Responding to recent rising demand for its KT333 chipsets, VIA Technologies has decided to launch a remarked KT400 product to fill up the supply shortage. However, motherboard makers are wary about the change, as the remarked chipset cannot be applied on PCBs used for the former KT333.

The major specification difference between the current KT400 and the remarked version lies in their AGP technology support. The present KT400 supports AGP 8x, while the remarked chipset offers only AGP 4x graphics function.

I've been trying to buy this motherboard for the last 2 weeks but with no luck! Even after I sent an email to Shuttle, told them who I was and am still waiting for a reply. Even their UK distributors don't list them or want to reply to emails! Anyway Hexus.co.uk the lucky peeps have got their hands on a review sample of the board.

It scores well on the features front, too. This is the first motherboard that I've personally seen with the upcoming S-ATA interface. I can't test just how well it performs, but its inclusion is definitely a forward-looking measure. Standard IDE RAID, decent on-board sound, USB2.0, Firewire support, decent extras, and a robust BIOS round off the features. Performance was more than acceptable throughout our series of benchmarks. It eclipsed the similarly SiS648-equipped ABIT SR7-8X motherboard in most benchmarks.

My main concern in recommending the Shuttle AS45GTR has nothing much to do with the motherboard itself. It has more to do with availability. After checking the usual on-line suspects, I found it difficult to find it in stock, or other Shuttle 'boards for that matter.

VR-Zone have posted a 7 page report on the new Creative SB Audigy 2 launch at Creative's HQ at Singapore today, which they attended. Here's a snip!



Audigy 2 delivers up to eight times better clarity than host audio. The new Audigy 2 chip, premium quality 24-bit/192kHz Digital to Analog Converters (DACs), and a true 24-bit ADVANCED HD audio path ensure "hiss-free" audio fidelity and exceptional clarity of 106dB SNR. The power of Audigy 2 processing enables full 24-bit/96kHz audio resolution in discrete 5.1 surround sound with playback of Windows Media Audio (WMA) 9 Professional, the Web's first digital 5.1 surround sound audio codec from the new Windows Media 9 Series.

With today?s introduction of the SoundBlaster Audigy 2 with THX certification, Creative brings DVD-audio to the PC with 24-bit/192kHz quality. The standard in PC audio has once again been raised with the new Sound Blaster Audigy 2. Looks like the moment we all waited for has finally come. Check out product shots and specifications under read more. Now all we need is stable drivers and a decent 6.1 speaker set.

Looking to change your Nvidia VGA Geforce4 TI Cooler? Then look no further than Thermaltake's new line up of VGA coolers! And boy do they look sweet.

Bench-house.com have posted a new guide that tests 11 Nvidia GeForce 4 Ti4200 cards to see which one is the best. Here's a snip:

Even a passing glance at the hardware websites all over the net would be enough to convince you of the great popularity of GeForce 4 Ti4200 based video card models. For less than 190 euros, you can own a card that is only a few percent slower than the currently fastest Titanium 4600 model. All that is left is to answer the well-known question: ?Which one to choose??

Cambridge SoundWorks, a manufacturer and retailer of home theater, home audio and multimedia products, today introduced its MegaTheater? line, four ready-to-go home theater packages with DVD player that incorporate high-powered digital hybrid amplifiers and high-performance speakers to deliver true "movie theater" sound quality. The MegaTheater systems, which range in price from $699.99 to $1,299.99, are similar visually and operationally to other "home-theater-in-a-box" systems, but the resemblance stops there. A 450-watt B.A.S.H.? digital hybrid amplifier system and ultra-high-quality speakers from Cambridge SoundWorks' Newton Series? delivers higher performance. Cambridge Soundworks is a wholly owned subsidiary of Creative Technology.

This is just in from OCWorkbench.com. Seems that they have got their grubby hands on MSI's latest Mainboard the MSI Max i845PE based on Intel's 845PE chipset.

At last a chipset from Intel that officially supports the DDR333 standard for P4 platform. In the manual, there is mention of support of 100/133/166Mhz Mhz FSB (does that mean 166Mhz CPUs are supported too ?). There is only 2 DIMM slots for a max of 2G of DDR333 module. No unofficial async settings available. Only 2 IDE channels supporting ATA-100 .

