast, featuring the chameleon-like ability to take on, and process the native instruction-sets of platforms as diverse as the x86, PPC, Sparc, Alpha... The wonder doesn't stop there, though, as the Crusoe's two forthcoming incarnations - the TM3120, and the TM5400 - both boast an ultra-svelt 1 Watt power consumption, and surface areas of well under 80mm^2.
Anyone with least inclination to the Geeky side of things would see themselves well to keep one eye focused on Transmeta. Something in the air says that the computing world just got a whole lot more interesting. ;)
Cheers!
Posted by Colin Cordner
Via/Cyrix Joshua Preview
January 20, 2000
iXBT is currently featuring an article exploring the historical depths of the still-forthcoming Joshua x86 processor from VIA/Cyrix.
Cheers!
Posted by Colin Cordner
nVidia/SGI/VA Linux OpenGL Q&A
January 20, 2000
Bill Henning, of CPUReview fame, has had, and posted up, a brief Q&A session with the folks at nVidia/SGI/and VA Linux concerning the future of OpenGL 1.2 for Linux.
Posted by Colin Cordner
What's new, part 2
January 19, 2000
Hi all,
As I told you yesterday, I am keeping you informed about how the situation eveolves concerning the missing parts I am needing to review the motherboards waiting to be reviewed in my lab shelves.
Yesterday, at the end of the afternoon, I finally received a confirmation that an AMD Athlon 800Mhz was on its way to me. According to the message I had, FedEx should deliver it at my door within 48 hours. Thus, we can almost say that the AMD Athlon issue is now solved.
The PC800 Rambus RIMM memory modules and the Intel Coppermine FC-PGA 500Mhz are still missing but I am working very very hard to find these missing parts unavailable in my area.
Again, I will keep you informed.
By the way, as you can see in the manufacturers news section, there are many many new motherboards on the market at this moment. Thus, you can expect to see several of them to be reviewed on this web site has I am trying all I can to get évaluation units of these motherboards for reviewing.
That's about all for now, have a nice day...
Posted by Chris Verr
Supermicro Unveils 820 Boards
January 19, 2000
SAN JOSE, CA, -Supermicro has announced the release of four new boards based on Intel’s new 820 chipset. The 820 is a new generation chipset that supports a 133 MHz system bus and 4xAGP (Accelerated Graphics Port), which provides 1 GB per second of graphics throughput. The chipset also incorporates RDRAM (Rambus DRAM), the next generation of system memory. RDRAM enables a memory throughput of up to 1.6 GB/s at a high frequency of 800 MHz.
Coinciding with Intel’s official 820 release date, Supermicro has once again demonstrated its ability to get new technology to market without delay. Their four new boards, the PIIISCA, PIIISCD, PIIISCE and 370SCD, provide various configurations that offer a broad appeal. All share 4xAGP support, ATA/66, 5 PCI slots, AMR, AC97 sound and an ATX form factor. While the 370SCD also has 1 ISA slot and accommodates Flip Chip Pin Grid Array (FCPGA) and PPGA processors, these boards differ mainly in their memory options. The 370SCD and PIIISCD have 2 DIMM slots, the PIIISCE has 2 RIMM slots and the PIIISCA offers both 2 DIMM and 2 RIMM for greater user flexibility. All memory configurations provide support for up to 1 GB of main memory. The DIMM slots support PC100 SDRAM for a low cost memory solution.
All Supermicro 820 boards support the following features:
Ultra DMA 66 - Also referred to as ATA66, this technology provides twice the IDE bus speed of previous chipsets. This effectively doubles the throughput to hard disk drives to speed up the overall performance of a system.
Suspend to RAM (STR) - In suspend mode, STR shuts down a computer's components but maintains the current operating state in memory, which consumes a minimal amount of power. Users can then reactivate the system to its previous operating state within seconds.
AMR (Audio/Modem Riser) socket - The AMR socket enables the modem function through a Software Modem Card to reduce total system costs.
PC99 Certified - Color-coded I/O ports provide easy identification to make setup quick and hassle-free for users.
