- Extreme AMD Athlon XP Overclocking

DiamondDog from Madshrimps has shown us an extreme method of getting the most out of ye'ole faithfull 32bit AthlonXP, utilizing phase-change cooling he was able to push the poor ole' XP2000+ to speeds of above 2900MHz :O Certainly not a cheap method used here but one that is sure proven to provide outstanding results.

Now that Intel and AMD are pushing their next generation products onto the market, we see a performance gap between older generation CPU's and the new breed. We try to give the Athlon XP an eXtreme performance boost so it can keep up!

- GeCube Radeon 9600 XT Extreme & HIS Excalibur Radeon 9800 XT

If you're thinking of upgrading your old dx8 card to something with more punch as well as full dx9 support, but money's a bit tight for a shiny new 9800XT? Zee german folk at Planet3DNow have aquired an "Extreme" edition 9600XT by GeCube and put it to the test in terms of price/performance against it's bigger brother. As far as 9600XT's go, you can't beat this one. It sports 2.5ns memory rated for a whopping 400/800MHz DDR, and noticably better stock cooling to top it off. The best part? the price tag! The worst part? Tolerating googled german translations....

The GeCube Radeon 9600 XT of extremes be based, like it the designation to already suspect leaves, on the RV360 core of ATi. of these during 0.13 µm the process is manufactured and clocks with 500 MHz. The Radeon 9600 XT represents ATis solution for the middle class and addresses themselves therefore to the price-conscious Gamer. Opposite their direct predecessor, who Radeon 9600 pro (RV350) does not have itself anything fundamental changed. Still it possesses 128 according to standard MT memory over 128 a bit memory interface to be addressed. New however the angehobende core clock from 400 MHz is to 500 MHz with a pixel filling rate of 2,0 GPix/s as well as a revised z-compression (hyper+ z III+). This works now with a compression of 24:1 (8:1 at Radeon 9600 pro). The 9600 XT possesses, compared with the large sister 9800 XT, a higher core clock however its Rendering pipelines are limited on 4 (8 with 9800 XT).