February 2001

Wednesday Evening (0 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 28-February-2001  20:31:59 (GMT +10) - by Agg I guess if you're going to fork over the dosh for a GeForce3 you'd want to be pretty sure you're buying the right one.. SystemLogic have a GeForce3 Comparison Guide to help you pick a card. Speaking of which, I just checked out the about us page on SystemLogic, woah! I am definitely posting their news from now on, otherwise they will send their homeys around to pop a cap in my ass. :) Only kidding guys.. :) If you've still got too much money lying around the house, consider a P4 system! HardOCP have a comparison of two P4 motherboards to get you started. More 3DMark2001 screenshots and teasers on their page.. I dunno, that video from earlier today was pretty good, but not long enough! I said I wouldn't post any more ALL YOUR BASE stuff, but this deserves some credit for sheer effort.. putting it on a bridge over a road in Sydney.. :) Maybe I've been in this game too long but I can't tell if these things are a joke or not anymore.. :) Thanks mr bill. From the PCDB.. Tress's funky system and Demoman's cool mobile phone holder PC.. :) This forum thread gave me a good laugh today.. "Does your GF hate Overclockers.com.au?".. hehe. Digit-Life have some digital photography stuff happening from a recent skiing championship in Russia. OCAU Counter-Strike (0 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 28-February-2001  15:17:16 (GMT +10) - by Agg I've update the OCAU Counter-Strike Info section with the new server password - that's right, the server will be password protected from now on. It will always be listed on that page (unless there's closed games going on for tournaments or whatever reason) so readers of the website can usually always use it. The password exists so that non-OCAU people can't hog up the server as has been happening recently. Given that it was built from parts donated by OCAU people and provided for OCAU people to play on, this seems fair. Also, Iceman has added a further page, about using and making custom CS logos. Wednesday Afternoon (0 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 28-February-2001  13:05:18 (GMT +10) - by Agg Brain feeling numb? Shaking uncontrollably and murmuring "GeForce3.. GeForce3.." ..? Here's some reviews of other stuff to take your mind off it. Shuttle AV32 Socket370 motherboard on NeoSeeker. Rounded Cables on BlueSmoke.. our cheapy option here. Soyo K7VTA Pro SocketA KT133A mobo on ExtremeOC. Arctic Silver II thermal paste on OCPrices. The Claw game controller (pulled apart) on DansData. Volcano II vs Vantec FCE socket cooler shootout on OCA. Philips CDRW-800 cheapy CDRW drive on RizeNet. 3DMark2001 Trailer (0 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 28-February-2001  12:39:08 (GMT +10) - by Agg Hey, stop reading GeForce3 reviews and go download the new preview trailer of 3DMark2001! I'm grabbing it now. For newbies, 3DMark2000 is the standard 3D benchmarking program. Not only does it provide a useful comparison of how disparate machines perform in a lot of modern games, it's also got some quite fantastic eye-candy and 3DMark2001 is expected to be even better. GeForce3 Day! (0 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 28-February-2001  12:15:34 (GMT +10) - by Agg Whooosh, that's the sound of a Non-Disclosure Agreement being lifted all over the net. Here's what I've found so far, if you find any more let me know and I'll update this post. In case you've just been unfrozen from a block of ancient glacial ice, GeForce3 (which used to be called NV20) is NVIDIA's new-beaut-whizzo graphics chipset. More info on these sites: Anandtech Digit-Life TomsHardware SharkyExtreme HardOCP GameSpot FiringSquad There.. did I miss anyone? Tuesday night news... nothing exciting tonight. (0 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 27-February-2001  23:02:10 (GMT +10) - by Sciby IBM has had enough of the CPRM (Copyright-Protection scheme for Removable Media), and wants out. Thanks to manaz for the link. Here's an interesting article on holographic memory. Nicely explained, especially for idiots like me. Hmmm... it looks like RIAA is going after OpenNap, an opensource Napster server... thanks to Malleus. We're all Counter-strike lovers here, so these tweaks from TweakBase might just bake your loaves. Excited about the GeForce 3 aka NV20? Well, you should be, here's some more info... More Techo stories that go along the lines of "These users are so stupid, therefore I... am a God!" *ahem*... this time from Tech Extreme. Oooh, oooh... quantum computers! Well... how they might possibly work, anyway. VR-Zone has done up a KT133A upgrade guide for those thinking of upgrading their systems. More about the performance difference than difficulties. Got a GeForce? You'll need a new copy of the GeForce Tweak Util then. It's up to version 3, y'know. Finally, some more "All Your Base Are Belong To Us" crap: this time a kid got himself suspended for yelling it out all the time in class. Silly fool couldn't even get the quote right. Or maybe it was the teacher. *shrug* Reviews: SyncMaster 955DF DynaFlat 19" Monitor Review - at The Ctrl-Alt-Del.Com. Arctic Silver II thermal grease - at TacoNuts. Zalman CNPS (Computer Noise Prevention System) - at TrainWreckers, looks interesting. ThermalTake Volcano 2 - at Frostytech. Mouse Skates(!) - at ExHardware. Asus A7M266 DDR Motherboard - at AMDMB.Com. We are the champions.. (0 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 27-February-2001  22:45:09 (GMT +10) - by Agg Well, not quite. Congratulations! We are pleased to advise you that www.overclockers.com.au has been ranked 6 by Hitwise Australia in the Computers and Internet - Hardware category. Your ranking is based on the number of pages viewed on your website by over 1.2 million Australian Internet users for the period October - December 2000. Since the beginning of the year we've been sitting pretty solidly at 2nd place behind Sony. Not too shabby at all - thanks guys! :) You used to be able to check the current ranking via Top100.com.au but they have removed that service now, instead wanting you to sign up for an account with hitwise.. hmm. I guess we'll see if we get an award next quarter or not. Tuesday Afternoon (0 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 27-February-2001  12:58:20 (GMT +10) - by Agg "Hannibal" is a very disturbing movie. :) There's a couple of USD price guides on 3DRage and SystemLogic. Well, things can't be going too badly in the online media world if Dan's just bought himself a new Ferrari.. it's an RC model kit, of course, and unsurprisingly Dan has quite a lot to say about it. :) Apparently people flogging bits out of other people's PC's at LAN parties is not as rare as you might expect.. however with one of these things wired up inside your case you should be able to leave it alone with no fear. 36 switches and 6 temp monitors might be seen as overkill to some, but apparently not for PJPower and their Purple Rain project. Splog has put updated pics of his own very cool system into the PCDB.. TechnoYard have a sort've overclocking for dummies guide posted. Pognogit have a fairly standard watercooled system, but a Duron 600 at 1104MHz is nothing to be ashamed of.. lots of big pics on that page, be warned. I note they're using the DangerDen water-block we reviewed some time ago here.. thanks Alan. TechPatrol have an article on making copper SDRAM shielding.. I dunno, looks pretty dodgy to me. :) Another Detonator comparison article, this time on OCCafe.. TE have some rants and raves about stuff that annoyed them in February. First on the list is the GF3's pricetag.. Reviews: GearGrip Pro PC carry-strap on OCHW. OCZ Performance SDRAM on TheTechZone. D-Link DI713 wireless gateway on AwareMag, hmm, intersting.. SC-190 System Cooler on MikhaiLTech. SMC Wireless Broadband Router on Hardware-One. Cyclone 5000 case on OCOnline. Monday night news... eek, quick one, running late. (0 Comments) (link)  Monday, 26-February-2001  23:51:25 (GMT +10) - by Sciby SuperGreg is an interesting guy. Very interesting. I'm not sure if it's parody or not. If it is, it's just sad. If it isn't, it's even sadder. But wait? He's back! (?) Very bizarre. TweakMax takes a look at 2-phase and it's relation to the Palomino chipset. Exciting. Monday Afternoon (0 Comments) (link)  Monday, 26-February-2001  14:28:44 (GMT +10) - by Agg Eric says: As you probably know, there's the usual IT Expo on at Darling Harbour March 7-9, alongside Networld and the Linux Business Expo. If you pre-register, you can get a free ticket to each event ($25 each!). http://www.infosalons.com.au/it2001/register.html http://www.infosalons.com.au/nplusi2001/register.html http://www.infosalons.com.au/linuxexpo/register.html I did this a little while ago, no sign of my free tickets. Apparently FIC are sending me a whole pile of them also, might be able to give some away if they arrive in time.. MadOnion have a Daily Q&A section about their upcoming 3DMark2001 product on their website.. ohhh, you tease, just release it already! :) From the PCDB, neon casebadge mods.. where will it all end? :) Yet another GeForce3 preview article, this time on EuroGamer - the reader comments at the bottom are interesting too, seems everyone is (unsurprisingly) shying away due to the extreme price. I've been playing Counter-Strike on a TNT2U card lately, it's very playable on my Duron700 games box. I'm scared to think at what price the GeForce3 cards will be hitting the shelves here.. Some people mentioned that OCAU seems faster for them today, perhaps Zip (who colocate our dedicated server) have worked out their domestic traffic issues now. From the sounds of things international traffic could get a boost too, with a future upgrade to the SouthernCross Cable. Hypothermia are giving away a stick'o'ram.. Andrew points out this online proggy to speed up your connection. I haven't even looked at it so be careful, kids. Update: Ok, now I have looked at it.. erm.. is it a joke? I hope so. :) The usual whacky stuff on ZZZ Online.. a shaver with ethernet?! Reviews: ViewQuest Digital Camera on ARP. Lots of Socket Coolers on OCShoot. Microstar K7TPro2A on OC.DK. D-Link DMP-120 MP3 Player on InsideHardware. Right, that's it I'm afraid, you'll have to find some work to do now. Either that or hit the forums.. :) Sir Don passes on.. (0 Comments) (link)  Monday, 26-February-2001  13:12:15 (GMT +10) - by Agg Yesterday was a real day for tragedies - Sir Donald Bradman, who surely needs no introduction, passed away yesterday morning. There are some comments in the forums. He had a great innings but he will still be missed by countless admirers around the world. Monday Morning (0 Comments) (link)  Monday, 26-February-2001  01:34:07 (GMT +10) - by Agg Sniper650 sent in a bunch of links, the first of which is to some general GeForce3 info on geek.com here. Some comments by John Carmack about Doom3 and the Mac here on Shugashack. AMD are apparently getting a finger into the XBOX despite MS using Intel for the main chip. Maular has been playing with various settings on a 1.2GHz Athlon and posted his results in the forums. ProCooling have made futher progress with their watercooled LAN box. Speaking of watercooling, Raidzero encountered the dreaded galvanic corrosion problem with the Senfu gear and did the only sensible thing they could with the waterjacket.. Reviews: Hercules 3D Prophet II MX on HardAvenue. Mini Super-Orb & Volcano II socket coolers on Overwear. Swiftech MC370-0A socket cooler on ClubOC. Intel D810E2CB Socket370 motherboard on PCInsight. Evergreen Portable Mp3/CD Player on AcidHardware. Judge killed (0 Comments) (link)  Sunday, 25-February-2001  21:02:15 (GMT +10) - by Agg You might have seen on the news that a 20yo from QLD was killed at Eastern Creek Raceway today. He was Todd Wilkes AKA Judge who was a regular on oz.org and who ran www.twinturbov8.com. Although I didn't know him personally I extend my condolances to his family and friends and hope that they draw some small comfort from his death being during his pursuit of something he was clearly passionate about. That desire to push the envelope and maximise performance is something I'm sure we as overclockers can relate to. It's a tragedy that, for Todd, it ended this way. He'll be missed by many. Sunday Morning (0 Comments) (link)  