Hardware [M]adness in 2004: a Recap
Editorials by SidneyWong @ 2004-12-05
The year is ending in a few short days. In looking back a few months ago, we, the enthusiasts certainly could say ?what a year!?
Review
Just A Thought
2004 - What a year!:
The excitement of A64 was brought forward from last year and continues to make noise; a lot of noise. In recent weeks S939 Winchester shines even more with AMD stock quickly picked up steam in last two months. Followed by new motherboards with higher HTT and tighter timing memory modules to supplement the new chip performance, it was hell of a few months for hardware review sites.
| A64 90mn | A64 FX @ 3Ghz | Asus A8V | MSI K8N Neo2 | DDR on A64 | DDR on P4 | OCZ DDR Booster |
The year has not been kind to Intel. The long awaited Prescott only proved to be the so called “Hot Potato” with “not so hot performance”. Despite some the die-hard fans support, it loses the once “shining star” status to AMD. Of course, Intel does not make processors alone, it creates the industry in turning out DDR2, PCI-e and BTX related products. When the processor failed to shine, so did the impact on these products.
| Prescott OC | Corsair DDR2 | Crucial DDR2 | Kingston DDR2 |
Doom3 and Half Life 2 surely have stirred up some attention. Mastering the new games becomes the main focus for many.
Both ATI and Nvidia continue to compliment each other with hot products equally accepted and welcomed by their fans. The competition proved to be win/win for both Companies in terms of stock value. ATI will march into venturing chipsets in pursuit of what Nvidia started a year ago.
The unprecedented growth rate in heatsink size surely was amazing. It seems like they grow in size on a daily basis from all over. Of course, the noiseless thingies; huge passive cooler, power supply, water cooling may be taking roots as if we all be joining “ZEN” style of living with IPOD standing by.
| P4 HSFs | Athlon XP HSFs | Passive PSU | Swiftech | AlphaCool | Xice | Danger Den | asetek | Cool Cases |
Every other month, a new design water block is surfaced keeping some enthusiasts looking over their shoulders constantly.
And, how can we forget Bill Gates with SP2 episode, and the $32.6 Billions give away. I’m sure there is hell a lot more I have missed.
Beneath The Surface
The Hardware business in the last two years has not been good to say the least. Personally, I know a dozen retailers; sales are running about half of what it used to be "Say four years ago"; the cut-throat pricing further reduces gross margin. Ask your sponsors how good business/profit is; what do you hear?
This is where I don't get. They are not making money, yet keeping new products coming out weekly ......
One of the reasons causing this came from E-commerce (Website sales) in recent two years which is running at below 10% Gross profit..... That’s why you see pricing change constantly. This applies to both U.S. and EU market. The exception is in China and India where growth rate for next year is a +30%.
I do believe some of the hardware review sites are unable to see this trend but cater to the very low percentage of hardcore. In order to improve ROI, manufacturers must be able to make good use of invested tooling. In general, the ordinary consumers are running six months to a year behind technology, which makes the pricing more inline to what they could afford to spend.
It is kind of "funny" to have read some enthusiasts' beliefs, such as:
1) Water cooling will become mainstream.
2) X800; 6800GT could be found in most household.
3) High power PC is designed around Doom3, HL2....
What do ordinary people look for at local computer shows?
1) Replacement parts or certain low end upgrades - HDD, Monitors, and Memory.
2) Build a low-mid cost PC to replace PII/III or K-2, from S423 P4 or Athlon t-bird to Celeron D and AXP.
3) Buy a case so that they don't have to pay for expensive freight.
4) FX5600 and ATI 9600 are good video cards.
5) Direction to hook up two computers at home using DSL.
These are real people spending money representing 90% of sales revenues for merchants.
This is the very reason I mentioned before, writing how to article in choosing the best bang for the buck will service the general public well. Does a P4 550 rig improve my office productivity comparing to my old P4 2.0? Or, does an A64 S939 help my wife’s home business comparing to the AXP2400+ we purchased two years ago?
Some of us may say “so what, who cares”, “they are the one, two, three cuts kind of guys below me”. Well, I hear you. It depends on your stand and most importantly your value system.
