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1.6GHz Athlon Computers, Via Announces KT266 chips

GimpyAMD writes: " Sys has announced 1.6GHz desktop and workstation computers that use KryoTech's cooling process to achieve that clock rate with Athlons behind them. Apparently they will be out late October to November. Also, we have Via's press release on their KT266 chipset that supports DDRSDRAM ."

114 comments

  1. Sooo.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1


    You're just getting settled in with that brand-spankin' new KT133 socket-A motherboard you just bought (to replace the KX133 you bought a couple of months back) ???

    Well, chuck it out! We got a new one for you...

    Lets see. We started off this year with the AMD 750 set, switched to the KX133 for a (very) modest performance boost, swtiched to the KT133 for the socket chips -- and the next wave is already here.

    Four chipset generations in one year. Must be some kind of record. :)

    At this point, the expiration date for a computer and the expiration date for a jug of milk are rapidly converging.

    1. Re:Sooo.... by GimpyAMD · · Score: 1

      You're definitely not out if you have a KX133 or a KT133. There's not going to be a huge difference there. But at least with AMD CPUs, you have a new chipset, instead of having to use RAMBUS, or the elderly BX chipset.

  2. Re:Overclock? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    nope, you're just wrong.
    again.

  3. Re:1.66GHz desktop? by Gumby · · Score: 2

    There are a wide variety of compute bound tasks. They are surely less than 1% of the market, but there are plenty of scientist/engineers would love to get a machine that could run their N hour jobs 60% faster.

  4. DDRSDRAM? by chuck · · Score: 2
    Forget DDRSDRAM. I want bitchin' fast, curiously high-bandwidth LMNOPRAM.

    God, nobody's going to understand that... ;) I need to go to bed.

    1. Re:DDRSDRAM? by SEWilco · · Score: 1

      I just like how DDRSDRAM rolls off the tongue.

  5. Coming Soon, to a Blast Chamber Near You... by Christopher+B.+Brown · · Score: 2
    ... Is the new Hindenberg class Pentium V chips, with liquid hydrogen cooling.

    Oops, is that a spark???? BANG!

    Oh, the humanity...

    --
    If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
  6. Cheap RAM Still Not Cheap by Christopher+B.+Brown · · Score: 4
    The problem with these vastly powerful CPUs is that they continue to outrace the availability of suitable RAM, in terms of cost, speed, and quantity.
    • When Pentium Pros were nicely harnessed with 64MB of RAM, it probably makes sense for something 10 times as fast to be "properly appointed" with something like 640MB of RAM;
    • These things need huge amounts of cache to run efficiently;
    • Idiot vendors will probably sell them with 128MB of RAM because that's what's not too expensive this month;
    • Most of the CPU power is outright wasted when it's spending it's interrupt time assortedly waiting for an IDE drive, a WinModem, and such.

      The killer hardware would be to have a bank of 16 "serial ATA" ports with an asynchronous drive on each port. Of course I2O would likely be better still, but that seems pretty vaprous, certainly for the consumer market...

    --
    If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
    1. Re:Cheap RAM Still Not Cheap by captaineo · · Score: 1
      The killer hardware would be to have a bank of 16 "serial ATA" ports with an asynchronous drive on each port.

      Knock yourself out =)

  7. NewDeal for your 386SX by kondrag · · Score: 1

    If you haven't tried it already, download the NewDeal
    Office demo from NewDeal and give it a whirl.
    Amazing what it can do on a low-end machine! There is
    even a VNC viewer available to connect to your Linux box.

  8. IEEE1394 by Taco+Cowboy · · Score: 1



    Another name for IEEE 1394 is FireWire.

    --
    Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
    1. Re:IEEE1394 by ca1v1n · · Score: 1

      Yes, but the whole point of his question is that different people call it different things. Apple has a Trademark on FireWire. Hence sony calling it the i.Link, and a bunch of video camera manufacturers calling it DV-link. V-link could very well be another alias of IEEE 1394

  9. interrupt time by Barbarian · · Score: 2

    "Most of the CPU power is outright wasted when it's spending it's interrupt time assortedly waiting for an IDE drive, a WinModem, and such. "

    Most likely they'll use ATA100 drives. If you don't recall, from UDMA33 and up (UDMA66, ATA100), the cpu doesn't have to 'wait' on the drive like before. The controller can transfer directly to RAM and the CPU can occupy itself elsewhere, at least if it's a multitasking system.


    --

  10. Re:What about games? by NMerriam · · Score: 2

    Hee-hee. You have no idea at all how underutilized the typical game-playing PC is

    Most every computer on earth spends more time waiting for the user than vice-versa. So yes, almost all computers are "underutilized" if you mean that they don't run at 100% CPU 24 hours a day.

    But yes, playing a game can max out many CPUs (though more recent processors have more headroom thanks to the advent of consumer-level 3d graphics chips to offload processing).

    Heck, there are games on the five year old PlayStation that outgun high-end PC games, which is damn amazing considering that the PS has about 1/3 the graphics power of a Voodoo 1

    It depends what games you're talking about -- graphics intensive games with little "math" behind them work great on consoles -- not much processing required beyond pushing polygons around.

    But there is more to the game world than first-person shooters, and a persistent war /strategy / flight simulator like Longbow spent more than half the processing power at the time on keeping track of the hundreds of units on the battlefield. Very little of the processing power was shown on the screen (but Voodoo sure made it look better!).

    Tetris doesn't require a P3, and neither does Quake 3 (it requires a decent 3d card), but you'd be hard-pressed to make a "big world" type of game on a playstation because it's about more than graphics.

    The original poster was correct, though, that games are what pushes the technology in computers (along with video). Not many other apps can actually hit 100% CPU on a P3, and have a customer base willing to shell out the cash to improve that.

    I do 3d graphics and remember the bad old days of paying $1000 for an OpenGL card with 2 megs of memory (this was like 1997, not so long ago). Thanks to 3Dfx and the game market, every consumer has 10 times that power, and it's good for us all...

    I'm an investigator. I followed a trail there.
    Q.Tell me what the trail was.

    --
    Recursive: Adj. See Recursive.
  11. Can't wait.. by Frijoles · · Score: 5

    I can't wait until we get to 1.21 GHz.. then I can run around saying, "1.21 GHz? 1.21 GHz?! The only thing capable of producing that much power is a bolt of lightning!!"

    1.21GHz!!