Sunday, 25-February-2001  11:43:01 (GMT +10) - by Agg At about 1:00 AM today we served our 2 millionth pageview for February. Going to be a record month.. again. :) 51.6GB of http data sent so far this month! McGoff points out this Australian Beowulf cluster. Performance is not too shabby for AUD $50K, using 64 1GHz Athlons. TheTechZone have a sneak peek of Windows XP, which used to be called Whistler.. Spode have a comparo of the Aopen AX34 Pro II and AX3s. Socket370 boards from the same manufacturer but using different chipsets - one i815E and one Apollo Pro 133A. Turn your PC into a "home entertainment system" with the Fast Media Remote.. Ratpad vs fUnc in a mousepad shootout at the Cole3D corral. Our review of the fUnc here. A thermaltake shootout on OCOnline.. coupla orbs vs the new VolcanoII thingy. Two new products from Thermaltake previewed on AwareMag - a ram heat spreader to make your DDR look like RAMBUS :) and a low profile cooler for rackmounted gear, thanks OzEight. Pengo points out the NVIDIA Reg Patch on TweakFiles has been updated. This includes win2k support as well as including the best tweaks for all nvidia drivers from 5.x to 7.x. Some speculation (harvested from elsewhere on the web) about the GeForce3 memory interface on that unnamed GeoCities page, again.. maybe I should just start calling it GeForceCities. Reviews: Cyrix III 600MHz CPU on FullOn3D. Windtunnel case on ChicksHardware. Juno P3 ATX midi-tower case, and you can win it, on Spode's. Saturday Noon (0 Comments) (link)  Saturday, 24-February-2001  12:03:15 (GMT +10) - by Agg A few people sent this in: there's a video of Steve (Apple) Jobs showing off NVIDIA's GeForce3. On this page click the link "Jobs unveils "amazing" Geforce 3" and pick your preferred player/speed. Steve crows about it being on the Mac first of course, but calls up an NVIDIA guy to show off some rendering, and then calls up John (id Software) Carmack to show off some preview stuff from "our next game", presumably Doom3. The breathlessly-excited marketing speak gets a little tiresome but the graphics are certainly impressive. Nothing that made me leap out of my chair compared to the GeForce2 but some of the Doom3 models are pretty amazing, worth a look if you've got the bandwidth to check it out. Mike pointed out that John Carmack's .plan has a big dissertation on his (positive) feelings about the GeForce3. More info about the GF3 on TheRegister. Update:Pleb points out that you can get a non-streaming version of the file here if you want to save to your hdd. 13MB zip file. Wired reports that people are forming emotional bonds with little robotic doggies. The unnamed Geocities page has more info on Radeon Hacking, changing your Radeon LE into a proper Radeon with a soldering iron and BIOS flash.. this way works better than the previous way apparently. If that previous link made no sense to you whatsoever, go read TR's Radeon Review and get yerself learned. Just noticed this new entry in the PCDB Gallery.. could you squeeze a few more buttons and knobs on your front there, Widowmaker? :) Nice setup. This one from Tasmaniac is pretty cool & unusual too. Funky fan grills on a GeoCities site. A homemade water-jacket on Spode's.. made from money! Governments generally frown upon defacement of currency, guys. :) Another new site: OCMOD.COM. They have a few articles up already.. A quite bizarre-looking socketA cooler from Canopus, who we more readily associate with expensive video cards these days. The review's in japanese, translate with babelfish. There's a comparative analysis of DDR SDRAM on RealWorldTech.. thanks David. I'm not sure whether to feel sorry for these guys or laugh cruelly.. I suspect the latter, though. I was first intrigued by the comment "I would not expect any negative thoughts, Either post it postive or don't!" in their news announcement email. Go read the review of the GlobalWin Istorm on PCExtremeTech.. the comments at the bottom are much more entertaining than the review. :) I have to say, testing a cooler without using a thermometer is pretty dodgy, you can get one for a few bucks at the chemist or Tandy-type shop or borrow one from your mum even, they always have them. :) They also reviewed the Vantec Bay Freezer but seem to have turned the comments script off.. it's a cruel scene when you're just starting out! Stick with it, guys. :) Reviews: TEAC CD-W58E and CD-W512EB IDE CDRW drives on Digit-Life. Implosion FT1000 case on IANAG. Icemat glass mousepad on BlueSmoke. EKL socket heatsink on MikhailTech. DDR266 1.2GHz Athlon on AkibaPC. It's in Japanese, translate with babelfish. Gigabyte GA-7ZMM SocketA mobo on PCHardware. Right! I'm off to MPU! MPU tomorrow! (0 Comments) (link)  Friday, 23-February-2001  19:12:02 (GMT +10) - by Agg Sydney people, don't forget MPU is on tomorrow! $3 to get in if you're only spectating and there should be quite a few OCAU people there including myself - also Andypoo from SecretNet will be selling OCAU tshirts and mints there! Friday Morning (0 Comments) (link)  Friday, 23-February-2001  11:18:30 (GMT +10) - by Agg Wow.. I think yesterday was a record day for news. :) Thanks JimX and Sciby! I tried to do a small update at about 1:30AM but it was eaten by a Primus DNS error.. grr. MWP has updated the PCDB code again - quite a few cosmetic improvements but the major fixes were getting it to work properly with IE, Netscape and Opera - no simple task. Netscape pauses for a few seconds while it renders some of the pages, but otherwise it all works fine. Check out the sexy rating bars.. :) Speaking of sexy, GeForce3 slips ever closer to being actually available (to people with WAAAAAY too much toy money) .. new press release from NVIDIA up on a zillion sites including HardOCP. Heh, another knowledgebase article, this time from Compaq, that Support people will be able to relate to.. thanks Willmeister. More Linux Kernel 2.4.2 info - Ozone writes: for people who don't keep up with kernel ChangeLogs, 2.4.2 fixes a serious IDE multimode write bug, and a really annoying problem with extra nulls on the tails of files with ReiserFS, so people who run 2.4.0/2.4.1 really, really want to upgrade. Get it from kernel.org - there's a list of Australian mirrors here. Ozone points out another good reason to upgrade, on BBSpot. :) Sven points out something that appears to be a PDA running Linux..? HardOCP have an Asus and Soyo KT133A mobo head-to-head. There's a circuit description for a USB temp monitor on EDNmag.com.. I admit, my brain turned to mush midway through the 2nd paragraph. Thanks StratosFear. Redback sent this in: It appears that the music industry may finally be accepting that the MP3 digital music format is legitimate, and here to stay. Sony, who along with being a major force in the consumer electronics market, are also a major record label owner, have made an external USB CD-RW drive which also functions as a stand-alone MP3 player. It's called the Sony Digital Relay. DrClaw points out a new Aussie free-email-to-SMS-with-ads site.. mobemail.com.au. Reviews: Asus A7M266, a SocketA AMD760 (DDR) motherboard, on OCOnline. Antec SX1030 Case on RizeNet. They call it "stylin" which I'm assuming is good. Blizzard copper heatsink on flipchip.net. Right.. back to my day job as a tshirt factory drone.. :) Thursday night... damn it's hot. *kicks aircon* (0 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 22-February-2001  23:51:50 (GMT +10) - by Sciby It's always hot when I don't want it to be... Ooooer, here's a pic of a vid card with the new GeForce 3 chipset. Droolworthy. HardCoreWard have updated their OEM CPU pricelist... US dollar pricing, blah blah. ...speaking of pricecuts, The Register reckons that we'll be seeing some AMD price drops around the 5th of March... groovy. Thanks to Alchemy. Here's a streaming vid about the new GeForce 3 chipset... and here's some more about the new Apple iMacs. Yes yes, I know they're Apple's, but I like them, so nyah. :P Speaking of both Macs and GeForce 3's, it seems that the GeForce 3 chipset will be out on Mac's first! :) Reviews: Coolermaster ATCS 200 case review - at UK Gamer. Thursday night. (0 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 22-February-2001  23:00:09 (GMT +10) - by JimX It's past my bedtime! Apologies for any stuff ups. Sony have a portable mp3 player that is also a USB burner. Or is it a USB burner that is also a portable mp3 player? Read about it here anyway, on USB Workshop. Wes says: "Linux kernel 2.4.2 is now out... go have fun. I compiling it right now :)" Thanks Wes. Linux people know where to find it :) (I'm only saying that because I don't) Rizenet have released the latest version of their tweaked GeForce NitroSet driver. Have a looksee here. For both 98/ME and 2k. Dreddnews have reviewed the Everglide LAN bag. I can just imagine losing it in a pub full of beefy truckers. "Excuse me sir, have you seen my LAN bag?" HardOCP had a GeForce3 preview up. It's gone now though. If you want to see for yourself (or rather, see the reason why it's not there), it's here. The Tech Zone has got another 16X CD writer review! Hmm, I missed the first one. Anyway, this one is the Yamaha CRW2100EZ and is a 40/16/10x burner. Which is a nice speed, but you have to ask (a) can you afford it, and (b) can you even get it in Australia? Ever wondered what hardware components would make up a $150,000 computer? I haven't. But if you're suddenly wondering now that you've read that first sentence, you can see 3dRage's dream system here. AMD technology in Xbox? Read about it here on MSXbox. Do you want a TV tuner for your USB port? Tech Extreme have reviewed the ATI TV Wonder USB. 3D Spotlight want you to know they've got a revamped web design. OCworkbench have reviewed the FIC AD11 DDR AMD 760 motherboard here. That has to be the most acronyms I've ever said in a row. (wait, is 760 an acronym?) They ran it at 150MHz with a Duron 600. Thermaltake have jumped on the square cooler bandwagon. The Cold Shop have reviewed the Thermaltake Volcano II here. Addendum: Agg has forced me to tell you that the Linux files can be found at Kernel.org. Well ok he didn't force me, he just sent me the link and I had to work out what he was on about :) That's all for tonight! Bed awaits. Thursday afternoon part 2. (0 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 22-February-2001  17:56:06 (GMT +10) - by JimX This just in! A familiar face has made it into Am I Hot Or Not. Right over here, folks. Thursday afternoon. (0 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 22-February-2001  17:39:12 (GMT +10) - by JimX I had nothing to do, so Agg made me do the news. Ah, he's a true supervisor at heart! :) AMDMB would like to report that the A7V133 has a new BIOS. And I would like to tell you that they told me! Lots of other BIOS links there too. Get more free speed out of your K6-3! And let's face it, if you still have a K6, free is something you'll really appreciate, if not require. Thanks to eyOr at OverclockedHardware. ReviewZone have Part 2 of their A-Z of Overclocking. It is quite informative, though I'm not sure I agree with the title of the article. I went looking for what they had listed under "Q" but that's not how it works. More than you ever needed to know about the Creative GeForce2 MX can be found here, courtesy of Guru3d. Want to mod your Gorb? Of course you do, it's not doing much of a job in its current form. How does 3 degrees better cooling sound? Check out Spode's Gorb mod article for details. OverclockerCafe wish to report that their download area is back up. Some nice Detonator drivers there, though that version 10.50 scares me. Digit-Life have 3 new articles up. An Interview with Reinhard Fabritz from AMD, a look at the Asus Terminator (J project), and a review on the GlobalWin FOP38 and WBK38 coolers. Want a dose of 1935 alternate reality? Check out GlideUnderground's review of Crimson Skies. It's a combat flight sim type game with an interesting storyline. PC Hardware have reviewed the MSI 815EP Pro motherboard. Here's a bit: "The main feature which attracts me at this board is stability in extreme conditions. Price is important because most expensive Pentium III must at least have quality motherboards for a lower price than AMD processors. i815EP must be regarded like the real successor of BX because with onboard video it's clear that it would have been impossible to conquer the