Table of Graphics Chips (www.hwhunpage.com/gvt_e.htm) has been updated once again with all the new Radeon and GeForce FX models plus a few corrections. The table now contains the most important data of 107 solutions (including 11 "historical" and 16 mobile products).

Here's Digit-life.com's cooler guide again after a site problem! Tested coolers include models from Zalman, ThermalTake, Spire, CoolerMaster and a couple of other brands. Pretty comprehensive.

Times when the range of coolers for Socket A was narrow are gone. The distributors have successfully ploughed up this field and now it bears hundreds of decent models in contrast to just several dozens available on the market quite a short time ago, and only several ones had really good quality.

Just got word from VR-Zone that their updated AMD Barton OC database is out.

We have done some more updates to the Barton Overclocking Database and things are certainly cheering up more now for Bartons. Apparently a new world record has been set with XP 2800+ (2.08Ghz) overclocked to 3.46Ghz and its SuperPI 1M calculation (32s) is completed faster than a P4 3.06Ghz@4.6Ghz (33s).

nV Italia has done up a comparison of the newly released Detonators drivers: They tested 3 different Detonator driver sets from 42.68 through to build 42.81. Benchmarks like Unreal Tournament 2003, Quake 3 and 3D Mark 2001 SE are used.

Just got word that Adrian has updated his premier BIOS optimization guide to v7.3! Here's some of the updates. Read more...

Betas.Intercom.net reports on how to improve your privacy in KaZaA Lite! Are you afraid of the entertainment industry? Does your country have stupid copyright laws? You don't share because you are afraid you get caught for doing so? The newest version of KaZaA Lite has got the solution for you! It is now possible to prevent other people from listing your shared files (find more from same user, etc.).

Here's a new guide sent in by our good friend Neobond @ Neowin.net!

I have just completed my simple guide of how you can easily transform the latest Windows Server 2003 into a desktop type OS. Many people are using it either for Beta testing or via CPP (Customer Preview Program) and well it is quite a good stable OS built on where XP left off and beyond. If you run Windows Server 2003 and can't get Audio or OpenGL working this is the guide for you, also an easy post-install reference.

Deviant Pc.com's Alistair Hutchinson has posted the third part of his guide "Mapping Tutorial for Unreal Tournament 2003"! Here's a snip.

UT2003 Mapping Tutorial part3 ? or ?Landscaping for Gods, an introduction? The subject we will be covering in this instalment of our guide is terrain. This is a much vaunted feature of the Unreal Tournament 2003 engine and has been used to great effect, not only in the supplied maps, but also by map makers from the community since then. Although to the novice, UED user terrain generation may seem to be a daunting prospect, in reality the editor makes it fairly straightforward offering many ways of achieving the desired result.

Here's another guide sent in by those nice peeps @ CDFreaks.com. If you're having problems backing up the latest Safedisc 2 protected games then check out this guide.

If you are attempting to copy The Sims Unleashed, Total Club Manager, Need For Speed Hot Pursuit 2 or any other game protected with Safedisc 2.8x, the only reliable methods are to use Alcohol or make an image with Discdump and burn that image with Fireburner in either DAO16 or DAO96 mode. A Discdump image burnt with Nero in DAO96 mode generally will also work but the copy will be inferior to one made using Fireburner. Reports as to attempts (and my personal experience) with Discjuggler, Blindwrite, Cdmate and Burnatonce (image read with internal Discdump) are mixed. There have been a number of successes but also a number of failures with those programs. Note: Although this thread is about software other than CloneCD, with the current version of CloneCD (4.2.0.2), CloneCD also falls into the hit or miss category along with Discjuggler, Blindwrite, Cdmate and Burnatonce.

Thanks to the guy's @ CDFreaks.com for sending this my way.

Our newssubmit wased used to tell us that people that are looking for a Sony DRU-500A can now also buy a Sony DW-U10A and convert it to a DRU-500A. The DW-U10A is, according to the reports, a bulk version of the DRU-500A, which means it comes without software and DVD discs. Also a different firmware is installed, rpc1.org has all the information how to convert the drive to a DRU-500A.

Home systems are a different animal. While gaming may rely on shear speed, quality and stability are the keypoints here. They threw in some speed anyway. Check out the home guide for Feb 2003!

NTFS.org reports that if your looking for an answer to a question or just want to know how to do something then check out the link below.

The Definitive Guide To Sound In Windows XP

We've already had a howto on adding some more gliding to your mouse with some cheap home made 'Teflon Tapes' and now we have a small howto on creating new mouse feets with Film Canister. Thanks go out to Reed for this idea & Howto. It's not really hard to make, and some people might find this and the other howto with the 'cheap teflon tapes' stupid howto's, but then again , I don't think most people would have ever thought about these things because they are just so simple. So these howto's are more about getting the idea :) Read the how to here

For something a little new to ASE Labs they have monthly system setups. Covering the gaming systems for this month, they have three setups: your budget system that costs 800 or less, a middle level system that costs around 1200, and the top of the line system for $2000. Let's get into the budget system.

VR-Zone has updated the Athlon XP 'T'Bred' overclocking database with numerous entries from the overclocking community. It is also interesting to note that Athlon XP 2100+ based on T'Bred "B" AIUHB core is the hot favorite overclockable CPU around and ability to run 2.5Ghz on air and over 3Ghz on extreme cooling method. Here are some of the entries:

Athlon XP 2100+ 1.73@3.33Ghz by TGX Athlon XP 2100+ 1.73@3.17Ghz by Dan Athlon XP 2100+ 1.73@3.09Ghz by Memesama Athlon XP 2100+ 1.73@3.02Ghz by Futto Athlon XP 2100+ 1.73@3.0Ghz by NewBettle Athlon XP 2100+ 1.73@2.82Ghz by Shigesan

Just got word that Adrian has updated his premier BIOS optimization guide to v7.2! Here's some of the updates. Read more...

Pentium 4 Overclocking Adventure: We all love overclocking, and the effect it has on our 3DMark scores - some people more than others. Today TweakTown's Tio "Tha Realest" Chaharbaghi takes us on a Pentium 4 overclocking adventure taking a 2.4GHz processor to its maximum with explanations along the way and clock speed increases and the effect on 3DMark 2001 SE scores. If you are new to the Pentium 4 overclocking scene, make time to check out this article.

Thanks to Dave @ Beyond3D for sending this in. Following on from their Introduction to 3DMark03 article, those guys now published the 3DMark03 Performance Tests article.

Here they take all of ATI?s Radeon 9x00 series, a GeForce 4 Ti 4200 and 4600 and Matrox?s Parhelia and test their respective performances over 3DMark03?s rendering tests. We'll begin to see if this a true DX9 benchmark, where its bottlenecks are and begin to explain some of the performance numbers we are seeing from the various boards on test.

This just in from LSDsmurf @ Dvhardware.net: Everybody that overclocks his PC will love case fans (except the watercoolers ofcourse)! Especially those nice plain black case fans! We love them don't we? No? Well then, now we're going to paint them and make them UV reactive! We're going to do it on a simple and cheap way.

Just got word from Crow @Darkcrow.co.kr that Gzeasy.com have found a tweak that will turn your Geforce FX into a Quadro FX and the benchmarks in 3DMark 2003 show Nvidia's geforce FX ahead of ATI's Radeon 9700 Pro! for Darkcrow's article click on the nvidia logo or click, Here for Gzeasy.com article.