    --
    -Frijoles-
    1. Re:Can't wait.. by Beevis · · Score: 1

      that's Thunderbird ... not Thunderbolt

    2. Re:Can't wait.. by Soruk · · Score: 1
      that's Thunderbird ... not Thunderbolt

      F.A.B.

      (... thinking one of these would be nice for running Seti@Home...)

      --
      -- Soruk
  12. Re:640K RAM and Bill Gates by ppanon · · Score: 1

    That's not one you can lay at Bill's feet. He was responsible for obtaining DOS and making it run on the hardware, but the hardware specifications (and the BIOS) were true Big Blue. Mr. Gates may have a few things to answer for, but I don't think that's one of them.

    --
    Laissez lire, et laissez danser; ces deux amusements ne feront jamais de mal au monde. - Voltaire
  13. Re:1.66GHz desktop? by ppanon · · Score: 1

    Well, I don't know about the first program, but it would seem to me you should be able to recompile the latter two to run on a DEC Alpha. What's stopping you? Or is there some boxed software only available for i386 that you use as well?

    --
    Laissez lire, et laissez danser; ces deux amusements ne feront jamais de mal au monde. - Voltaire
  14. Re:This is exactly what I want (more crack) by Soko · · Score: 5

    ...and this is in reference to...what? The story is about a company that uses a cooling unit (likely 50-60Lbs and a 400W power sink in itself) almost the size of the PC to overclock an Athlon to 1.6 GHz. You want to lug that around for a laptop? I can see it now:

    (On American flight 2603 to Little Rock)
    Stewardess: Excuse me sir, but you'll have to put your "laptop" away.
    Cecil: What? No way, lady, the guy next to me is using his! And he's only got a Tecra! Mine's a Sys Cold-Fusion!
    Stewardess: I know, sir, but your computer is taking up the entire aisle.
    Cecil. Computer? See, it fit's under the seat in front of me!
    Stewardess: Oh? Is THAT why the upolstery is smouldering? And that battery pack above us...
    Cecil: What? The lead-acid cells are 2 lbs under the storage capacity of the overhead bin!
    Stewardess: Actually, we need to stow those in the hazardous waste container at the back of the plane.
    Cecil: Great! No power! You have an adapter?
    Stewardess: How much power do you need?
    Cecil: Oh, about 1000 Watts
    Stewardess: That's just about how much the generator puts out for the whole aircraft. Shut it down, sir.
    Cecil: Awww, geez, it's such a nice laptop too. All the guys on Slashdot think so!

    --
    "Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm." - Anonymous
  15. We don't all doword processing by toofast · · Score: 1

    As taken from SYS's website:

    "The SYS Cold-Fusion desktop, the world's fastest PC, is intended for digital content creation, 3D graphics and game design, CAD/CAM, desktop publishing, financial analysis, and very serious gaming. Built around KryoTech's vapor phase refrigeration technology, the system provides unprecedented performance."

    Funny, they didn't talk about web browsing and word processing!

  16. Re:Why not... by karnal · · Score: 1

    you just hit the nail on the head.

    People who buy the 1.6ghz are either trying to number crunch faster, or play games faster...

    not necessarily try to run them as servers.

    --
    Karnal
  17. Re:SMP and Quake3 by G-funk · · Score: 1

    It does effect framerate. IIRC, carmack said you get about a 20% speedup, coz all ai and stuff is moved away from the rendering cpu.... But i may not RC :-)

    Gfunk007

    --
    Send lawyers, guns, and money!
  18. optimization by LennyDotCom · · Score: 1

    yes optimiztion is laking
    back when I used a APPLE IIGS
    computers didn't double clock rates every 6 months (or what ever)
    I used that computer for several years after it was discontinued
    and there were a group of programers in france called FTA
    (free tools association) that did some really AMAZING stuff
    by pushing the IIGS's capabitlities farther then anyone had done
    when the IIGS was in it's prime.
    It just makes me wonder what programmers would do with todays
    technology if no new advavces came out for 5 years

    --
    http://Lenny.com
  19. What about games? by LennyDotCom · · Score: 3

    You left out games
    Gamers arre the people how really push the emveope.
    If it wasn't for games everyone would use a mac

    --
    http://Lenny.com
    1. Re:What about games? by Junks+Jerzey · · Score: 2

      Gamers arre the people how really push the emveope.

      Hee-hee. You have no idea at all how underutilized the typical game-playing PC is. Heck, there are games on the five year old PlayStation that outgun high-end PC games, which is damn amazing considering that the PS has about 1/3 the graphics power of a Voodoo 1. Game developers mostly try to support high end hardware rather than getting performance out of current systems because that's what lunatic fanboy gamers buy. Seriously. I'm not trying to flame you in the least.

    2. Re:What about games? by Junks+Jerzey · · Score: 2

      But there is more to the game world than first-person shooters, and a persistent war /strategy / flight simulator like Longbow spent more than half the processing power at the time on keeping track of the hundreds of units on the battlefield. Very little of the processing power was shown on the screen (but Voodoo sure made it look better!).

      What I'm saying--and I'm a game developer--is that a Voodoo 2 could be pushed about 5x farther than anyone has pushed it, but we're so busy playing catch-up with new cards and bad drivers that there's no incentive. So we use a new card and get a 3x speedup, even though the old card could do the same. People who get involved in the whole upgrade cycle and "my computer is bigger than yours" nonsense don't want to hear this.

      There was a popular coin-op game a few years ago--San Francsisco Rush--that still looks better than just about any racer released on the PC. What was powering SF Rush in the arcades? A Voodoo 1.

      Yes, there are other things to use CPU power for. "AI." Pathfinding. Complex animation systems. Physics. But everyone in the game business knows that you don't need to optimize too much on the PC, because everyone will upgrade. If you optimize too heavily, then fans will be disappointed because their 1GHz Athlon isn't showing any benefit over a 400MHz Pentium II.

      The end result is that many people are fooled into thinking that you need insane machines in order to do things that could be done with 10x less processing power.

    3. Re:What about games? by Junks+Jerzey · · Score: 2

      lol, I loved that line about "If you optimize too heavily, then fans will be disappointed because their 1GHz Athlon isn't showing any benefit over a 400MHz Pentium II". That was just funny, as the athlon has so many ways to further optimize it then a P2 that such could never be the case...

      See how some people are clueless? I do hardcore software development on a PII 400 and have no speed complaints whatsoever. You can convince yourself that you need 3x the speed to do 3x less, but there's not much I can do about that.

