Slashdot Mirror

I have had horrible experience with them as well. I won't even go into it, but they tried to do something fraudulent and were obstinate about owning up to it.

The worst part of this all is that the "new" price of $399 is horrible.

Here are a few links to show you how to find a deal on this card, Vision Tek part number 30001522 :

Pricewatch Search for 30001522

Tip on searching Pricewatch (my favorite); the url format is: [http://brook.pricewatch.com/search/search.asp?cri teria=item_criteria_here]

Streetprices Search for 30001522

Pricegrabber Search, I don't like Price-grabber, but its here to show that even a crappy Shylock engine is better than Worst Buy ©(TM)®.

BEST BUY charged with FRAUD:
Best Buy & HRS Credit Insurance Fraud to their customers. Big Ripoff Scam!

Story also covered here:
http://www.theinquirer.net/10020202.htm

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/24005.html

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/19176/

http://courses.wcupa.edu/jredingt/BestBuy.htm

http://www.hardocp.com/

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/24041 . tml Worst Buy Highway Robbery Inc. Trying to give only $30 bucks for mistake.

http://hypothermia.gamershardware.com/

http://hypothermia.gamershardware.com/articles/bes tbuy_gf4deal.html

http://hypothermia.gamershardware.com/articles/bb_ arrest.html

http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2002/4/24/11357/3033 .

A former senior AMD employee has filed suit accusing the company of 'wrecking his career' because he was an Arab and a Muslim after the September 11 attacks. More information here.

First, let me warn you. If you are not a Microsoft fan, what follows will not be a pleasant read. Maybe you thought the antitrust case would stop the worst of Microsoft's behaviour. Maybe you're thinking Linux will rule one day. Start thinking again...

I think a lot of people don't really understand why prices fluctuate like they do. Especially when you have large manufacturers such as Dell, Gateway, Micron, etc.

These companies certainly can adjust prices to allow for more profit; the same as any other business. What it all comes down to is the part manufacturers raising or lowering prices due to a number of factors.

Everyone seems to be tied up on LCD's so lets go there. (Geez guys don't you read theInquirer)

LCD Monitor Prices Set to Soar

LCD prices continue rise as CRTs decline

LCD screens cost on average $15-30 US per screen. Add all that plastic bezel crap and I'm sure that adds up to about $350 US ;)

So, when Company X in Taiwan wants to raise prices on LCDs (say maybe by discontinuing its 15" LCD Monitor Line like Samsung did earlier this month) they simply raise them. There are, however, certain economic aspects to this which are boring and as such we shouldn't discuss. So basically the self induced shortage of LCD's by large companies in the East, coupled with high demand for LCD monitors, and other phenomena (Earthquakes anyone?) all affect those distributors so that by the time Dell, Micron, etc. get their LCD's they have to compensate their pricing to reflect those factors. All simply because these companies like money, want more of it, and want a continual flow of instead of settling for less money.

So that is why LCD's are expensive (Got tired of people saying that "This Company" was raising their LCD prices when we all know that they don't even make the LCDs, they just slap their logo on the damn things).

Now onto Ram. I am of the opinion that as computer technology ages we should see a gradual decrease in price as the technology slowly becomes obsolete. For some things, such as ram, this doesn't ever seem to be true.

Yes, I now tell stories to my children about how I used to be able to get a 256mb Stick of SDRAM for $15 dollars and a 512mb Stick for $35. The excess supply no longer exists so Ram manufacturers (Some have coined the phrase Dramurai [Probably Mike Magee]) sort of make sure that there isn't too much of it in the market anymore so that pricing stays very competitive. We have seen the controversial RDRAM steadily decline in price as DDR Motherboards started to replace Intel's Rdram only P4 Chipsets. DDR and RDRAM are pretty much even now which is amazing considering that at one time you could expect to pay $600 US for 512mb of RDRAM (ouch). So, as everyone should know SDRAM is back to normal and the RAM Manufacturers keep coming up with creative new ways to introduce new ram types DDR333 anyone that can increase demand on different modules and they just kind of pull a wheel barrow of cash up to JEDEC so it all (eventually) gets through. Don't believe me? Look for DDR400 in the next month or so.

So Ram to is at the mercy of the manufacturer and then the retailer. It sure doesn't help that when you buy a new computer from Company X that a 512mb Stick of PC2100 DDR (DDR266 for those of you who think that way) which goes for $170-$200 on Crucial.com costs $300-500 to upgrade. Watch out for those tricks.

So the question comes down to: Are PC's really getting more expensive? Maybe through retail vendors. Anywhere else, the prices are pretty much the same with some fluctuations every now and then which are usually based on economic decisions based by the companies that manufacturer everything.

Calm down the fire that fuels the troll inside of you. Delete the nasty letter you're about to send to Dell and try and appreciate how very many factors affect the end result.

:)

I think a lot of people don't really understand why prices fluctuate like they do. Especially when you have large manufacturers such as Dell, Gateway, Micron, etc.

These companies certainly can adjust prices to allow for more profit; the same as any other business. What it all comes down to is the part manufacturers raising or lowering prices due to a number of factors.

Everyone seems to be tied up on LCD's so lets go there. (Geez guys don't you read theInquirer)

LCD Monitor Prices Set to Soar

LCD prices continue rise as CRTs decline

LCD screens cost on average $15-30 US per screen. Add all that plastic bezel crap and I'm sure that adds up to about $350 US ;)

So, when Company X in Taiwan wants to raise prices on LCDs (say maybe by discontinuing its 15" LCD Monitor Line like Samsung did earlier this month) they simply raise them. There are, however, certain economic aspects to this which are boring and as such we shouldn't discuss. So basically the self induced shortage of LCD's by large companies in the East, coupled with high demand for LCD monitors, and other phenomena (Earthquakes anyone?) all affect those distributors so that by the time Dell, Micron, etc. get their LCD's they have to compensate their pricing to reflect those factors. All simply because these companies like money, want more of it, and want a continual flow of instead of settling for less money.

So that is why LCD's are expensive (Got tired of people saying that "This Company" was raising their LCD prices when we all know that they don't even make the LCDs, they just slap their logo on the damn things).

Now onto Ram. I am of the opinion that as computer technology ages we should see a gradual decrease in price as the technology slowly becomes obsolete. For some things, such as ram, this doesn't ever seem to be true.

Yes, I now tell stories to my children about how I used to be able to get a 256mb Stick of SDRAM for $15 dollars and a 512mb Stick for $35. The excess supply no longer exists so Ram manufacturers (Some have coined the phrase Dramurai [Probably Mike Magee]) sort of make sure that there isn't too much of it in the market anymore so that pricing stays very competitive. We have seen the controversial RDRAM steadily decline in price as DDR Motherboards started to replace Intel's Rdram only P4 Chipsets. DDR and RDRAM are pretty much even now which is amazing considering that at one time you could expect to pay $600 US for 512mb of RDRAM (ouch). So, as everyone should know SDRAM is back to normal and the RAM Manufacturers keep coming up with creative new ways to introduce new ram types DDR333 anyone that can increase demand on different modules and they just kind of pull a wheel barrow of cash up to JEDEC so it all (eventually) gets through. Don't believe me? Look for DDR400 in the next month or so.

So Ram to is at the mercy of the manufacturer and then the retailer. It sure doesn't help that when you buy a new computer from Company X that a 512mb Stick of PC2100 DDR (DDR266 for those of you who think that way) which goes for $170-$200 on Crucial.com costs $300-500 to upgrade. Watch out for those tricks.

So the question comes down to: Are PC's really getting more expensive? Maybe through retail vendors. Anywhere else, the prices are pretty much the same with some fluctuations every now and then which are usually based on economic decisions based by the companies that manufacturer everything.

Calm down the fire that fuels the troll inside of you. Delete the nasty letter you're about to send to Dell and try and appreciate how very many factors affect the end result.

:)

I think a lot of people don't really understand why prices fluctuate like they do. Especially when you have large manufacturers such as Dell, Gateway, Micron, etc.

These companies certainly can adjust prices to allow for more profit; the same as any other business. What it all comes down to is the part manufacturers raising or lowering prices due to a number of factors.

Everyone seems to be tied up on LCD's so lets go there. (Geez guys don't you read theInquirer)

LCD Monitor Prices Set to Soar

LCD prices continue rise as CRTs decline

LCD screens cost on average $15-30 US per screen. Add all that plastic bezel crap and I'm sure that adds up to about $350 US ;)

So, when Company X in Taiwan wants to raise prices on LCDs (say maybe by discontinuing its 15" LCD Monitor Line like Samsung did earlier this month) they simply raise them. There are, however, certain economic aspects to this which are boring and as such we shouldn't discuss. So basically the self induced shortage of LCD's by large companies in the East, coupled with high demand for LCD monitors, and other phenomena (Earthquakes anyone?) all affect those distributors so that by the time Dell, Micron, etc. get their LCD's they have to compensate their pricing to reflect those factors. All simply because these companies like money, want more of it, and want a continual flow of instead of settling for less money.

So that is why LCD's are expensive (Got tired of people saying that "This Company" was raising their LCD prices when we all know that they don't even make the LCDs, they just slap their logo on the damn things).

Now onto Ram. I am of the opinion that as computer technology ages we should see a gradual decrease in price as the technology slowly becomes obsolete. For some things, such as ram, this doesn't ever seem to be true.

Yes, I now tell stories to my children about how I used to be able to get a 256mb Stick of SDRAM for $15 dollars and a 512mb Stick for $35. The excess supply no longer exists so Ram manufacturers (Some have coined the phrase Dramurai [Probably Mike Magee]) sort of make sure that there isn't too much of it in the market anymore so that pricing stays very competitive. We have seen the controversial RDRAM steadily decline in price as DDR Motherboards started to replace Intel's Rdram only P4 Chipsets. DDR and RDRAM are pretty much even now which is amazing considering that at one time you could expect to pay $600 US for 512mb of RDRAM (ouch). So, as everyone should know SDRAM is back to normal and the RAM Manufacturers keep coming up with creative new ways to introduce new ram types DDR333 anyone that can increase demand on different modules and they just kind of pull a wheel barrow of cash up to JEDEC so it all (eventually) gets through. Don't believe me? Look for DDR400 in the next month or so.

So Ram to is at the mercy of the manufacturer and then the retailer. It sure doesn't help that when you buy a new computer from Company X that a 512mb Stick of PC2100 DDR (DDR266 for those of you who think that way) which goes for $170-$200 on Crucial.com costs $300-500 to upgrade. Watch out for those tricks.

So the question comes down to: Are PC's really getting more expensive? Maybe through retail vendors. Anywhere else, the prices are pretty much the same with some fluctuations every now and then which are usually based on economic decisions based by the companies that manufacturer everything.

Calm down the fire that fuels the troll inside of you. Delete the nasty letter you're about to send to Dell and try and appreciate how very many factors affect the end result.

:)

At least post as a user next time asshole, so I know who I'm about to make a fool of.

Cinema Tools $999
iMovie 2 $999
iDVD $999
Final Cut Pro $999

Do you think they all have identical developement costs and therefore are all priced the same or do you think Apple might be ripping you off?

Apple recomended additional software:

Adobe After Effects $1999

They are certainly ripping you off with their hardware cost:

At least $2500 for a slow G4. At least wait for this to get some decent hardware at a fair price.

And what can you use this for? Home movies, low budget porn and local commercials. You see, you can only burn an hour of video using iDVD. Apple is trying to make you think you are shooting video just like the pros, just like they are trying to make you think that that pricey toy you have is a real computer. And they have you fooled. To the tune of $10,000.

A fool and his money are soon parted. By the way, to me $10,000 is a Beowulf cluster with 50 CPUs, just like Pixar uses, Steve Jobs' other company.

Go pout or LOG IN to respond you bitch assed coward.

Here is a neat story from today.

Make sure you cheack out the refrenced stories and their references too.

"A user won't spend more money on a flat panel monitor, but will buy a flat panel monitor when it represents better value than the CRT alternative. This means that the LCD makers have to watch the pricing moves of CRT monitor makers if they want to be sure to see a high level of demand."

I'll pay a little extra, but the price of a so-called '17 inch equivalent' 15in LCD (diagonally smaller by 1 inch) is now rising, just as it had gotten sensible. I say forget it -- my Sony CRT's are bigger, cheaper, and brighter, if not sexier.

Man, I would love to "merge" with this powerful beauty!

Well, in that case it's simply lame. Go see this for some funny April Fools stories.

As noted in the Inquirer's article on Vesta, it was used by the Alpha microprocessor group on the EV8 (aka Araña) project. Most of the people who used Vesta on that project are now a part of Intel, working on a future IA-64 processor. They are continuing to use Vesta under Intel.

(For the sake of disclosure, I'm one of the people who worked on that project and now work for Intel.)

The Reg usually makes for an interesting read
The Inquirer is a good source for AMD/Intel roadmaps and bleeding edge tech news.
Anandtech is not updated that often but the often have the best coverag and reviews of new products and technologies.
I don't visit Toms Hardware often but it is another good source for benchmarks and reviews.

First, this is an EBM story. Why link to a 2nd hand report that has a link to the primary source right on the page?

Second, it's spurious: "An Intel workstation roadmap secured by EBN" strongly implies that this is not an official Intel announcement.

Third, while it's not such a huge deal for Intel, it's a huge furry deal for Rambus Inc., the well known firm of lawyers. Rambus Inc. is a public company, and as such has an obligation to announce significant events effecting future earnings. "A spokeswoman for Rambus Inc. said she couldn't comment on new Intel workstation chipsets supporting DDR, and referred all questions to Intel" simply doesn't cut it. Rambus Inc. might be greedy lying parasites, but they're surely not stupid enough to sit on information that they must - must - have known about prior to this (alleged) policy change.

Given that Rambus Inc. share price rose 22% yesterday based on the news that Intel had adopted the 533Mhz FSB to support RDRAM, the SEC will no doubt be having a good, long look at their disclosures and these "yes we will/no we won't" announcements, and asking who exactly is releasing them, and who is benefitting from the share fluctuations.

Let's hold fire on this until it's been confirmed by both Intel and Rambus Inc. Please. Pretty please.

Hyperthreading is a pretty cool idea, especially for those of us who would like to see SMP move more into the mainstream.

According to this article, though (posted on 2cpu.com), the Windows 2000 scheduler doesn't know how to take advantage of hyperthreading, since it doesn't know how to take advantage of virtual processors. (I suppose Windows XP does?) Go figure. Anyway, this looks like it's probably worth checking into. I'm sure Linux will support it!

Clawhammer examples are shipping

I can't stand that the GeForce 4 is hardly an upgrade from the GeForce 3. According to the Inquirer, ATI is calling it the GeForce 3.5 (heh heh) because the chip really hasn't changed that much aside from the extra vector shader. Here's the article. And here are screenshots from an interesteing Powerpoint Presentation given by ATI. ATI accuses nVidia of "artificially keeping prices up by re-naming the same products."

At that size, a smallish mug should fit nicely on it. No use wasting all that heat!

For now, maybe. According to an article linked in an above post, the chips will be cooling down ... to room temperature! Unfortunately, this means no more hot coffee. :) Here's the quote from the article:

And Intel claims McKinleys in the future will run at .13 micron and at 5GHz at normal room temperature, because of the low power circuits it will use.

I don't drink coffee, but I was kinda hoping to have something to keep my feet warm. :)

This article indicates that the chip will run at room temp. I'll believe it when I see it though.

And Intel claims McKinleys in the future will run at .13 micron and at 5GHz at normal room temperature, because of the low power circuits it will use.

Actually, according to this article over at The Inquirer Intel can now demo a 5GHz chip using the .13 micros process that can run at room temperature. That'd be interesting to see in action if it benches as well as a 5GHz chip should in comparison to current chips.

Actually, according to this article over at The Inquirer Intel can now demo a 5GHz chip using the .13 micros process that can run at room temperature. That'd be interesting to see in action if it benches as well as a 5GHz chip should in comparison to current chips.

Ace's Hardware has this bit with more information including links to an Intel presentation.

"Slide 22 of the presentation features a die photo of McKinley. The large 3 MB L3 cache is notable, and according to the presentation, it consumes 20% less area than traditional designs and is overall 85% efficient (~70% for traditional designs)."

And here's a story with the photo from that same article (no need to download 2.5 meg pdf...)

-Russ

Actually the package is shown here and it looks pretty reasonable.

This has been the focus of some stories at the Inquirer as well.

Personally, I thought that Intel would have been in a good position to just relabel the Alpha 21364 as IA64 and be done with it.

Boycott AMD!!!