Looking into 2005:
Carried forward into 2005 will be plenty; perhaps, PCI-e and DDR2 will find their place in A64? SLI will be the hot topic? How about Dual core processors from both AMD and Intel? New approach from Intel may “surprise” us? Who knows how big heatsinks will be a few months from now? Would power supply exceed 1,000 watts before the end of 2005? How will the economy turn out? Will China and India become the “hot spots” for enthusiasts and gamers? What kind of new games do we expect?
Those question marks and more will be answered in due time.
Thoughts:
Personally, I like to see a healthier industry with which we spend so much time on. This means increase in Corporate Purchase; better funding in education in replacing the aging PC’s in school; more emphasis on 3-4 tiers market in touch with regular consumers in their PC needs; be more street smart so that more articles are written for general public.
How about new products that will aid some of the not so fortunate?
A mouse or a pointing device that will help people; such as arthritis sufferers unable to navigate using what we have.
A keyboard that allows a senior to operate.
Well, you know what I am referring to.
Surely, we all can have some kick once in awhile in testing the latest Vapor Chill or exploring the highest possible speed in overclocking; testing the very limit possible.
Driving a Viper, or Lamborghini, or Porsche 986 daily, you may have missed some of the finest restaurants in potholes filled street of Chicago and other major cities.
Thanks & Wishes:
I thank all the hardware manufactures in keeping this industry alive; our sponsors at [M]; the dedicated people and fellow writers in our field; the wonderful readers and my peers. Of course to my editor, I thank you.
I wish you all very happy holidays and safe trips to where ever you need to travel during this holiday season. Happy New Year!
Comments @ Forums
The excitement of A64 was brought forward from last year and continues to make noise; a lot of noise. In recent weeks S939 Winchester shines even more with AMD stock quickly picked up steam in last two months. Followed by new motherboards with higher HTT and tighter timing memory modules to supplement the new chip performance, it was hell of a few months for hardware review sites.
The year has not been kind to Intel. The long awaited Prescott only proved to be the so called “Hot Potato” with “not so hot performance”. Despite some the die-hard fans support, it loses the once “shining star” status to AMD. Of course, Intel does not make processors alone, it creates the industry in turning out DDR2, PCI-e and BTX related products. When the processor failed to shine, so did the impact on these products.
Doom3 and Half Life 2 surely have stirred up some attention. Mastering the new games becomes the main focus for many.
Both ATI and Nvidia continue to compliment each other with hot products equally accepted and welcomed by their fans. The competition proved to be win/win for both Companies in terms of stock value. ATI will march into venturing chipsets in pursuit of what Nvidia started a year ago.
The unprecedented growth rate in heatsink size surely was amazing. It seems like they grow in size on a daily basis from all over. Of course, the noiseless thingies; huge passive cooler, power supply, water cooling may be taking roots as if we all be joining “ZEN” style of living with IPOD standing by.
Every other month, a new design water block is surfaced keeping some enthusiasts looking over their shoulders constantly.
And, how can we forget Bill Gates with SP2 episode, and the $32.6 Billions give away. I’m sure there is hell a lot more I have missed.
Beneath The Surface
The Hardware business in the last two years has not been good to say the least. Personally, I know a dozen retailers; sales are running about half of what it used to be "Say four years ago"; the cut-throat pricing further reduces gross margin. Ask your sponsors how good business/profit is; what do you hear?
This is where I don't get. They are not making money, yet keeping new products coming out weekly ......
One of the reasons causing this came from E-commerce (Website sales) in recent two years which is running at below 10% Gross profit..... That’s why you see pricing change constantly. This applies to both U.S. and EU market. The exception is in China and India where growth rate for next year is a +30%.
I do believe some of the hardware review sites are unable to see this trend but cater to the very low percentage of hardcore. In order to improve ROI, manufacturers must be able to make good use of invested tooling. In general, the ordinary consumers are running six months to a year behind technology, which makes the pricing more inline to what they could afford to spend.
It is kind of "funny" to have read some enthusiasts' beliefs, such as:
1) Water cooling will become mainstream.
2) X800; 6800GT could be found in most household.
3) High power PC is designed around Doom3, HL2....
What do ordinary people look for at local computer shows?
1) Replacement parts or certain low end upgrades - HDD, Monitors, and Memory.