    4. Re:What about games? by Junks+Jerzey · · Score: 2

      The reasoning here is simple : if they're too cheap to upgrade their fossil box, they're probably too cheap to pay 40-50$ for a game, but 15$ for 5-10 games is an acceptable indulgence for those people.

      We're not talking about 33 MHz 486s here, we're talking about 300+ MHz processors. Those machines fly for Windows, Excel, Word, Photoshop, whatever. Heck, you can do high-end 3D modelling on such machines (note: a company I used to work for was doing 3D modelling on 486-based machines, because, at the time, that was the "high end"). Now we have people putting down 400 and 500 MHz processors as worthless for everything except word processing and web browsing. Why would you want to upgrade if your "fossil" is ten times faster than machines that were used for hardcore software development only a few years ago?

      Seriously, some people need to get a clue about performance. I suppose fooling yourself into thinking anything that's now brand new is slow and crappy, but you're putting down some seriously fast hardware.

    5. Re:What about games? by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 1

      > What I'm saying--and I'm a game developer--is that a Voodoo 2 could be pushed about 5x farther than anyone has pushed it, but we're so busy playing catch-up with new cards and bad drivers that there's no incentive.

      I'm a game developer too.

      And you're partially right, but you're forgetting about fill-rate and transforms. There are only so many triangles the Voodoo can draw per second. The GeForce has raised this number considerably. 15 Million vertices per second (don't have the numbers for the Voodoo 2, but it is considerably less. 3Dfx FAQ lists 80 million pixels/sec, wheresa the GeForce 2 can hit 1 Gig pixels/sec)

      What are the short comings of the Voodoo 2?
      a) Unfortunately (or fortunatly) us 3D game programmers don't want to be locked into a proprietary API like Glide, we'd rather use OpenGL or even D3D.
      b) max textures sizes are only 256x256
      c) and only 16-bit. Gotta have 32-bit all in the name of realism ;)
      d) 16 megs of texture memory
      e) no resolution above 1024x768
      f) no full-scene anti-aliasing
      Yes, all of these are "non-essential", but customers are wanting all of them.

      I agree, that the Voodoo 2 is still a sweet piece of hardware.

      > But everyone in the game business knows that you don't need to optimize too much on the PC, because everyone will upgrade.

      Again partially correct.

      But there are 2 main reasons not to optimize.
      a) It's time to ship the dam game (and start making some money off of it.)
      b) It's costing a lot of money (programmer's time) just to get another few % increase in speed out of the game.

      Of course the main argument to optimize is
      a) Lets people with slower computers have an ejoyable experience, which means more people will buy your game since they don't have to upgrade (just yet)

      I do agree, it is sad, that we just "pass-the-buck" via "get a faster computer"

      Cheers

      --
      uSA != U.S.

    6. Re:What about games? by Shadow99_1 · · Score: 1

      lol, I loved that line about "If you optimize too heavily, then fans will be disappointed because their 1GHz Athlon isn't showing any benefit over a 400MHz Pentium II". That was just funny, as the athlon has so many ways to further optimize it then a P2 that such could never be the case...

      Your also forgetting one thing: those arcade systems used compeltely custom hardware/software, didn't have to worry about supporting a multi-tasking OS, & some people like playing the game of being able to say "My dick is bigger than yours" by having some really expensive machine... Oh I also heard the head of Raven software's lead designer say in an interview over a year ago that "Optimizations are a thing of the past, we no longer need them as the blunt force method is more effecient". Put that all together and you have a good argument for why such machines perform so well compared to PC games.

      One alst point. Think about this, the playstation has been around for longer than say Win98 has & computers change hardware/software constantly making a 'target' platform hard to iron out where as the playstation hasn't changed noticably in all that time... That's why so many PC game makers can't see the market for their games anymore. The consoles suck up so much money at a lower cost of product that making PC games almost looks foolish... Btw just in case anyone says "Well linux doens't change that much it would make a better platform", well news flash linux chnages faster so it's even a worse platform to look at from that POV.

      Myself I'd rather have some consistant standards & more optimization in games, but such does not appear to be the case any time soon....

      --
      we are all invisible unless we choose otherwise
    7. Re:What about games? by Shadow99_1 · · Score: 1

      I didn't say you had to have complaints, I'm just sayig that the 1G ahty will always be faster when optimized at the same level as the P2 400... Frankly I know quite a few things I'd add in if I had 3x the power top play with... There truly are uses for the power of a 1G athy even with optimization...

      Oh and since you keep pointing at that you do 'software development' I should point out I work for a hardware website & spent 4 years learnign programming (though I dislike programming for the most part hence why I work as a network engineer) & have doen quite a bit of assmebler coding for a few 3dnow! enabled apps I made for the K6-2 awhile back (which where hand optimized by myself). Oh & if you'd read a few things I've said ehre on slashdot you'd notice I refer to programmers who don't optimize their code as 'lazy'... So thank you ever so much for putting me down after I didn't even argue against your point...

      --
      we are all invisible unless we choose otherwise
    8. Re:What about games? by billcopc · · Score: 1

      A sad problem with new games is that even though you may have slaved over assembly code for weeks in order to make that shimmering new strategy sim run decently on an old P200, the owners of such cpu's simply don't bother shopping for games anymore because they feel they're out of the race. They've learned not to believe those "Minimum requirements" because they're just too.. minimal. Ever tried to run Quake 2 on a P166 in software mode ? Was it playable ? Of course not. From that day on you never bought an FPS again until you swapped that old cpu for a brand new P2-400 and renewed your enthusiasm for PC gaming.

      The moral of this story is that no matter how well tuned your game might be, if you can't 100% convince the low-end users that it will run fine on their systems, then you will have wasted all that optimization time when instead you could have spent the coder's extra salary on a horde of young swedish nude masseuses in preparation for your next big seller (Fluke Nukem 12 : Slutty Cheerleaders From Mars).

      The only crop of games that still score (proportionally) with the low-end people are budget/compilation titles, think Mahjongg and Tetris). The reasoning here is simple : if they're too cheap to upgrade their fossil box, they're probably too cheap to pay 40-50$ for a game, but 15$ for 5-10 games is an acceptable indulgence for those people.

      --
      -Billco, Fnarg.com
    9. Re:What about games? by MeowMeow+Jones · · Score: 1

      Why is it that hardcore gamers will pay $4,000 bucks for a tweaked computer, and then spend five hours downloading an ISO to save $40?

