#27 - DCC - Digital Compact Cassette - they were out in the mid-90's (RadioShack sold them via the Optimus lable) - Cool idea to be able to play BOTH digital and analog in the same deck using the same cassette formfactor. I value practicallity and backward compatability is vital too me. DCC always made more sense to me than DAT. Not sure of audio quality though.

NAD, ADC, Denon, Yamaha ---- these are the only ones left that have quality. There used to be many others in the 70's/80's. But since the 90's they have become mass-producted K-Mart-ware. (esp. Sony - how the mighty hs fallen). So long as folks want cheap over quality we will see more Sony's and less NAD's ;-(

WTF happened to Carver????????

I've got some marantz stuff, but marantz has only recently produced anything very hifi (and reports are that they are again producing bad stuff -- which is very annoying),
------------
Speaking of Marantz, the Philips-owned subsidiary. Gosh. Don't even get me started. My experience with these clowns when I was deep into hi-fi was abysmal. Around the time when they were introducing DCC and MiniDisc, I bought a CD player and DCC deck from them (remember those?). Probably not...

Well, anyway, I think I received 3 faulty CD players (CD53 (SE?)or CD63...can't remember the model numbers off hand) and 1 faulty DCC deck. The most pathetic quality control I've ever seen in my life. Not to mention the fact that I later realised the hifi magazines spin it like you wouldn't believe. Normally to the advertisers with the biggest budgets. All the good magazines went bust years ago, and I know why; they had integrity, instead of obeying the wishes of those advertising the most.

I sent complaint to the head of Marantz in Australia back then (Jan Timmer, I think his name was...Dutch fellow). It was truly pathetic. Months later, you saw ads for Marantz proclaiming some 'independent' had just assigned them the highest quality manufacturer or some bullshyte...

Unbelievable how they cover up and lie through their arses. Anyway, that's my story. Needless to say, no more Marantz. Ever.

3) Xtasy is a great thing, and any other hardware geek who's ever "rolled" will tell you the same. There are people (I am not one of them) that would buy a Ganja 420 graphics card, which is a GF3 Ti 500 that can be "stoned" to run w/ a 420 MHz memory clock.

6) I believe that international law dictates that no computer hardware may be sold in attractive packaging.
-----------------
LOL!

Great job Andy and Geof!

(Someone had to say it.) :-)

Originally Posted by Monaco
[q]I\'ve got some marantz stuff, but marantz has only recently produced anything very hifi (and reports are that they are again producing bad stuff -- which is very annoying), they don\'t really classify as hifi. [/q]

I don\'t wanna hijack this into an audio discussion but- the marantz equipment I have is pretty darn highend. A Marantz Dolby Digital preamp, Marantz 5 monoblock amps, a Marantz SVHS VCR, and an M. LD player. Fosgate signal processing and AC-3 too. Can you tell I worked at a store that sold Marantz?:) Well all of it is 5 years old so they may have changed since then. Back when I got it it was pretty much the best stuff you could get without going nuts. Somewhere between Sony and Alpha :)

Bottom line is SVHS really is pretty good, but DVD is nearly the same price and better. Course not so good if you want to record- so I have both!:)

Any word on when we will see those awesome tablet PCs, and the cost? or are they around already?

The SiS745 chipset has build in FireWire. The ECS K7S6A and the ABit KS7 motherboards both use the SiS745 chipset, but I do not see any mentions of the FireWire ports on these motherboards. What has happened to the FireWire?

Here is the old meridian upgrade package circa 1997:

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_4_3/meridiandts.html

I've got some marantz stuff, but marantz has only recently produced anything very hifi (and reports are that they are again producing bad stuff -- which is very annoying), they don't really classify as hifi.

At any rate, I took a quick look at the stuff pioneer produces, and at the price point they hit, I doubt they upgrade much of their stuff.

Intelmole - but why do I need a PDA? And is the Ti500 'brill'?
3GB is too expensive. 2GB is enough for a few months at least.

Guys:

Thanks for all the kind comments directed at me, but please keep in mind that Andy and Geoff helped write the report. So they get some blame, too. :)

I want a new system NOW, with all these tech toys and gadgets and stuff

I want the Athlon T-Bred in a dually mobo, with 3GB DDR RAM and and brill graphics system! I want all of it, and I want a PDA to go with it...

Might kinda cane my current system,
IntelMole

P.S. Good work Damage :-)

Monoco - this is #14. My old SVHS was an RCA - tand RCA ain't the best anyway - it was "adaquate" in picture quality, but I had to use expensive tapes and SP speed to keep the video noise down.

The new Toshiba's and JVS are the better one's and both are only 150-bucks via BestBuy. My old 1988 RAc model died last year - and I haven't bought another SVHS (yet). But I will, becuase of it convient VHS compatability.