2) Build a low-mid cost PC to replace PII/III or K-2, from S423 P4 or Athlon t-bird to Celeron D and AXP.
3) Buy a case so that they don't have to pay for expensive freight.
4) FX5600 and ATI 9600 are good video cards.
5) Direction to hook up two computers at home using DSL.
These are real people spending money representing 90% of sales revenues for merchants.
This is the very reason I mentioned before, writing how to article in choosing the best bang for the buck will service the general public well. Does a P4 550 rig improve my office productivity comparing to my old P4 2.0? Or, does an A64 S939 help my wife’s home business comparing to the AXP2400+ we purchased two years ago?
Some of us may say “so what, who cares”, “they are the one, two, three cuts kind of guys below me”. Well, I hear you. It depends on your stand and most importantly your value system.
Looking into 2005:
Carried forward into 2005 will be plenty; perhaps, PCI-e and DDR2 will find their place in A64? SLI will be the hot topic? How about Dual core processors from both AMD and Intel? New approach from Intel may “surprise” us? Who knows how big heatsinks will be a few months from now? Would power supply exceed 1,000 watts before the end of 2005? How will the economy turn out? Will China and India become the “hot spots” for enthusiasts and gamers? What kind of new games do we expect?
Those question marks and more will be answered in due time.
Thoughts:
Personally, I like to see a healthier industry with which we spend so much time on. This means increase in Corporate Purchase; better funding in education in replacing the aging PC’s in school; more emphasis on 3-4 tiers market in touch with regular consumers in their PC needs; be more street smart so that more articles are written for general public.
How about new products that will aid some of the not so fortunate?
Well, you know what I am referring to.
Surely, we all can have some kick once in awhile in testing the latest Vapor Chill or exploring the highest possible speed in overclocking; testing the very limit possible.
Driving a Viper, or Lamborghini, or Porsche 986 daily, you may have missed some of the finest restaurants in potholes filled street of Chicago and other major cities.
Thanks & Wishes:
I thank all the hardware manufactures in keeping this industry alive; our sponsors at [M]; the dedicated people and fellow writers in our field; the wonderful readers and my peers. Of course to my editor, I thank you.
I wish you all very happy holidays and safe trips to where ever you need to travel during this holiday season. Happy New Year!
Comments @ Forums
[M] Articles in 2004
Sharkoon Headset GHS1
Sunbeamtech Transformer Full Tower Case Review
Chenbro Xpider II Review
Raidmax Cobra 822 Gaming Case Review
QuietPC AcoustiCase 6607B Review
Antec Overture Revisited - Keeping it cooler
TTGI SuperFlower X-Mask Case Review
Global Win GAT002 Case Review
Case Master V828 ´FireBird` Server Case Review
Antec Overture - Desktop Case Art
In-Win X710 Case review
TTGI USA TT-201T3 Case Review
Arctic Cooling Super Silent 2L Athlon XP HSF Review
Intel P4 Aircooling - Heatsink Roundup 2004 part I
Thermalright XP-120 Review: New sound of Silence?
CoolJag 661C P4 & V558A XP Heatsink Reviews
Cooler Master Cool Drive 6 Review
AMD XP Aircooling - Heatsink Roundup August 2004
Aerocool Extreme AXP-P4 HSF Review
Alpha AMD XP heatsink S-PAL8055F Review
PrimeCooler Hypercool HC I+ / HC II+ - 3in1 HSF Review
Kool Solutions Chill Vent II Deluxe CV-288 Review
Scythe Samurai Intel-AMD HSF Review
FSP Group Silent System Kits for S462 and S478 Review
Swiftech MCX6400-V - Athlon 64 Heatsink Review
Thermalright ALX-800 vs his big brother SP-97
Battle of the Titans III: Cooler Master Hyper6 vs SP-94
TTIC NPH-101 and NPH-1 Intel HSF Review
Thermaltake Polo735 - 3 in 1 Cooler Review
Titan System coolers TTC-SC04 and TTC-005
Arctic Cooling Super Silent 4Pro L
Primecooler PC-HDB SuperSilent passive HDD Cooler
Alpha Intel S478 Heatsink - S-PAL8952 Review
Graphic Card Cooler Roundup
QuietPC 92mm AcoustiFan
Evercool NoteBook CoolPad NP-101
AMD Athlon 64 heatsink roundup
AMD XP Aircooling - Heatsink roundup December 2003
Swiftech H20-8600 AMD A64 water cooling kit review
Alphacool NexXxos XP water block
Danger Den MAZE4 GPU Water Block Review
Xice ExternalCool EC900 Water Cooling Kit
Danger Den TDX vs Cool Cases CF1 v2
Danger Den TDX Water Block Preview
Danger Den P4 RBX Power kit Review
asetek WaterChill Antarctica KT12A-L20 Kit
Intimidator CPU-GPU-Chipset Water Blocks Review
I Water Cool My Rig Too
Cool-Cases CF1 microstructure water block review
Danger Den RBX Acclerator-nozzle 1vs5 Comparison
Home-made CPU-,GPU-,Chipset water blocks tested
AMD Athlon FX overclocking to 3Ghz: Creating a 'Gamebeast'
Athlon 64 3200+ 90nm (S939) - The next P4 2.4 "C" ?