      --

      Trolls throughout history:
      Jonathan Swift

  20. Re:1.66GHz desktop? by Frac · · Score: 5
    we really need to file this post together with the "but does it run linux?" and "imagine a Beowulf cluster of these" under the cabinet of Generic posts that pop up again and again.

    nobody said a 1.66 Ghz chip is targeted at consumers for speedier IMing or word processing.. think about it.

  21. Speed... by bemis · · Score: 1

    Can't wait to get my hands on one of these things ... it really is nice to see them getting a little more of the speed out of the chipset ... ... (there *is* quite a bit more till the "theoretical limit" on that set, isn't there?)

    bemis
    -if i don't get a little more sleep i'm going to delete all the firewall shit off my damned alarm clock!

  22. LPC Bus? Home PNA? by Thauma · · Score: 1

    "high-speed V-Link bus, as integrated six channel advanced audio, six USB ports, LPC bus, and integrated 10/100Mbps Ethernet and Home PNA."

    Am I just out of the loop here? Or are these just new buzzwords form somthing renamed like IEE1394?

  23. Alienware experiences... by paulm · · Score: 1

    I too bought a box from alienware, just recently as a matter of fact. The box would constantly hang. 100% failure rate on eq within 4 minutes. After trying all sorts of driver updates the problem finally resolved itself when I removed the WindowsMe that shipped with it and installed windows98.

    I also had this goofy problem where the redhat6.2 install had the "turn of pentium GUID" option selected in the default kernel, so it would halt on boot. I just built a kernel on my other box and dd on to boot disk to fix that. I also cannot get the SBlive linux drivers to make make sound come out the headphones jack, but works fine through the speakers. This post probably belongs on a newsgroup somewhere....

  24. Re:1.66GHz desktop? by Toby+Allsopp · · Score: 1

    I think this post is a troll, but I'm intrigued by this:

    > there's a point (the "absolute processing
    > point") where the speed of a program is
    > dependent solely on the algorithm used, and not
    > on how fast the microprocessor is chugging along

    Huh? Can somebody shed some light on this "absolute processing point?" Sure, most tasks are going to be constrained by other resources, such as disk or memory bandwidth, once you pump the CPU speed up enough, but "dependent solely on the algorithm?"

    This just makes no sense to me.

  25. Re:more vaporware by thing12 · · Score: 1

    Why is this vaporware? It's a product announcement! It's not a particularly innovative product announcement... I mean after all they are essentially just reselling Kryotech cases with their configuration of components inside -- but I can't even begin to count the number of companies that happilly announce real products a month before they begin shipping!

    They apologize at the end of the page because they announced back in June that this configuration was coming and only now they are able to produce them in high enough bulk to sell them. Announcing something they couldn't produce was a mistake they probably won't make again.


  26. Overclock T-Birds and Durons by ChozSun · · Score: 1

    [flame type="protection"]
    I need the protection because I am posting something from Tom's Hardware Guide.

    http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/00q3/000711/ind ex.html

    All you need is a mechanical #2. I recommend a darker, heavier lead.
    [/flame]

    Enjoy


    ChozSun [e-mail]

    --
    ChozSun
    ChozSun.com
  27. Re: No subject! by DragonWyatt · · Score: 1
    I originally posted this comment with the subject:
    (Score: -1, Flamebait)
    and was originally intended to get some Funny mods.

    But, it seems as though either
    1. The comment censor ate the subject; or
    2. There is a bug in slashcode which caused it to be dropped.

    Guess my attempt at being a karma whore backfired eh?
    --
    Don't sweat the petty things. But do pet the sweaty things.
  28. Re:1.66GHz desktop? by Tyrian · · Score: 1
    I will not cover why higher processors help out hardcore computer users, this subject has been thoroughly reviewed in other follow-ups to your post. But why the processors help Joe Consumer is another issue entirely.

    Now, partially it is nothing more than a macho act of stupidity, and heavy marketing from the industry. For example, refrigerators have been a more or less static appliance in the home for the last ~twenty years, but still have managed to keep their price up by adding 'needed' features. But I digress.

    The processor increases help Joe Consumer get technology for the future. Software programs generally aren't developed for the top three percent of the processor market, they are developed for the mainstream. When Joe Consumer has a 1Ghz Chip under his hood, more companies will invent software to utilize it. Back in the days of 486s, technologies such as MP3 playback and photo editing weren't widely available, because the CPU wasn't fast enough for it. But as CPU speeds increase, more options come of age. MPEG-4 is here, MPEG-7 is around the corner, voice recognition software is becoming effective, and other new cutting edge CPU intensive tasks are always developing.

    The bottom line is, When Joe buys this computer, the market will invent reasons for him to need it. Mr. Consumer won't buy faster computers if they don't have any effect on his usage.

    Now while I do think that tech such as SMP and bandwidth are more useful, progress is progress. No point bitching about it. As for your statements about the need for better portable storage, I think that the proliferation of high bandwidth will keep this need to a minimal.

  29. Re:640K RAM and Bill Gates by sconeu · · Score: 1

    I'm well aware of the hardware limitations of the 8086 and the original PC (model 5150?). However, he did say someting to that effect (don't have the exact quote available).

    --
    General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
  30. Re:1.66GHz desktop? by sconeu · · Score: 5

    A 1.66GHz chip in a desktop? Who in their right mind would need that kind of computing power?

    And nobody will need more than 640K RAM. Just ask Bill Gates.

    --
    General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
  31. Re:1.66GHz desktop? by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 1

    > A 1.66GHz chip in a desktop? Who in their right mind would need that kind of computing power?

    Game Developers (Artists: Reduce Render Time and Programmers: Compile Time)
    Engineers (CAD modeling)
    Biologists, and Chemists (Medical Imaging: Voxel processing)
    Real-Time image recognition

    And of course games.
    a) AI seems to be making use of the extra time we have with faster cpu's. AI is now actually getting 20% cpu time per frame, due to graphics being off-loaded to the 3d video card.
    b) More accurate and realistic physics.

    > Desktops have only a limited number of functions
    You have to stop thinking "inside the box."
    i.e.
    Why spend $10K for an SGI box, when an NT box is $5K. Better bang for the buck.

    > there's a point (the "absolute processing point") where the speed of a program is dependent solely on the algorithm used, and not on how fast the microprocessor is chugging along.

    For some apps, yes.

    But lets say you use an O(n) counting sort. Now if you sort 1,000,000 entries on a 500 Mhz, the 1 GHz will do the job in roughly 1/2 the time.