AC97 Onboard Sound - Supports software 3D PCI-class sound and eliminates the need of a PCI sound card. You also have the option to bypass the onboard sound.
Posted by Chris Verr
ECS Announces P6IC-A+ i820 Mainboard
January 19, 2000
Taipei, Jan. 5th - Elitegroup Computer Systems Co. Ltd. has announced its newest Intel 820 mainboards P6IC-A+. The Intel 820 chipset is a three chips solution designed for the next generation PCs which includes Memory Controller Hub (MCH), I/O Controller Hub (ICH), and a Firmware Hub (FWH). |  |
With the support of AGP 4X and the most advanced Direct RDRAM technology, P6IC-A+ is able to provide the users the incredible Internet experience and the highest performance in video, graphics, and multimedia applications.
P6IC-A+ is designed for slot one processors including the newest Pentium III (Coppermine), previous Pentium III and Pentium II processors. The Pentium III processors can be operated at 133MHz with the internal clock speed of 533/
600/677/733MHz and 100MHz FSB with internal clock speed of 450/500/
550/600/650/700MHz. It goes without saying that these boards can also support Pentium II processors at the speed of 350/400/450/500MHz with 100 MHz FSB. P6IC-A+ is designed with Intel 82820 and 82801AA chipset that support UltraDMA 66 technology which doubles the hard disk data transfer rate to 66MB/Sec. It is an ATX (12"x8.7") mainbord with 2RIMM sockets and seven expansion slots (5xPCI, 1AGP, 1AMR) offering the greatest expand flexibility.
The unique features of this board are the support of Direct Rambus memory and AGP 2.0 specification. The RDRAM technology doubles the memory bandwidth from 800MB/Sec (SDRAM) to 1.6GB/Sec. RDRAM provides the necessary bandwidth to optimize system performance for systems based on the latest high-speed Pentium III processors. It also provides the additional bandwidth demanded by the AGP 4X graphics controller that delivers the mainstream PC markets the vivid 3D visualization experiences. P6IC-A+ is designed to support AGP 4X (AGP 2.0 interface specification) which doubles the graphics bandwidth of AGP 2X, achieving the transfer rate in excess of 1GB/Sec. Through the introduction of these two major technologies, AGP4X and Direct Rambus memory, this board is able to deliver the highest performance platform for multitasking and rich 3D environments in multimedia, voice recognition, streaming video and photo-realistic 3D applications.
P6IC-A+ is equipped with ECS' AMRplus technology with superior audio performance provided by the on board audio chip-CMI8738. The CMI8738 audio chip provides Legacy Sound Blaster 16-bit compatible audio, plus HRTF supports for Microsoft's DirectSound 3D specification and Aureal A3D interface with 4 speakers output. Besides, this board also supports 24-bit SPDIF IN and OUT (also support optical fiber) interface offering the connection to AC-3 audio devices. Furthermore, CMI8738 audio chip also built in PCtel 56Kflex/V.90 MODEM controller with the most compact and cost-effective solution for Internet connection.
There are several features designed on P6IC-A+ including Suspend to RAM (STR), Magic Setting IV, LAN/Modem Power On, Keyboard Power On, and Hardware Monitoring capabilities. Under the STR status, the only power consumption of the mainboard is on DRAM. The system can be resumed to its previous operation status within 7 seconds by pressing the "power on" hot key. The "Magic Setting IV" provides the end-users or system integrators the convenient way of adjusting the CPU core voltage and CPU frequency through the BIOS setup program instead of the annoying jumper settings. With LAN/Modem Power On capability, systems can be easily waked up from its "Sleeping Status" while receiving in-coming fax, voice-mail and data transfer. You can simply press a hot-key or type a pre-defined password to power down or power up your PCs with "Keyboard power on " capability. This board is also equipped with the hardware monitoring function that provides the abilities of detecting system voltage, system temperature, chassis intrusion and the speed of the fans. It is a good feature for users to thoroughly monitor the system condition and take required actions prior to any damages may occur.