market.". Read all about it here. Where is .ro anyway? Romania? Are you tired of screwing your existing PC case? Would you be interested in a little screwless number? It's even got 2 front USB ports for your added pleasure. Check out CompUSA's review here. Hmm, it looks like the funky new IBM and Dell style cases I've seen recently. They also review the Radio Shack (Tandy in Aus. probably sell it) 4" cooling fan here. PC Tech Extreme have 3 reviews up. The GlobalWin Istorm here, the Enermax EG451P-VE 431W power supply here, and the Logitech WingMan RumblePad here. I wonder if anyone in Australia are stocking those Enermax's yet? They're damned fine units. Adrian's Rojak Pot have some news on some upcoming Abit boards (on the main page). I think the word "Senfu" is funny, and I don't know why. Adrian has "a small correction to the picture and information on the modification of the Senfu thermometer" here. I'm also informed of something I can't understand (New GAPI (Game API) Benchmark 1.50B results) and whose link is broken, so I'll leave that one out. More news later, I have to be going home soon! 3DMark2001 teasers.. (0 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 22-February-2001  09:59:54 (GMT +10) - by Agg Paul from MadOnion is really teasing us with info about the new '2001' version of their 3DMark benchmarking product. He just sent over a new screenshot: Click to enlarge (111KB) There's a few more screenshots and info on a new preview part of their website. Thursday Morning (0 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 22-February-2001  02:06:46 (GMT +10) - by Agg Nearly 950 entries in the PC Database! Not long 'till the big 1K now. :) Speaking of which, aXis has updated his entry with some shots of his homemade custom speaker setup, very cool. More info in this thread. TomsHardware have built a power box around, among other things, a 1.6GHz Athlon (using a vapochill unit of course) and a DDR-SDRAM motherboard.. full benchies and things in the article. I noticed this shameless promotion of our RC5 team in the forums, nice one. :) You can sign up for the OCAU RC5 Team here or the SETI@HOME team here, depending on whether cracking codes or finding little green men is your thing. :) XG8 pointed out www.geforcefaq.com which is pretty massive, lots of info there and recently updated. TE have a motherboard troubleshooting guide posted.. Hmm, little personal clusters, neato.. thanks Firemoth. Cole3D have a guide to installing an IDE CDROM.. next up, how to dress yourself including tying those tricky shoelaces! JAB pointed out an interview with an AMD person on digit-life.. that claims Athlon SMP will be Q3 of this year. Some NV20/GeForce3 info on the unnamed geocities page that keeps finding this stuff. Meanwhile Ed from overclockers.com lets his feelings about the price be known in his usual subtle manner. :) Thanks Malleus. Lan party, Newcastle NSW, 10-11th March. Info here. Hmm, starting to get a lot of these, and we're not really a gaming site.. hmm.. Reviews: Arctic Silver Paste II on TheColdShop. Crucial PC100 SDRAM on HardAvenue.. no, not a typo. Philips Vesta Pro Scan PC Camera on NeoSeeker. AMI Diag diagnostic package on CPUReview. Soyo K7VTA Pro KT133A motherboard on TheTechZone. GlobalWin WBK32 socket cooler on OCAddiction. Monitor cooler on Mikhailtech. Tshirts Reminder (0 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 21-February-2001  17:35:37 (GMT +10) - by Agg A few people have emailed me today asking how/where to order tshirts, so here's the link to the ordering info thread in the forums. Shirts look like this of course:    Wednesday Midday (0 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 21-February-2001  11:44:42 (GMT +10) - by Agg Hard drive showdown! xbit pits a couple of older IBM hdd's (including 75GXP) against the cream of the current crop here. Not to be outdone, OCWB have a 19-way SocketA Cooler Shootout using a fancy-schmancy logging thermometer thingy. b5lurker sends in this link which claims Documents uncovered in the ongoing legal battle between Rambus Inc. and several DRAM makers could bolster claims that Rambus deliberately broke the rules of the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC) as part of a secret plan to take over the global DRAM intellectual property business. Lan parties: Sydney, 3rd March here, Adelaide, this weekend here. Finally, today's dose of surreality comes from William, this interesting music clip.. I think it's arabic. Only for the truly bored. :) Reviews: CPU-Cool Z1-D socket cooler on DreddNews. Pre-modded aluminium case on GideonTech. ThermoEngine V60-4210 socket cooler on VR-Zone. Quiet PC range of products on OCOnline. Plexwriter 121032A CDRW drive on TweakMax. Wednesday Morning (0 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 21-February-2001  02:23:15 (GMT +10) - by Agg Right, sorry for the [s]lack of news yesterday, however now my GF has a car, I've sent off a bunch more tshirts AND I've replied to and processed all the outstanding orders so I can start packing up the next lot today! So if you've sent an order but not gotten a reply, send me rude email 'coz either your order didn't make it, got lost or I just screwed up. :) Speaking of which, Vaughn Van Asten, I've lost your email, pls mail me to proceed with your order.. ReviewZone have an 18-card GeForce2 MX Shootout. Be warned, lots and lots of small pages. Grr. G3D have a guide to benchmarking video cards in various games etc. Firemoth points out this no-solder-required hack to convert the A7V's onboard ATA100 controller to a RAID controller.. neato! (looks at A7V in games box.. hmm..) I dunno, starving children all over the world are waiting to get their hands on VIA PRO266 and KT133A motherboards and VIAHW.com are smashing them up just to put photos of the guts of the chipsets up on the web.. what a senseless, tragic waste. Interesting pics tho. Hypothermia have an interview with Alan Willard from Epic.. win y'self a copy of UT there too. 3DRage have a Detonator comparison posted. Zed points out this page which seems to be a "b2b" (love those buzzwords) site for electronics dealers.. lots of cool toys listed tho. This isn't a new article on DansData but I'd not seen it before and it's pretty cool.. Dan does case modding, with neons and other silliness. :) Thanks Andrew. Draxx says Seti Gate is better than Seti Stash (linked on Monday night) cause it has stats as well, and can show group stats too.  Get it here. Iceman points out this SETI@HOME cheating article on Wired.. they mention overclocking, hmm. TE have some Crazy Computer Stories II.. more "customers are dumb" tales, getting kinda bored with that humour now m'self. ProCooling have made more progress with their watercooling project. PJPower have also updated their project, interesting waterjackets etc.. Daniel says: LAN  "AWoL" on Saturday, 3/3. The Northen Beaches, Sydney. 24 hours straight Comps and prizes, pizza and hotdogs. http://lan.onlinegames.com.au/ Reviews: Epox 8KTA3+ SocketA KT133A motherboard on AMDMB. Ultra-X Professional diag tools on TacoNuts. Copper Hedgehog socket cooler on HardCoreWare. IOMega ZipCD 12x10x32x CDRW on NeoSeeker. Icemat Mousepad on TweakTown. CPUFX Core socket cooler on CPUTweak. KeyGhost II Standard keyboard logger on AcidHardware. Tuesday Afternoon (0 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 20-February-2001  15:46:27 (GMT +10) - by Agg Spent all day so far helping my GF find a new car after some loony totalled her old one last week. Picked up a Camry wagon in the end, seems to be a good'un.. Reviews: Mini Super Orb on HardCoreWare. Enermax 351 power supply on OCWB. Mmmmm, Enermax, nice PSU's. Arctic Silver I vs II thermal paste comparo on Hexus. BIOS Saviour, neato gadget for those nervous about flashing (err!) on MikhailTech. Midiland S4 7100 Plus speakers on TE. Senfu Thermometer on ARP. OCZ PC150 SDRAM on Max3d. Mini Super Orb on TheColdShop, too. Right! Off to the post office to send another load of tshirts on their way.. Monday night... work... ugh, what a concept. Almost like water torture. (0 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 20-February-2001  00:05:01 (GMT +10) - by Sciby Right, news! Here it is, you know you want it, barely legal, all fresh, all raw, all hardcore action, all... er... *ahem*. Here is the news. JSI Hardware has reviewed a nice little program for all you SETIheads out there:SETI Stash. Clever lil' proggie. ...and The Register has been having some problems with plagurism. CPUTweak has a new review database. Luverly... let's hope they're as good as ReviewClick was. This is just disturbing. Although I'm sure he enjoys himself. *shudder* Thanks *I think* to Andrew for the link. Here's some goss about Microsoft's Windows Product Activation, an anti-piracy measure. System Logic has updated their CPU and Memory Pricewatch. Ahuh. US pricing. yay. Whilst we're on touchy subject's, here's report on Napster and what it all spells out for filesharing on the Internet. Reviews: 80mm CDR Discs - at Digit-Life. Neng Tyi K612 Hybrid Cu/Al Heatsink Review - at FrostyTech. Thermaltake Volcano II / Mini Super Orb Reviews - at Rizenet. Handspring Visor Platinum (PDA) review - at PC Scoop. Antec SX1030 ATX Case Review - at TweakTown. Plextor 16/10/40A CR Writer Review - at The Tech Zone. CS Logo! (0 Comments) (link)  Monday, 19-February-2001  14:58:06 (GMT +10) - by Agg DrR0M has been playing with Counter-Strike spray-paint logos and made an OCAU one - Just the thing for when you're 0wning on our server! click to enlarge To use it, back up or rename the existing PLDECAL.WAD file in your CS directory, then grab this file and put it into your CS dir. Hit T to spray the logo. I found it took a level change for the logo to start working. Don't go into the CS Config, DrR0M warns it will mess up the image. Not sure if you can just fix that by re-copying the file over but I'd expect so. Monday Morning (0 Comments) (link)  Monday, 19-February-2001  09:48:36 (GMT +10) - by Agg OCWB have some info on remarked sound cards of all things.. I found this pic in the PCDB.. go the door locks! :) LostUniverse have an interview with Andrew Phillips, the guy behind AussieGamer and Mammoth.com.au, Australian gaming sites. AMDMB updated their A7V FAQ, info on A7V and A7V133 SocketA motherboards. OverclockedHardware.com reviewed the CompuNurse Thermal Probe.. Gainward Cardexpert Geforce 2 Ultra "Golden Sample" video card reviewed on Overclocking.DK. More of the usual kinda stuff on ZZZ Online.. The Great Forum Reshuffle (0 Comments) (link)  Monday, 19-February-2001  02:55:16 (GMT +10) - by Agg Right, I've been hinting at this for a while now and have discussed it with a few Moderators and readers.. the forums have grown at a huge rate over the last few months, there's been a few outstanding things needing to be done and I've done them all at once. Here's what happened: Manaz and Wolfy have been promoted to Administrator status. This means they no longer appear next to the forum names as moderators, but can moderate all forums and do behind-the-scenes stuff in the forum software. This is in recognition of the hard work they both do on a daily basis in the busiest forums and their involvement with the workings of the site. Thanks guys! LoneWolf and Chris Nolan have become Moderators. LoneWolf will be helping out with most of the general forums while Chris is looking after a few of the specific-topic ones. Beast's responsibility has expanded to both specific-motherboard forums and the Case Mods forum. The forums are now split into Community, General Topics, Specific Topics and Shop&Swap (Registration Required). This has meant a reordering of the forums. Hopefully this is a more logical arrangement and allows for traffic growth a little better. The Trading Forum has been split into 2 forums - "For Sale" and "Wanted to Buy". This is due to the heavy traffic this Forum was experiencing - it wasn't unusual to get a full screen of new/modified threads in 6 hours. Old topics from the Trading Forum are in the For Sale forum, but I have deleted those more than 30 days old. This was nearly 20,000 messages! A few forum descriptions were updated - more of this will happen soon as we clarify the roles of each forum. The PCDB forum was intended to be merged with the Site/Article/Review Forum, but after thinking about it I'll leave it for now. It might happen in the future. I