Test Drive: V-Rally Review
posted: October 27, 2000 @ 5:27 EDT by: ryan
Nurck.Com have kicked up a review of Test Drive: V-Rally. Here's a snip:
"Each and every car is very customizable via the Car Settings option. From here, players can choose tires, gearbox, chassis and brakes. Tires are heavily dependent on the type of weather for that race. If it is raining, usually a rain tire is selected, deep snow, the deep snow tire and so forth."
[ Comment on Speedy 3D's Forums ]
Rune Game Review
posted: October 27, 2000 @ 5:25 EDT by: ryan
GameSpy takes a look at the Viking game Rune in all its hack-and-slash gory, uh ...I mean glory. Is it a good game?
[ Comment on Speedy 3D's Forums ]
Madden 2001 Review
posted: October 27, 2000 @ 6:20 EDT by: ryan
The Game Den has taken a look at Madden 2001, the long running NFL football game from EA Sports. Here's a snippet:
"Learning the tools of the trade on the offensive side can be quite daunting. Unless you have the ability to read plays like Joe Montana or Dan Marino, expect frustrations to mount as the defense hounds you constantly. But once the controls are mastered, leading the offence to a successful drive can be quite rewarding."
[ Comment on Speedy 3D's Forums ]
AMI Hyperdisk IDE RAID
posted: October 27, 2000 @ 6:19 EDT by: ryan
Neoseeker has posted their review of the AMI Hyperdisk IDE RAID Controller Card. With solid results in the Single Disk, RAID 0, and RAID 1 configurations, this card will please you. Here's a snippet:
"AMI has once again stepped forward into the world of IDE RAID with its new and updated Hyperdisk 100 IDE RAID controller. Not being new to the IDE RAID idea –the Hyperdisk 100 shares many of the same features and physical makeup of the Hyperdisk 66. There are some differences though, including updated firmware, and a new utility included to help better manage the RAID within the OS. Let’s see just how well this controller can handle the new ATA 100 specs of IDE RAID –and whether or not you should make the move to IDE RAID!"
[ Comment on Speedy 3D's Forums ]
Abit KT7-RAID Review
posted: October 27, 2000 @ 6:17 EDT by: ryan
The King of the overclocker's motherboard maker, Abit, handed over their latest creation for The Tech Zone to torture. The KT7-RAID has all the features any overclocker could wish for, and then some. It's performance is staggering, able to take The Tech Zone's 750Mhz T Bird all the way to 1050Mhz! And here's a clip:
"This is one of the highest memory benchmark I've ever recorded from a VIA chipset based motherboard. Abit has done a great job with it. The tweaks Abit added to the KT7's BIOS allowed me to increase memory performance by nearly 40%."
[ Comment on Speedy 3D's Forums ]
Mouse Tweak Guide
posted: October 27, 2000 @ 6:16 EDT by: ryan
Getting tired of your current mouse, is it rather lack lustre handling? Well, don’t replace it just yet. You can do a surprising amount of things with your mouse to make it better again. Be it smoother scrolling, more responsive to input or just more customized for your needs, over at 3D Spotlight they have just put up a mouse tweak guide that covers it all.
[ Comment on Speedy 3D's Forums ]
MS Optical Mouse 2.0 Review
posted: October 27, 2000 @ 6:15 EDT by: ryan
PCRoddin has run the Microsoft Wheel Mouse Optical 2.0 through the maze. Does it find the cheese? Well peep the blurb to get an insight:
"This is one of the second generations of the optical mice from Microsoft. Cosmetically, there is no difference from this and its predecessor. The difference is inside. This mouse is on steroids. The first generation of Microsoft optical mice, as well as the majority of the other brands have the same sensor speeds, 1500 images per second. This is fast and unless you make very large, jerky movements, you can't tell the difference between this and a mouse with a ball."
[ Comment on Speedy 3D's Forums ]
New Case Articles & Such
posted: October 26, 2000 @ 7:02 EDT by: jc
Virtual Hideout has plenty of new content for you.