    Of course it's even worse if the comparision sort is O(n log n)

    Cheers

    --
    glQuake was the "killer 3D app" that got 3D into the mainstream. Pardon the pun. -- Pohoreski

  32. Kryotech: Nice idea, nice people, doesn't work by Jay+L · · Score: 2

    I have had quite a few different Kryotech PCs in my house. I first ordered an 800. Within a week or two, either the mobo or the chip had fried. Because of their proprietary chip cage, that meant dragging the whole 85-lb thing up the stairs.

    When they shipped my replacement, they sent me someone else's new 900 by accident, and graciously agreed to let me keep it at no charge. This worked for a while, and then mysteriously failed one night while I was out of town. It didn't POST at all.

    I asked them to replace it under warranty and I'd pay the difference to upgrade to the new SuperG. Again, they were amenable to this, and my 1GHz was on its way.

    I don't remember what happened this time, but it didn't work at all either. So they sent a replacement Super G, but the power supply was dead out of the box.

    By this time, of course, room-temperature 1GHz chips were widely available. It is a tribute to Kryotech that they were willing to take back the last of the Kryotech hardware and give me a full refund, but it never really worked.

    I don't think I've ever said this about anyone, but Kryotech is one company that could stand to bring their *quality* department up to where their *customer service* is!

  33. Make it stop! by Apotsy · · Score: 2

    For God's sake! Enough with the "imagine a Beowulf cluster of these things" posts!

  34. Imagine cracking keys by magwa · · Score: 1

    You could always use it for cracking RC-5 keys.

    btw /. is slippin on the RC-5 project. Keep sending in those cracked keys!

    --
    --- Sig test. 1...2...3...
  35. Re:Overclock? by inburito · · Score: 2

    Yes, if you are close friends with amd(like kryotech is) and can get processors that don't have the locks.. This is all amd sanctioned..

  36. Re:Beowulf anybody? by Kwikymart · · Score: 2

    I dont know about anyone else, but I am sick and tired of people even joking about beowulf clusters! People being serious about their comments was bad enough. If I see anyone type "beowulf" one more time I am going to go on a killing rampage!

    --

    Buying a Dell computer is equivalent to dropping the soap in a prison shower.
  37. Re: by Rogain · · Score: 1

    What I'm imagining is a cluster of your family's heads, hollowed out and made in to computer cases. Wow, that would be neato.

    --
    The current Slashdot moderation system is made by gay communists!
  38. Re:Petophilia by Rogain · · Score: 1

    Isenhourer had the hippies.......... but really the issue here is, why are we quite while our pets are sexually abused by wandering aztecs? I hear the silent scream, and its getting on my nerves. Will you ignore bozer when his ass bleeds?

    --
    The current Slashdot moderation system is made by gay communists!
  39. Re:Gee! Coolness! by Rogain · · Score: 1

    auh, po wittle baby 's haawaaare was badly engineered ana canna no be run onna modern systems. here's a widdle wolley-pop, now go play in da stweet.....

    --
    The current Slashdot moderation system is made by gay communists!
  40. Re:1.66GHz desktop? by ActionListener · · Score: 5
    You obviously haven't used Divx;) :)

    Simply playing an MPEG4 movie (e.g., using the divx plugin for Windows media player) uses most of the CPU utilization of a 700 MHz Thunderbird. Creating a 2 hour long MPEG4 movie from a DVD extracted mpeg file takes about 10 hours an the same Thunderbird system. It would probably still take several hours even on a 1.6 GHz Athlon. There is the potential for a lot of cool applications if the compression could be done "live." However, even a 1.6 Athlon is not fast enough for this.

    So, I think a lot of people in their right mind need that kind of computing power. As audio/video compression gets better, the processing power required to encode and decode will likely continue to increase.

  41. Wha..? by webrunner · · Score: 1

    What's with all the processor stuff recently?(Pentium 4 problems! Intel roadmap! 1.6 athlon!)
    Did I miss something?
    ----

    --
    ADVENTURERS! - ANTIHERO FOR HIRE - CARDMASTER CONFLICT
  42. Re:1.66GHz desktop? by smallstepforman · · Score: 1

    What happens when you wish to render some transitions or other special effects? You can buy hardware to provide a limited number of transitions, or you can do it in software. Do you want a dedicated MP3 encoding PCI board, or do you want to do it from software. A faaaast CPU, capable of being a jack of all trades (but not specialised in one) is cheaper than buying 243 hardware boards. Besides, where are you going to plug in 243 cards? I say bring the MHZ on!!!!! (I for one need more CPU power). Do you wish to know why? Check http://members.optusnet.com.au/~delija/Pic01.jpg Thats why.

    --
    Revolution = Evolution
  43. Re:Overclock? by jallen02 · · Score: 2

    Cranking up the bus speed has never been a problem :)

  44. Overclocking the bus? RAM speed limits you. by yerricde · · Score: 2

    Cranking up the bus speed has never been a problem :)

    RAM generally runs at system bus speed. SDRAM faster than PC133 (7.5 ns) is not widely available, let alone cheap.


    <O
    ( \
    XGNOME vs. KDE: the game!
    --
    Will I retire or break 10K?
  45. I made the comment, and I have seen a beowulf by cide1 · · Score: 1

    I was board, and built one out of 486's.

    --
    -- the computer doesn't want any beer, no matter how much you think it does. NEVER, EVER feed your computer beer.
  46. Re:more vaporware by Hellmongr · · Score: 1

    No were not negative on /., we just want to read about things available for purchase and use..

    Might I suggest ebay? ;)

  47. Re:1.66GHz desktop? by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 2
    uhm, you've never built a kernel on the same box that runs your x-server/display?

    just cause 'desktop' implies UI, its also allowed to run some compute-heavy jobs now and then too...

    --

    --

    --
    "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
  48. Overclock? by slashdoter · · Score: 1
    Does this mean that you CAN overclock the t-bird chip?

    ________

    --
    Does anyone actually have a Java program designed to control air traffic, or for the operation of a nuclear facility?
    1. Re:Overclock? by Fervent · · Score: 2

      Any other manufacturers? It would be interesting if someone like Dell was doing the same thing (it'd be the Pentium II all over again).

      --

      - I don't care if they globalize against free speech. All my best free thoughts are done in my head.

    2. Re:Overclock? by billcopc · · Score: 1

      Any brave biped can unlock his/her/its Duron/T-Bird in a few minutes using a simple pencil. Yes it works, I've done it, went from a 900mhz to 1040 in minutes, without mucking with the voltage. Just don't expect orgasmic results unless you invest in a serious heatsink/fan combo and maybe a peltier coldplate.