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Posted by Chris Verr
Micro-Star International Announces K7 Pro Mainboard
January 19, 2000
Micro-Star International announces their newest AMD K7 mainboard, the K7 Pro. Based on the highly integrated AMD Irongate™ chipset, the ATX form factor mainboard features 3 DIMM socket for up to 768MB of memory. K7 Pro mainboard supports 32 differents |  |
adjustable setting and up to 150MHz. For customers' convenience of expandability, it has 6 PCI, 1 ISA and 1 AGP slots. The K7 Pro mainboard also supports the following features:
PC 99?PCI 2.2 Compliant
ü Supports Ultra DMA 66
Supports the Ultra DMA 66 (ATA 66), which speeds up the throughput and saves time in document saving and retrieval, resulting in improving overall performance.
Built-in sound capability
Supports software 3D PCI-class sound without the need to purchase a sound card, and conforms to AC'97 standard. Also available with built-in hardware sound chip (Creative® CT5880) for superior sound performance.
D-LED™
It provides 4 LEDs embedded in mainboard, which provides up to 16 combinations of signals to debug all booting problems.
SafeBIOS™
It can protect your BIOS from virus attack, and no extra hardware cost is charged.
PC Alert™ III
It detects system configurations including temperature, voltage, fan speed, hard disk drive and memory, and reports the real-time system status to users. When anything abnormal happens, it would alert users to take proper actions to prevent component damage.
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Posted by Chris Verr
What's new!
January 18, 2000
Hi all,
Sorry for the lacks of updates lately but it is out of my control...
As a matter of fact, I ordered an AMD Athlon 600Mhz processor more than two weeks ago and I am still waiting it to be delivered to review all the Athklon motherboards waiting in the lab. The last time I asked about when it'll be delivered was a few minutes ago and they told me that it should be arrived by tomorrow, like all the other times...
I also have a couple of i820 motherboards to review but here again I am waiting to get some Rambus RIMM memory modules in order to be able to review them.
Finally, the Coppermine ready motherboards and Slocket adpaters tha I have to review can't be reviewed becaquse I just can't find locally any Intel Coppermine processor...
I don't know if you have any idea of how frustrating this situation is but believe my words that to be stuck with 11 motherboards waiting to be reviewed and all these missing parts refraining me to review them is really not interesting.
Thus, be patient. I am doing me very best to get my hands on all these missing parts the sooner I can. As usual, I'll keep you informed...
Posted by Chris Verr
Palo Alto ATCX Convertible Mid-Tower Case
January 18, 2000
Ars Technicia, has accomplished a review of Palo Alto ATCX Convertible Mid-Tower Case; the case that will cater to your needs! Here's a quote from their review:
"The ATCX is hard to pigeonhole because it's very extensible. For example, converting the case from a mid-tower to a desktop turns one of the external 3.5" bays into an internal one. The case's convertible nature is primarily made possible by the removable drive chamber. Rotate it 90°, and whammo, ya gots yerself a different case."
And there you go! :)
Posted by Colin Cordner
Athlon 1GHz Review (Part 2, Synthetic Benchmarks)
January 18, 2000
CPUReview has presented "Part 2" of their 1Ghz Athlon review, which includes benchmark results from:
- Final Reality
- 3DMark 99 Max
- 3DMark 2000
- Indy3D
- RC5 client
- Pov-Ray, &
- Sandra 99
Posted by Colin Cordner
Monsoon MH-500 Speaker Review @ The Tech Zone
January 18, 2000
The Tech Zone has posted its own review of the Monsoon MH-500 Speakers . Here's a clip from their analysis:
"Reading the specs reminded me of my old audio days when I was working at A&B Sound. The above specs are so misleading and incomplete it's not even funny. The use of the word "dipole-radiating" misleads people to think this is a dipole speaker. The third order cross over is not active but passive and giving a frequency response of 50 Hz to 20 kHz is worthless without knowing the plus/minus dB range. The same goes for the amplifier rating. Saying it's 51 watts without telling the distortion level gives misleading information. Also most SPL specs are given at 1 meter, not .5 meters. This makes the speaker look more impressive than it really is. "
Cheers!