-First the review the Gear Grip Pro, a cool bag to put all your stuff for you LANers.
-Then they have a Fan Block review which is basicly a fanbus.
-For all you Athlon users, they review the weakinf Device 2 GFD.
-And if that's not enough for you, they have Sound Input Guide that show you how to add some sound inputs RCA plugs to your box. Cool stuff!
[ Comment on Speedy 3D's Forums ]
19.6" LCD Monitor *Drool*
posted: October 26, 2000 @ 6:11 EDT by: ryan
PCinsight has just posted a news release on Eizo's new and huge L771 19.6" LCD monitor! It's the world's first 19.6" LCD panel. Big screen, no harmfully emitted rays, its a gamer's dream come true! Of course, if you have the $5,599 for it. Here are some specs:
1600 x 1200 UXGA native resolution (1.9 Megapixel)
Complete color control (hue/gain/saturation)
16.7 million colors
Full screen scaling
170° viewing angle (vertically and horizontally)
Dual video input
0.249 mm pixel pitch
3 year warranty on parts/labor/backlight"
[ Comment on Speedy 3D's Forums ]
Duron 800Mhz Review
posted: October 26, 2000 @ 6:10 EDT by: ryan
Athlonmb.com has posted their review of the Duron 800 MHz processor. Their final rating was 9.0 / 10.0, and here's a bit of the review:
"Taking into consideration the overclocking potential of the Duron line, not just the 800 MHz model, you can really get a great deal on one of these CPUs. Keep in mind that I took the Duron 800 that I was sent to 1 GHz without any extra cooling, and only having to bump up the voltage 0.1v. While the processor still got very hot, a high-quality HSF (such as the Tai Sol model) should be able to keep anything under 1.2 GHz cool enough to function correctly."
[ Comment on Speedy 3D's Forums ]
Geek Of All Trades
posted: October 26, 2000 @ 6:36 EDT by: ryan
OverclockedCafe has just popped up an article entitled: Geek of All Trades. Here's a quote:
"Ah, the sweet taste of power. After countless nights without sleep, bag after bag of Your Favorite Junkfood (tm), endless research, tweak-reboot-tweak-reboot until your eyes bleed, your journey is complete. Your computer is running faster than the manufacturer ever intended it to. The lights in your neighborhood dim slightly now when you click it on, but you don't care. Power, man, speed. Your CPU, front side bus, and 3D card of choice are all running at maximum optimal speeds."
[ Comment on Speedy 3D's Forums ]
Celeron II 600@1000Mhz
posted: October 26, 2000 @ 6:35 EDT by: ryan
The Tech Zone takes a look at a Celeron II 600 from Overclock Warehouse. What is so special about this Celeron you ask? It runs at 1,000Mhz! And they got the benchmarks to prove it! And here's a quote:
"Overclock Warehouse provides a unique service to the casual overclocker, or to the person in the know, who wants a simpler process, a guarantee, and is willing to pay for someone else's "legwork". They sell pre-tested bundles, guaranteed to function at a higher clockrate."
[ Comment on Speedy 3D's Forums ]
Neverwinter Nights Preview
posted: October 26, 2000 @ 6:34 EDT by: ryan
At RPGPlanet they took a first look at BioWare's Neverwinter Nights.
[ Comment on Speedy 3D's Forums ]
Voodoo5 5500 Review
posted: October 26, 2000 @ 6:33 EDT by: ryan
3DFX has always been known for great graphics, but lately rival nVidia has been stealing some of its market share. There have even been rumors of a possible corporate takeover of 3DFX by nVidia. With their latest line of Voodoo graphics accelerators, 3DFX hopes to make a resurgence. Read 3DGF's review of the Voodoo5 5500, which offers a boatload of great new features, to find out why this is probably the card for you.