Microsoft and Intel have been squabbling over this very issue recently.

Also To 2.8ghz

But now, a little rant...

Look at the next and last alpha that will come out, it will SMOKE at a fraction of the speed the P4 will be at the end of the year. That's what I call going out with a bang. It's a shame such a technology got obliterated in part because of Intel's markettign muscle, we're going to be set back for 2 years for them to catch up on this technology and performance (they've got some alpha people in their staff now that will teach them how to do more than overclocking and recycling like putting SMT on chips for example, that will be one great leap, it's in at least one of the northwood flavor I think).

Watch out for the Hammer when it will come out, it still going to beat intel's latest offering mhz per mhz in desktop performance (can't speak too fast about the server side though.)

Look at the PowerPC, as much as I hate apple's hyping to keep their blinded userbase into beleiving that they hold the only computer that should exist on the surface of the planet, the powerPC architechture has proven itself to beat the crap out of Intel mhz to mhz side to side (and no I am not talking about that "hey loading an image in photoshop on the mac is 2x faster than on a PC, but I won't mention that it's totally unrelated to the CPU and the mac is running on a SCSI cheetah while the PC was running a 5400 rpm 5 gig drive", I am talking about rendering on different crossplatform software like premiere, lightwave, maya, etc).

This goes without mentionning SUN or MIPS or any other cpus on the planet that has interresting technologies ASIDE FROM CLOCKSPEED.

So again, Screw the MHZ hype, I am a power user, I love doing 3d rendering, I administer a small renderfarm at work, I love raw power, anything that comes out and had a power factor gets my attention, it's nice to see stuff running fast, but I am not impressed at ALL with the MHZ hype. Especially for the PRICE you have to pay to cover all the media and marketting hype... Intel's Hype tax like I often call it. Also, what you see is the MHZ going skyrocket... How much do you thihnk they had to cut in the design so that it stays that stable at these speeds? why do you think the athlon4 can't run at 2.2ghz? design.. intel had to cut in some places so the cpu could be easily cranked up that much, they had to redesign part of it, and that's why you need SSE2 optimisation and the pipeline for standard FPU is so bad. It's not because Intel doesn't know how to design a FPU, it's because they HAD to cut on it...

My precision 530 workstation that runs dual 1.7ghz P4 for the price I payed, I find a dual AthlonXP or MP 1900+ far more impressive for 1/2 of the price. Heck, you want to be in the cool factor? get a Dell 8100 with DVD/CD-RW Geforce2Go 32megs and 1600x1200 15" LCD screen, now THAT'S a nice little piece of technology. And quake plays soooo smooth on it... I won't waste my personnal money or blast my budget for a chip that can generate small blackholes because of it's so great CLOCKSPEED. Gimme raw speed at a decent price. For the price you'd pay that northwood alone you could probably get 2 athlonXP and it's mainboard that beat the crap out of the P4 for the same price of the cpu alone.

enuff :)

I think this is quite an understatement.

Both the German and French governments have warmly endorsed the use of Linux and free software in general on the governmental level and (IIRC) cities in Finland are switching to Linux.

Again, cereal boxes don't count.

That's lame.

How about some cool hard facts instead of your fantasies?

The author of the article is Andrew Thomas, formerly of The Register and now (occasionally) of The Inquirer . He knows what he's on about wrt computers, but he's pretty new to Linux.

You forget to mention 64-bit color as one of the final features. (no i am not making this up)

But I think video card stop evolving when they reach realtime reallife quality.

It is however the case that a lot of games (I don't know about medal of honour) don't use all the latest features, to reach a larger customer base.

And VIA sued back stating that Intel violated VIA's patents with the the Pentium 4 bus as well as some other reasons. You can follow the entire suit trail over at The Inq

according to the inquirer, nvidia is having problems with the foundry that supplies its' chips

Ha ha ha

Cruel, but fair.

Anyone seen other reports that XBox is having hardware problems?

This report at The Inquirer suggests that the XBox launch could be more of a self-destruct.

In the future perhaps Microsoft will include one of their illegal EULAs and prevent the return/refund of the XBox.

IMHO I would love to see dell ditch intel for all its notebooks and use the new AMD chips. The batteries have to discarge so fast it fries my PC cards with the heat.