Posted by Colin Cordner
TNT Benchmarks at the HardOCP
January 18, 2000
HardOCP has presented a new set of upgrades, and benchmarks pretaining to the TNT graphics card. Here's a snip:
"Seem a little dated? Not when you stick 807MHz of CPU power under the mutha. Yes, you too can still hang onto that fav Vid Card a little longer and get good performance with a horsepower upgrade. All in all this may show you that you can hold out a little longer on dropping all that coin on that new and expensive Vid Card."
Cheers!
Posted by Colin Cordner
A-Top X3 Tower & Keyboard Review
January 18, 2000
Beta Bites has an A-Top X3 Tower & Keyboard Review. A-Top manufactures colored computer cases and matching components. Here is a snippet:
"By far, the most useful feature offered by this tower is the slide out motherboard plate with latch. This feature allows you to install the motherboard, and cards of your choice, without disassembling the sides of the tower. Should you need to troubleshoot, upgrade the cards or Motherboard, you need only press the quick release latch on the rear of the tower and slide the plate out. Your motherboard and cards will still be securely in place. This is a timesaving feature that makes sense."
Cheers!
Posted by Colin Cordner
Review of the DFI PW65-E motherboard
January 14, 2000
The review of the DFI PW65-E i810E slot 1 motherboard is now available online for your reading pleasure.
Have a nice day :))
Posted by Chris Verr
FreeSpeed Pro Review
January 13, 2000
The Tech Zone has a finished a review of the FreeSpeed Pro, by Ninja Micro. This handy device will allow AMD boosters to Overclock their Athlon's to an impressive degree. Here now is a snip from that very review:
"FreeSpeed Pro won't let you overclock your Athlon higher than any other methods. How high your Athlon can overclock is still determined by the quality of your CPU. FreeSpeed Pro is just a nice simple way to go about overclocking. Using the FreeSpeed Pro I was able to get my Athlon 550 to 700Mhz using the big Alpha P3125 cooler. "
Cheers!
Posted by Colin Cordner
Athlon/P3 Price Comparison updated (NEWS)
January 13, 2000
Bill Henning has informed us that he's updated the Athlon/Penium III price comparison, at CPUReview. Anyone interested in purchasing a high-powered x86-compatible CPU would do well from a quick jaunt through the list; your chequeing account may thank-you!
Cheers!
Posted by Colin Cordner
Guillemot Fortissimo Review @ AbsolutePC
January 13, 2000
Thomas Cox has dropped us a line to say that Absolute PC has finished up a review of the Guillemot Fortissimo Sound Card - an inexpensive, yet high-quality solution for audio afficiandos. As Tom put it:
"We have just finished up our review of the Guillemot Maxi Sound Fortissimo. We put the card to the test and well, we kinda liked it!"
Cheers!
Posted by Colin Cordner
Transcend Launches High Capacity CompactFlash Cards
January 13, 2000
Taipei, Taiwan, January12th, 2000 / Various Agencies -- Transcend Information, Inc., leading developer of innovative memory products, today announces a series of 64MB / 128MB CompactFlash Cards, utilizing the state of the art technology of 128 / 256-Mb Flash memory. These cards are fully compatible with CompactFlash Association specification standards.
With the ever-growing popularity of both Digital Cameras and Mobile PCs (PDA, Palm PC), demand for high capacity CompactFlash (CF) Cards has also increased rapidly. The small dimensions of the CompactFlash specification means only a maximum of 4 flash Integrated Circuits (ICs) can be mounted into a single CF card. So having high capacity ICs is vitally important for the newer devices which require more and more memory for increasing numbers of applications and improved picture quality. Using 128-Mb flash ICs, the maximum capacity is 64MB. However, Transcend's new cards use high quality 256-Mb ICs from a leading Japanese manufacturer - which means 128MB of memory in each CF card. This amount of memory will meet the requirements of digital still cameras with a resolution of over two million pixels, and easily supports the most powerful mobile PC applications.