"FSAA is the buzzword of 2000 in the gaming world. If you haven’t heard it by now, you need to get out a bit more. 3DFX broke out a while ago, speaking about their upcoming FSAA when they had announced their upcoming generation of Voodoo4/5 video cards. nVidia was caught on the back burner, but came to the forefront again with their T&L technology. In a time where the majority of card manufacturers were more concerned about reaching 60-100 FPS, 3DFX looked to be sacrificing speed over visual quality. It looks as though they have become more comfortable with the speed, and now want to work on overall image quality."
[ Comment on Speedy 3D's Forums ]
Asus GeForce2 MX Review
posted: October 25, 2000 @ 3:26 EDT by: ryan
FiringSquad has posted up a review of the Asus V7100 2V1D GeForce2 MX. Here's a clip:
"We all know that the guys at Matrox had their dual-head support out a long time ago, but the newer offerings from them don't seem to pack much 3D punch. To make matters worse, the newest Matrox card, the G450, is slower than the already aging Matrox G400 Max in some tests. While Matrox does put out solid cards, they simply don't provide the kind of 3D horsepower that hardcore gamers are looking for. With the Asus V7100, our need for high Q3 frame rates and eight million desktop windows might just be answered."
[ Comment on Speedy 3D's Forums ]
AMD Duron Overclocking
posted: October 25, 2000 @ 3:24 EDT by: ryan
ixbtLABS has posted an article called AMD Duron Overclocking Experience. This article is devoted to AMD Duron overclocking methods and results achieved.
[ Comment on Speedy 3D's Forums ]
Weekly Price Guide
posted: October 25, 2000 @ 6:30 EDT by: ryan
Over at Nurck.Com, they've updated their weekly price guide. This gives the latest prices for CPUs, hard drives, memory and video cards.
[ Comment on Speedy 3D's Forums ]
MSI Starforce 816 Review
posted: October 25, 2000 @ 6:09 EDT by: ryan
The Tech Zone takes a look at the MSI Starforce 816. MSI is a respected manufacturer of motherboards, but they also make video cards. MSI's Starforce 816 is their newest video card based on the Geforce2MX chipset. Does 32megs, AGP4X, and "Twinview" with TV-Out for just $139 sound good to you?
[ Comment on Speedy 3D's Forums ]
Gigabyte GA-7ZM Review
posted: October 25, 2000 @ 6:08 EDT by: ryan
TweakTown keeps the reviews rolling this time with a review of the Gigabyte GA-7ZM KT133 socket a motherboard. This board is designed for the value market, but for the price, performs well against a ABIT KT7 RAID and a MSI K7T Pro in their testing:
"Gigabyte have been in the motherboard business for quite some time now, while their name isn't as well known as ABIT or ASUS, its still associated with quality and innovative design. It was Gigabyte who first introduced us to dual BIOS motherboards. Gigabyte's contribution to the AMD market came when the AMD Athlon Slot A came out. Gigabyte were among the first group of motherboard makers to introduce a AMD Athlon solution with the Gigabyte GA-7IX. This board was based on the infamous AMD Irongate 750 Northbridge and the AMD Viper Southbridge. This board was one of the most stable Irongate platforms. This board was later replaced with the GA-7VX boasting the new VIA Apollo KX133 chipset. When AMD abandoned the Slot A form factor and moved over to the Socket A format Gigabyte came straight out with a new motherboard which is what were are reviewing today."
[ Comment on Speedy 3D's Forums ]
Gainward CARDEXpert GF2MX
posted: October 25, 2000 @ 6:08 EDT by: ryan
PCinsight has put up a review of one pretty amazing GF2MX card-- the Gainward CARDEXpert GF2MX TwinView "Golden Sample" (hows that for a long name?" Along with Dual Monitor capabilities, this GF2MX comes equipped with a fast 5.5ns memory. Here is a clip from the conclusion:
"In this review, we have seen that the Gainward CARDEXpert GeForce 2 MX TwinView "Golden Sample" is unlike most other cards on the market today. The substitution of 6ns/7ns memory for a much faster 5.5ns is certainly a welcome change for we saw how an increased memory clock raised the level of performance to a great extent. I myself, though I believe in the spirit of overclocking, I am not much of an overclocker.. until now. And if this product doesn't get you excited about it, then I truly am at a loss to know what will."
