HotHardware is getting serious this time. This review may be helpful for those of you who have not yet decided which VIA KT266A board to get. HH reviews and compares the 4 most promising candidates for the crown of motherboard kings. These were tested: ABIT KR7A-RAID ASUS A7V266-E SOYO K7-DRAGON+ MSI K7T266 Pro 2RU Check out the comparison review

I saw this over at Entcity.com they have a new section up called Rig 'o The Month! LOL

See if your dream machine compares to this beast. Fast+Goodlooking :D

I just noticed a good post in the Rage3D Forums where the user remmic posted an Email reply he received from ATI Customer Service Canada. He was asking about issues with NHL 2002 shadow transparent problem, Max Payne's freezing and other games that he has encountered on a VIA Apollo 133A Pro based mobo. Unfortunately he gave no information a the graphics card used. There may be vital information about issues with your ATI board embedded so make sure to read the info given by ATI. You can discuss any of those options suggested in our forum (special thread opened)

Now that DDR solutions from Intel and VIA are available to end consumers a new round of motherboard reviews is up on the web: VIA P4XB-RA Motherboard @ DDRZone: The board boasts excellent performance due to the VIA P4X266A chipset. Not only does the board transfer data like no ones business but also it?s easy to setup. Promise RAID and C-Media 6-Channel audio really finishes the board off along with the smart AGP clip! Shuttle AV40-R Motherboard @ OverclockersOnline: The board comes with 5 full size PCI slots and one AGP 4x slot. This should cover all your expansion needs very well, but it would have been nice to see an additional PCI slot for a total of 6 PCI slots. Especially since Shuttle (god thank them for that) decided against installing a CNR slot, AMR slot, ... or anything alike that only takes space and is seldom used. DFI NB72-SR Motherboard @ Hexus (NO DDR): Support for extra proprietary options here, a PCI slot there. Too close to call. A closer look in our reviews shows a different story however. The DFI is a rock solid implementation of the i845 chipset. The layout is fine, performance is where it should be at stock clocks and I didn't experience a single BSOD during any of the testing. Overall a very pleasant board to use and test.

Fresh for the weeks start Asus has a new BIOS out: Bios P4T-M 1005 - 03 Beta Use caution when flashing your BIOS.

As DDR is finally also available to Intel users first reviews about the new mainboards are appearing. Maybe Intel will finally profit from the move to the new technology which promises some fine performance boosts. OCWorkbench now takes a look at Abit's feature packed board: The ABIT BD7-RAID is one of the features packed mainboard with ATA-133 RAID support. As always, ABIT never fails to provide the best overclocking functionalities onto the mainboard. The FIX PCI is an innovative feature which found its way to the BD7 RAID too. We are able to overclock it up to 8x138Mhz. Intel fanatics can check the review here.

ECS Elitegroup have released new motherboard BIOSes! :D Hit read more for the full list of updates...

The lads and ladies have done some work again: Bios A7V266 1005 - 15 Beta Bios A7V266-E 1005 - 15 Beta Bios TUV4X 1004 - 05 Beta Bios TUWE-M 1004 - 04 Beta Bios TUSI-M 1013 - 01 Beta As usual be careful when flashing your BIOS.

RivaStation has taken the AIW to their testing labs. This card comes with a RADEON 8500 (R200) core and a whole bunch of multimedia features like a TV-Tuner, Video-In and -Out as well as two IEEE 1394 Firewire Ports. Instead of 275 MHz, the chip runs as 230 MHz. Also, the memory is only clocked to 190 MHz (380 MHz DDR), instead of 275 MHz. The reason for this is the memory module, which, at 5 ns, is pretty slow. According to ATI, faster memory modules would have made these cards much more expensive, and therefore less attractive. Check out this feature rich card put to the test

After LOADS of rumours surrounding the Glaze3D chipset developed by Finland's Bitboys it seems something really hot is coming at us. NVNews are reporting that a Finnish IT print publication called Micro PC has an article about the Bitboys chip in their latest issue: Read the ripped & translated article under read more.

The Register with today's addition of the $319 Athlon MP 1900+, it's time to update our chart of AMD's processor products and their prices. As always, the prices listed are per processor when bought in batches of 1000 chips.

ECS Elitegroup have released new motherboard bioses! :D hit Read more for the full list of updates...

AMD has released a new processor roadmap in their press lounge describing their schedule till 2nd half of 2003. As one can see 64bit Hammer will be introduced to the market in late 2002 early 2003 so still some time to go:

Asus have released new bios updates so here goes! :D

ASUS PC Probe V2.15.07

ASUS AFlash 2.00

ASUS P4B Mainboard bios 1007 - 02 Beta

ASUS P4T-E Mainboard bios 1005 - 02 Beta

ASUS P4T-F Mainboard bios 1007 - 01 Beta

Asus A7M266 1006 - 001-A Beta

Asus TR-DLS 1003 - 01 Beta

Can't remember if i posted this, but anyway, Abit has released a new bios update for their KG7 / KG7-RAID / KG7-Lite mainboards. This is version 5W and contains the following fixes:

When AMD introduced the Athlon XP on the OPGA (organic pin grid array) substrate they alleviated the problems seen by some Athlon and Duron owners where overzealous heatsink application cracked the processor in two. The move to fiberglass packaging made allowances for some flexing during heatsink installation and also improved processor performance by lowering impedance. The only downside was the rather ugly brown colour of the chips...

More info and pictures here

Source: XPFreaks.com

The new VIA Eden Embedded System Platform will spur the further development of the emerging new generation of quiet running, low profile small factor designs that are being adopted for a myriad of connected information and entertainment systems ...

The VIA Eden Platform VE1400, VE1500, VE2400, and VE2500 models

Download the VIA EDEN Movie

Poseidon GPU/DDR Water Cooler is now availaible for sale at $189 inc S&H

Increase longevity while increasing performance on your GeForce 3 graphic accelerator with the Poseidon Water Cooler unit. The Poseidon water-cooling solution replaces your GPU fan and covers both the graphics processor and RAM memory allowing you to overclock your GPU and Memory clocks safely.

Abit have released new BIOS updates for the Abit GeForce2 T200 and T400: v1.37.

Abit GeForce2 T200

Abit GeForce2 T400

I feel the need for speed ? well here it is the Fastest Geforce3 TI 200 out there, Evga Geforce3 TI200 600MHZ DDR 3.3 ns RAM w/TV out and a DVI connector and if u pre-order it now u get 100 dollars off! Regular price: $299.00 Sale price: $189.00

Evga Geforce TI200 600MHZ DDR 3.3 ns RAM