Joseph Lu, Transcend's Head of Marketing, is excited by the effects of this new technology: "At Transcend we are confident that these new high capacity cards will give both digital cameras and mobile PCs a powerful boost to their performance. It's amazing how much this technology has improved over the last few years, and our new memory cards allow customers to get these devices working at their full potential. You can really tell the difference. And by buying their memory cards from Transcend, customers will get a lifetime warranty on a better product for a lower price."
Features
1/3 the size of a standard PC Card
Plug-and-Play compatible
PC Card Type II adapter makes data transfer quick and easy
3.3V and 5V dual voltage support
Supports Windows® 95, Windows® 98, Windows® 2000, Macintosh® OS
Comes with Transcend's standard Lifetime Warranty
Specifications:
Model No: TS64MFLASHCP / TS128MFLASHCP
Application: Digital Camera, PDA
Working Voltage: 3.3V and 5.0V
Controller: Hitachi
Flash IC: Hitachi 128/256-Mb NAND Type Flash
Dimension: 1.43" x 1.68" x .13" (36.4mm x 42.8mm x 3.3mm)
Operating Temperature: -25° to +75°C
Operating Shock: 1,000Gs
Media Transfer Rate: Up to 3.5MB/sec.
Interface Transfer Rate: Up to 8MB/sec.
Average Seek Time: 10.8 ms.
MTBF: 100,000 hrs.
Posted by Chris Verr
New driver from Matrox G400
January 12, 2000
Matrox Beta Driver (version 5.50.005) for Windows 95/98 for Millennium G400 Series Cards has been posted in the "latest drivers section" of our website.
This driver requires DX7 and it fixes the corruption issue some users were experiencing with 3DWinbench 2000 and 3DMark 2000.
The driver is available in the latest drivers section: here
Posted by Chris Verr
Quantum Fireball KX Review @ The Tech Zone
January 12, 2000
Speaking of The Tech Zone, they've just posted a review of the KX ATA/66 drives from Quantum. Here's a brief snip:
"Spinning at 7200rpm and offering an ATA/66 interface with a 512kb buffer and 8.5ms average seek time, the Quantum Fireball KX hard drive is big on features. Couple these attributes with Quantums known reliability and this makes for one sweet hard drive. "
Posted by Colin Cordner
TennMax Detonator Review @ The Tech Zone
January 12, 2000
If you're looking for a new way to cool your GeForce 256 card, you might consider reading The Tech Zones review of the TennMax Detonator. Here's a clip:
"When I first received my Tennmax Detonator cooler I was a bit surprised at its small size. how could such a small little heatsink and fan combo cool down my super hot G400 video card? At first glance the heatsink looks very professionally made. The heatsink consisted of layers of stamped metal. I was informed by TennMax that the cooler is designed to dissipate 17 Watts of heat. A typical TNT-2 Ultra chipset produces 10 watts, which shows the heatsink is a good margin for performance upgrade."
Cheers!
Posted by Colin Cordner
Speed Demonz Guide on Video RAM Caching
January 12, 2000
Adrian, at Adrian's Rojak Pot, has just released his Speed Demonz Guide on Video RAM Caching. Here's a generously supplied clip:
"Also, remember that the needless traffic through the AGP (or PCI) bus will reduce the bandwidth for texture transfers, etc... The traffic runs both ways since for the L2 cache to store the data from the video RAM, it needs to be sent in through the AGP bus; and when that memory region is read, the data is sent back though the AGP bus to the graphics chip. Because the AGP bus is pipelined and is mainly used for texture reads from the system RAM to the video RAM, the data reads from the A0000h-AFFFFh region of the video RAM to the L2 cache will cause the flushing of the pipeline since the transfer is in the opposing direction and such data cannot be transferred via the SBA port."
Cheers!
Posted by Colin Cordner
1Ghz Athlon Review
January 11, 2000
Bill Henning dropped us a line, to let us know about CPUReview's Cold Fusion 1000 review. Here's a snip:
"Yep; you read it right - I've posted my first 1Ghz Athlon review. This is part one of two; covering the hardware and gaming performance (Quake2, Incoming, Forsaken, Turok). (Part two will cover synthetic benchmarks)
There are five photo's and four 3D charts of the results in the eight page review.
