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I wanted to start a thread talking about all of the interesting things that are changing about PCs at the moment.

The first I can think about is BTX, which is the new form factor coming this year and probably seeing its day truly dawn next year.

Take a look at this:



Can you notice what's strange about it?

Thats the design for a BTX motherboard.

There's also 64-bit bit computing just around the corner.

And PCI Express graphics cards.

Longhorn is the next generation Microsoft Windows Operating System, demanding specs like

Already, we are getting games like Doom III and Half Life 2 which have all sorts of new graphical capabilities.

All in all, its an interesting time in PCs again I think. Certainly I think its worth saving some money every month up for a brand new machine some time next year.

Comments?

It's an interesting hypothesis but do you really thing it'll mainstream next year? I think the current Longhorn recommendations won't hold water at release time. The BTX, 64-bit and PCI Express will certainly become more mainstream next year but I'm willing to hold off anymore majors for two years anyhow....especially after just upgrading this year. My wife'd shoot me....or divorce me. I'm not sure which is worse.

Thanks for giving me something to think on though. And BTW, that BTX board is really one screwy layout.

Coming Soon to Windows: The Microsoft Shell (MSH)

Windows is getting a slick UNIX like command line shell...

http://www.developer.com/net/article.php/3286851

Looks awsome ...

One way of combating Linux, but providing superior products that make a sysadmin's job easier. Looks like programmers jobs will be safe, which can only be a good thing given the current climate.

You can download a video of a TV show presenting the new Microsoft shell, and other stuff here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/theshow/ep...43/default.asp

Being a sysadmin yourself P66, what is your honest opinion of Longhorn? I know you are no longer with the 'dark side', but it would be interesting to know what you really think, regardless of your preference towards Linux.

Its too early to tell.

But I think there are some very interesting ideas in there.

You guys should all try to read about Avalon and the other things coming to Longhorn. Windows will be quite a bit different I think..

http://msdn.microsoft.com/theshow/ep...42/default.asp


That's why you need such a powerful PC and a very powerful graphics card - the same technologies used in games will also generate the desktop now as well in Longhorn - the desktop will be rendered with 3D hardware acceleration, transform and lighting, etc.. Think about the desktop experience possbilities....

This is pretty cool, your right.. we are advancing 2 gigs of ram min? Whats up with the two little mini slots to the right of the PCIE? And that white connector to the right of the cpu socket.

A terrabyte of storage? I hope this really does come into play in a year.

Dude Phant!!! This Avalong thing sounds cool!! VECTOR BASED! If anyone doesnt know what that is, its kinda like flash where you can make the graphics/image tons bigger or smaller and it doesnt lose quailty/etc, the program works out how long lines are to be etc (someone should explain it on this board, my dad explained it to me). This also means a powerful gfx card will be mandatory most probably.

the desktop will be rendered with 3D hardware acceleration, transform and lighting, etc.. Think about the desktop experience possbilities....

Im excited, things could really really be changing.

It's probably just as well that Longhorn isn't rushed to market. It's going to take a while for the kind of hardware required to become affordable.

All of this new technology is finding its way into all of Microsofts products, which are also becoming more standards based. This means that Microsoft will be relying on superior products in order to retain their dominant market share, rather than the proprietary technologies, which they relied on in the past. This can only be good for all of us in the long term.

Thanks for the links P66, I'm downloading both vids to watch later. Should be interesting.

Yes, if possible download the microsoft TV program movies about avalon and the msh.

Not really. The onboard VGA on the i915 chipset is DX9 capable. It won't play FarCry very decently but it will be much more then enough to make Longhorn work properly. If they can ship enough of those units from now until LH comes out & with low end cards such as the FX5200 & ATI's 9600(se) capable of DX9 operations too in two years, a lot of people should be ready for LH, at least on the VGA side of things.

On the other hand, I'm not very interested in BTX. Athon64s/Opterons will not be able to use that form factor (yet?) since the on-die memory controller needs for the memory slots to be very close to the CPU socket. In the BTX standard, it's quite far away.

& you'll notice the CPU is the first thing to get the airflow on the front of the case. That'll cool down the CPU for sure but it'll only make hot air spread through the rest of the case, warming up the rest of the components.

MONAD sounds like it could be good for anyone that plans on programming in Longhorn.

Do you think that Intel will be the first to get into BTX, whereas AMD will stick around with ATX for longer??

Remember that the same thing happened with ATX. Intel were there first and it took AMD a little longer.

Well that is what's happening for DDR2 right now. But it's much more a problem on the motherboard makers' side rather then on AMD.

AMD has requirements for boards using its CPUs. Those requirements might not help the move to BTX. For example the space around the CPU sockets are required by AMD but the real problem lies in the distance from the CPU socket to the memory slots (the shorter the traces, the clearer the signal). It might not appeal to AMD to let board makers place the memory slots further from the socket.

Maybe some board makers will bypass those restrictions in order to have AMD BTX motherboards.

Wait & see.