      On the other hand, the Celeron 667 is very sexy at 1.0ghz, and very easy to overclock too. Even more delicious is the low price and the fact that you can reuse that old BX board on which your old hosed Celeron 300a used to reside. 150$ for a gigahertz chip and around 90$ for a BX board means it costs half as much as a similar AMD setup (except you don't get that nifty DDR stuff - oh well).

      "All women are nuts. All women are equally nuts. Some women ACT normal in an effort to attract men so that they can exert their nutty self upon them, but make no mistake, ALL women are nuts. If women were normal they'd be men"

      --
      -Billco, Fnarg.com
    3. Re:Overclock? by GimpyAMD · · Score: 2

      Haha, Dell trying to help the consumer? That's not going to happen. Compaq though has made machines with Kyrotech's technology in them. Oh, also Intel won't work with them. Also, Thunderbirds aren't clocked if you know how to use a pencil :). You can unlock clocked T-Birds by marking over the bridges.

  49. Re:1.66GHz desktop? by orbital3 · · Score: 1

    Though Intel sure does want us to believe its incredible Pentium III can magically "enhance your Internet experience."

  50. Re:1.66GHz desktop? by rtscts · · Score: 1

    how intensive would it be converting MPEG4 to MPEG2 on the fly?

    am I the only one on this planet with a hardware DVD/MPEG decoder?

    FFS, stop it with the MOVs, AVIs and REAL-SHIT movie formats! I can only hardware decode MPEG2 damnit!

  51. Re:1.66GHz desktop? by rtscts · · Score: 1

    make one of em full screen, and tell me how much you like that grainy, non-antialiased mess.

    and then look at my hardware decoder in fullscreen mode - the 4+ times magnification is almost unnoticable with antialiasing, not to mention zero dropped frames and full Dolby Digital surround sound. All in a file equal or less size than some gay mov or avi which only does standard stereo and doesn't scale up to even 2x magnification without looking shitty. even software mpeg can handle 2x.

  52. some people just don't get the joke sometimes by NeMon'ess · · Score: 1
    I'm pretty sure he knows it was watts and not hertz. The joke was that he wanted to crow about how much power it has. Power = watts = GHz in this joke.

  53. Re:CPU Speeds by ErikTheRed · · Score: 1

    Mr. Moore works out of a cubicle (hey, it's his perogative, I guess).

    --

    Help save the critically endangered Blue Iguana
  54. Re:1.66GHz desktop? by ErikTheRed · · Score: 1

    Umm... compiling large C++ projects comes to mind.

    --

    Help save the critically endangered Blue Iguana
  55. Re:Why not... by core_blimey · · Score: 1
    What... a duel Athlon? That would be nice. Now lets see if we can find a chipset/motherboard that can do that.

    Seriously though, I'm about to build up another machine (Have the case/HDD and RAID controller) that just wants to be a dual Athlon, but it seems it'll just be a dual PIII... Shame about that really.

    --
    In democracy your vote counts. In feudalism your count votes.
  56. Re:CPU Speeds (wrong) by MrBogus · · Score: 3

    There's two Moore's Laws.

    The first (the real one) was actually uttered by Moore and deals with transistor density. Boring.

    The second was concocted by Intel's marketing department and describes their past and future plans to entice you to buy a new product every couple years, guaranteeing them a nice revenue stream. The way it's usually described is Every 18 Months the performance/price of the CPU doubles. (Substitute Mhz for performance as necessary.)

    --

    When I hear the word 'innovation', I reach for my pistol.
  57. Re:CPU Speeds (wrong) by OzJuggler · · Score: 1
    • How long has the PIII-800 been out? Maybe 6 months tops? Certainly not more than 10 let alone 18.
    • I've never heard of Moore's Law being defined directly in relation to transistor density, until you mentioned it just now. You might be right, but I've always heard of Moore's law being the general observation that every eighteen months the available processing power doubles and the cost of memory halves. I'll blame my sources if that is wrong.

    It's a good thing that the moderators on Slashdot are smarter than you - this explains why they rated my posting as "Funny" rather than "Informative".

    --
    Life's a buffer; you can only get out of it what you put into it! C:-)
  58. Re:CPU Speeds (wrong) by OzJuggler · · Score: 1
    So I am a victim of marketing! What else is new?

    It just goes to show that history is a lie because history was nearly all written by marketing departments! :-D
    - Juggler (of Australia)

    --
    Life's a buffer; you can only get out of it what you put into it! C:-)
  59. CPU Speeds by OzJuggler · · Score: 4
    Dammit! It was only a month ago that I replaced my tired old P2-233 by building a NEW Pentium III 800MHz system. Now I read that in a few months you will be able to buy a 1.6 GHz CPU !!??? That's doubled in 4 months, not 18!

    And why is it that when I knock on Mr Moore's office I can hear some muffled whimpering but no-one answers the door? :)

    -Andrew.

    --
    Life's a buffer; you can only get out of it what you put into it! C:-)
  60. Just to be safe by Fervent · · Score: 1

    I'll wait for the "regular" machines just to be safe. I purchased and overclocked (and supposedly well-cooled) machine from Alienware as my main gaming box, and the thing crashed regularly. Ended up building a machine from scratch (not overclocked, but at least properly cooled).

    --

    - I don't care if they globalize against free speech. All my best free thoughts are done in my head.

  61. Re:more vaporware by tiwason · · Score: 1

    No were not negative on /., we just want to read about things available for purchase and use..

    Atleast I do...

    Is there nothing cool coming currently on the market...

  62. more vaporware by tiwason · · Score: 2

    Sys Technology is pleased to announce the preliminary configuration

    1. Re:more vaporware by GimpyAMD · · Score: 1

      Well, late Oct./November isn't that bad. These were just specs, they haven't really announced it.

    2. Re:more vaporware by GimpyAMD · · Score: 2

      What vaporware? Please don't jump to conclusions. I owned a Kyrotech 1GHz Athlon last year I had it. These things are real and you can buy them if you have the costs. God, why is everyone so negative on /. boards?

    3. Re:more vaporware by Ian+Peon · · Score: 1
      I particularly like the comment:

      We sincerely regret the inconvenience caused by the continuing delays in launching this next generation product. We think you'll agree that this product was worth the wait.

      uhhh... we're still waiting...