What model VCR do you have? and what tapes, speed do you record in?? those things have a bearnig of final quality. My cheapass 80-buck WalMart GE VHS VRC has excellent playback heads and any rented movie look very good on it (VHS - wise of course), but it's recording heads suck - video noise everywhere, poor color too . ;-(.

As for sound - your right, but I only have two ears - and I don't watch (key word) movies to hear how good they are. Stereo is fine by me - high signal noise, high dynamic range, and a good pair of home speaker connected to a guality power ampilfier and EQ is good enough for me ;-).

Originally Posted by Monaco
#14 has a very good point I think- all these new techtoys are worthless until somebody develops an industry standard. I just skip over any talk about recordable DVDs, and I will keep on doing so until there is [bn/b] standard format that works on all drives AND is back-compatible with regular DVD drives (home and PC). Until then, DVD recodables are just nifty- but pontless- toys to me.

On the other hand #14, I have an SVHS and an LD next to each other- the SVHS is quite a bit more fuzzy than the LD, not to mention completely lacking in digital sound....can\'t even begin to compare with a DVD. As soon as a standard recordable DVD format happens, it\'s time to let VHS in all it\'s forms die... LD players too are far outdated, which makes me pretty unhappy- I have 2 LD machines and a boatload of LD movies as well. Oh well, that\'s how the technological cookie crumbles! :)

I personally haven\'t seen any hifi equipment that has an upgradeable anything on it- I have a Marantz DVD box. Sure sounds like a good idea tho-

SVHS has an okay picture (not as good as DVD, much less LD), but in terms of sound, it isn't even close. Not to mention that SVHS media isn't nearly as persistent, and takes up way to much space. I'm not at all convinced it is a good alternative to anything. Better to wait for DVD-A, DVD-RW, etc. and all those to get resolved and have nothing now then to own an SVHS player.

Can't speak about Pioneers players, but in the hifi audio world, new players are coming software upgradeable so that you'll just have to upgrade your dac's software as long as you support resolutions up to 96Khz/24bit (and in the near future 192Khz/24bit). It souldn't be too much of a stretch to develop a recorder with the same strategy, if pioneer has one of their elite models, it prolly has an upgradeable rom dac/dsp solution.

Oh forgot my question!

Looking at the pictures of the .13 Athlon and from the numbers given the die sizes - will the smaller Athlons have 256-cache or 512-cache????????????

To fight Northwood they'd better have 512!!!

Excellent review Scott - informative indeed ;-)

A few comments and one question someone her may be able to answer.

Comments:

first the good:

I like the Tablet PC thingy, and it's good to see micro-micro-PC boards - smaller is good for the 21st century. The auto-upadate Bios feature sounds good and practical (assuming the user is informed and has the choice to NOT upgrade - sometimes the cure is worse than the ailment)

the bad:

Ok we all know how cool and newest "Technogadget" is - but i draw the line when practicallity is sacrificed. A floppyless mobo is the worst thing I've ever heard, and unless Intel intends to through in a free "bauble" that will connect the flash thing to the floppy that was given me in the ususal course of the day - which will transfer the data so I can use it on this new-pangled PC without floppy - there is no way I'm buying it!!! Just how in hell I'm I going to be able to copy my report from my PC to some media (other than the floppy) and expect to be able to drive to Kinkos and just print out that report (or - same question - give my report to my clients/others and expect them to be able to read it). Same argument for all files: CAD, graphics, HTML, text ----- without floppy support, knowbody will be able to exchange data with you. It's that simple - who cares if the floppy is obsolete tecnically - inthe real world it continues to be the standard, and will remain so for the next several years.

DVD-R/RW - irrelivant untile ONE stadard wins this war - and until they get cheaper. Why in hell would I buy a 2000 DVD-recorder which is 80-percent compatable (which in real world is probably less), when I can buy a Super-VHS (my first one was in the late-80's and cost 500-bucks, the new ones have better picture and can use regular cheap tapes, rather then the more expensive SVHS tapes) for 150-bucks!!!. These 150-buck SVHS continue to be backward compatable with standard VHS (as they have allways been - and thus practical). Full Hi-Res picture which really is nearly DVD quality - on 3-dollar tapes (how much does the DVD-R/RW discs cost???), fulll Hi-Fi sound quality, etc... You guys can buy the buggy DVD-R recorder for the 2-grand, I'll buy the 150-buck SVHS VCR, and use the rest of the 1850-bucks for other things ;-).

My-2-cents.

Originally Posted by Monaco
Great coverage guys, tons of pictures! Best coverage I\'ve read so far.

