Just got word from Martin that he's updated his AMD 762 tweaking guide and he's also got a bit more info on the OCZ exposed article! Here's what he's saying.

First of all I updated our 762 PCR file to fix a few things and added a little bit more.

What are the registers?

The chipset registers are pretty simple, they are memory locations in the northbridge that control the way it behaves. They control every aspect of the northbridge. Now as the northbridge is responsible for controlling the CPU, the memory bus, the AGP bus and the PCI bus, then its a pretty important part of your computer. The chipset registers are usually set by the BIOS at the time of boot-up, but by using some very useful pieces of software we can override these settings from Windows. This will help you find the maximum settings for your hardware without having to continually reboot. Of course when you set something too high your system will crash! Also some of the cheaper motherboards out there don't have all of the tweaks that are supported by the chipset. If that is the case this is the only way that you'll be able to make your system perform like you want.

Mods4ME: I've been digging into a LOT of white papers this past week and I've written register tweaking files for Intels 850 Rambus chipset and AMD's 762 which is used in their SMP boards. I'll be working on a detailed guide to the 762 this weekend but I thought I'd give some of the die hard tweakers a head start and provide them with the file since some people just need the PCR and don't need me to hold their hand while they tweak away.

Just got word that Alex's has posted his P4 Cooler Roundup up. Here's what he's saying.

Modern day CPUs are capable of producing more heat than my toaster. Because of this, CPU coolers are necessary to prevent your $300 CPU from frying like the eggs I had for breakfast this morning (no, my eggs aren't hard boiled). Without proper cooling, a CPU could easily burn out in less than ten seconds.

Just like with the BIOS on your motherboard often times the manufacturer will find problems with the product after it has already begun shipping. They will apply the fixed BIOS to future shipping models and also post the updated BIOS to the web for us to download. You will need to know the model number of your drive before you can do this. Just like with BIOS updates, if it's not broke don't fix it! For firmware updates you will have to visit the manufacturers website and lookup your drives model number in their support sections.

Just got word from Martin that he's put together a KT266/KT266a chipset tweaking guide and also managed to get the asynchronous memory bus to work while he was @ it. Here's what he's saying:

You will see in bit 7 really the only new feature of the KT333 chipset and that is the CPU+33=DRAM. The KT266 technically has support built into it for running the asynchronous bus. What I believe VIA did was they either were unable to get this feature working properly by time they wanted to ship their chipset OR they decided they could release a new chipset later on with features that should have been in the previous release. Just think KT133 and KT133a, KT266 and KT266a. Where as the A only brings the benefits that the original SHOULD have brought.

The new version is: 6.13.10.6071 We have tested the new driver set with 3DMark2001 SE, Codecreatures Benchmark Pro, GLExcess and Jedi Knight 2. Read more to check out the results as well as some additional info.

Just got word from Martin that he has updated his lapping guide. Here's what he's saying:

I have rewritten and added quite a bit of info to the lapping article posted a month ago. I've added a bit of a mini FAQ about sand paper along with some other odd bits of data. I believe I improved the article quite a bit.

VR-Zone has done some investigations on the newer A3 stepping vs A2 stepping of the GeForce4 Ti4600 GPU. Comparing two Triplex GeForce4 Ti4600 cards, one with an A2 stepping and the other an A3 stepping, their overclockability differs! Here's a byte from their Guide.

Using the Dragothic high detail test which is one of the most demanding 3DMark2001SE tests, i repeated the test 5 times to check out the stability of the core with an overclocked core clock. GF4 Ti4600 A2 stepping was able to pass the test 5 times at 320Mhz core clock but fail all at 325Mhz and the A3 stepping was able to pass the test 5 times at 325Mhz but not 330Mhz core clock.

This short guide posted at 3D Spotlight will take you though configuring stand-alone PCs to use this tool.

Recently Microsoft released the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA), to analyse Windows 2000/XP (& NT4 remotely) systems for potential security issues, e.g. Hotfixes not installed.

Just got word from Crow and Visionary telling me that both have completed their Nvidia Detonator 28.90 performance comparison! Here is what they have to tell you:

VR-Zone has done some quick tests on the newly leaked Detonator 28.90 driver. Intially it was thought that it is just another leaked Detonator driver but has caught my attention when it seems to improve performance as feedback by some readers and it has prompted me to do some quick 3DMark2001SE test against the official 28.32 drivers.