I won't keep you in suspense, I gave the system CPUReview's
"Kick Ass System of the Year (1999)" Award!"
Cheers!
Posted by Colin Cordner
Hardware GiveAway contest drawing of December...
January 11, 2000
Hi all,
Just a short note to remember to you that the Hardware GiveAway contest finalist names for the drawing of December have been posted on the contest page a few minutes ago.
Thus, don't forget to have a look on the contest page, just in case...
Posted by Chris Verr
ABIT is Awarded 7 Stamps of Approval
January 11, 2000
Taipei Taiwan, R.O.C. Jan, 1st, 2000In the 8th campaign of "It's Very Well Made in Taiwan" the governing committee has announced the winning brands. ABIT motherboards were awarded the official, and difficult to achieve, "It's Very Well Made in Taiwan" stamp of approval for the BE6, BP6, Hot Rod 66, BH6, BX6, BM6, ZM6, representing the high quality and the sophisticated standards of ABIT motherboards.The campaign of "It's Very Well Made in Taiwan" was held by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, in Taiwan, R.O.C. Thousands of 'Made in Taiwan' products are reviewed and graded each year. Only a select few products are awarded and earn the right to use the 'Symbol of Excellence' as a mark of premium quality. These products must meet high standards regarding quality systems, product design, R&D innovation, market position and brand awareness. ABIT motherboards have won considerable recognition and gained wide acceptance by consumers all over the world. As proven by the many awards and reviews on the internet, ABIT's products continue to be well appreciated by the general end-user as well as by the professional tester. The award once again identifies the high quality, innovation and reputation of ABIT's technology showing official government recognition that ABIT's products are 'very well made in Taiwan'.
Posted by Chris Verr
Review of the Iwill Sidepro66 hard disk drive controller
January 11, 2000
Hi all,
We just went to publish the review of the Iwill Sidepro66 hard disk drive controller. this PCI add-on card is an ATA66 hard disk drive controller spporting 4 ATA66 devices.
This Iwill hard disk drive controller is using the same Highpoint HPT366 controller that can be found onboard of several Abit motherboards.
Posted by Chris Verr
Razer BoomSlang 2000
January 10, 2000
3AG has released its review of the Razer BoomSlang 2000
mouse. Here is a quick quote:
Any veteran, or just good, gamer can tell you the importance of accuracy. When you\'re down to 3 pistol rounds, they all have to be superbly placed in order to do the job right. This means headshots and it means that your l33t skillz are about to be put to the test. Especially when the odds are Glock vs. FNP90 (Sorry, I\'ve been playing a lot of Counter-Strike lately)."
Cheers!
Posted by Colin Cordner
1999 Hardware Technology Tour @ iXBT
January 10, 2000
iXBT Hardware has posted an article - 1999 Hardware Technology Tour - which will gives a quick look at the last year of the second millennium with a glance towards computing's future.
Posted by Colin Cordner
D-Link USB Radio Review
January 10, 2000
AbsolutePC is back online, and comes out swinging with a review of the D-Link USB Radio. The always gracious Thomas Cox provided us with this quote:
"Among many things, the radio package is jammed packed with useful features, such as storage for 200 stations, USB (no messing with system settings), an alarm clock function, and the capability to record what you listen to, then convert it to MP3! Using the Wake/Sleep function in conjunction with the recording, you don't have to be awake at 6am to hear the morning news, just have it record it for your listening later."
Cheers!
Posted by Colin Cordner
January 10, 2000
Motherboard Homeworld just posted a review of the Supermicro PIISCD i820 chipset motherboard.
They are also giving this motherboard away. The contest URL is:
http://motherboards.org/contest.html
The contest closes at 5:00pm PT January 17, 2000.
Cheers!
Posted by Colin Cordner
"0.13um Copper chips next year?"
January 10, 2000
Bill Henning, at CPUReview, has posted up an article on forth-coming 0.13um copper-wired chips.