[ Comment on Speedy 3D's Forums ]
Why Are PCs so Big?
posted: October 24, 2000 @ 3:34 EDT by: ryan
Why are PC game boxes so freaking big? That is the topic of discussion in this month's editorial at PC Monkey.
[ Comment on Speedy 3D's Forums ]
Aopen Ax3s Mobo Review
posted: October 24, 2000 @ 3:31 EDT by: ryan
The Guys and Girls at Hexus.net have done a review of the Aopen Ax3s Motherboard, it uses the Intel 815 Chipset and has very good performance, thank god we dont need to use Via for most intel boards as they have had trouble-some performance. It seems like Intlel are out of the problems (Gulp). Quote:
"This board has a cool box which I wish others would copy. It has a transparent cover which means you can see what you're buying for a change. Basically you get a board, Setup disk with a freebie copy of Norton Anti-Virus 2000, and an ATA-66 cable."
[ Comment on Speedy 3D's Forums ]
Maxi Sound MUSE Review
posted: October 24, 2000 @ 6:31 EDT by: ryan
Neoseeker has posted Ether's review of Guillemot's competitively priced 4 channel supported sound card. It uses the CMI-8738 audio processor and comes with a number of software titles. Here's a snippet:
"Sound performance wise, the sound card had no trouble in games or audio applications. Sound was relatively clean and compatibility issues did not arise. Guillemot doesn’t publish any SNR ratings but I would hazard it is close to what other sound cards in this price range have. It certainly isn’t as impressive as the output from my Turtle Beach Montego II Quadzilla (rated at 97db), but the sound in all the newest titles game out clear and concise. We paired the MUSE with our BA4800s and had a blast in anything ranging from flight sims to first person shooters."
[ Comment on Speedy 3D's Forums ]
ASUS P3V4X Mobo Review
posted: October 24, 2000 @ 6:28 EDT by: ryan
Today 3D Spotlight has got a review of the ASUS P3V4X Slot 1 motherboard. Based on VIA's Apollo 133A chipset, the P3V4X offers support for PC133 RAM, AGP4x and built-in support for UDMA66 HDs. Here's a snip:
"In both CPU & Multimedia benchmarks the performance was noticeably increased. In both cases the performance increase ranged from between 23 – 25% over the un-overclocked scores. This would seem fairly consistent with the FSB being increased to 124Mhz (24% higher than 100Mhz)."
[ Comment on Speedy 3D's Forums ]
Abit KT7-RAID Review
posted: October 24, 2000 @ 6:07 EDT by: ryan
Penstarsys.com have posted their review of the Abit KT7-RAID motherboard. This is a very well rounded board with many features that make this board a very powerful product. Abit has taken the idea of the KA7 and further refined it to make what is one of the best Socket A boards available. Here is a quote:
"Abit also rotated the KT-133 chipset 45 degrees so that it can decrease the lead length from the CPU and the memory. This is another good design idea as it is able to shorten the lead length, and therefore allow it to possibly run faster than normal. The KT7 is quickly becoming the Socket A motherboard of choice for overclockers, and that sentiment is very well deserved. The rest of the board is very cleanly laid out with a minimum of fuss. None of the slots are blocked by any other component, so full sized cards can be used in any slot. The IDE slots are located behind the 3 DIMM slots, so the ribbons do not interfere with any longer than usual plug in AGP/PCI/ISA card."
[ Comment on Speedy 3D's Forums ]
Hitman: Codename 47 Screens
posted: October 23, 2000 @ 7:08 EDT by: ryan
GameSpy has just posted 7 brand new exclusive images from Eidos' upcoming action title, Hitman: Codename 47. Check 'em.
[ Comment on Speedy 3D's Forums ]
Everglide Tribes 2 Pads
posted: October 23, 2000 @ 7:08 EDT by: ryan
EverGlide has just released the new Tribes2 GIGANTA and Attack Pads.
[ Comment on Speedy 3D's Forums ]
When O/Cing isn't O/Cing
posted: October 23, 2000 @ 11:28 EDT by: jc
Moto from The Tech Zone has posted a very interesting article: When Overclockicng is not Overclocking
"Most people think that Intel has different manufacturing lines for different speed chips when the truth is all the chips come off the same line. Generally, the chips at the center of the silicon wafer can run faster than those on the edge."
[ Comment on Speedy 3D's Forums ]
On Q3A Texture Compression
posted: October 23, 2000 @ 10:57 EDT by: ryan
If you own a GeForce video card, you've probably seen the ugly, banded sky and rainbow artifacts that appear when texture compression is enabled in Quake 3. A Russian programmer recently unearthed a hack that supposedly "fixes" the texture compression support in Quake 3.
[ Comment on Speedy 3D's Forums ]
ST: Voyager Tweak Guide
posted: October 23, 2000 @ 10:51 EDT by: ryan
Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force is the ultimate, sci-fi first person shooter using the Quake III: Arena engine. No matter if you've already got a fast machine, I'm sure you will want to get the best visual quality at the lowest cost of performance possible, 3D Spotlight.net covers netplay and audio tweaking as well as general config tweaks.
[ Comment on Speedy 3D's Forums ]
Tribes 2 Engine Details
posted: October 23, 2000 @ 10:50 EDT by: ryan
Mark Frohnmayer talks about the Tribes 2 engine and what's in store this week over at GameSpy.
[ Comment on Speedy 3D's Forums ]
Combat Flight Sim 2 Prv.
posted: October 23, 2000 @ 10:47 EDT by: ryan
3DGW have posted their in-depth review of Microsoft's latest offering in the Flight Sim arena, Combat Flight Sim 2. A Pacific Theatre based sim has been long overdue and Microsoft has stepped up to fill the void.
[ Comment on Speedy 3D's Forums ]
Euro Playstation 2 Launch
posted: October 23, 2000 @ 10:45 EDT by: ryan
This week's editorial on EuroGamer takes a look at why the Playstation 2 launch here in Europe next month will be one of the biggest anti-climaxes in gaming history. Here's a little taster:
"The PlayStation 2 is surely the most hyped console in the
history of gaming, with the media and gamers alike drooling over
the incredible polygon pushing power of the machine. Thanks to
the constant hype, the console's initial run of around 50,000 units,
which are due to ship on the Friday 24th November launch day in
the UK, had virtually sold out within a few days of the pre-order
scheme going live, despite the rather excessive £300 price tag.
And that's where the problems begin."
[ Comment on Speedy 3D's Forums ]
3dfx/Nvidia & IT Dude Articles
posted: October 22, 2000 @ 8:45 EDT by: ryan
A reader, M, has informed us about two nice articles over at Overclocked Cafe. One is of the nVidia/3dfx thing a couple of days ago which we now presume to be false. The other is a 'cute' article on a young IT dude.
[ Comment on Speedy 3D's Forums ]
Online Buying and Selling
posted: October 22, 2000 @ 8:42 EDT by: ryan
GideonTech.com just put up a small guide with tips and tricks in regards to online buying and selling. With the constant scare of scams and rip-off artists, this is a definite read for the new guys out there who are not sure if online shopping or trading is safe. Snip:
"We have collected a couple of tips and tricks to make your online
purchasing and selling experience a whole lot smoother. These are all
written by people who have experience in dealing with these issues, which can be applied to trades and deals on EBay or many of the other trading communities. Good luck!"
[ Comment on Speedy 3D's Forums ]
