3DMark 2000: For those of you that are either too lazy to actually shop or just too late, a nifty benchmark by the name of 3Dmark 2000 has taken the net by storm. Not only is it useful, in that it tells you what your 3D graphics card and system is capable of but it also looks pretty flashy with the MaxFX (Max Payne) engine. There's no need to head to a store either as the whole thing can be purchased online instantly for under $20.
3DCool.com's Tornado 1000 Overclocker's Case: This features four 80x80 mounted fans, supplying 172 CFM (Cubic Feet per Minute) of total airflow. This baby has fans mounted everywhere. It also provides all those fans with an easy connect to the power supply, thumbscrews for not only the case itself, but also on the removable motherboard tray, the internal 3.5" bay and the removable 5.25" bay cover and a very deep design (18") for maximum airflow. For more information check out http://www.3dcool.com.
It seems that no "Private Eye" would be complete without our regular look at the world that will be the X-Box. This month there's been less positive information on the project to be. According to several of our sources, Microsoft has looked at going back to the drawing board.
Initially, the X-Box was slated for a Q1 2001 release, not too long after the Playstation 2 hits the US shore. Perhaps feeling the pressure from a post Playstation 2 release and due to hardware improvements, it now seems as though a tentative Christmas 2001 release date has been set. We'll be putting any X-Box coverage on hiatus unless we get firm word from the companies involved that final plans have been drawn. There's still the Playstation 2 to think about…. Can anyone say ArtFX and the Nintendo Dolphin?
Intel's delayed i820 launch hasn't gone entirely unscathed and the difficulties have not stopped with Intel. While we realize that there are a good few Abit mainboard users/owners (and after all we do recommend them) with BX-based boards who might be entertaining the idea of coupling a 'Coppermine' based Pentium III CPU to their good and trusty BX boards while waiting for the i820 boards with RIMMS to begin showing up, be warned that not all Abit mainboards support Coppermine CPUs.
If you own a BH6 or BX6 Rev 1.00, 1.01, 1.02, 1.03, etc. and up you're going to be disappointed. Due to the native design of power needed for the CPU's core, the voltage in many cases will not be sufficient and thus unstable and/or unusable. The BH6 1.1 rev boards do however support Coppermine CPUs but are limited to a 100MHz Front-Side Bus. The 'Flip Chip' Coppermine Pentium IIIs also pose their fare share of problems with the ZM6, BM6, WX6 Rev. 1.0 and BP6 mainboards because the VTT and Reset signals of the Coppermine are different to other Socket 370 CPUs. The BE6, BE6-2, BF6 and BX6-2 (after a BIOS update) do however work just fine with Coppermine CPUs and we've found those boards to be reliable.