think that's it.. Sunday night... *yawn* (0 Comments) (link)  Sunday, 18-February-2001  22:04:44 (GMT +10) - by Sciby I had a weekend... it went thataway *points*... anyway. Some gossip about the next operating system AFTER WinXP. It's all very strange if you ask me. Why can't they just get one OS right before moving onto a hashmashed new one?? Hmmmm... a mobile phone, that's got 64mb for mp3 playback? Ha! I'd like to see that? Eh? Oh. It exists. Wow. Thanks to Xixys. And now in MP3! The All Your Base Are Belong To Us singers! (Thanks Geoffd1) OCAddiction has a new how-to guide: How To Apply Thermal Paste. Hmmm... right. Reviews: OCZ's Silver Thermal Paste - at Club Overclocker. Round IDE and FDD cables - at Club Overclocker. SDRAM comparo - at 8Balls. Archive updated.. (0 Comments) (link)  Sunday, 18-February-2001  13:42:59 (GMT +10) - by Agg Bored? Looking for something to read? Check out the Article and Review Archive, over 100 historical articles/reviews should keep you busy for a while. I've updated it today with some stuff from the last few weeks: Speed Cheat - not just for Half-Life anymore. FrontX Multimedia Ports review. DOS Fix for Windows ME updated to version 2. Chipset Coolers - 5 way shootout. Case-Mods at MPU, the 2nd of these articles. More dodgy retail cooling.. (0 Comments) (link)  Sunday, 18-February-2001  13:15:34 (GMT +10) - by Agg Paul says: My northbridge on Abit KT7A-Raid: Great job with the thermal paste there lads. Sunday Afternoon (0 Comments) (link)  Sunday, 18-February-2001  12:57:28 (GMT +10) - by Agg *yawn* Digit-Life have cranked out another great comparo, this time pretty much every CPU and chipset family is represented, this is a biggie and definitely worth checking out.. DoDg3 put some pics of his cool modded system into the forums. Love the GT stripes. :) Got an IBM drive making odd noises, got you worried? TheGibbon pointed out this page which has sound samples you can listen to, of drives with various faults, to try and identify if yours has a problem. What a cool but simple idea.. MWP put up some info on a VIO Voltage mod on the P3V4X which helped him run his RAM at higher speed.. AwareMag had a go at modding a cheapy case - while Spode rips into a more expensive one.. TheTechZone went and checked out the offices of ACT Labs, makers of joysticks, wheels etc.. TheGameDen was there too, they have pics and info also. Fullon3D have added a Radeon Section to their site.. Silvos says: LanDAG Computer Gaming has an event on the 4th March. Bring your computer along and play your favouritemultiplayer computer games against other people. This event is held at Cranebrook near Penrith, West of Sydney. The cost for this event is $10. Starts at 8am Sunday and and runs for 12 Hours. Contact Daniel on 0414678944 for more info. Register or view more information on line at www.dag.net.au.. Don't forget MPU is on this coming Saturday, probably too late to register to play now, but $3 at the door lets you be a spectator - Andypoo will be selling OCAU tshirts there and it seems there'll be a lot of OCAU people, myself included, turning up to this one.. Digit-Life have a Sound FAQ posted, more on the physics side than soundcard-specific info.. Dunno if you've noticed this, but the phrase "ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US" has become something of a catchcry in the HardOCP forums and hence across much of the hardware/overclocking scene.. apparently the phrase was taken from a badly-translated game intro. Andypoo sent in this link which has a flash anim of the intro followed by a techno tribute with lots of cleverly modified images.. quite well done, I found it strangely compelling and watched it a couple of times, whether or not you find it actually funny is up to you.. :) Andy also set up a mirror which works better for people using Linux. Reviews: Rounded Cables on AcidHardware. Our cheaper solution here. 3DfxCool Socket AHO cooler on OverWear. CPUfx Ramsinks on ClubOC. Hmm, bizarre. Epox 8KTA3 SocketA KT133A mobo on Xoverclocker. Duron 600 @ 155Mhz FSB, not too shabby. The Core socket cooler on Hexus.. MSI K7T Pro2a SocketA KT133 mobo on HardAvenue. Boston Accoustics 7500 speakers on GideonTech.. Enermax 80mm Thermally-controlled fan on ClubOC. Saturday Morning (0 Comments) (link)  Saturday, 17-February-2001  10:56:31 (GMT +10) - by Agg D'oh, another duron goes crunch, this time in the forums - thanks Wolfy. Apparently EverGlide have some totally new products coming out soon, according to the SiliconHorizon forums.. thanks VooDoo. Also in the forums, a mobo-confusing mobile phone.. An interesting water-cooling project inside an old Compaq server case on Compu-Geeks. Hmm, Morjo pointed out this DirectX for BeOS which lets people write games for Windows and BeOS at the same time.. There's an interview on OCCafe with Tom Leufkens, who has been involved with the overclocking and cooling scene for years now.. CAD have a load of Windows XP (Whistler) screenshots. Use napster, get cops kicking in your door. Well, not quite, but it's a bit of a worry, I know there are some pathological napster addicts reading this page. :) Thanks morjo. Reviews: Kenwood 72X CDROM with multiple (Dr Evil voice:) "laser" beams. Grado SR60 headphones on EXHW. Sony Spressa CRX160E-A1 CD-RW drive on LWD. Argh! (0 Comments) (link)  Saturday, 17-February-2001  00:37:16 (GMT +10) - by Agg Now this is annoying.. The download speed's not bad, though. :) Of course, the file was still in IE's cache so I didn't have to re-download it. For a few seconds I was decidedly unimpressed, tho. :) Friday Evening (0 Comments) (link)  Friday, 16-February-2001  18:42:07 (GMT +10) - by Agg This broadcast is coming to you live from the AggCave via ADSL! Woo! Haven't done any real speed tests yet but it's very snappy cruising around the web which is my main concern. :) Special greets to V0lk, registered user #4000 in the forums! Wired looks into whether the old saw of "you can't use mobile phones on aircraft" is just a scam. Another hardware review on VideoCardDrivers.com .. this time it's the VolcanoII cooler from Thermaltake. Picked the wrong domain name or something, guys? :) HardCoreWare also reviewed the VolcanoII. This is of course a socket cooler from ThermalTake, who are taking the bold step of producing a non-orb cooler. Danthemanz points out this info on xbit about a new P4 stepping.. More mindless ranting from MicroSoft about things they don't understand and aren't afraid to show it, thanks Andypoo and GeoffD1. I'm an American, I believe in the American Way. I worry if the government encourages open source, and I don't think we've done enough education of policy makers to understand the threat. The mind boggles, truly. Digit-Life have a February 2001 IDE HDD Roundup posted.. TheTechZone, obviously feeling that a Tbird 1200 is just too slow, had a good crack at overclocking one. Wolfy poined out this petition to get future Unreal engines to support SMP. Mmmm.. SMP. SystemLogic want everyone to be a better tech. Reviews: Iwill KA266-R SocketA KT133A mobo on Hexus. They like it a lot. Iwill KA266-R also on AMDMB.com.. they like it too. ThermoEngine socket cooler on 3DNow.org.uk. Mousemats from Everglide and Ratpad go head to head (yet again) on 3DNow.org.uk. Vantec FCE-62540D Socket Cooler on FrostyTech. Wind Tunnel II pre-modded case on FastMHz. MSI 6340m KM133 SocketA mobo on VIAHW. Friday Morning (0 Comments) (link)  Friday, 16-February-2001  07:54:17 (GMT +10) - by Agg ADSL today! ADSL today! I hope. The review frenzy from last night seems to be continuing, not much other news tho.. VIAHW have a guide to memory tweaking with WCPREDIT.. they had some good results with it. Reviews: Videologic Sonic Fury soundcard on G3D. Gigabyte Gigabyte GA-6RX on xbit. ThermalTake Mini Super Orb (mini super?) on IANAG. FireWire HDD on DansData. Wow, review city. (0 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 15-February-2001  23:32:33 (GMT +10) - by Sciby Right... The Lonely Astronaut, I'm on dialup at home, so I'm not about to check these out (I'll do it at work tomorrow)... but Squozen reckons they're funny. *shrug* Here's some information about the Microsoft Xbox, which seems to be more interesting by the day, although I still have my MS dislike happening. ;) Thanks to B5Lurker for the link. Reviews: Coolerguys Windtunnel II review - at Hexus.Net. HP 215 Digital Camera review - at Xwing.Net. EPoX 8KTA3 motherboard - at Rizenet. Proview PX-772 17" Monitor review - at PCStats. Soundman Xtrusio speakers review - at Tech Extreme. IOGEAR MiniView PC 2-port KVM Switch review - at NeoSeeker. AZZO 256MB PC133 RAM Review - at Extreme Overclocking. Kanie Hedgehog heatsink - at Cole3D. 3-in-1 System Cooler - at Mikhailtech. OCAU Counter-Strike Info Pages! (0 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 15-February-2001  22:45:38 (GMT +10) - by Agg Iceman has spent some time drawing up some instructions for connecting to the OCAU Counter-Strike server. It includes info on using GameSpy or CS itself to connect, server info, even links to the latest patches - great stuff! http://www.overclockers.com.au/cs The server and this info should be a permanent part of the site from now on - I have added this info to the left-hand menu in the site template. Thursday Morning #2 (0 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 15-February-2001  10:41:13 (GMT +10) - by Agg Put shirt in satchel, write on satchel, put satchel in bag.. put shirt in satchel, write on satchel, put satchel in bag.. anyone got a spare assembly-line robot I can borrow? :) Tim points out that the OCAU SETI@HOME Team has broken 50 years of CPU time. The little green men will be knocking on our door any minute now! This has to be the most spectacular foot-shoot I've seen in a while, seems Asus are shipping porn instead of drivers on the CD included with one of their video cards.. about a zillion people sent this in. :) Didn't take long for the jokes about Asus Probe to start! Hmm, Spode tried a new way of applying thermal paste and had some interesting results.. Dan's reviewed a couple of peices of wire.. using your USB ports as a power supply for, say, charging your mobile phone. Hmm, neato.. where does he find this stuff? PlanetGeForce send word that NVIDIA's XBOX GPU has been sent to fab, ie, they're actually making it now. Further, if you want to hear a conference call about NVIDIA's Q4'00 financials, head over to here at 5:00pm US east-coast time.. whenever that is. SocketA copper shim reviewed on TechnoYard. Just in time for Valentines Day in the US, digit-life reviewed a couple of AOpen motherboards.. the "Sweet Kiss" (aww) and "Black Beauty" (worry). They also have a thing on GeForce T&L Performance. The KT7 FAQ has been updated. Hurrah. OCOnline have a 4-way SocketA cooler roundup.. including perhaps the silliest of the "slap big fans on an FDP-32 heatsink" brigade, featuring 2 stacks of 2 fans.. [shakes head] "Ungrateful Ninja" sent a link to an easter egg archive, lots of hidden things in programs, movies, books etc. GeoffD1 sent in a few things.. firstly this amusing Operating System Sucks-Rules-O-Meter, perhaps the most bizarre O/S shootout I've seen.. also this *ahem* completely impartial listing, on an MSN site, of the "Top 10 Products of CES" which unsurprisingly lists the Microsoft XBox as #1. More impartial cutting-edge journalism on another MSN site, this time an interview, no doubt completely unscripted, about the new Windows XP (nee Whistler) product. That nice man makes it sound so easy to use, I just want to rush right out and buy it. Finally, IANAG reviewed the ThermalTake Volcano II. Non-orbular cooling from TT.. Celeron 25MHz? (0 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 15-February-2001  09:51:12 (GMT +10) - by Agg James from the UK says: Acquired a second hand machine recently, and thought it was running a bit slow. Being curious I opened the case and found the processor in the attached photo!!! click to enlarge Hahaha.. yes, it's a joke. :) Thursday Morning (0 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 15-February-2001  02:24:20 (GMT +10) - by Agg I've updated the site template so that the forums link at left goes straight into the forum system instead of via the redirector, and so the seti@home link goes to a more frequently-updated stats page for our team. Lots of NV20 stuff happening today. NV20 is of course NVIDIA's