Today Xbitlabs.com are going to compare the performance in 3DS Max 5 package of the two newest processors representing the top products in two constantly competing families. Both have new weapons ready: Athlon XP 2800+ is the first CPU with 166MHz bus, while Intel Pentium 4 features a twice as large cache and works at about 25% higher core clock frequency. Ready for a race?

Just got word from AC @ Nvmax.com that he's posted his VisionTek Ti article which takes a look @ the whole range of VisionTek GeForce4 Ti cards.Here's a snip. With VisionTek hitting the bargain buckets as resellers attempt to clear out the troubled companies stock we ask are the VisionTek cards based on NVIDIA Ti chipsets worthy of a buy? Do we need the warranty or should we take a risk?, and if so then will the VisionTek models still power our games adequately?

The AIW 9700 Pro is the ultimate visual and home entertainment experience for your PC. It combines the fastest 3D gaming performance, superior television and entertainment features, along with easy-to-use video editing and capture found in a graphics card. With 128MB DDR memory, the card is the first to support DirectX 9.0, AGP 8X, utilize THEATER 200 for stereo and video decoding and processing, and has dual stereo TV-tuner capabilities with 125 channels in its class. There are already 3 previews up and running that we have listed for the ever hardware hungry.

Just got word from Crow @ Darkcrow.co.kr that he's posted up his preview of Prolink's PixelView GeForce 4 Ti 4200 8X AGP card and some UT2003 benckmarks.

Beyond3D has an Intel D845GEBV2 Desktop Motherboard review up. The D845GEBV2 is based on Intel?s refresh to the 845 line-up with support for PC2700 DDR333 RAM, Hyper-Threaded enabled CPU?s and with Intel?s "Extreme Graphics". "Even before finishing one Beyond3D Intel motherboard review Intel announce a whole host of updates to their chipset line-up and no sooner than the previous review was finished did one of Intel's new desktop boards, based on one of these new chipsets, turn up on the doorstep."

According to Anton of Xbitlabs.com, Nvidia is stopping production of their top-of-the-line Geforce4 Ti 4600 card as it is trying to push its AGP8X cards in market. This report comes in the anticipation of Nvidia announcing NV30 in two to three weeks. So far Geforce 4 Ti 4200 (8x) are the only ones to be available in stores (if this report is true). This report doesn't sound rumour as GeForce4 Ti 4600 doesn't perform well (even though Nvidia has been bombarding (read "leaking") Detonators to push its card close to ATI's 9700. If you go by the review ratio then nothing can beat the popularity of Geforce 4 Ti 4200 as it seems to have hit the sweet spot of price vis-a-vis performance ratio. Personally I think it's priced too heavy for me, and I will always be thinking like that.

Some dutch guy (.. actually its EJ Boeve ) has a full review of the Sony DRU-500A DVD writer. This writer is capable of burning DVD-R/-RW, DVD+RW/+R, and even CD-R/CD-RW. Sony has launched this writer against competition of Pioneer A04. Can Sony beat Pioneer; read it in the review at ... www.djsmiley.com. For full specification of this drive warp 2 ... SonyStyleUSA.com.

"The OptiPlex SX260 is a result of direct customer feedback," said Michael Dell, CEO and chairman, at a press conference. "We talk daily to tens of thousands of customers around the world and continually incorporate their feedback into the design of innovative, relevant products. The SX260 is ideally suited for space-conscious customers, including many in the Japanese market, but doesn't sacrifice power as a result of its small size."

Chaintech has launched their new ZENITH series with more new features and cool stuffs over the current APOGEE series. Chaintech 7NJS is the first board based on the ZENITH series featuring Nvidia nForce2 SPP + MCP-T chipsets, 333Mhz FSB support, Dual Channel DDR 400/333/266 SDRAM up to 3GB, AGP 8X, CMedia 8738 6 Channel Audio, Promise PDC20376 Serial ATA RAID controller, 6 x USB 2.0 Ports, Onboard LAN, SPDIF, IEEE1394, CBox2 (DigiDoc, IEEE1394, USB2.0, Audio in/out) and many others. With so many features packed into this board, 7NJS does come with a price and the suggested retail price is $188.