In this article he talks about some interesting developments with UMC that may impact processors and memory in the next year. Here's a snip:
"Most of you probably don't remember, but UMC used to make a variety of 486 compatible processors in the early to mid 90's."
Cheers!
Posted by Colin Cordner
Happy Aniversary to us...
January 10, 2000
Yep, Active-Hardware is celebrating is second aniversary today while beginning its third year of existence.
As a fact, most of you knows that Active-Hardware is not that old because it only took the suite of the operations of "The High-Performance PC Guide" a few months ago. However, all this was only a change of name that became necessary to use the domain name bought by Chris Verr the founder and owner of both The High-Performance PC Guide (now closed) and Active-hardware.
This being said, it's with a great pleasure that we begin year 2000 as our third year of existence on the WWW with a lot of projects all aimed to the same goal which is to enhance the information published on this web site both in terms of quality and quantity.
Let's hope all together that we will succeed in our efforts to make of this web site the best source of information about computer hardware.
Posted by Chris Verr
VIA Technologies, Inc. Begins Volume Shipments Apollo KX133
January 10, 2000
Taipei, Taiwan, January 10, 2000 - VIA Technologies, Inc today announced it has begun volume shipments of the VIA Apollo KX133 chipset to more than twenty leading motherboard manufacturers, greatly expanding the availability of high-performance mainboards optimized for the AMD Athlon* processor. The VIA Apollo KX133 chipset delivers powerful new features to AMD Athlon processor-based platforms through its support for AGP 4x graphics and high-speed PC133 memory, while simultaneously enabling motherboard manufacturers to drive down costs by building four-layer mainboards in smaller, more compact form factors.
With its enhanced features such as support for AGP 4x and PC133, the
VIA Apollo KX133 has been designed to allow users to take full dvantage of the industry-leading performance of the AMD Athlon processor,¡¨ commented Ted Lee, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, VIA Technologies, Inc. ¡§Market demand for the KX133 is very strong and we are beginning to ship large volumes to our motherboard customers.¡¨
The VIA Apollo KX133 provides additional options for our OEM customers offering AMD Athlon processor-based systems,¡¨ said Richard Heye, vice-president and general manager of the Texas Microprocessor Division at AMD.
Additionally, this has allowed AMD to expand our motherboard offerings to respond to growing customer demand for AMD Athlon processor-based platforms.
Enhanced Performance Enabling Features for the AMD Athlon Processor. The VIA Apollo KX133 chipset unleashes the unprecedented x86-level performance capabilities of the AMD Athlon processor, delivering
first-to-market support for high-throughput AGP 4x graphics and high-speed PC133 DRAM. A two-chip set consisting of the VT8371 North Bridge and VT82C686A "Super" South Bridge, the KX 1333 also includes additional performance enhancing features such as support for ATA-66 and the AMD Athlon frontside system bus architecture, based on Alpha EV6 technology and operating at 200MHz.
VIA Apollo KX133 Motherboard Availability Motherboards built around the VIA KX133 chipset are being produced by more than twenty leading manufacturers. More detailed product and contact information can be found in the new ¡§KX133 Zone¡¨ on VIA¡¦s company website at www.via.com.tw.
Posted by Chris Verr
AMD UNLEASHES 800MHz AMD ATHLON™ PROCESSOR
January 7, 2000
SUNNYVALE, CA--January 6, 2000--AMD today kicked off the new millennium by introducing an 800MHz AMD Athlon processor.
The AMD Athlon™ is the world's first seventh-generation x86 processor, whose leading edge performance enables the ultimate computing experience for high-end and mainstream computer users.
"Just as promised when we introduced the AMD Athlon processor, AMD continues to raise the bar in x86 processor performance. The exceptional microarchitecture of the AMD Athlon processor permits us to achieve extraordinary performance levels in an x86 processor," said Larry Hollatz, group vice president of the Computation Products Group at AMD.
"The AMD Athlon processor has been well received since its introduction in June, and we expect that demand for the processor will continue to remain strong," said Dana Krelle, vice president of Marketing for AMD's Computation Products Group. "The 800MHz is simply the next step in the evolution of our award-winning AMD Athlon processor."