much hinted-at new GeForce3 product.. here's a pic, this french site has info on pre-orders being taken in a swiss store, xbit have a summary of that French article in English. A little more info on this geocities page, too. Thanks to Danthemanz for most of those links.. Icrontic have an article about the past, present and future of Abit.. definitely one of the big players in the overclocking game. Dan has written an interesting and very readable article on what cool toys there are and are to come.. Wolfy pointed out this link in the forums, to an interesting "sticky tape with conductive bridges" product for SocketA chips. Looks a bit fiddly to me.. Put on your extra-strong helmet (to stop your head exploding) before reading this article about SMT, like SMP but better, on Tech-Report. Win y'self a heatsink on ExtremeOC, thanks Sniper650.. and win yourself another one on HardCoreWare. Soc points out that you can win an entire P4 system in this Australian competition. Is freedrive closing? Even they don't know says Vindaloo, after receiving firstly a note apologising for discontinuing the service, then another saying how wonderful the free service is and everyone should use it. Bizarre! Computer fair, this Sunday, at Sutherland. No, really. Thanks Eric. Reviews: Abit VP6 dual socket370 mobo on VIAHW. Mouse Skatez on TE. Senfu DIY House on AcidHW. Our review here, I am using this for a testbed now. Overclocked Tbird Combo on 3DRage. "The Core" socket cooler on ClubOC.. does it live up to the hype? AMK PC20-333333 overclockers case on TheTechZone. Wednesday night... (0 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 15-February-2001  00:37:22 (GMT +10) - by Sciby Wow, X-files actually rocked tonight, looks like it might be worthwhile watching again, anyway, some quick news: Tech Patrol has gone old school on some older hardware. Good for those little brothers who get the hand-me-down system from 3 years ago. Bored with your slow palmtop? Well, here's a way to make it spin the wheels. Windows XP eh? Sounds too much like MS is trying to break into the experimental aircraft field with a name like that... Looks like there's a new heatsink/fan in town, the Swiftech 462-A, and Overclockers.Com has the goods. Tshirts selling like hotcakes! (0 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 14-February-2001  21:44:04 (GMT +10) - by Agg 76 confirmed orders, many for more than one shirt. I have finally finished answering all of the email orders so if you've sent an email to orders@overclockers.com.au and not received anything back from me, send it again, maybe something bad happened. Tomorrow I will be packing up all the orders, I did have an offsider to help with that but she is sick, and now my GF's car has been smashed, so big dramas! But I will be posting all the orders for which payment has been finalised, and all the COD ones on Friday. Still plenty left, if you want to grab one the details are here. PS: Steve Hughes AKA redemptionist your email is bouncing and hence your tshirt order is going nowhere, email orders@overclockers.com.au with a working address pls.. Furry Fzzzt! (0 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 14-February-2001  17:15:56 (GMT +10) - by Agg Ok, I know I said I liked pictures of fried hardware, and I guess I was including mice in that statment.. but not the furry kind. :) If you're offended or upset by pictures of little crispy fried critters, move along! This from Kieran: I thought you might like to see the outcome of one of the jobs I did at work today. A customer brought in her HP OfficeJet complaining that it wouldn't turn on..... we took it apart to find this.....    We rang her up and told her that a mouse had caused it, not a power surge. "Geez! I can't beleive it! We only got one of them out three months ago!" The silver blocks around it are the h/sinks. It probably crawled up there for the warmth. We are still at a loss at how it actually got into the well sealed back compartment :-) Awww, poor little furry guy.. Wednesday Morning #2 (0 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 14-February-2001  10:59:36 (GMT +10) - by Agg Hexus apparently have pics of 3DMark 2001 but their site is not loading for me at the moment. Over in the P3V4X/CUV4X forum, Slop has added a new version of his beta4w program which lets you tweak a few settings on the P3V4X, enabling 4-way interleave, adjusting AGP Drive Strength etc. Someone calling themselves "No" (I think) sent word that here you can join the beta program (and receive a free copy) of Adamation's personalStudio 2.0. According to their website this is: an intuitive, yet powerful video production tool for creating stunning, real-time presentations without the need for hardware acceleration. TheOverclockersCafe compared a couple of 60mm fans, Sunon vs Delta. ExtremeOC checked out some copper shims.. not too impressed, they say: If you want to play it safe, just stay away from these shims. They aren't necessary as long as you exercise a little caution when mounting your heatsink ..which is pretty much how I feel about shims at the moment. Digit-Life take a look back at January in their monthly Storage Digest. Wednesday Morning (0 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 14-February-2001  02:05:49 (GMT +10) - by Agg Sunon is apparently suing ADDA over fans used on video cards, thanks Ozone. Wildfire points out this site which may be of interest to Voodoo card owners.. "3DFX Lives On". Brett has an interesting watercooling project happening.. Win y'self a Killer Gaming Rig over on Hypothermia.. TweakTown have some more case mods added to their gallery. When you're done there, check out our gallery in the PCDB. D128.com have an XBOX article posted. Reviews: Napa DAV309 CDR MP3 Player on HardCoreWare. Asus A7V133 on AnandTech (who were hacked yesterday, yes.) Arctic Silver Thermal Paste on a site called VideoCardDrivers.com.. okey dokey. Altec Lansing ATP5 speakers on PCExtremes. OCZ Titan II Ultra video card on IANAG. PCDB Updated! (0 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 14-February-2001  01:13:21 (GMT +10) - by Agg MWP has been beavering away behind the scenes getting some cool new functionality added to the PC Database. In short, the improvements are: Added a new voting system! This lets people rate entries based upon four categories and you can order the database for the highest rating in each in each. They are: looks, functionality, effort and ingenuity. You can also sort by overall rating as well as the number of pageviews each entry has received. When viewing an entry (for example, our webserver's entry), clicking on the thumbnail picture now shows you that picture expanded to full size. Previously, you had to view all pictures at full size which could take ages on some entries. :) Finally, the PCDB now logs its actions a lot more carefully and is more intelligent about multiple requests. This is due to some people using scripts to artificially inflate their pageviews count (no, I'm not kidding). This will also stop people from voting their own PC's high up in the rankings. Special greets to Megadondo who added entry #900 earlier today. :) Tuesday night... (0 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 14-February-2001  00:39:25 (GMT +10) - by Sciby Another day, another ulcer. *pops a Quick-eze* RAMsinks... heatsinks for your ram... why didn't I think of that? Because I'm stupid. Picks 2nd item down the page. Feel like being evil? LittleWhiteDog has released Part 2 of their Evil Tips and Tricks article. I'll admit that I'm a diehard trekkie. I like to mutter bad Kirk impersonations, pronounce "Earl grey tea, hot" to the water heater in the lunchroom at work and use my tv remote like a phaser. So THIS got me rather interested... going to be interesting to see what this one is like. Whilst we're on the subject of entertainment and scifi/fantasy, http://www.lordoftherings.net has a new trailer for the movie! *hyperventilatehyperventilatehyperventilate* The first trailer rocked, this new trailer rocks too, and I so DEARLY want it to be Christmas now. 10 months! *sob* Danthemanz tells us that ATI are dropping their prices. Oh dear, well I never. More Amazing Techo Stories over at Tech Extreme. Wanting to share your usb devices over your network? Well, then read THIS. Interesting. Reviews: Quicksilver thermal paste - at Maximum 3D. AIWA CDC-MP3 Review - at Neoseeker. Tuesday Morning #2 (0 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 13-February-2001  11:09:24 (GMT +10) - by Agg Primus reckon they will be installing my ADSL on Friday morning! Manaz is organising to bring a load more Panaflo Fans into the country. These are great fans and very quiet. I'm grabbing a few for the Big Kahuna 'coz I missed out last time. Not many people experience this firsthand, but Andypoo discovered, when it happened on his proxy machine, that Linux PC uptime counters start again from 0 after 497.1026963 days. :) Because, of course, 497*24*3600*100 ~= 2^32. Here's a google query if you want to hunt for more info. The guy behind the GeForce->Quadro hack has discovered that you can do a similar thing to Radeons.. converting a Radeon LE to normal Radeon. Bit of a demon with the soldering iron, that lad. ProCooling have a guide to building a closed-loop watercooling system. Kazashi points out this Detonator Comparison Database for Win2K and Win9X. Digit-life have a guide to.. uhhmm.. visualisation of convolution surfaces.. owww, my head hurts. Some pretty hardcore 3D theory. Interesting watercooling project happening on PJPower. TE have an article on Magnetic RAM, what they're calling the wave of the future.. LoneWolf pointed out this Australian pre-modded case company, AlienMedia. Some dual blorb action (front and back of a GTS) on RipNet. Mathias said If you post this article on your News-Page, I will drink 5 beer for you! Sounds good, it's a german article about mounting a modified Slot1 Alpha on an FCPGA CPU, neato. Right, where's my beer.. ohh.. HE'LL drink them.. aww, crap. Win y'self one of 5 cases (computer cases, not cases of beer) on CaseEtc. Reviews: VFX3D Virtual Reality helmet.. ooohh.. on digit-life. TwinMOS PC166 SDRAM on VR-Zone. Yes, I know PC166 isn't a standard. Mushkin High Perf Rev 3 SDRAM on JSI. Netgear RT314 Cable/DSL Router on G3D. Fzzzt (again) (0 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 13-February-2001  01:09:14 (GMT +10) - by Agg BootySlap sent this in: This is my old Seagate ST34342A 4.2Gb HDD. A really bad melted plastic smell wafted from my computer the other day. Then after not being able to detect or access the HDD, further inspection revealed this... click to enlarge.. The drive became really sluggish beforehand so maybe it was leading up to it or perhaps a resistor I could not see had broken off? I just know that my nice collection of "programs" has gone! :) Ahh, I love pictures of fried hardware.. especially other people's. :) Tuesday Morning (0 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 13-February-2001  00:57:14 (GMT +10) - by Agg The tshirts are selling like hotcakes! If you've emailed an order and not gotten a reply yet, DON'T RESEND IT, I will be slogging through them still today.. Reviews: Old Mushkin Budget PC100 SDRAM that does pretty well on TheTechZone. Alpha PEP66T socket uber-cooler on OverclockerCafe. OmniView USB KVM Switch on AwareMag. Enermax EG351P-VE PSU on EXHardware. Belkin BusStation 7-port USB hub on USBWorkShop. Leadtek 64MB GeForce 2 GTS on HardCoreWare. Wacom Graphire drawing tablet on BootMax. Rounded IDE Cables on MikhailTech. Our cheapy option here. Iwill KA266 SocketA mobo on MrPCPro. OCZ Twin Turbo, looks like another "strap some bigass fans onto an FDP-32" socket cooler jobbie to me.. on IANAG. Monday night... what a really, really, really... boring night. (0 Comments) (link)  Monday, 12-February-2001  23:45:46 (GMT +10) - by Sciby Hohum... anyway, news. Extreme Overclockering have some coolers to give away, and it seems open to international peoples. OC Prices has a new page up, that allows you to search hardware prices on a global scale! Wooooo... it seems that the vendor signs up with them and then they put the prices in there... interesting. Reviews: AMD DDR 1.2 And 760 Chipset Review - at Overclockers UK. Aopen AK73 Pro review - at Spode's abode. TSHIRTS NOW AVAILABLE! (0 Comments) (link)  Monday, 12-February-2001  15:46:43 (GMT +10) - by Agg After much delay it is my great pleasure to finally announce that the Overclockers Australia tshirts are NOW AVAILABLE!    