Just got word that Systemcooling's Howard Weitzel has posted part 2 of his The 3DMark Tuning Guide! Here's a snip:

For those of you that read Part 1 of this guide, you know that we started our search for 3DMark performance by establishing a solid platform, namely the operating system. From there, we turned our attention to the system BIOS, where we tweaked and tuned our way to a 2000+ point increase in 3DMark score. In Part 2, we're going to explore the video card itself, along with its associated drivers.

A friend of mine, Olcay, wrote a guide to install Windows Media Center on XP Home Edition...

Just got word that Systemcooling's Howard Weitzel has posted part 1 of his The 3DMark Tuning Guide! Here's a snip:

Go to any online forum where computer performance is discussed, and it's almost a sure bet you will see a great deal of discussion revolving around Futuremark Corporation's video card benchmark programs 3DMark2001SE, and it's newest brethren, 3DMark2003. The programs' legendary popularity comes in part because of the ability users have to upload their test results to Futuremark's online database and compare those results to those of users around the world. Competition is fierce, and users often go to extraordinary lengths to achieve their own ultimate 3DMark score.

This is a guide about adding the DirectX 9.0 OPK to the Windows XP Professional w/ SP1 OPK. You need OPK versions of XP and DirectX to do this!

You can choose to preinstall DirectX 9.0 as part of the GUI-mode setup or as part of the Mini-Setup with Sysprep. Consult the Windows XP OPK documentation for details on these options.

Well, your power supply fan is making some nasty noise. Do you ignore it? Buy a new power supply? Or just replace the fan? If your PSU is working fine, you can just replace the fan. I've seen fans go bad after a week. I also have some fans that have been working for 5+ years without a hitch. In this illustrated guide, I'll show you how to replace your PSU fan, and get you good as new for cheap. I realize this is geared toward a newbie, but hey, new people are coming into the PC scene every day...

Thanks to Neobond at Neowin.net for sending in this Quick Guide to Privacy In Windows XP.

With the Internet becoming an increasingly unsafe place to be, users are requiring more and more security in the Operating System.

Smiro at Futuremark has updated his SoundBlaster SBLive/Audigy ---> Audigy2 guide to version 3.c Saturday, 6th April, 2003!

This topic has been discussed for ages & ages and here it is! Info taken from two sites Mydrivers.com & Driver Heaven.net with three different ways to make your SBLive or Audigy to use the applications and the new features - if hardware supports them, that Audigy2 offers.

To choose which guide to use, read the guides and FAQs and check the original Web Pages that have the Guides. It is your ? and your system?s- choice.

Here's a SoundBlaster SBLive/Audigy ---> Audigy2 guide that was poted by Smiro at Futuremark!

This topic has been discussed for ages & ages and here it is! Info was taken from two sites with two different ways to make your SBLive or Audigy to use the applications and the new features - if hardware supports them, that Audigy2 can give.

To choose which guide to use, read the guides and FAQs and check the original Web Pages that have the Guides.

This just in from DeezTech.com ... Our resident freak, Dr. Smack, has put together a little tutorial on how to connect Mandrake Linux 9 to a Windows 2000 machine. For those interested!

DarkCrow has done up a performance and quality comparison of the newly released 43.45 Detonators drivers: They tested 6 different driver sets from 42.68 through to build 43.45 running on a Gainward GeForce FX 5800 Ultra using 3D Mark 2001 SE and 3DMark03.

Ars Technica.com have posted an introduction to 64-bit and x86-64 computing! Could this be the chip that finally puts AMD ahead of Intel? Here's a snip.

If we think realistically about most of the world's commercial software not as "software" in the abstract but as x86 binary code, then it becomes apparent that improvements to the x86 ISA represent one of the most practical and cost-effective ways to advance and expand the x86 software market. Indeed, Intel's continuing extensions of additions to the x86 ISA prove just this point. Consider the move from 16 bits to 32 bits, the addition of the x87 floating-point instructions, and the addition of integer and then floating-point SIMD instructions. All of these modifications of x86 helped bring new capabilities to the PC, allowing it to find new applications and enter new markets. Thus, the ongoing adaptation of the x86 ISA to ever newer technological contexts has been one of the essential subplots in the past two decades' story of the "information revolution.