  63. Re: Beowulf by blueg3 · · Score: 1

    Ah, just overclock a bunch of cheap chips and supercool them with Flourinert or a similar substance. I'd like to see one of those. (How about a liquid nitrogen cooled 32-node Beowulf cluster of overclocked PIIIs?)

  64. Re:1.66GHz desktop? by billcopc · · Score: 1

    Easily fixed. Just get a solid-state drive for those speedy searches. Then port PovRay to an IC board for hardware raytracing. Same thing for file compression. Finally, take some valium and watch the PC speed up as your brain slows down.

    --
    -Billco, Fnarg.com
  65. Re:1.66GHz desktop? by GimpyAMD · · Score: 1

    Have you heard of games? Some people do use these things for entertainment. and no way is KryoTech or Sys trying to get the mainstream. THIS IS VERY FAR FROM MAINSTREAM. Those suckers are huge and cost a fortune, but at least they are there for those who want them. Who said it would speed up their downloads? I think you're referring to the "NetBus" on the P4 and the how the PIII would "change the Internet" if you'll recall from their ads during the SuperBowl.

  66. Re:Heat vs Speed by GimpyAMD · · Score: 1

    They're just overclocking. Yes, people can think of the new designs, but you're not going to go from 1.1GHz to 1.6GHz over night unless you get one of these.

  67. Re:Why not... by GimpyAMD · · Score: 1

    Since when? You should check your facts, all AMD's CPUs support SMP. The problem is there isn't a chipset for it, which AMD, Micron, and Via are all working on and will be out Q1 2001.

  68. Re:Gee! Coolness! by GimpyAMD · · Score: 1

    There's probably another issue here. I've heard of no problems at all with video editing and Athlons. That simply wouldn't make sense of your encoder not work because of a CPU. Have you tried it on another Athlon system or toyed around with your config?

  69. Which chip, DDRSDRAM? by vanadium4761 · · Score: 1

    Does anyone know which t-bird chip is in these to reach the 1.6ghz? Also, it mentions a new chipset that takes advantage of DDRSDRAM. Will this have the traditional clock doubling that was see with SDRAM on the current irongate chipset?

  70. 1.66GHz desktop? by vertical-limit · · Score: 1
    A 1.66GHz chip in a desktop? Who in their right mind would need that kind of computing power? Desktops have only a limited number of functions: word processing, web browsing, some graphics editing, MP3 playing, instant messaging, e-mail, and PowerPoint. None of these applications would benefit from a 1.66GHz chip -- there's a point (the "absolute processing point") where the speed of a program is dependent solely on the algorithm used, and not on how fast the microprocessor is chugging along.

    It's unfortunate that companies can hoodwink the mainstream market into buying these useless "upgrades" that won't improve their computer. Remember, Joe Sixpack probably thinks that this will speed up their downloads. Does this constitue false advertising? These people are being sold products that they don't need.

    What we really need is a better portable storage medium -- floppy disks are obviously useless in an era of 10MB+ files, and the Zip drive just never caught on. Bigger hard drives and faster bandwidth would be nice, too :)

    1. Re:1.66GHz desktop? by alexpage · · Score: 1

      What we really need is a better portable storage medium -- floppy disks are obviously useless in an era of 10MB+ files, and the Zip drive just never caught on. Bigger hard drives and faster bandwidth would be nice, too :)

      What about the LS120 drive? It's fast, compatiable and chunky enough to store most people's data. I know that they've been installed in a lot of PC labs in UK universities...

      Yeah, I know it's offtopic, but... ;-)

    2. Re:1.66GHz desktop? by 'jeffers' · · Score: 1
      WHy Why spend $10K for an SGI box, when an NT box is $5K. Better bang for the buck.

      cause i built a schweet linux box for just under $2000 ;)

      --
      Jeff Eidsness Site Manager - http://thatcalendarplace.com
    3. Re:1.66GHz desktop? by skoda · · Score: 1

      Uhmmm...thanks...I think you just added another three years to my graduate 'career' :)

      "Then port PovRay to an IC board for hardware raytracing. "
      Alas, it's not that type of ray-tracing. It's lens-simulation ray-tracing, as in optical design & optimization. POVRay doesn't do quite what I need.
      -----
      D. Fischer

    4. Re:1.66GHz desktop? by skoda · · Score: 2

      "there's a point (the "absolute processing point") where the speed of a program is dependent solely on the algorithm used, and not on how fast the microprocessor is chugging along."

      Huh? Can you explain that? Since any algorithm implemented on a computer is ultimately limited by the speed at which the electronics can execute it, it seems that programs will always scale with electronics speed, barring some other bottleneck.

      Perhaps you were think of how an algorithm scales. A common example is fast-Fourier transform: it scales as N*ln(N) (something like that) where N is the # of points in the data set. An FFT routine cannot 'beat' that scaling factor. You can't make an FFT routine that scales by N. However, an FFT can always be sped up by using faster computers.

      If that's not what you meant, can you give an example of an algorithm that cannot run any faster than a certain speed, regardless of the hardware?


      -----
      D. Fischer

    5. Re:1.66GHz desktop? by skoda · · Score: 2

      I've got a P3 450, and in my hobby web-site coding, I use a little program that allows multi-document search-and-replace. Currently, it will S & R 300 pages in about 5-20 seconds, depending on the search string.

      I'd like that to be zero seconds, for a thousand pages.

      For my research, I use a custom ray-tracing program. Takes 20-60 minutes for some runs on this machine. I'd like the runs to be instantaneous.

      I also like to compress (zip) my data for archival purposes. Compressing 400+ MB of files takes 10-20 minutes. I wish it were instantaneous.

      I could use a faster computer.
      -----
      D. Fischer

    6. Re:1.66GHz desktop? by skoda · · Score: 2

      The main reason is because I started on a PC, and it's not worth the effort or money to switch machines.

      Some people start off with a Alpha or other non-PC box, which can work very well. But switching to a different box mid- to late- game is not worth the effort to me.
      -----
      D. Fischer

  71. 1.66 not important, DDR important. by Faeyte · · Score: 2
    We all know you can over clock any proc if you cool it and tweak it. Here is what the professionals can do with manufacturer support. Better than Intel's attempt (1.13 recall) but who really cares. This affects the what? 200 people who are going to buy them?

    Now, DDRam is another matter entirely. This will be the memory standard for the next few years. We all upgrade at least once a year (It IS in your budget right?) So, this WILL affect you. Why Hemos mixed a story worthy of discussion with one worthless but still dominating the discussion is a mystery to me.