DarkCrow of Korea has done some quick tests on the newly leaked Detonator 28.90 driver using 3DMark 2001 and SPEC viewperf6.1.2. They compared DetonatorXP v28.90 against v28.32.

Hey Everyone, Tweaknews.net has released yet another hardware review onto the internet. Here's a snippet from their article :

How many times do you have a file that you would like to share with someone. But, unfortunately, it is too big to fit on the standard 80min/700mb CD-R's of today and a far cry from even trying to fit on a 3.5" 1.44mg floppy. For pure convenience, swapping hard drives is the best way to go. Kingwin Inc. was kind enough to provide us with a a sample of their KF-23-IPF Triple fan cooled hard drive rack and a sample of their KF-101-IPF Double fan cooled model which incorporates their patented bottom fan cooled design to help in your file transfer dilemma.

Just saw this @ Nvmax.com

More recently with the newer Detonator XP drivers from Nvidia, we have seen a new method on how the drivers store resolution data. Most importantly, this directly affects our ability to 'fix' the refresh rate problem with the nvrefreshfix tool provided by ztn.

However, all is not lost. Nvidia has released documentation on exactly how the driver handles the new method. There are things in there even I didn't know, and it's quite an informative read.

On a personal note, I feel this method is a lot easier than the older method, and definitely much less cluttered.

Just got word from Martin that he's posted a new performance guide for Windows XP. Here's what he's saying:

I have broken this guide into 6 parts. Networking, file system, memory performance, freeing up memory, startup/shutdown and then the other stuff. I've tried to pack as much performance related tweaking here as I can but there's always more to be uncovered. I will update this article as frequently as possible. I know there's a million tweaks that I'm missing here but I am trying to keep this guide dedicated to tweaks that directly affect your performance. I'll put together a second guide about the annoyances and other things but keep in mind this is ONLY performance stuff.

Just saw Tweakers Australia have posted a ATI Radeon driver comparison! Here's a byte from their article:

The driver comparison compares the performance of the 3 latest ATI reference drivers. Don't get these confused with the drivers designed for the 'Built by ATI' cards, as these are updated more frequently than the reference versions. Unfortunately, most people who can actually afford a Radeon 8500 settle with the 'Powered by ATI' models - therefore a reference driver must be used. 7.60, 7.67 and 7.68 are the versions we will be looking at, where 7.68 is the latest driver only just recently released by ATI.

Just got word from Daniel @ Pc-Extreme.com that he's just posted his AGP 4x vs. AGP 2x vs. AGP 1x Guide! Here's what he's saying!

I had so many emails from people asking me the same question over and over again and that question was which setting is fastest for AGP speed in games AGP 4x or AGP 2x or is it AGP 1x . So in the end I have tested theses settings with five different Benchmarks Aquanox, Comanche4, Serious Sam 2, Jedi Outcast, Quake3.

How about 10 hours or more of power for around $200? Or even $250? Yes, you heard me right... 10 HOURS of power for the same amount of money. Well, I suppose right now you'll be going crazy and asking me to explain how to get this done, no?

Just like CPU's you'll get more out of your battery then what the specs say ;)

Even though we don't see new soundcards coming out as fast as we do graphics cards they have made several advancements in recent times, such as commonplace 5.1 output & better 3D positioning algorithms.

3D Spotlight's guide will take you through everything from basic troubleshooting of playback problems, to speaker positioning, soundcard specific settings & more.

Just got word from Lee about two new guides that he's posted! Here's what he's saying:

After showing you how to maximize your FSB now I think it's time to explain the memory timings to you. Hopefully you will be able to use these 2 guides together to not only get the highest bus speeds but also get the most memory bandwidth and performance out of your RAM.

Just got word from Dave about a new LOD Bias Guide that he's just posted. Here's what he's saying.

Reverend has completed a short article on Texture LOD bias and FSAA / Anisotropic filtering using a GeForce4 Ti 4600. Nvidia's new GeForce4 Ti series of video chips affords the chance of tweaking one potentially popular unsupported feature, namely that of adjusting the MipMap LOD Bias. Actually, this LOD Bias "tweaking" is also available in NVIDIA's previous product line, the GeForce3.

Just got word from Martin about a new Vcore mod guide for the MSI KT3 Ultra! Here's what he's saying:

The MSI KT3 Ultra board uses the HIP6302 chip NOT the HIP6301 I haven't seen any instructions on this version of this chip. The HIP6302 is paired with the HIP6602 for your CPU vcore regulation. Well you guys know all about Vcore mods so I won't bother going on and on...