VR-Zone has finished up a modding guide on the EPoX 8RDA+ nForce2 board which is currently the favorite board among overclockers. EPoX 8RDA+ by default can only be stable up to 200Mhz FSB and overclockers expecting to get more out of it will have to perform the mod. The guide will reveal the way to perform the VDD, VDDR and VBT mods that will greatly improve the board's overclockability and you can expect good stability up to 240Mhz FSB. The performance will certainly be amazing with an Athlon XP running at 240Mhz FSB on Dual Channel.

Neowin.net has news that the Orange-certified applications for Orange's SPV MS Smartphone have been cracked! which means that you can add your own Apps, games...

If you happen to be a SoundBlaster card owner your in luck today! as the TechSpot have updated all the content from their soundcard tweaking guide that is related to Creative Labs soundcards, that is, SB Live! & Audigy cards and a new section covering Audigy 2 stuff.

This is definitely a great start-up guide for configuring and getting the best audio possible from your PC.

Just spotted this @ Bink's windows XP........Joep Verhaeg figured out how to secure your NAT connection to the Internet

On my network I wanted to install and configure NAT to enable all my network clients Internet access with only one public IP address given to me by my ISP. The only problem was security and I didn't (and don't :-) have the money to buy an ISA Server license, so I had to figure out how to filter the packets on my public interface to protect the Windows 2000 box itself and the internal network....For More Info, Click the above link.

Here's a new guide that was posted @ Tvtool:

If you have connected the TV-out of your graphics card to the scart connector of your TV this little electronic circuit might be interesting. It enables TVTool to automatically switch your TV to the appropriate AV channel when TV mode is turned on. When it is turned off again the TV switches back to normal tuner mode. This is possible because there is special pin on the scart connector which is made for this purpose. Especially when the TV has several scart connectors this is a comfortable way, because you don't have to use your remote control and go through a number of AV channels until the right one is enabled. This is also nice in conjunction with the multiple soundcard support of TVTool. All you have to do is to turn on TV mode, everything else is done automatically.

Neowin.net reports that Plus! DME was released to web yesterday but to the disapointment of many web surfers it was only avaliable to US Credit card holders. The world it seemed was forced to wait till a later date. I won't go into how Bink felt at this revelation but he discovered a workaround which allows you to complete the order. I never thought I'd see the day Microsoft made it difficult to hand over CC details!

As you can see Crow hard @ work Modding his Radeon 9500 to Radeon 9700 and he tells me that he's posted his guide with pic's and benchmarks of the mod.

we choose a Sapphire Radeon 9500 128MB video card, as you know, mainly because this particular card is similar in layout to a Radeon 9700 card. There are two process to tweaking it : changing the core resister's position, and flashing the Radeon 9700 BIOS (overwriting the Radeon 9500 BIOS that's already on the card). Changing the core resister's position changing is the keypoint of this tweak, along with the most difficult.

Rounding off Beyond3D?s look at Hardware Geometry Processing, today Part 2 of the article, ?Programmable Vertex Unit?, is available. As the title suggests this takes a good look at the newer form of Hardware Geometry Processing, the Vertex Shader, and how they are implemented.

Just got word that the guys over @ Lostcircuits.com have posted their look at DDR II technology.

So what are the magic ingredients (besides a new name, Jen Hsun) that makes DDR II wiggle so much faster than DDR I? More importantly, we have heard all the rumors of DDR II being backward compatible with DDR I but we also heard the opposite. For the graphics card manufacturers, the compatibility may not be such a crucial factor but what will happen to the consumer who wants to upgrade his memory to DDR II on an existing mainboard? Last not least, since there is no such thing as a free lunch, will DDR II be more expensive than current DDR (I) or what other trade-offs will there be e.g. in terms of latency vs. bandwidth?

Thinking of buying some Arctic Silver thermal compound? then you should check out The Arctic Silver Fraud Page and make you get the right stuff.

We have seen the 10% silver oxide grease sold by dealers and distributors under several different names and represented as being up to 90% silver. (Which obviously, the manufacturer never intended.) While we find this misrepresentation disturbing, our main concern is the distributors and dealers that are selling the compound as an Arctic Silver product. This fraud by unscrupulous dealers and distributors harms us all. Customers do not get the quality product they paid for, potential customers hear of poor performance and do not get to experience the benefits of Arctic Silver and our reputation is damaged.

Digit-life.com have updated the guide: Modify The Radeon 9500 To Be A Radeon 9700 Pro! with what ATI cards can be used for this Mod....

It?s not a secret that the yesterday?s information from Overclockers.ru about remaking RADEON 9500 128M caused much hype but still there are details to shed light on. As it turned out, many are confused by the variety of ATI Radeon 9500-9700 boards, asking the same question: what can you remake and what you cannot? Today Overclockers.ru described all R300-based variants to orient you in their diversity.

IXBT REPORTS, based on overclockers.ru, that it's possible to perform modifications to the Radeon 9500 to turn it into a Radeon 9700 Pro.

This just in from NTFS.org...... Perfmon is a tool that allows user-level code to access the performance counters present in windows XP. It allows you to open a Windows XP Performance console configured with settings files.

This performance data encompasses an enormously rich set of metrics on resource usage of key hardware and software components that is available on every Windows NT/2000/XP server and workstation.

Got a new set of 5.1 surround sound speakers and not sure what's the best postion for them? then head this way to Hothardware.com and check out their new Guide Speakers and How To Position Them for Maximum Sound Quality

Whether you purchase the most expensive, or the cheapest set of speakers, position is the key for getting the most out of them. If this is done properly, any set of speakers can enhance the aural atmosphere and create a sense of space to movies, games and music. Most people who buy new speakers, usually just grab them out of the box, throw them on the table, plug them in and give them a test run. This is not a bad way to start off but there is a lot more you can do to produce better sound.

Game Music Extraction: In recent times there would have been an instance when we bet you would have liked to rip the music from some of the latest games with excellence in this area and listen without having to play the actual game. If you're interested, follow TweakTown as they give us a full run down on just how it is done with examples from all of the latest games.

Here is the best guide you ever want to read, all about windows xp, tips and tricks Plus various software you must have in your PC to work in peak performance! Download it from...... http://www.geocities.com/ekjugno/Bitsynthesis.zip

Direct X 9 Benchmarks : Microsoft has recently released their latest version of Direct X. We take a look at its performance with a DX8 and DX9 video card! "Given the number of decent DX8 titles, that is, games that actually make use of the fancy Vertex and Pixel shaders (hint: that number is low), the question is, will DX9 make any difference with the titles we have on store shelves now?"

Here's two Mods for AMD's Athlon? XP processors! the first Mod will set your Athlon? XP 2000+ 2200+ or 2400+ to a XP2800 (166x13.5) defaulting to a 166 FSB.

and the second mod will help you hit 200's MHz FSB with your Athlon? XP 2600+ 2700+ or 2800+ that's like running a Barton CPU.....Hehe and as they say TRY @ Your own Risk

Thanks to Praetereo , Aceman and Nohto ! for the Mods

NFTS.org have posted their updated Active Desktop Tutorial!

I would like to say great work guys cos this very Tutorial has been feature in the UK magazine PC Answers and Australian magazine!

The guys over @ Watch.Impress.co.jp have posted the biggest roundup I've ever seen for CPU's from Intel and AMD. They've got everything from Intel's Pentium 4 3.06GHz to Pentium III 1GHz and AMD's Athlon XP 2800+ to Athlon 1GHz using the following benckmarks: SYSmark2002 TMPGEnc 3DMark2001 SE Quake III Arena Comanche 4