  72. Re:Why not... by skoda · · Score: 1

    Obviously, what we need is a dual 1.6GHz machine. No need to compromise between threaded apps and floating-point perf. apps. :)
    -----
    D. Fischer

  73. I can't believe companies directly sell overcloacked machine. Won't this void the CPU warranty ? This is ridiculous. For normal use (non-gaming), today's machine are fast enough for everybody. Going beyhond specs is not recommended. The CPU might be cool enough, but you might get timing error in some circumstance. When this happens, you'll say Dammit, Windows crashed again... If the clock is too fast, gate delays will be non-negligeable.

  74. Re:GHZ VS GW by Technician · · Score: 1

    Been a while since you've seen the movie. Power is measured in Watts, Not Hertz. However the deep freezer built into it may take some juice. I wonder how long it takes to get down to tempature so it can boot?

    --
    The truth shall set you free!
  75. Re:What part of "will" don't you understand?!?! by jhutkd · · Score: 1

    Wow are you stupid! They are aluding to our future agreement "that this product _was_ worth the wait." This implies that the product was either released (the wait is over), or the product used to be worth the wait (and now it isn't). Either way, the future tense does not refer to the product, but the anticipated response of annoyed consumers!

  76. SMP and Quake3 by AFCArchvile · · Score: 2

    Quake 3 actually does have a setting for SMP machines: r_smp 1 (ONLY do this if you actually have 2 CPUs!). I'm not sure if this affects framerate, but it is an r_ cvar (rendering), so it just might. However, SMP could help on a game server (provided it's not already being used to run DivX, hehe.)

    --
    "Ancillary does not mean you get to rule the world." --U.S. Circuit Judge Harry Edwards, speaking to the FCC's lawyer
  77. AMD releases the �ber-overclocker, what's new? by AFCArchvile · · Score: 2

    Once again, AMD is trying to pass 100 amps through a 12-gauge wire. Expect this system to be up in smoke in about 7 months. I plan to squeeze all 10 years out of my P3, thank you. (I also have a 386SX which is about to celebrate its ninth year in my house, and it's still working [in all its DOS 3.3 glory, hehe])

    --
    "Ancillary does not mean you get to rule the world." --U.S. Circuit Judge Harry Edwards, speaking to the FCC's lawyer
    1. Re:AMD releases the �ber-overclocker, what's new? by magadass · · Score: 1

      If the electrons are cooled down enough the wire gauge will not be a problem because the electrons will in sense be in a more controlled manner and will not cause metal displacement as often.

      --
      "If I was smarter I could rule the world!"
  78. Heat vs Speed by Aciel · · Score: 1

    It's really too bad they can't think up some new design that will run that fast and yet much, much cooler. Who wants to buy one of those Kryotech cases just so they can upgrade their processor, anyway? Argh. Aciel aciel@speakeasy.net

  79. Re:whoa! by esonik · · Score: 1

    some examples: emacs, gcc, povray, gimp, setiathome, netscape(try loading a 500 comment /. article in nested mode)

  80. Re:What part of "will" don't you understand?!?! by Soruk · · Score: 1
    It's bad enough that Americans had to "reform" good old British-English spelling: it's "colour", not "color", damn it!

    And what is wrong with "colour"?? "color" is just some lame-arsed attempt at data compression on the sly.

    --
    -- Soruk
  81. Justify Refrigeration for the Desktop by backprop · · Score: 1
    I can see it now, I am on the phone with my mechanic in June of 2002 telling him that I need to get my cooling unit in my "Cold Fusion" cooled 1600MHz workstation recharged with refrigerant to get it ready for the summer.

    He sets me up for an appointment on his 3200MHz unrefrigerated network appliance.

    Soon we will be hearing about the exhaust ducts needed to take the condenser heated air out of the comfortable office so that everybody can have 1800MHz on the desktop.

    My point is that 1.8GHz will be blown away soon enough. Why start with the refrigeration to go just a little faster. You think that a CPU is putting off some heat, wait till you see what a few condensers can do to your cubicle. I think anyone who buys into this will regret it after about 3 months.

    If you like such bleeding-edge things and have money to burn with such a need for the fastest, then I guess this sort of hardware is for you.

    The "choice" of OSes sort of sums up the need for such craziness:
    Operating System: Choice of Windows 98 SE, Windows 2000 Professional, or Windows NT 4.0 Workstation.

    The "desktop" model even includes WinME as a prospective OS. I have a Pentium 200 that can train neural networks with thousands of input and output nodes and over 30 layers, its plenty fast enough for me under Linux.

    IMHO in less than a year there will be cheaper unrefrigerated boxes that will make this look slow. Why mess with such a cooling system to gain so little.

    --
    Republicans understand the importance of bondage between a mother and child.--Quayle
  82. Re:1.66GHz desktop? (Trolls are cool) by Ndog · · Score: 1

    I don't even know where to begin, but luckily everyone else has taken care of it. I'll just add that I know people running software on image files that can be ub to a GB, and some of the jobs take 8-10 hours on dual 600s.

    BTW, this posting is a troll- To utter a posting on Usenet designed to attract predictable responses or flames; or, the post itself. Derives from the phrase "trolling for newbies" which in turn comes from mainstream "trolling", a style of fishing in which one trails bait through a likely spot hoping for a bite.,


    Spooon!

    --
    -N
  83. Re:1.66GHz desktop? (Trolls are cool) by Ndog · · Score: 1
    Sorry, I meant the original post is a troll, not mine... I think.

    Spooon!

    --
    -N
  84. Re:CPU Speeds (wrong) by xjesus · · Score: 1

    for one thing the PIII-800 has been out longer than a month (which is when you got it). Secondly, the 1.6GHz is achieved through overclocking which leads to my last point: Moore's law (observation) refers to the number of transistors in a given die size will double in 18 months... which may or may not mean that the processor is twice as fast.

  85. whoa! by judges1617 · · Score: 1

    I guess I may not be as much of a geek as I wish I was. I'm still running an AMD-K6 233, and can't imagine what the heck you would do with that much computing power as a normal user. Then again, maybe I'm just out of date, and you do need that much power to surf the web and type letters.

  86. Why not... by MeowMeow+Jones · · Score: 1

    just get a dual 850Mhz setup?

    It won't help with your Q3A framerate, but it'll be just as good with those high end multi-threaded programs or servers.

    --

    Trolls throughout history:
    Jonathan Swift