Overclocking the P4 Prescott
Prescott effects on motherboard power circuits
Extreme AMD Athlon XP overclocking
The TCCD-pire Strikes Back? Athlon 64 S754 Memory Roundup
Crucial Ballistix PC5300 DDR2 Memory Review
Corsair TWIN2X1024-5400C4PRO DDR2 Memory Review
Corsair TWINX1024-4400C25PT DDR Memory Review
G.Skill PC3200-PC4400 Memory tested on A64 S939
Low latency PC3200 memory roundup on Intel
Kingston HyperX PC2-5400 DDR2 Memory Review
OCZ Gold PC3700 V3 and EL PC3200 Platinum Rev2 Review
OCZ DDR Booster Review
Kingston KHX3200K2/2G Hyper-X3200 2GB DDR400
Mushkin PC3200 Special Edition Memory Review
Corsair TwinX-1024 3200XL PRO: nForce3-250 v. Intel-875
AMD A64 S754 Memory timings explored on nForce3 150
Geil Mushkin OCZ - PC3x00 AMD-Intel Performance
OCZ PC4400 Dual Channel Memory Kit BETA
Corsair TwinX PC4400 Dual Channel Memory Review
OCZ EL DDR PC-4200 Dual Channel
AMD nForce2 memory timings explored
X-Trac Mouse Pads Review: Ripper, Zoom and Pro HS
[MAD] Folding Fever!
My next Upgrade
Cebit 2004 in 7 hours
Sunbeamtech CCFL Fan Grill & Fan Combo Review
Back to the basics - modding that dull grey Box with a twist
T-Balancer TBAN-XL Review: The Knobless Fan Controller
AC Ryan Backy™ Review
Sharkoon LED Lightbar Blue
Flashy 80mm Fan Roundup - Aerocool/Sharkoon/ACRyan
Super Flower SF-609F Fan Controller
Ultracool II Digital - Eye Catching Fan controller
Rheobus comparison: Evercool,Coolermaster, SunBeam
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum A64 S939 Review
MSI K7N2 Delta2 Platinum Athlon XP nForce2 Review
Asus A8V revision 2.0: Exploring Max HTT Adventure
Chaintech 9PJL2 Silver Review - Intel I865 Reviewed
Chaintech 9CJS ZENITH - Intel I875 Reviewed
Passive Power Supplies Review: Silverstone and Yesico
14-Way PSU roundup - over 5000W put to the test
Cooler Master Real Power 450W PSU
Antec TrueControl 550W PSU Review
OCZ Technology PowerStream 420Watt PSU Review
PCPower&Cooling TurboCool 510 Deluxe
VisionTek Xtreme2 Go Drive USB 2.0 Review
Sharkoon 6-in-1 memory reader USB 2.0
Promise FastTrack S150 SATA TX4 and SX4
Global Win Travel Box
T-Zero: New thermal compound tested, AS5 killer?
Arctic Silver ArctiClean Review
Chaintech Geforce FX 5900XT SA5900X Review
PowerColor 9800XT - Upgrading to DirectX 9
Club3D Geforce FX 5900XT - New King of the budget class?
Sparkle Geforce FX 5700 Ultra Review