I really like the looks of Intel\'s weird experimental board-now that\'s a lot of ports!:D

#12: 1394 is for your digital camera or camcorder. I\'ve seen other devices that plug in there, but only those two devices really seem to take advantage of all that speed 1394 has.

I've got 1394 on my laptop and can't figure out what to use it for. Well actually I had a plan for using it, but my digital cable box doesn't have a 1394 hookup (draw your own conclusions with what I was going to do with that), so now the relevance is lost to me, someone please tell me what the heck uses that port. I keep hoping that hifi stereo components will include it, but not yet.

Mmmmm.... Quad. I've always wanted a quad. Badly.

But damn, its Intel. :(

Maybe when they get some L3's on some Xeons... then it'll be time to upgrade da Linux box. :) Course it'll need a damn case wirth wheels and such. That sucks. SC750-A is a big enough pain as it is. Complain complain.

As for dually MPX mobos, I'm hearing we're down to 2 weeks. Not to name any names, but that's what a certain ridiculously large Tier-1 AMD dealer located in Georgia is saying under the table, at least. Frankly, it no longer matters to me, as the Fedex man is here with my Asus A7V266-E, complete with thermal diode monitoring!

Originally Posted by LocalYokel
AG #7:

1) You\'ll get your wish for a combination tablet/desktop monitor when Apple decides it is time to release their LCD iMacs. (: b)

2) DVD recordable formats aren\'t confusing. Until they get the standards worked out, you don\'t need to know anything.

3) Xtasy is a great thing, and any other hardware geek who\'s ever \"rolled\" will tell you the same. There are people (I am not one of them) that would buy a Ganja 420 graphics card, which is a GF3 Ti 500 that can be \"stoned\" to run w/ a 420 MHz memory clock.

4) I never would have cared if it had never been done in the first place, but now that it has, I hate getting motherboards with green PCB\'s. I couldn\'t care less about my other hardware. They still need a color, so which one is it?

5) I think aluminum is back because of copper\'s limitations, as much as its expense.

6) I believe that international law dictates that no computer hardware may be sold in attractive packaging.

8) PDA\'s are boring, but if it were in my cell phone, and the unit were closer to $250, the baseline cost of the two devices separately (instead of $500) I\'d use it.

10) USB2 is too little, too late. 1394 is winning.

Yeah, I'm curious about the WA2A. Did the mention availability, pricing, etc? If it's soon maybe I'll forgo the Tyan. :)

Just LOOK at that Serial ATA connector, willyas!

<copious drool, copious drool>

Some thoughts:
1) I wanna see the displays of tablet PCs doubling as monitors for regular computers, if they don't already. I think that would make a lot of sense, allowing you to 'take your monitor with you'. Sure would convince those hesitant to fork out the $$ for another expensive device.

2) DVD recordable formats confuse the hell out of me.

3) Xstacy is one of the most stupid names given to a consumer electronics range.

4) Frankly, I've had it with coloured PCBs. The novelty has completely worn off here.

I still love big jpegs tho.

5) Plain ol' 'silver' aluminium heatsinks seem back in 'vogue'. (gotta be cheaper too..). I still wonder how many people must have see-thru windows on their boxes for all this to mean anything..

6) Only asians can get away with putting a robotic insect on the box of a graphic card.

7) Rick Bergman is a lying bastard; perfectly suited to his position in marketing.

8) PDAs bore me to death, so I can't comment.

9) Nvidia seems on the ball, as per usual.

10) Personal highlights in order of importance:

Serial ATA
USB 2.0
0.13 AMD chippies
Recordable DVD, if I ever make sense of the formats..

Originally Posted by LocalYokel
There ain\'t a truck in the state of Texas big enough to haul the next generation of dually Abit boards. What is the deal with the WA2A, unless it\'s designed for rackmounts? The Xeon board seems to have only one expansion slot, along with some other quirky things...

Whoah, Dissonance uses Dippity-Doo?

I always figured him for a Dapper Dan man.

:)
ER

i was refering to "Abit's wild-colored Xeon offering"... besides some chips and basic components, it shurely looks naked....

I was wondering what's with that weird shaped [ connector... is it some kind of riser or is it just a temporary connector used by ABIT to test their board ?

i knew i shouldn't have looked at that last pic ;)

Adi

What weird and incomplete Abit mobo? You mean the nForce board? You misunderstand. It's complete, but it's microATX... OEM.. 'not ready for retail'. Retail usually implies full ATX, so that you can use more than one PCI card, and usually an AGP card, too.

Can't sleep !! ;)

umm, ASUS wasn't there ? i would have loved some info about that A7M266-D... What exactly was the deal with that weird and incomplete ABIT mobo ?

Nice report though ! Indeed very complete and drool enducing ;)

Adi

Most likely the best Comdex wrapup I've seen as of yet. Awesome work, Damage!