I just over @ Hardwarezone.com and I noticed that they have posted a 4 page preview of SiS upcoming 655 chipset featured on Asus P4SDX. Here's a snip: What looked like a normal product release turned out to be a shocker when we unzipped the attachment. Inside, ASUS revealed to us for the first time, pictures and specifications of their newest SiS-based motherboard for the Intel Pentium 4. The new SiS655 chipset is not even revealed at the SiS website and here, ASUS already had a sample. Although information was scarce, we later realized that the SiS655 is the next generation of P4 chipset that will support dual-channel DDR333 memory. This would immediately bring obsolescence to Intel's much anticipated Granite Bay as its theoretical memory bandwidth is much larger - up to 5.4GB/s while dual-channel DDR266 chipsets would only deliver 4.2GB/s.

AMD has confirmed availability of two versions of their Athlon XP 2600+ CPU ('yet to hit retailers'). According to this compatibility chart AMD is going to ship two flavours of it.

Microsoft Corp.'s Tablet PC operating system will have its long awaited coming-out party next week, joined by a handful of hardware devices that bring Windows XP to a new form factor.

Vendors announcing Tablet PC-based devices include Hewlett Packard Co., Acer Inc., Fujitsu PC Corp., Viewsonic Corp. and Toshiba America Information Systems. Prices and features of tablet PC models from Acer, Toshiba and ViewSonic, posted on CompUSA's Web site this week, range from just over $2,000 to $2,500.

Just got word from Nvchips-fr.com that they have snagged screenshots and info on Asus's new range of Nvidia Geforce4 AGP 8X cards. There's 6 in all.

VR-Zone has attended the launch of the new Creative MegaWorks THX 5.1 550 and witnessed the live demo today at Creative HQ. The Creative MegaWorks THX 5.1 550 is the highest range of speakers meant for Audiophiles featuring 6-channel BASH amplification that pumps out up to 500 Watts of burst power for a truly immersive experience with games, DVD movies and other multimedia content.

Active Cool, located in Ashkelon, Israel, develops solid-state high-power cooling solutions for PC processors and other semiconductors. Active Cool has developed the world's first solid-state power cooling solution for PC processors, AC4G. AC4G can be installed in any PC in less than 90 seconds. AC4G's patent-pending new approach to processor cooling is poised to a new generation of generic PC cooling solutions. Read more...

Chipset designers VIA Technologies and Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS) are both planning to launch several new products next month, hoping to keep the high-season business momentum going after mid-November with more appealing product specifications. For Intel?s Pentium 4 platform, VIA is expected to introduce its new dual-channel DDR-supporting P4X600 discrete chipset as well as two more integrated chipsets, the P4M266A and P4M400. Incorporating the company?s more advanced ?Castle Rock? graphics core, the P4M400 will primarily target the medium-range to high-end market.

So you want an aluminum case but you don't have the time or skills to modify it properly. What are you to do? Come join TweakTown as they take a look at the Sky Hawk Jupiter Case. It offers an aluminum construction, factory mods and some other items that make it an intriguing enclosure. But of course, we'll also be looking at it's cooling potential and everything else that we can think of. Come see if this is the case for you!

Anandtech has reviewed ATI Radeon 9500 Pro card (which is yet to be launched). The tested card was not a final version but was rather 9500 chipset stuck on 9700 board; the results were not bad, but rather promising (you have to say this when its ATI nowadays...) which means more room for improvement on final versions. This "Card" will be targeted towards GeForce4 Ti 4200/GeForce 4 Ti 4400. Long term upgraders will be happy to know this one is DirectX 9 compatible.
Hit Read more for feature&spec list as well as Review link...

Siliconstrategies reports that Advanced Micro Devices is planning a future version of its Hammer processor family to support DDR-II memory, the JEDEX Conference in Beijing was told. Fred Weber, AMD vice president and chief technology officer, told the JEDEC-sponsored IC meeting that a new processor core with on-die memory controller will be developed to support DDR-II. The initial Opteron Hammer chip for servers and the desktop Claw Hammer version have on-die controllers supporting only the present DDR generation.