• Price Talk Envelops AMD Opteron
• Microsoft DirectX 9.0 released, but it's far from ready
• ATI says Catalyst 3.0 first to DirectX 9
• UK virus writer admits email attack
• Computer 'turned teacher into killer'
• E-card virus warning for Christmas

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You'll often hear the term "pipelining" in discussions of CPU technology, but the term itself is rarely defined. Pipelining is a fairly simple concept, though, and the following section will make use of an analogy in order to explain how it works.

For many, ATI had done a complete 180. They had shown that not only were they capable of exceeding everyone's expectations by delivering world class hardware coupled with solid software, they were able to deliver it on time and in volume ... *cough*

Microsoft DirectX is a group of technologies designed to make Windows-based computers an ideal platform for running and displaying applications rich in multimedia elements such as full-color graphics, video, 3D animation, and rich audio. DirectX 9.0 includes security and performance updates, along with many new features across all technologies, which can be accessed by applications using the DirectX 9.0 APIs

Operating system support
Windows® XP
Windows® 2000
Windows® Me
Windows® 98/SE

Gun Metal from Yeti Studios is a futuristic action packed experience where you take control of the fully transformable, prototype combat vehicle known as the Havoc Suit. Use the Havoc Suit to battle ground based enemies, or transform in the blink of an eye into an agile jet and take on aircraft in high-speed dogfights. Either way, get ready for mind-blowing action and out of this world graphics. Gun Metal is one of the first available games to utilize Cg during its development. By doing so, Yeti have been able to create a wealth of movie-quality eye-catching special effects that bring the gaming experience to another level of excitement.

Scorch the earth, crush rocks under foot, fell trees, torch crops, tear chunks out of towering buildings and raze entire settlements to the ground as you take the fight to the hordes of enemies through 14 diverse and engaging missions and marvel at the unparalleled level of destruction.

Cg Specific Graphical Features:

CG support for all materials
CG: 'Motion Blur' effect for the plane, proportional to speed
CG: Realistic 'Water Refraction' effect
CG: Further effects under consideration
DX9: 'Occlusion Query' for optimised rendering and realistic flare effects
DX9: Use of 128-bit floating point buffers, enabling use of high contrast colour and overflows (such as retina bleach)

Note: Gun Metal requires NVIDIA hardware to run.

S3 Graphics' new world of Hi-Def™ features is redefining the boundaries of computer graphics capabilities. In an industry that has always been about the best resolution, the best performance and the latest gaming innovations S3 Graphics Hi-Def technologies make movie viewing, gaming and corporate presentations clearer, faster and more effective than ever before.

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Most of the links are dead ends so for further details check out the article over at 3DCenter

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Its that time of year again where everyone breaks out the plastic and get themselves something special. We've done about 40 or so reviews this year, so to finish off 2002, we have a grab bag review of things to get for your hardware junkie this holiday season. These items are can all be purchased for less than $100!

Looking for a cool way to get more control over your fans? There is no doubt that a rheobus is the way to go. But you are thinking "everyone has a rheobus and I want something that looks different". Good point, well what if it was lighted?

OK... lotta figgers and graphs but what do they say? They say that this particular pump thingy can push a maximum of 332 gallons per hour through a 5/8" hose... but this changes drastically with "head" or the necessity to push the water up against gravity... my particular system is designed to minimize head but figuring in bends and other variables I would say that I am getting about half that or 150gph.

After a little bit of Intel I've done for a few reviews back, now we're heading towards AMD again. This time we will be looking at the Gigabyte GA-7VAXP motherboard. There was alot of anticipation for VIA's KT400 chipset, since now DDR400 is officially supported, allowing users to use even faster memory than ever before, and AGP 8x is now supported. Today we're going to see how it compares to an older board, the GA-7VRXP.

The Hercules Gamesurround Fortissimo III 7.1 is an extremely nice sound card, and for the price (less than $50 US), it is an option well worth considering if you want high quality sound from your computer without breaking the bank. The outstanding performance, coupled with the trouble free drivers and attractive/simple control panel make the Gamesurround Fortissimo III 7.1 an I Am Not A Geek dot com Top Performer.

Many of us rule out SCSI as an option mainly due to the high costs in operating such devices. SCSI drives are typically much more expensive than IDE drives and also require additional hardware to operate them. However, today we look at a low cost solution for those looking for a high performance SCSI setup.

The second review of Orinoco wireless kit. I am yet again impressed by another of their products, this time I had a look at one of their best selling products, their pcmcia wireless card. It comes in two flavours, a silver version and a gold. They sent me one of their silver ones to look at. The card fits into any Type II slot on your laptop or can be put into a desktop pc via available PCI or ISA adaptors. It is also supported by a range of operating sytems: Windows NT 3.5 or later, Windows 95/98/2000/XP, Apple MacOS 8.0 or later, Novell Netware 3.x and 4.x and *nix.

News of this keyboard hit the community rather quickly. I have read on a few forums about this keyboard. To answer a commonly asked question, the keys on this board do NOT have the rubbery/plastic feel that many thought they might have. The keys are in fact made of hard plastic, much like you would find on any other keyboard.