On September 25, NVIDIA introduced its new graphics chips supporting the AGP 3.0 standard and 8x data-transfer speed. The chips boasted higher working frequencies as well. But what hides behind these praised innovations? What are the advantages? Come join Xbitlabs to find out the truth!

Seems like IDE and SCSI interfaces started their feud since the day IDE interface was born. Time is passing by but there is no definite answer which one of them is better. IDE drives have gone through five different ATA specs already, but SCSI ones have been evolving, too? Today Xbitlabs are going to try to clarify the issue by comparing the performance of SCSI and RAID hard disk drives.

Just got word that Linuxgazette.com has post an article which asks the question Wanna Create Your Own x86 Operating System? well if you do , here's a snip.

One of the great difficulties a hobbyist programmer faces when trying to start the development of his own OS is finding out where to start. Many books describe in-depth theoretical OS concepts, yet noone seems to take a hobyist programmer by the hand and bring him face to face with these concepts. This is precisely what this article aims at doing.

A lot of gaming problems are actually nothing to do with the game itself. In most cases it's a general system optimization issue of some sort. Do yourself a favour, take a few minutes of your life and read this System Optimization Guide for Gamers where TweakTown promises you will find something of use which will have you gaming at full speed in no time!

After quite some time Adrian is back with the best BIOS optimization guide I've read so far! Here's what's new...

Auto Detect DIMM PCI Clk ATA100RAID IDE Controller Assign IRQ For VGA Assign IRQ For USB APIC Function

XtremeSystems today has published a modding guide by their forum technician PiLsY, on modifying the Prometeia's Micro-Freezer retention on specifically P4 based systems, thereby increasing retention pressure which in turn provides better CPU contact and lower temps for the P4.

Just got word that Pc-extreme.de have done a comparison of Microsoft DirectX 8.2 vs. DirectX 9.0 Beta using 3dMark 2001SE , UT2003, Serious Sam2 and RTCW!

Big Thanks to Xp-erience.org. This article discusses how to design and create colorful and dynamic icons for Windows XP using a vector program, such as FreeHand or Illustrator, and Photoshop.

Just got word from Julio @ TechSpot.com that he's posted their 'how to volt-mod your GeForce 4 Ti 4200' guide.

Save those big bucks and bring new life to your GeForce4 Ti 4200 videocard. We explain to you in a detailed article how to voltage modify your Ti 4200 board in order to achieve speeds above those found on the more expensive Ti 4600's.

In their tests they were able to clock a Gainward board @ 340/650 MHz; making a total gain of over 30% for both core and memory speeds.

Ok Peeps there was some information regarding Intel technical whitepapers sent in by an anonymous german reader, but since his findings have all been discussed at the VR-Forums I will simply link to their thread as they are on track about this...

There's a new article dedicated to SoftQuadro4 on the Russian site NV World. Along with comprehensive research and benchmarking this article provides download links for the infamous SoftQuadro4 Script Pack, which is able to turn your GeForce4 series card into professional Quadro. The article was written by Unwinder, the author of RivaTuner Utility.

Rage3D.com reports that ATI has written some documentation about their AGP detection utility. They explain what it is, why it's there and answer a few FAQs.

Does SMARTGART disable all AGP support including AGP reads, AGP writes, and AGP fast writes)?

No. SMARTGART tests the functionality of each AGP command and determines if your system is capable of supporting each one, and will only enable it if system stability is maintained. Please note that SMARTGART does not disable or turn off AGP support in your actual hardware; SMARTGART only ensures that the ATI CATALYST driver will not use an AGP function that has been deemed to be unstable.

Seems Phaez posted a tutorial over on Osbetas.com about how to remove ads from MSN Messanger 5.0

Easy Case mod Guide :What do you do when everyone has a cool modded cases and your stuck with a plain POS? DIY modding time for beginners!"



Click on the Picture for the Modded screenshot!

Here's a very cool hack sent in by the Nice Peeps over @ Rage3D.com for enabling VSync options in the new ATI Catalyst DirectX 9.0 Beta RC0 Drivers.

Though ATI hasn't officially added new Vsync options in the drivers (it's slated for Catalyst 2.5) the featureset does already exist. To enable it perform the following steps

Detonator 31.50 / WIN98SE released by "Compaq" compared to different Detonator Drivers from the 40.72 WHQL Final to 28.32 Beta Drivers! we tested 8 different Nvidia Detonator Drivers sets altogther.

Overclockers.com have posted a new article which looks @ what you need to get Hyper-Threading to work?

Call me whatever, but I find it hard to believe that HT can only be found in the 3.06. Not impossible, just hard. I think it more likely that C1 stepping chips have HT enabled. Until very recently, we haven't had the pieces in place to find out.

Read more...

Just got word from Crow that he's done a quick comparison test with the latest ATI Catalyst BRC0 DirectX 9.0 drivers using 3Dmark 2001SE and also posted screenshots of the ATI DirectX 9.0 demos

Hyper-Threading On Intel P4 2.4B: VR-Zone has managed to enable Hyper-Threading on P4 2.4BGhz just one day before the launch of the P4 3.06Ghz HT CPU. This has proven that HT has been present in the Northwood processors for quite some time but was disabled by the BIOS.

AMD Athlon XP 2700+ @ 3.3Ghz: Also T'Bred has crossed the magical 3Ghz barrier and has taken to new height with XP 2700+ overclocked to 3.3Ghz! This shows that the K7 architecture still has some scalablility for higher clock speed.

Xbitlabs.com have posted an article which takes a look @ Rambus Inc.

In the past 10 years the phenomenon of the Rambus Company has grown too significant to be ignored, but at the same time too complex to be comprehended at large. So, we will only concern ourselves with one aspect of the company's activities. The one that directly affected the PC industry and made the whole computer and computer-related world talk about it.