Ordering info etc here! Monday Morning (0 Comments) (link)  Monday, 12-February-2001  09:54:07 (GMT +10) - by Agg There's a man with a chainsaw outside ripping my fence down. Anyway, I now have a 19" monitor! Hmm, OCAU looks really crap in 1600x1200.. VooDoo pointed out this funny 3DFX Support comic on Penny-Arcade.. not too funny if you bought a VooDoo5. Overclockers.com have a state of the nation type article up, about how they feel about the AMD platform options at the moment. Interesting read. Xwing.net have a story about fixing the lack of strain relief on the MS Intellimouse Explorer.. MicroSoft sharing its source code? Thanks Kazashi. SharkyExtreme have an article up about P4 Overclocking. The usual interesting/bizarre stuff on ZZZ Online.. issue 70, woo. Reviews: IceMat glass mousing surface and Kanie Copper Hedgehog on Overwear.net. NVIDIA GeForce2 MX on TechnoYard. Matrox G450 SDR and DDR video cards on xbit. GlobalWin FOP-32 on Overclocking.DK. AOpen 1232 CDRW on ClubOC, our review here. Antec KS282 midtower case on GideonTech. Hey, why do they get fancy-schmancy coloured boxes for their cases? I've never seen one over here that wasn't in a totally plain cardboard box. Counter-strike server update. (0 Comments) (link)  Sunday, 11-February-2001  23:25:37 (GMT +10) - by Sciby Evening everyone, time for an update on what's been happening with the new CS box... as most of you know, the old box we had was borrowed and had to be given back. The server has been running on an interm P2-266 that has been *sort* of coping, but it can be retired now (read: shot in the head), because we have the new server almost ready, just needs the OS installed and it's ready to rock. Depending on resources, I'll be setting up two CS services, on different ports. The first one will be running all the standard maps, normal grav, it'll be Counter-strike out of the box. The second server will be running non-standard maps, and we can change the grav now and then (although I hurl easily in zero G's). It should also be noted that the second server will also be passworded at infrequent times and used for private games/wars, etc. So if you can't get in, just wait for a little while, or go play on the first service. :) Thank you to everyone who offered parts, money, support, the response was literally overwhelming... I posted the request for donations on my coffee break one morning, by lunchtime I had enough hardware offered to built a few servers! But we only needed one. :) Finally, there'a few people to thank, and the reasons for thanking them: Henry Tam - who kindly donated the DFI PA61 motherboard for the server. Russell Tomkins - who kindly donated the (unlocked) P2-400 CPU. TheGibbon - who kindly donated 256mb of Kingmax RAM. Voodoo from MOS - who kindly donated a whole bunch of fans, including the massive 120mm Sunon 105 CFM monster. I almost lost my cat to that thing. Dan Yarrow - who kindly donated the Intel NIC and for co-admining the servers so far. Aggster - for kindly donating the Aopen case, which I promptly cut a hole in and threw black paint at it. The security guy at work - for not staring at me too much when he comes into the loading dock to find me spraypainting an empty, stripped down metal frame. And that's pretty much it, it'll be only one or two more days until it's up, but the interm server is still up, and if you use the address cs.overclockers.com.au you won't even notice the changeover. :) Sunday Night (0 Comments) (link)  Sunday, 11-February-2001  21:29:38 (GMT +10) - by Agg Nice quiet Sunday night.. nothing much going on out there! Yet another human soul for sale on Ebay. Just the thing for collectors. :) Thanks MegaBaz. Michael points out this integrated SocketA mobo from Asus, with onboard video and sound. Might be a quick'n'easy solution for your relatives machine or something. :) Tech-Planet reviewed the AOpen KF45A minitower case.. Told you it was quiet! News, take 14... (0 Comments) (link)  Sunday, 11-February-2001  13:23:30 (GMT +10) - by Sciby Okay, my gateway machine has been fixed, I can do the news I was trying to do on Thursday night... and here it is: Right kiddies, I'm back from my tour of Perth and Fremantle and all that, I even got to drop into RTV Computers whilst I was there, that was the only bit of computer geek stuff I did, spent the rest of the time sightseeing and shooting handguns, video clips soon. ;D... right, well not much news tonight, but here it is anyway... Extreme voltage is the name of the game for DJPAX who's running his P3-700@1008 with a voltage of 2.6v. Ye gods. Jose is a little miffed about many things, and here they are. This is to be the first in a long line of rants, apparently. hardCOREware.Net have updated their price guide, warning, all in US Dollars. Reviews: AOpen AK73 Pro KT133-based motherboard - at Maximum 3D. Philips Acoustic Edge sound card - at the Tech Zone. Wasn't that worth the wait? Now here's TODAY's news: Little White Dog has a new competition running, where you could win a copy of Mandrake Linux... whoooo... warning: there's a weird picture of Dog-Linux love on that page. You'll understand when you see it. Cheating on benchmarking? Surely not? But anyway, apparently, it can be done. We all want to own a dual motherboard, it'd be nice, but we all can't afford them, plus two decent cpu's... but Digit-Life is going to rub our faces in it anyway. A review of a banana and peanut butter sandwich is vaguely disturbing, but still... I'm hungry now. Not being one for two-wheeled excitement, here's some info on the Wheelman, and an article from Britain, thanks to David and (surprise surprise) Agg (Captain Two-wheeler Junkie). Finally, it seems that Intel is going to bring forward the release of DDR P4 solutions. Thanks to Daniel Franklin for the link. Reviews: MidiLand 7100 Speakers - at Hexus.Net 3D Blaster MX PCI (GeForce 2 MX) - at Puces 3D. Neng Tyi SN02 Cooler Review - at HartCore. Handspring Visor Deluxe (enhanced Palm Pilot) review - at Xwing.Net Mushkin EMS' HSDRAM PC150 memory - at FullOn3D.Com FIC AD11 Motherboard Review - at TweakTown. Antex KS282 case - at GideonTech. Speed Cheat - Not just for Half-Life anymore.. (0 Comments) (link)  Sunday, 11-February-2001  01:13:27 (GMT +10) - by Agg I got some troubling info today, thought I would share it. Sorry if it's old news but I've not seen anything about it yet. It seems the "Speed Cheat" used in Half-Life and Counter-Strike lately can also be used to skew benchmark results. I have some info and screenshots up showing 60,000+ 3DMarks, WCPUID reporting a 17,000MHz FSB etc etc.. of course, it's not these massive scores that are the real worry, rather the possibility of just bumping your scores up a little while still seeming realistic. Click for more info + pics! Hmm, every high benchmark score will be under suspicion now.. Saturday Night (0 Comments) (link)  Saturday, 10-February-2001  21:11:33 (GMT +10) - by Agg A heap of people have sent this in over the last few days - it's pretty funny but contains the F word, so if you're easily offended don't click! It's a document explaining how to RTFM. ExtremeOC have an 11-way SocketA Cooler Roundup posted. I am actually collecting coolers for another similar roundup here. Some interesting ones here already, some more en route. Check out our previous SocketA roundups here and here. Wolfy points out that you can win a PS2 by eating watermelon. Okey dokey. Anand has checked out the new ServerWorks chipset, interesting stuff, thanks Tigger. Very funky-looking new socket cooler on Hexus - called "The Core". Big HDD roundup on x-bit, they have 7 HDD's with 20GB platters - some 5400rpm, some 7200rpm. TweakTown wanna tell you what it's like to be a webmaster. For a day, anyway.. not how I spend my day, but there you go. Those guys with the Fish Mod have a website. I still don't get it. :) From Wired - people are paying to be tourists for the death of Mir.. some more info on those drives that can make your floppies 32MB. Finally, as if any more was needed, here's further proof that if something looks too good to be true - it usually is. Saturday Evening (0 Comments) (link)  Saturday, 10-February-2001  20:11:45 (GMT +10) - by Agg Hmm, looks like Sciby's still having trouble with the news.. Reviews: Mouse Skatez on AcidHW. Bizarre! Mouse Skatez also on DansData. Round ATA Cables on CaseJunkiez. Our cheaper option here. CoolerMaster ATC-310 Server Case on AMDMB.com. Optima P4 System on HardAvenue.com. Alpha PAL6035 socket cooler on OverclockerCafe. AMD Duron 850 on OCOnline. EPoX 8KTA3 SocketA mobo on IANAG. PC Remote Control on DansData. SocketA Clamp (for holding water jacket on) on ProCooling. Trig Socket Coolers on ClubOC. Icemat mousing surface on OCShoot. Hercules GeForce2 Pro video card on Digit-Life. AOpen 1232 CDRW on InsideHW. Our review here. Arctic Silver Adhesive on OCAddiction. Fri Arvo - Thank The Source Of All Things..... (0 Comments) (link)  Friday, 9-February-2001  14:58:39 (GMT +10) - by YYK A wonderful story that inspired me to write today. It’s pure brilliance and I love it, and you will too! For the woman who has everything, here’s something Aussie banks, once again tell their customers “NO!” Unlike thso enice ones in the UK... Are you a manic street preacher fan? Do you use Napster? You could get banned... The US government lifts bans on selling high-speed computers to some countries. In life imitating art, a UK insurance company admits to using genetic screening on their customers... oh-no! it has begun!!! Aussie government may put some toxic waste in our backyard, which can't be too good for us Wondering how you’re going to be able to watch Mir come down to earth? Here’s the answer Now time for some links from 'neko' (thanks!) Star Trek: Elite Forces, what went wrong? what went right? Here’s the post mortem From the guys who did sacrafice, comes Matrix: The Game (audience:”oooooooooooo……”) Here’s the question that’s on everyone’s lips: “ What does the new DOOM need?” I say a release date! Others may be a little more detailed... Last but not leas, something to bring culture to everyone. Well... maybe not YOU! :) nite nite! Forum Rules and Moderator Guidelines (0 Comments) (link)  Friday, 9-February-2001  10:19:59 (GMT +10) - by Agg Wolfy, Manaz and I have spent some time over the last few weeks formalising and itemising the guidelines for moderators in the Forums. At first glance this document looks pretty huge, but there is some (deliberate) repetition and most of it is pretty much common sense. In most cases this stuff is already being enforced, but now we have a formal, publically-viewable set of rules and guidelines for both readers and moderators. http://www.overclockers.com.au/forum_rules.shtml Of course, discussion/feedback about this document is welcome. Friday Morning (0 Comments) (link)  Friday, 9-February-2001  08:35:47 (GMT +10) - by Agg I'm feeling lazy, going to make it Reader News Day today. Andreas says: i found this site. I couldn't read it, but it has that new thermo...whatever heatsink, maybe for sale on it. He's obviously not aware that Babelfish can now do Japanese to English translation! Sabrtooth says: 32MB on a regular floppy disk with a higher density technique - stolen from Slashdot, but then again, what isn't lately - which when used with the LS-120 SuperDisks, doubles their capacity to that of 250MB floppies. Vindaloo says: on 13inchclan theres a couple of pictures and a question posed that might interest your readers. this concerns leadtek's popular winfast gf2MX card. Andrew says: www.goplay.com is closing :( It's been my favourite free e-mail site ever since Microsoft bought Hotmail. Tis sad to see it go. Komson says: I have overclocked Pentium III 500 e with non modified motherboard. The result is at 206 MHz FSB or 1030 MHz. Gerd says: I wrote an article "how to use HSR @ Voodoo3 video cards" Here an example the performance in the Q3 Demo001, High Quality, 1280x1024  increased from 23,9 fps to 77,7 fps. I've just spent 5 minutes laughing (but crying on the inside) at www.amigothornot.com .. thanks Sabrtooth. :) Reviews: ATI Radeon 32MB video card on HardOCP. fUnc mousing surface on PCExtremes, compare our recent review here. Ramsinks from Tech Patrol on Tweak Town. Kanie Copper Hedgehog socket cooler on AcidHardware. Avance Technologies CI-7004 midtower case on Mikhailtech. Gigabyte 7DX AMD760, SocketA DDR motherboard on 3DRage. Matrox G450 video card on IANAG. Mushkin 256MB Revision 2 SDRAM on Guru3D. BIOS Saviour on TweakMax. Canon Digital IXUS camera on Digit-Life. Thursday Afternoon (0 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 8-February-2001  13:21:05 (GMT +10) - by Agg Dan has written a very interesting article on the state of the online content world. He has better insight into it than most, being a paid employee of a large media firm with an online arm.. or was, until they fired him. VIAHardware are putting together a page of WCPREDIT and WCPRSET tweaks and files. 