Do you have one of the famous Dell speedsteps without a speedstep incompatible desktop chipset?
Even though intel gets a good deal of profit from their notebook chips they seem to be better at it than AMD. Mainly because they were large enough to begin production of their 0.13 um Tualatin chips on notebooks before they had the fabs to use the process on desktop chips.

For your next mobile, consider that today the 750MHz ULV PIII could be a better choice on batteries than the 1 LV GHz variant.

Oh how I wish I could give head to Carly or senator Rodham-Clinton (just look at that beautiful profile!).

okay, let's review...

The Inquirer has a story posted March 31, 2001 about the UP1500. it says the product is "is intended to arrive in July". it is now November.

these mailing list posts (including some by yours truly), show that the Samsung page in question, has been around since at least April 2001 and so has a page which has listed the UP1500 as "Under Development" ever since.

now, i'm no expert, but i think it is fairly safe to call this vaporware. maybe the motherboard will come out at some point, but for right now, it's silly to treat it as news.

(i will refrain from making commentary about how certain news *cough* organizations should check their sources before posting stories. oops! i just did.)

From here: http://www.theinquirer.net/02040103.htm

Samsung Alpha board suffers from DDR famine

And fails to deliver on 1GHz Alpha

By Pete Sherriff , 31 March 2001

THE JOINT VENTURE which produces mobos for the DEC (sorry Compaq) Alpha microprocessor is suffering from a severe shortage of DDR cache memory, according to sources acutely close to the acute famine.

The UP 1500 Alpha, which supports a 21264 Alpha at up to 800MHz speed and comes with 4MB or 8MB of level two DDR cache, is intended to arrive in July, with typical systems costing around $4,500.

But a shortage of cache for the processor is hampering production, leaving system integrators truly "up in arms" and Samsung embarrassed at the short-fall.

On the day Windows XP shipped, it had no monopoly. The product was competing with the other operating systems out there: Win98, Win95, MacOS

Courts don't view software programs as having monopolies. They view companies as having monopolies. That's as it should be, and it's telling that in the example you cite, two of the three primary competitors to Windows XP are other Microsoft products.

Or in this case: If you have a lot of money and you don't give any of it to the party in power and all your competitors do, then the party in power is going to send lawyers after you.

You seem to be suggesting that Microsoft is either too naieve, too forthright, or too cash-strapped to make political donations in an effort to influence the party in power. Evidence suggests otherwise.

I will be keeping a close eye on this one in the next few days. If this is true, I will be changing my plans to buy a new Radeon to buying a new nVidia card - because nVidia has never given me such a reason to distrust them.

This has the potential to really harm ATI.

Can someone please mod the parent to "Funny" instead of "Informative" as some of the replies to this obviously don't understand that The Inquirer is a humour/parody site.

3Dnow.net links to the article at: http://www.theinquirer.net/19100103.htm that states that VIA denies this. Gotta love the opening paragraph.

If that's so, then they're doing business the right way.

AMD makes Q3 losses and launches their idiotic Performance Rating system.

If that's so, then they're doing business the right way.

AMD makes Q3 losses and launches their idiotic Performance Rating system.

The City of Turku, the oldest and one of the largest cities in Finland, is planning on a switch to Linux + OpenOffice in order to save the XP license money. Links here and here.

I know the new IBM kit is supposed to go head to head against the new Sun kit, but if The Inquirer is correct this may be the last salvo in the Sun vs. IBM unix war. Of course, I take this with a HUGE grain of salt, but stranger things have happened (*cough* *cough* HP/Compaq).

I know the new IBM kit is supposed to go head to head against the new Sun kit, but if The Inquirer is correct this may be the last salvo in the Sun vs. IBM unix war. Of course, I take this with a HUGE grain of salt, but stranger things have happened (*cough* *cough* HP/Compaq).

Darth VIA Strikes Back, Countersues Intel

JUST TWO DAYS after Intel sued Via for alleged patent infringement on its Pentium 4 chipset, it faces legal action itself from the smaller chip company.

Via has or will take out lawsuits in both Taiwan and the US for alleged patent infringement, anti-competitive behaviour, and "wilful destruction of Via property" - a criminal charge.

According to Via, Intel infringes on its intellectual property rights with the 845 chipset and with the Pentium 4 CPU.

Read the rest of this article...