When we first previewed the Banshee powered Monster Fusion (click here and here for part 1 and 2 of that preview respectively) back in August, Diamond had utilized a vanilla reference design, sticking to 3Dfx's specifications. As you can tell from the screenshots of our new Monster Fusion, Diamond has tweaked with the design a little bit. More notable changes include the removal of the reference add-on port and a slight decrease in overall length of the card.

These changes aren't strictly cosmetic, however. Diamond's General Manager of the Graphics Business Unit Scott Vouri claims that the Monster Fusion's slight revision makes the card's instruction computational process more efficient, thus squeezing another fps or two over other Banshee products. Indeed, the various PC's scattered throughout the premises that were equipped with the Fusion ran everything from Unreal to Motocross Madness at moderate to high resolutions while for the most part maintaining a very acceptable frame rate.

The Monster Fusion will retail for $149 and ship with Microsoft's Motocross Madness and a proprietary version of GT Interactive's Unreal. The latter comprises 11 levels, including 2 "Diamond-exclusive death match levels".

Diamond's next exhibit was the HomeFree wireless LAN setup. Via radio waves that switch between 86 channels at a frequency of 2.4GHz, computers with the HomeFree can communicate with one another at 1.0Mbps (about 500Kbps shy of a T-1 connection) at a maximum recommended distance of 100 feet. The HomeFree can travel through walls of moderate thickness and even across floors, so long as the computers aren't farther than 100 feet. The 2.4GHz frequency (between 86 channels) assures an interference-free session, as the highest household generated radio signals run at 900MHz.

The two computers running the HomeFree setup were only a few feet apart. However, after a quick game of multiplayer Unreal, we were pleased with the almost complete lack of packet loss and interference. It was almost impossible to note any difference in speed or reliability between Diamond's HomeFree setup and a standard LAN.

HomeFree will be available in two different flavors. The HomeFree Combo Pac, which includes an ISA and a PC card, will retail for $199. The HomeFree Desktop Pac, which comes with an ISA and a PCI card, will also run for $199. In addition, Diamond Multimedia will make available the sale of individual cards through their website for $99 each.