Overclockers.com have posted two guides! The first guide looks at what's more important: increasing CPU speed or increasing memory bandwidth for maximum performance, while the second guide is a Abit NF7-S rev. 1.2 VDD Mod. No soldering required, just a pencil.

Memory Isn't Everything: When people start finding memory bandwidth more important than extra MHzage, it's time for some remediation. We talk about that, and remind folks that the rules on overclocking PIV will get flipped on their heads starting next month.

Desk Top Linux writes on the eve of Mandrake's latest release. Austin Acton has published a guide to create a digital audio workstation using Mandrake 9.1. This 'How To' describes how to set up a professional quality audio workstation in an afternoon or less without compiling or text editing...

Thanks to Mackey D for pointing me in the direction of this 'Choosing an Athlon XP Thoroughbred Revision B Guide'.

Ask any production manager and they will tell you that, its common practice to try to keep the number of production lines in a plant to the lowest possible number. Its not only much more cost effective, it also keeps equipment maintenance to a minimal. Now put this concept at a microchip fabrication plant, and what happens is high grade processors are mass produced in possibly a single production line, and then sold as different products.

Just got word that Icrontic's MediaMan has posted two guides: the first is a softmod for turning your ATI 9700 Pro to a 9800 Pro and the second is a Catalyst driver comparison.

Enthusiasts love a deal and what better deal is there than free! From time to time I get out from behind the front page and meander through my colleague's forums and front pages to see just what they are up to. In my "walkabout" I stumbled across a post showing how to softmod an ATI 9700 Pro to a 9800 Pro....for free! It's a no risk mod so why not? Along the way we tested out ATI's new Catalyst 3.2 drivers to see what they bring as well.

A couple of days ago I posted the Athlon XP Processor Identifier Tool, which basically will tell you what AMD based Athlon XP processor you have! But did you know: Your AMD Athlon XP Processor May Really Be Faster Than You Think it Is.

Read More...

Adrian has just posted the new Rev. 7.5 BIOS Optimization Guide. With that, the new Rev. 7.5 BIOS Optimization Guide covers a total of 183 BIOS options. This is really worth checking out, since it's the most comprehensive and up-to-date guide that I know of.

Adrian has just posted the new Rev. 7.4 BIOS Optimization Guide. With that, the new Rev. 7.4 BIOS Optimization Guide covers a total of 175 BIOS options. This is really worth checking out, since it's the most comprehensive and up-to-date guide that I know of.

Big thanks to Neobond @ Neowin.net .... Many people have asked about the Windows 2003 as a Workstation guide and if it will be reposted, I have just completed it from a backed up Word .doc that Sphere sent me via PM just after I originally posted it. We were even able to secure the original post ID the article first appeared on which means all the sites that previously reported this will still have a valid link to it.

So Windows 2003 Professional turned out to be a pipe dream, faster than we could get used to the idea being a reality it was played down/denied by Microsoft and all the knowledge base articles were removed to be corrected. It turned out to be an oversight. Well, we aren't ones to give up so easily at Neowin, so we have put together a guide that turns Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition into what we would rather call Windows 2003 Professional. Why, I hear you scream? Well, there?s only one simple answer for that, because we can

Envy News.com have posted their step by step Soft-Modding a 9500 Pro Guide with benckmarks! this mod is for turning your Radeon 9500 pro into a Radeon 9700 non and pro but should work the same for the Radeon 9800! just replace the old drivers and the RivaTuner Soft9700 Patch with the latest ones.

Located here is a cache of modified BIOS, to be used for unlocking your existing card. Basically the goal behind this BIOS update is to unlock a 9500 Pro or 9700 non-Pro. Warp11 compared the bios of the 3 cards (9500 pro, 9700 non and pro) and found a small hexadecimal difference that prevented the lower end cards from being able to overclock. I have downloaded the ATi Radeon 9500 Pro Beta BIOS for this gib. I would advise you download the one that matches what you have.