To read the full press release click here
Posted by Chris Verr
Performance of Scientific Code on Athlon, P2, P3, Celeron and SGI
January 6, 2000
Bill Henning, at CPUReview, just sent us the update, concerning the above-mentioned topic:
"Jon fixed the problems with the benchmarks; and sent me a pile of results for running scientific code on P2, P3, Celeron, Athlon and a couple of SGI workstations... Athlon still looks good..."
Cheers!
Posted by Colin Cordner
G4 vs. Athlon: Photoshop & LightWave
January 5, 2000
Hio All,
Bill Henning, at CPUReview, has posted up a short article covering a few real-world tests that compare the Motorola PPC7400, and the AMD Athlon. An interesting read, with plenty of links.
Cheers!
Posted by Colin Cordner
Y2K: The Non-Event
January 4, 2000
Speaking of the New Year, Bill Henning has posted up his observations of the apocolypse that never was.
Posted by Colin Cordner
Pontis MP3 Player Review
January 4, 2000
Welcome into the New Year, everybody. Today, 3AG has for us this quote of their Pontis SP503 MP3 Player review:
"Now when I first took the SP503 out of the box, (during math class), I noticed the design of the player. The description on the box claims that the player is ergonomical, which I will have to agree with, especially if your holding it with two hands. However, throughout my experiences with MP3 players, I very seldom actually hold it in my hand. Usually it dwells deep in my pocket, or on a desk, etc. Most people will agree that when they listen to ANY portable music player, they donít desire to carry it around in their hands. So is the SP503 ergonomical? Yes. Does that have any practical use? No. Unless of course you have no pockets, belt clip and so on. "
Cheers!
Posted by Colin Cordner
Micro-Star International Announces MS-6192 Mainboard, Integrated Intel® 820 Chipset
January 3, 2000
820 chipset is Intel®'s new release of next generation chipset with the support of 133MHz system bus and 4X AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port). To further enhance the overall system performance, it incorporates the next generation memory, RDRAM (Rambus DRAM), which enables the memory throughput up to 1.6GB/s with high speed working frequency of 800MHz, |  |
far superior to traditional SDRAM. With above new technology incorporated, the system would result in significant performance enhancement, especially matched with Intel®'s latest Pentium® III processor. MSI showed its capable R&D ability by releasing the mainboard, MS-6192, synchronously with Intel®'s 820 chipset. This MS-6192 mainboard, in ATX form factor, incorporates Slot 1 CPU socket with selectable 100/133MHz front side bus speed. In terms of memory, even though RDRAM is the best match for the 820 chipset, but due to its higher cost of RIMM module, the MS-6192 incorporates 2 DIMM and 2 RIMM sockets to provide consumers the highest flexibility. This allows the consumer to make the best match to his needs in utilizing RDRAM or SDRAM, with the maximum support of up to 1GB system memory. For customers' convenience of expandability, it has 5 PCI sockets and 1 ISA socket (optional). Apart from the standard 820 chipset mainboard features, the MS-6192 also supports the following features:
STR (Suspend to RAM)When the computer is in suspend mode, STR will store system configuration information in RAM meanwhile STR will maintain the memory state by supplying a minuscule current to prevent memory loss, at the same time shut off power to the other components of the system. By doing this, it allows the system to resume in an extremely short period of time.
Supports ATA 66 Supports the latest ATA 66 specifications, which speeds up the throughput and saves time in document saving and retrieval, resulting in improved overall performance.
Built-in AMR (Audio/Modem Riser) socket Supports Audio/Modem Riser. Users only need to purchase a Software Modem Card to utilize the modem function. In comparison with traditional hardware modem, this kind of solution significantly reduces the total cost of ownership.
PC99 Certified With the certificate of PC99, all I/O ports are with different colors which enable users for easy identification.
Built-in sound capability Supports software 3D PCI-class sound without the need to purchase a sound card, and conforms to AC'97 standard. Also available with built-in hardware sound chip (Creative® CT5880) for superior sound performance. |
Posted by Chris Verr
