The guys over at Madshrimps have compared 2MB and 8MB cache hard drives in a RAID setup. Here's a snip:

How does a 2mb cache harddisk compare to its bigger 8mb cache brother? We test them in different RAID setups, using real word benchmarks to show you the actual difference! Software RAID 0 / Hardware RAID 1 / 0 with Stripe sizes: 1 - 4 - 16 - 64 - 512.

VR-Zone has updated their Northwood and T'Bred and Barton overclocking databases and much of the interests still falls on the Athlon XP 1700+ T'Bred B where JIUHB DLT3C batches offer the best overclockability so far. They also received some great overclocking entries on the Bartons and D1 stepping P4s. Here are some of the fine entries:

SecurityFocus has thrown up an article called "Firewalls and Backdoors". how good is your firewall and does it have any backdoors? with tips on mitigating their use on your network.

As a modern IT professional you've done all the right things to keep the "bad guys" out: you protected your network with firewalls and/or proxies, deployed anti-virus software across all platforms, and secured your mobile workstations with personal firewalls. You may even be in the process of designing and deploying an enterprise-wide network and host intrusion detection framework to help keep an even closer eye on what's going on. Even with all this, are you really safe? Can your multiple-lines of defense truly protect your network from modern methods of intrusion?

Digit-life.com have thrown up their Pixel Shader 2.0 Precision guide and if you scroll down to the bottom of the page, you can also grab the Pixel Shader Precision Test utility! Here's a snip:

In this article I would like to look into the current situation with the second version of pixel shaders in DirectX9. For a start let's have a look at the history.

Is your 'rumble' pack on your Xbox controller too wimpy for you and you need a real shock? Then check out this guide at Tech Tv! Hehe.

WARNING: Shock Hazard. This mod should only be performed by experienced electrical technicians. Do not attempt this at home.

Smiro has updated his SoundBlaster Cards SoftMods guide! Here's a snip.

Three different ways to make your SBLive or Audigy utilize the applications and the new features (if hardware supports them) that Audigy2 offers, or unlock features of your SBLive, Audigy or Audigy2 card that official drivers neither enable nor use!

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.

David Pankhurst at ViperLair's has thrown up his Benchmarking - How and Why? article, discussing why Benchmarks exist to determine how a particular piece of hardware performs in relation to itself, and to others. Question is, are readers really getting the information they really need?

Smiro has updated his SoundBlaster Cards SoftMods guide! Here's a snip.

Three different ways to make your SBLive or Audigy utilize the applications and the new features (if hardware supports them) that Audigy2 offers, or unlock features of your SBLive, Audigy or Audigy2 card that official drivers neither enable nor use!

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.

Julio Franco at the TechSpot sends word that their OS Updates page has been updated with some of the most important additions over the last month, a Cumulative Patch for Internet Explorer and a XP patch for fixing performance problems with Buffer Overrun in Windows Kernel Message Handling that could lead to elevated privileges.

Smiro has updated his SoundBlaster Cards SoftMods guide! Here's a snip.

Three different ways to make your SBLive or Audigy utilize the applications and the new features (if hardware supports them) that Audigy2 offers, or unlock features of your SBLive, Audigy or Audigy2 card that official drivers neither enable nor use!

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.

OCinside.de have posted their brand new Interactive Pin-Mod Guide For AMD Athlon XP - T-Bred & Barton CPU's! It's well worth checking out.

This newest interactive project took about a half year, but I'm sure I didn't waste any of this time, because it's a very useful guide which will safe lot of your time and give you a new way to overclock your PC. From now on you are able to overclock the CPU easier with this new interactive Pin-Mod guide.

Just got word from Julio Franco at the TechSpot.com that he's completed their Windows Online Security & Privacy guide.

Making your Windows OS more secure and improving your privacy online is an awkward enough process given the sheer number of things that can be done to improve it. TechSpot's guide to Windows Online Security & Privacy we will cover many of such known solutions for various popular applications which should make your system more secure as well as less prone to viruses.

Smiro has updated his SoundBlaster Cards SoftMods Guide! Here's a snip.

Three different ways to make your SBLive or Audigy utilize the applications and the new features (if hardware supports them) that Audigy2 offers, or unlock features of your SBLive, Audigy or Audigy2 card that official drivers neither enable nor use!!!

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.

Spotted this article An Autopsy Of Dead LCD Pixels posted at Tom's Hardware that asks the question how many dead pixels does it take before the manufacturers agree to replace a LCD monitor?

The list of manufacturers polled has now increased to 36, but the answers are no more encouraging. No manufacturer has a really consumer-friendly policy which would involve straight replacement when dead pixel problems arise.

Digit-life's Aleksei Nikolaichuk aka Unwinder has thrown up his Nvidia Intellisample Technology OpenGL Driver 43.45 and 43.51 optimization guide! This is Part I.

If you ask an average gamer which GPU's feature he considers the most important for image quality in modern games, you will most probably be answered: anisotropic filtering. Unfortunately, the anisotropy, this high-quality but resource-hungry (because of the universal direct realization) element, is the weakest point of the NV25 graphics processors. No wonder that the follower of the NV25, NV30, was expected to come with fast anisotropic filtering able to provide a high playable fps level in high resolutions.

Recently AMD enthusiasts (overclockers) have had a smile across their faces the length of which must have wifes and girlfriends wondering. Their new-found mistress; "lower-speed" Thoroughbred-B's, and their "double overclock" potential.

Almost mythical in overclocking circles (prior to phase-change cooling) doubling a processor's default speed is the apotheosis for the enthusiast. So where did these sweethearts come from? And why have I chose the title "AMD ingots sliced "TBread" with the crusts cut off"? Buckle up, it's going to a bumpy ride!

Thanks to NTcompatible.com for the heads up! PC Mag have posted, what can be classed as the ultimate utility guide. They reviewed 189 utilities: There's one for nearly every PC task imaginable! Here's just a few of the guides they have available.

Backup and Recovery Microsoft Office Tools Desktop Customization

I got this the other day from Tech Seekers.net and forgot to post it! So here we go: Along with the introduction of the Intel 875P and the imminent introduction of the 865 chipset, a new Southbridge was also introduced. Namely the ICH5.

The ICH5 comes in two flavours, one with Intel RAID 0 support and one without. The intel platform also supports RAID Migration, which we look at in detail also. While this is an article about RAID-0 in the ICH5R I will just give a quick rundown on RAID and what it is.

Just word that the guy's at ComputerBase.de have throw up their ATi Catalyst 3.4 vs. Catalyst 3.2 Driver Comparison! Here's a quick translation.

While nVidia thus with the performance Tuning can be occupied, it concerns to improve their Kompatiblitaet for ATi for the moment rather to current plays. With the Catalyst 3,4 driver package published now one would like to come the summit of the perfect driver now a step more near and still speaks thereby of increase in output within the range of 8 per cent in the 3DMark 03, and unreal Tournament 2003 was to be able to add with activated anti- Aliasing even up to 18 per cent.

Here's a XP/2000 Refresh Rate Bug Fix for ATI's Catalyst 3.4 drivers posted by BigMak at Futuremark's forum that can be applied without 3rd party utilities! Here's a byte.

Ok guys from my experience I have been able to defeat the XP/2000 refresh rate bug with only the ATI drivers. Note that this is the bug that fools you in thinking that in windows your refresh rate is 75/85/90+ which it is, but when you launch a D3D game its defaults back to 60. You dont need refreshlock or another 3rd party utility like powerstrip to do this: