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Quick New Chipset for Pentium 4
Hello,
In the rough and tumble world of chipsets, everything comes down to how fast you are. Intel has long held the performance crown, but every so often an upstart challenges big blue and wins. A few years ago this was VIA, and now SIS are going for the gold with the 655FX core logic. Chipsets are the devices which run our motherboards, allow the processor to communicate with the PCI cards, memory, and peripherals. Choosing the fastest motherboard often comes down to first choosing the fastest chipset. Lately, this has meant that Pentium4 motherboards based on Springdale (i865PE) and Canterwood (i875P) have been getting the most attention. After all, we don't upgrade our motherboards very often, so choosing one that is very fast, full of features, and absolutely stable, is always important. With that in mind PCstats looks at the SIS655FX chipset today, and the results are something I think you'll find of great interest. Also in this weeks Edition is another fabulous Industry Insights over in the right hand column, a look at an all-in-one cabled KVM from Justcom, and another core logic by the folks at ATI.In PCstats Beginners Guide to Legally Copying Software and Music, Mike explores some of the do's and don'ts when it comes to
backing up your investments - all with an eye towards not getting sued.
And for some fun, the PCstats Newsletter has taken a pair of Corsair's XMS4000 Pro memory for a spin, as well as a nifty little Radeon 9600 Pro videocard from Gigabyte. That's it for this week, so stay tuned to www.pcstats.com for all the
latest news in the coming week!
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 |  A guide through the murky maze to help you protect your
investments - without getting sued. - Version 1.0.0
The RIAA, movie production companies and major
software companies would have you believe that internet piracy is
undermining the entire system of pay entertainment, and removing the
livelihood from the creators of the products. The advocates of music and file sharing argue that movie and music
file sharing has not noticeably impacted the commercial prospects of the
respective industries. Heck, file sharing may have even helped increase CD
sales by exposing more music to more people. Both sides have legitimate points, but we are not going to argue
them here. What we want to look into is what you are legally
allowed to do with your OWN software and music on your
computer. Given the current climate of RIAA lawsuits and
piracy crackdowns in the news, it's easy to see people getting a little
worried over the handling of their legitimate software and music on their
home system. Continue -- Click
Here>>
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Today we have the opportunity to take a
close and personal look at the newest member of the SIS chipset family for
the Intel Pentium 4 processor; the SIS 655FX. There's more to the
655FX than just a dual channel memory controller and 800 MHz FSB
compatibility though, the brand new SIS 655FX and accompanying SIS 964
Southbridge each contain some very innovative technologies developed by
SIS.
 These technologies give the SIS655FX a
performance level equal to that of Intel's very popular i865PE
'Springdale' chipset, and in some cases, to that of the high end i875P
'Canterwood' chipset. Remarkable you say?
With the 655FX, SIS are introducing an
interesting new technology known as 'HyperStreaming'... but more on that
in a moment. By default the SIS 655FX supports Intel Pentium 4 processors
running on a 400-thru-800 MHz FSB. The chipset also packs in a dual
channel PC3200 memory controller, meaning it can provide the Pentium 4
with up to 6.4GB/s of bandwidth. Continue -- Click
Here>>
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Corsair's TwinX1024-4000Pro memory modules
are easily the coolest looking DIMM's on the market, bar none. Sure there
have been other companies to incorporate LED's on a stick of memory, but
Corsair have
taken this to the next level. Eighteen
red, orange and green LED's pepper the outer edge of the DIMM and blink on
and off something to the effect of a memory-level tachometer. The two rows
of LED's represent each bank of the memory module independently, and as
the individual DRAMs are accessed the lights reflect the 1GB of memory
being used. Watching the pair of Corsair XMS512-4000Pro light up through
the side of a case as a benchmark runs through its paces is something to
behold. Of course there's more to memory then just
bright lights, the Corsair TwinX1024-4000Pro memory kit (two sticks of
CMX512MB-4000Pro memory) are also some of the fastest DIMM's on the
market. Continue -- Click
Here>>
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For the computer technician a KVM (Keyboard,
Video, Mouse) switch is an invaluable tool as it allows one to use
multiple computers with just one keyboard, mouse and monitor. Justcom manufactures
many different switches to suite your needs. Today we're going to be
looking at their JC-M104U 4-Port USB KVM Switch. For good measure Justcom
also include two four foot and two six foot multimedia (audio, USB and
video) cables! Integrating the USB keyboard/mouse, video and audio into
one cable certainly makes cable management a lot easier. The
JC-M104U can support up to four computers at once and the KVM can even
support resolutions as high as 2048x1536 @ 85 Hz! Continue -- Click
Here>>
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 Ever since
ATi released their Radeon 9700 Pro VPU in the summer
of 2002 they've taken control of the graphics card markets. Today we're
going to be looking at Gigabyte's mainstream Radeon 9600 Pro which is quite
aggressively priced; just below the that of most GeForceFX 5600 class videocards (it's main competition). Despite
the reasonable price, the Gigabyte Radeon 9600 Pro does come with a
few goodies including full versions of Serious Sam, Oni and 4x4 Evo. Surprisingly, Gigabyte equips their Radeon 9600 Pro with
Samsung 2.8ns BGA DDR RAM, the same found on the Radeon 9700/9800 Pro
based videocards! Continue -- Click
Here>>
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| ATI now offers
chipsets to compliment both Intel's Pentium 4 and AMD's Athlon XP
processors. While its first generation was somewhat uninspiring, the new
'RS300' Radeon 9100 IGP promises to offer something more - at least to
prospective Pentium 4 owners.  Initially, ATI was only prepared to
announce support for processors operating on a 533MHz front side bus.
It hadn't yet been granted
the necessary permission to work with the latest 800MHz chips, and
thus, the 9100 IGP was shaping up to be a
compelling value proposition. The 9100 IGP now supports the full range of Pentium 4
processors, from the low-end 400MHz parts to the more expensive 800MHz variants.
Continue -- Click
Here>>
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PCstats Issue
No.110
Circulation: 259,930
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| Industry Insights |
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Sure, we're all fans of PC hardware, but as gaming consoles start resembling computers, it really pays to stay abreast of the hardware that finds its way into your entertainment center. ATI is already involved in Nintendo's Gamecube, NVIDIA and Intel power Microsoft's Xbox, and Rambus' proprietary RDRAM technology enables high-speed memory on the Playstation 2.
The next generation of game consoles promises to be even more exciting. And don't be surprised if they resemble elegantly packaged PCs, either. Microsoft's second-generation Xbox is really starting to come together, featuring technology from both ATI and IBM. The processor will center on 64-bit technology, requiring a bit from Microsoft's operating system team. ATI won't go on record regarding its role, but graphics is the firm's specialty, and I'd expect to see ATI tackle at least that one component.
Nintendo is a bit more secretive about its next-generation lineup. However, seeing as though IBM and ATI are both involved with Gamecube, and now Microsoft's project, it will be interesting to see how Nintendo handles its hardware situation. Word on the street has it that the fifth-gen console, N5, may be delayed until 2006. Perhaps we'll have to wait until E3 2004, when the console is supposed to be previewed.
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| Written By |
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Editor-in-Chief
. M. Page
Weekly Tips
. C. Sun
I.I. Columnist
. C. Angelini |
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