3DSpotlight updated their OS Tweaks and Patches page. JimX pointed out this Random Slashdot Story Generator on BBSpot.. clever stuff, I just clicked on the URL and read the story thinking it was real. :) Hit reload a few times. There's an interview with me up on LostUniverse. Oh, the trials of being famous. :) TR have an article on the problems with PocketPC's.. gimme a Palm over a CE device anyday! OCOnline are giving away some stuff.. Xeno pointed out this Sun response to MicroSoft. A great read, very insightful with a couple of bitchslaps for fun. ARP have updated their BIOS Guide yet again.. somebody send that guy a motherboard to review or something. :) This device is apparently for SocketA overclocking (presumably letting you adjust multiplier and voltage on motherboards that don't support it).. David says they will be hitting the market at the end of February. ZDNet UK and Australia's free email vanished without a trace overnight, with no warning. Not cool at all. Wired have a thing on the greatest hacks, cracks and worms of all time. TacoNuts reviewed a laptop cooler. Thursday Morning (0 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 8-February-2001  09:40:44 (GMT +10) - by Agg Had a very pleasant ride last night, from Kings Cross up to Watsons Bay then down to Bondi Beach with a group of friends.. anyway, some reviews to get you started. Reviews: Thermosonic Thermoengine socket uber-cooler on HardOCP. Soyo K7VTAPro KT133A SocketA motherboard on FullOn3D. OCZ PC150 SDRAM on Rizenet. Enermax Thermal Monitoring Drive Rack on SysReview. Pioneer 16X DVD Drive on ClubOC. Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card on NeoSeeker. GlobalWin WKB32 socket cooler on TheTechZone. Gigabyte GA-7DXR AMD 761 (DDR + RAID) SocketA mobo on OCWB. Quicksilver thermal compound on LWD. Quicksilver thermal compound also on IPKonfig. Handspring Visor Platinum PDA on SystemLogic. Abit VP6 Dual FCPGA mobo on HardwareOne. Abit KT7A-RAID SocketA KT133A mobo on VR-Zone. PleXWriter PX-W1610A 16x10x40x CDRW on CDRInfo. Acer Veriton FP2 "stylish PC" on Digit-Life. Detonator 3 Bug! (0 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 7-February-2001  14:19:49 (GMT +10) - by Agg Apparently all is not well with the new Detonator 3 drivers (see the morning news post for the link). Rmack sent in a link to this story on 3DChipset.com detailing a problem with the new drivers, CoolBits.reg and standby mode. Wednesday Morning (0 Comments) (link)  Wednesday, 7-February-2001  09:58:53 (GMT +10) - by Agg NVIDIA have released a new set of official drivers for their range of video cards.. Detonator 3 out now, thanks B5lurker and a few others. 8Balls are already comparing them to earlier ones. Here's an Athlon running at 400MHz (DDR) FSB.. thanks Allan. The Alpha PEP66 is one of the most effective SocketA coolers ever made, but for some people it's still not good enough.. OCTools had to go modding it. ARP got a Celly2 600MHz to 800+.. like everyone else. :) Manaz points out this thread on AMDMB.com where people are discussing the possibility of flashing an A7V133 bios onto a normal A7V. Hmm, be careful.. I think Manaz is experimenting with this at the moment on his own board, perhaps we'll hear some results soon. Guru3D have some watercooling happening, nothing too amazing. Interesting idea for holding the jacket onto the socket. Overclockers.UK have a SocketA Cooler Roundup posted. Link seems to be dead for me. 3DSpotlight have updated their system startup guide, full of tweaks to get you booting faster. Morjo wants everyone to read and sign this DreamCast Petition.. hmm, this one may be a little late I suspect. Sciby, you're only allowed to sign once, ok? :) DrR0M says: Just thought I'd drop you a line & let you know that Not all Wk51 KT133A's will do 160fsb - that's utter rubbish. The Northbridge on my KT7A is: VT83634 0051CD Taiwan 1EA0S6821 Simply is NOT stable at anything above 145 fsb, period. Runs higher yes, useful NO. Fair enuff, looks like yesterday's info from OCWB was no good.. Win Stuff: Super Orb + stuff on DreddNews. SuperOrb + other stuff on OCAddiction. Reviews: Epox EP-3SPA3L Socket370 mobo on XOverclocker. Abit KT7A-RAID on OCOnline. Tuesday Afternoon (0 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 6-February-2001  17:35:03 (GMT +10) - by Agg OCWB sent this in about a popular SocketA KT133A motherboard: Well, perhaps they next time when you purchase your board, you might want to rip off the fan and take a look at the northbridge :) Looks like the Week 51 ABIT KT7A's can reach 170 Mhz!! Some style tips for intending case-modders from the PCDB: This is cool. This is very cool. This is silly. :) ModdingZone ask the question "What is a GFD?".. well, it's an overclocking tool from way back in the days of SlotA and we reviewed 7 of them right here ages ago. The ArsMasters have updated their three-tier recommended systems guide. Mofos.org have turned their evil attentions to Tom's Hardware Guide.. hmm, I think they're going to get slapped around bigtime for some of the stuff they say in there. Reviews: Inno3D GeForce2 Ultra video card on Digit-Life. Shuttle Spacewalker AV30 VIA Apollo Pro 266 (Socket370 DDR) motherboard on PCHardware. ThumbDrive on BlueSmoke. Hmm! Remove the blue sticker.. (0 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 6-February-2001  15:17:06 (GMT +10) - by Agg The blue sticker is not part of the cooler. No, really. An anonymous vendor sent this in.. Instant keyring. DOSFIX Version 2 now available! (0 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 6-February-2001  12:18:31 (GMT +10) - by Agg After 3 months and many thousands of downloads, Simon has updated his Dos Fix for Windows ME. Improvements in this version: Bugfixes Full Undo feature to easily remove patch Boot Loader for choosing DOS mode Just the thing for Windows ME users who need to run older versions of Partition Magic or other dos-finicky programs. You can find more info and the file itself here. Tuesday Morning (0 Comments) (link)  Tuesday, 6-February-2001  01:12:13 (GMT +10) - by Agg Big day for the site yesterday, broke our previous record of 93k pageviews in a day with a whopping 199k count. Not sure what was going on there, most traffic was in the forums.. I guess a lot of people had something to say or nothing to do at work. :) The server mostly coped, being let down occasionally by some thrashing in the hard drive department. Redback had the rather clever idea of making the address cs.overclockers.com.au point to the OCAU/CQU Counter-Strike server - so I've done that now. Jump in and enjoy the cheat-free fragging goodness! Got a problem with your video card and via chipsetted mobo? Hilbert over at Guru3D has an article that may interest you.. LiamC has an article up (again, click the first link on that page due to frame evilness) ..about the 266MHz FSB on newer Athlons and the effect it has. TE have an editorial on the AMD-Intel CPU Race.. Interesting little robots story, thanks Sniper650. Not quite as small but perhaps more useful, a palmpilot on your wrist, thanks Azrael. Tweak3D have listed their top 10 addictive games, thanks Tigger. Reviews: Iwill KK266 SocketA KT133A motherboard on 3DRage. Soyo K7VTA Pro, also a SocketA KT133A mobo on VIAHW. Ascent AC300-4P heatsink on FrostyTech. Asus A7V133, yet another SocketA KT133A mobo on AMDMB. Aopen AK73 Pro, SocketA KT133 + 686B mobo on TweakTown. Klipsch Promedia 2.1 multimedia speakers on HardCoreWare. Iomega Hip Zip portable MP3 player on NeoSeeker. D-Link DMP-110 portable MP3 player on 3DSpotlight. Cicero 4x2x24 cheapy CDRW drive on CPUReview. Abit VP6 dually Socket370 motherboard on TheTechZone. FrontX Multimedia Ports on AcidHardware. Our review here if you missed it yesterday. Dual Athlon Goodness (0 Comments) (link)  Monday, 5-February-2001  14:42:26 (GMT +10) - by Agg Slashdot have some info on Dual SocketA motherboards that are starting to pop up. About time! A bunch of stuff including this screenshot on 2CPU which may or may not be true, and may or may not be Slashdotted by the time you get to it, but 8576 MIPS is, as our American friends might say, "Stellar!".. thanks MWP. PCDB Read-Only (0 Comments) (link)  Monday, 5-February-2001  14:19:09 (GMT +10) - by Agg The PCDB is having some issues at the moment. MWP is looking into it and will probably upgrade the MySQL server that runs the backend sometime today. In the meantime, the database is read only - so you can still browse, search and view entries, but you can't add or update entries. I'll keep you posted. UPDATE: Upgraded and fixed! Fzzzzt #2 (0 Comments) (link)  Monday, 5-February-2001  12:36:27 (GMT +10) - by Agg This is a Gigabyte GA-6BA, a Slot1 BX motherboard that Eski picked up for a bargain $5.. now we know why. :) These tracks are apparently near the South Bridge, on the way to the BIOS and ISA slot. Understandably, Eski's a little reluctant to fire it up now.. Monday Midday (0 Comments) (link)  Monday, 5-February-2001  12:02:21 (GMT +10) - by Agg We seem to be doing an incredible amount of traffic today, much more than I would have expected the FrontX thing to attract. Hmm. Tracking referrers is an arcane science at the best of times.. anyone seen any links on high-traffic sites to OCAU today? I know about HardOCP, and I've checked, we're not on Slashdot.. :) Mail me if you've got an interesting one. Deejay sends word that the OCAU Counter-Strike server has had the Speed Cheat Fix applied and will at some future point have Punk Buster installed. Expect some outages throughout the day as they are doing a network upgrade around the box. Hexus reviewed the NewQ Platinum, an in-bay... uhhmm.. car stereo, for your PC. Ok. DreddNews have the TweakMonster SocketA Shim on review.. JSI checked out the Taisol CGK742 socket heatsink.. Hmm, ARP have a benchmark for testing game performance of pocket pc's.. Apparently Transmeta have a 1GHz Crusoe in the works, thanks feek. The usual mix of technical and bizarre info in ZZZ Online.. Monday Morning (0 Comments) (link)  Monday, 5-February-2001  02:16:24 (GMT +10) - by Agg Just spotted this very nice system in the PCDB. This forum thread has info on Plextor possibly stopping making SCSI drives..? Interesting thing on holographic storage, thanks Simon. Woah, Excessionary_Object sent in a weird link.. Agg, you may like the description of Agg, which is about halfway down. Also not that under Arg (or Agh) it make reference to an English accent, making this even more fitting. Mind you, I am now forced to ask the question: Is it really about Agg? I hope not, EO.. I hope not. :) NetBSD has been ported to the dreamcast.. thanks alchemy. StorageReview have a big guide to RAID posted.. very big, in fact. Speedy3D have a guide/review of BNC monitor cables.. thanks again alchemy. RAMBUS is being investigated by the FTC for suspected antitrust behaviour.. awwww. FrontX Multimedia Ports Review (0 Comments) (link)  Sunday, 4-February-2001  22:53:02 (GMT +10) - by Agg I checked out this fairly simple device for carrying your sound card connections to the front of your machine. Not a whole lot to say about it, but if you're after this kind of thing it works quite well.. Click here for the full review! Sunday Night (0 Comments) (link)  Sunday, 4-February-2001  22:35:15 (GMT +10) - by Agg Reviews: Taisol CGK742092 socket heatsink on MikhailTech. Cyclone 5000 case on Cole3D. OCZ Heatsinks on ClubOC. 