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HardwareZone's 10th Anniversary: The 1998 - 1999 Era

The Early Years - Singapore Hardware Zone (SHZ)

The Early Years - Singapore Hardware Zone (SHZ)

We did mention we'll be back with more articles to give you further insight as to how our huge HardwareZone portal once looked like in its infancy and some of the more interesting tidbits of yore that should rekindle some past memories for some (and something 'new' for those who weren't aware).

The history and overall evolution of HardwareZone has been well mentioned well in our first part of our anniversary series , so we'll move on to concentrate on specific time frames revolving around the progression of the web portal. In this article we'll focus on the first segment of our evolution, the Singapore Hardware Zone (SHZ) days. When www.hardwarezone.com was first established on the 9th of August of 1998, it went by the SHZ moniker until it met its next phase of development towards the end of 1999 when Hardware Zone Pte. Ltd. became an established business and the web portal was renamed to HardwareZone to reach out and influence others beyond its shores.

Ang Chi Hoe, our present Chief Technology Officer, spent several hours to design and render the Singapore Hardware Zone logo on his then advanced P2-400 machine in the early days of the site. The logo was then proudly displayed on the landing page as the gateway to Singapore Hardware Zone:-

 For close to two years, 1998 to 1999, the SHZ was based on a black backdrop and adorned this logo.

Among the highlights that first drew people to this early fledgling site was the fact that the Internet circle was just about expanding at an exponential rate and with that, a sea of folks were looking towards the Internet as a source for knowledge by interacting with others in community groups who had similar interests. HardwareZone being developed and targeted as an integrated IT portal was ideal to such a cause for the hardware enthusiast. With key features like the hottest news, coolest reviews, the most updated computer hardware prices and a comprehensive overclockers database function, HardwareZone became a must stopover place for enthusiasts to get their fix.

Here's a sneak of the news headlines in early 2000 when the site hasn't yet taken on a new makeover. What would perhaps strike you most if you are a hardware follower since the early days is the news link on the Interview with Bitboys. They sure made a lot of hype but didn't make it much anywhere other than being bought by ATI in 2006 . Click for a better look of the entire news page.

 We managed to chance upon our old reviews homepage listing. Click to view the entire page.

 And here's the old overclockers database section. Possible in those days with limited processor variety but it can get messy in the current day processor SKUs having much shorter lifetime and with far more variety as well. It's now defunct, but its functions have somewhat been taken over by our forums.

 

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