Source: Tommti-Systems.de

Just got word that X-bitlabs.com have the latest Info and screenshots of Nvidia'a up coming GeForce4 MX420 AGP 8x and the GeForce4 MX440 SE AGP 8x Graphics cards!

Here's the first screenshot of a ATI Radeon 9700 Pro with 256mb of memory!

Digitimes reports that NV18 and NV28 graphics chips will finally be launched worldwide on September 25, formally leading the company into the AGP 8x market. According to sources, the NV18 and NV28 will be named the GeForce4 MX440 8x and GeForce4 Ti 4200 8x, respectively, following Nvidia?s two better-selling products, and will be priced only slightly higher than the current chips. On a sidenote Digitimes says that ATI Radeon 9500 based on the R300 core and offering the AGP 8x specification, (Radeon 9500 and Radeon 9500 PRO) is designed with four pipelines and DirectX 8.1 support. Read more for a preliminary packshot of Asus MX460 AGP 8x VGA card.

Just spotted this @ NvNews.net where one of their news posters has received an email pointing him to a spanish website that had a presentation that had the proposed specifications for the Audigy 2 sound cards:

DVD Audio, Dolby Digital EX 6.1 o THX de Lucasfilm and backwards standards compatible.
Playback in 24 bits y 192 kHz.
106dB Signal to noise level (6 dB more than old generation).
Recording in 24 bit/96 KHz.
Frequency response from 10 Hz to 46 kHz.

Hit Read More for the Creative Labs Audigy 2 presentation.

Hardware creators at Microsoft are introducing various designs of computer devices to meet the wide variety of personal preferences consumers have today. "People are using their mouse and keyboard more and more each day, and in turn are viewing these devices as an extension of their personality," says Matt Barlow, group product manager for Microsoft Hardware. "They are asking for these products -- like cell phones and PDAs -- to reflect who they are. We are happy to be a foremost provider of diverse computer peripherals for a variety of technology consumers." "Our newest lineup of seven unique mouse and keyboard products are specifically designed to mirror a diverse range of consumer personalities and attitudes toward technology," says Barlow. Productshots under read more...

Kentron Technologies, Inc., a privately held company, announced that VIA Technologies, Inc., a leading innovator and developer of silicon chip technologies and PC platform solutions, and S3 Graphics, Inc., have licensed the QBM technology. The QBM controller interface license provides VIA and S3 Graphics with the necessary IP coverage to incorporate QBM into their line of PC, Workstation and Server core logic chipset solutions. The QBM technology doubles the speed of Double Data Rate (DDR) memory devices, maintains the existing 64-bit bus structure common in today?s general purpose computing systems and meets the marketplace?s requirement for low cost memory modules. Using existing DDRI devices, the technology provides DDRII speeds, cost savings and a dramatic performance improvement over DDR333, DDR400, future DDRII modules, and other more expensive, non-DDR compatible memory technologies. Read more...

News.com reports that Pioneer Electronics said Tuesday that its DVD-rewritable drives overheat when recording on certain high-speed disks.

Representatives from Pioneer Electronics USA, based in Long Beach, Calif., said that writing to blank 4x DVD-R and 2x DVD-RW discs can cause its DVD-rewritable PC drives and DVD recorders to freeze.

Ok Peeps, been told by a reliable mole that Creative will announce the new Audigy 2 on October 9th 2002 and soon after, you should be able to buy one in your local PC store. That is if your brave enough to buy one, after the last. We should get Degger to speaker to HERCULES and do us a deal on their:

Watch.Impress have some screenshots posted of CoolerMasters upcoming Opteron fan DRACO K8.

Just got word that Nvchips-fr.com have details up regarding Nvidia's NV18 and NV28! Here's a quick translation as the site's in French.

GPU NV18 and NV28 will not bear a new name which would have been misleading and will continue to be called GeForce4. We learned that MSI will launch in mid-October the GeForce4 MX 440 supporting AGP 8X! According to tests' carried out, showed that the AGP8X offers a profit of performances of 4.68% compared to the same chart in AGP4X, under 3DMARK 2001.

Savagenews.com reports that thanks to my brother I have found a site that just published pictures of some SavageXP based videocard along with benchmarks!