3DFXCool SocketA Copper Shim on IPKonfig. Abit KT7A-RAID SocketA KT133A mobo on ExtremeOC. Fzzzzzt.. (0 Comments) (link)  Sunday, 4-February-2001  18:57:20 (GMT +10) - by Agg This photo was taken outside JimX's house this afternoon. Apparently it did this for about 10 minutes, and unsurprisingly he doesn't have power at the moment. :) Sunday Morning #2 (0 Comments) (link)  Sunday, 4-February-2001  11:58:57 (GMT +10) - by Agg Using common household items to reach -60C? You can if you live in the Ghetto, according to Icrontic.com. I'm amazed the thermal stress didn't do something horrible to the processor. FullOn3D have some benchmarking on a board that supports both DDR SDRAM and normal SDRAM, showing the benefits of DDR. BLueSmoke have a comparo of two 7200rpm IDE drives. DeezTech have a bit of a rant about unprofessionalism in IT. This is an article with 6 banner ads and 2 paragraphs of text on the front page. :) Sorry guys, if you're going to bitch-slap, expect to get slapped y'self! Seriously tho, having worked in a similar corporate environment for a long time, a lot of what he says in this article is true. I'm not talking about any members of my old team who still read this site of course. :) Tech-Report approach the problem from a slightly different angle, proposing that the certification process is partly to blame. OCMojo have an article on making LCD Status Displays.. all the rage in the case modding game at the moment. The CS Speed Cheat is one of many cheats really spoiling the game for a lot of people lately. 3DActionPlanet has more info on it, thanks Kazashi. Tigger points out a speed cheat fix! This is for servers, hopefully Sciby will be able to install it on the OCAU/CQU CS server when he gets back from Perth this week sometime. Tigger sent word of Computer Trader, an Australian online and print-media classifieds for computer gear. Info on the computer markets on that site too. Another sign of the ad-market shakedown, Yahoo is now accepting paid placements for results. Pay money, appear higher in the search results for keywords you "buy". Win Stuff: Heatsinks and goop on 3DFXCool. Bunch of PCMods.com goodies on CombatGames. A case of Tooheys Old - OZ COMP on Yap.com.au. Sunday Morning (0 Comments) (link)  Sunday, 4-February-2001  11:09:59 (GMT +10) - by Agg *yawn*.. mmmmm, good sleep. Buncha reviews to get you going, waffly news in a bit. Reviews: Copper Spacer review on TheColdShop. Discus CD Storage on TheTechZone. Lian-Li PC70 aluminium fulltower case on DansData. Arctic Silver Epoxy on Rizenet. ASUS A7S-VM SiS730S chipset mobo on Digit-Life. Kanie Copper Hedgehog review on Rizenet. Max Cool Case on Tweak3D. Kanie Copper Hedgehog also on TweakTown. If those aren't enough for you, LoneWolf pointed out that GlideUnderground have got a zillion reviews from the past week on their front page. THAT should keep you busy. 2nd in Oz! (0 Comments) (link)  Saturday, 3-February-2001  15:07:12 (GMT +10) - by Agg Azrael pointed this out: http://www.top100.com.au/aust/computers_internet_and_technology/computer_hardware/index.html We're second! That's the highest we've ever been. Only Sony is beating us, and that's only because of the whole PS2 thing. :) We did 2.1M pageviews last month which was a big jump from 1.6M in December. Thanks guys! Saturday Morning (0 Comments) (link)  Saturday, 3-February-2001  10:22:11 (GMT +10) - by Agg This German site has done a comparo of (among other coolers) 3 of those amazing "fan" coolers.. not fan as in rotary fan, but as in, uhm, like a japanese fan. Oh, just go look, they're very cool. :) It's in German, but there's at least 1 pic and the results at the end are readable. Digit-Life take a long look at January in their Monthly Hardware Digest. VR-Zone checked out the Asus A7V133, a KT133A SocketA motherboard. A few people sent this in (I suspect they found it on HardOCP) .. Q3Bench is a tool for automagically batch-running Q3 timedemos.. very useful. Appearing in an OCAU review near you soon, I expect! B5Lurker sent in some interesting info about the ACCC starting to pay some real attention to trading over the internet, and enforcing our Trade Practices Act. Here is an example of a website being forced to change content (due to misleading advertising), here they have a caution and some advice for people about to renew Australian domain names and here is the ACCC's Internet and E-Commerce page. Friday Night (0 Comments) (link)  Friday, 2-February-2001  23:53:45 (GMT +10) - by Agg Tim said: I found this news which may be interesting to all. Linux on a DUAL ATHLON machine?! May be interesting?? :) Sidewinder points out this article, detailing the How's, Why's and - perhaps most importantly - the Why Not's of AGP.. You may have noticed no AllAdvantage banners on this site for a couple of months or more now.. well, it had to happen, they're shutting down.. info here, too. They certainly helped with the bills for a little while, but their business model was just plain bad, apparently.. thanks Sniper650 and Malleus. G3D are having a crack at reducing the noise of their box.. ProCooling.com have built themselves a very, err, cool water-cooled machine. Kazashi points out a Duke Nukem Forever FAQ. Can't wait for this one.. heh, I remember jetpack rocket fights in the original Duke3D.. :) There's a quite surreal article on ArsTechnica about a guy going to a gaming exhibition in the US.. I think. Very funny in parts, anyway. Apparently there's an AOL Virus.. once it finds out your postal details it sends you millions of CD's. Oh, hangon, that's just AOL. Apparently they've had a virus drifting around inside them for almost a year. With such a techno-savvy userbase, I find that hard to believe! Thanks Andrew. Austar are taking over Chello's Australian services. These guys did satellite net access among other things.. but no more. Thanks Matt. Heh, a funny response to Microsoft's recent announcement that Linux Sucks (see link on here from a couple of days ago).. thanks Squozen. A new site run by an OCAU'er has burst onto the scene, LostUniverse.org. They've been busy, reviewing (deep breath): Icemat mouse pad, err, glass-thingy.. Microsoft Strategic Commander game controller and Logitech Optical Mouseman Wheel mouse.. and an interview with TweakTown. Right, I think I'll go have a Bex and a quick lie down.. But first, go enter this Australian Competition and maybe win a car. Thanks Andrew! Reviews: Kenwood 52X SCSI CDROM on Icrontic. Mmm, expensive. Iwill KA266-R preview on Rizenet. Lite-On FS020 Mini-Review and Mods on CaseEtc. Linksys Etherfast Instant Raid 40GB NAS Drive.. whatever that is, on Electic. Logitech Wingman Formula Force GP Wheel on TheTechZone. Rounded floppy and IDE cables on EXHardware. Friday Morning #2 (0 Comments) (link)  Friday, 2-February-2001  09:53:54 (GMT +10) - by Agg After some heated debate, the Paid Membership Proposal has been dropped. It was an interesting idea to bat around for a while and attracted a lot of support, but in the current form it gets people a little too emotional. I actually think that's a good sign, that we have so many people who feel so strongly about the site that we can have explosive threads like that. We'll see how DoubleClick go over the next few weeks, expect to see some different ad-type stuff happening on the site. If things don't work out with them, maybe I'll re-float the idea, but focussing on sponsorship rather than membership. Anyway, enough of all that, let's see what the rest of the world has been doing! There's an interesting experiment on the effects of flow rate in watercooling on BunkerMentality. Tech-Report take a trip to a local monitor hospital. LittleWhiteDog want to tell you all about making a boot disk. Such a clever little dog, yes you are! Yes you are! Tweak3D have a look back at the history of 3D cards.. thanks clonex. If you've got any files on a public freedrive, time to get 'em off because the service is being discontinued, thanks Hugo. Ed from overclockers.com in the US has put up his thoughts on how new KT133A / DDR SocketA boards affect overclocking. Hmm, this software aims to make your PC into a set-top box capable of playing back a range of media formats. Digit-Life have a PC Buyer's Guide. Wired say the online advertising industry is not dead, in response to some comments from Disney, thanks Wolfy. Finally, there's a new film about linux coming out! Reviews: Gigabyte GA-7DX and 1.2GHz DDR226 Athlon on Active-Hardware. Midiland S4 7100 plus 5.1 speakers on AnandTech, thanks clonex. AOpen HQ45 on OCOnline. This is the funky-fronted version of the HX45, which houses OCAU. Friday Morning (0 Comments) (link)  Friday, 2-February-2001  01:51:44 (GMT +10) - by Agg Reviews: New water jacket preview on OCProjects. Digital Doc 3 thermal monitor / fan controller on Ripnet. Abit Siluro GF2 MX video card on Max3D. Digi Doc 5 on CaseJunkiez. Damn, I want one of these, they look cool! Asus A7M266 DDR SocketA mobo on IANAG. Epox 8KTA3 KT133A SocketA mobo on GD. A couple of dual-cpu boards on TomsHardware, thanks Clonex. Paid Membership Proposal (0 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 1-February-2001  12:08:45 (GMT +10) - by Agg Please read this thread and share your opinion. Thanks. Thursday Morning (0 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 1-February-2001  10:37:43 (GMT +10) - by Agg Doesn't seem to be much happening out there this morning.. Some morning reading in the form of a new "A Guru's World" column. Day in the life of a tech kinda thing.. The customer starts with the old "I've been doing this for 20 years" spiel. The other tech resists temptation to say "you've been breaking AGP slots for 20 years?" HardOCP have a quick guide explaining how they made a quiet PC.. Interesting thing on TomsHardware - they review a Fujitsu MAJ3364MC ultra-fast SCSI drive, but they compare it to IBM's flagship IDE drive, the 75GXP. Is it still true that SCSI is faster than IDE? Thanks alchemy. 3DSpotlight updated their Voodoo4/5 Tweak Guide. Microsoft offers their completely unbiased opinion that Linux sucks. Hypothermia interviewed John Galloway of Ritual Entertainment.. Reviews: GlobalWin FOP32-1 socket cooler on PCReview. Asus V7100 Deluxe GeForce2 MX video card on Digit-Life. MSI K7T Turbo Socket-A KT133A mobo on AnandTech. Wednesday evening (0 Comments) (link)  Thursday, 1-February-2001  00:29:05 (GMT +10) - by Manaz There's less than half the working week remaining. I like that. Anyway, on with the news. Overclockers Australia is currently (as I type this, it may change by the time you read this) rated 5th on the Australian top 100 technology website list. This ranking is driven entirely by you, our readers, so thanks, and, well, keep up the good work! :) According to Chuckler, when you order a burger at a certain world-famous fast food joint, they may soon be asking "Would you like a disposable mobile phone with that?" Community Service time. Locker says that it's time to update your anti-virus software again. Why does he say this you ask? Because there's a new version of the navidad virus moving around, it comes in a file called emanuel.exe. Now, you've been warned, so don't come complaining if you get caught out, OK? You can rest assured that you won't get advice like this in the upcoming OCAU FAQ. Thanks to wild for the first link. Xixys pointed out this link - apparently Amiga may still have life left in them after all.... [H]ard|OCP have published a trick for Windows 2000 users to increase the priority Windows gives games (or other applications). I've been using this trick at work on servers for some time now (obviously not for games), and it *does* work.... Mr Tweak (he runs Tweaktown, an Australian computer hardware site) has been interviewed by the guys at Lost Universe. Insane Hardware have some information about Thermaltake's new heatsink, the Volcano II. The fan looks VERY interesting.... Overclock.co.uk are running a competition - simply sign up for (or have an existing account on their Message Forums, and you qualify. I can't see any notice that it's not open to international readers, so go for it! Someone needs to tell the guys at OCAddiction that computer cases are designed to house COMPUTERS.... Finally, here's a sneak preview of a future Operating System. Thanks to BIGcheeZ for this one.... Reviews. Cyberstik 2 Air Joystick on The Adrenaline Vault. AMK 292-3333 (computer case) on PCExtremes. Virtual Gaming System (PSX Emulator) on Tech Extreme. Neng Tyi Subete Doda Copper Heatsink on FrostyTech. Asus A7V133 on OCWorkBench. Siemens ID Mouse on Neoseeker. Abit Home Theatre AU10 on Digit-Life. ADS USB Turbo Quad PCI Card on USB Workshop.

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