Hardware Extreme has a new review on the Biostar M7VKD motherboard. Here´s a scoop:
This review is looking at the M7VKD Biostar?s rendition of the VIA KT133A motherboard chipset. Most motherboards with this chipset have been designed for over clocking and game play, this is not the case with the M7VKD. I realize that a lot of our readers care more about speed and over clocking than stability, but I think of them as equal. I would much rather have a board that is 10% slower but 10% more stable than a board that is faster and less stable. Stability has become so overlooked that random crashes are being accepted by a lot of computer users..... Read more over here.

M762A, one of the two Multi Processors (MP) AMD solutions created by EPoX. M762A is tentatively schedule to be launched in middle of November 2001. The ATX form factor is made with 6-layer PCB. This server board house?s the AMD 760 MPX + 768 chipset, 4 DIMM slots, up to 4 Gigs of DDR memory, a AGP 4X slot, 2 - 64 bit (66 MHz), 2 - 32bit (33MHz) PCI Slots, ATA 100, 4 USB (2 Optional), single (Intel 82559) LAN, the usual Phoenix BIOS, over clocking abilities and of course every motherboard you buy comes with our award-winning technical support who is here to help you in times of need.

So for the full press release warp to Epox.

Version 3.1 of the Award BIOS has been made available by MSI. This BIOS applies to the following boards: K7T Pro, K7T Pro2, K7T Pro2A, K7T Turbo, K7T Turbo2, K7T Turbo LE, MS-6330 LE1 and MS-6330 LE3. The new version includes the following fixes: Fixed problem wherein system cannot install WinXP when using other K7T series board except K7T Turbo2. Fixed that ToolsEvent ViewerSystemACPI error under WinXP. Update the BIOS of ATA100 function of Promise 265 chip to B43.

These guys really are on the working spot: new final & beta BIOSes are out for the following boards: A7A133 1009 Final (=1009 - 01 Beta)
A7A266 1009 Final (=1009 - 01 Beta)
A7A266-E 1009 Final (=1009 - 01 Beta)
A7V133-M 1004 Final ( 24.10.2001 )
P4B 1006 - 02 Beta
TUV4X 1004 - 02A Beta
CUV4X-D 1014 - 04 Beta
CUV4X-DLS 1014 - 04 Beta
CUR-DLS / DLSR 1011 - 05 Beta

I was just over at NvNews when I saw a link to Amazon International testing Elsa's Gladiac 921 video card, but the most interesting part of his benchmarks is the second system that he used and the OS:

System 2
Tyan Tiger MP Motherboard, Dual Athlon 1800+ MP 1GB PC2100 ECC Reg memory, ELSA Gladiac 921 with ELSA proprietary driver release 21.81, 80GB Maxtor DiamondMAX D740X - UDMA 133, Operating System - Windows XP Professional with SP1 installed.

As u can see he's claiming he's got Windows XP Professional with SP1 installed. So the question is where did Amazon International get the SP1 fixes for Windows XP Professional from? From Microsoft? Anyway here's Amazon International benchmarks for the Elsa 921

X-Bios have something for u to do on a sunday if you're bored and got nothing better on schedule :)

NVIDIA Reference BIOS GeForce 2 Ti v3.15.01.04B20

NVIDIA Reference BIOS GeForce 3 Ti 500 v3.20.00.18X20 And here's one for u GeForce3 owners:
NVIDIA Reference bios GeForce 3 (A)

ReactorCritical have some news on a Mystery Visiontek Geforce2 GTS-V that's been selling like hot cakes on a cold morning, lol.

Here's a bite from their article:

It seems that some of the manufacturers have begun to make GeForce2 GTS based boards for low end market segment. According to this site , Visiontek offers its Xtasy 5632, so-called GeForce2 GTS-V based videocard for $70. The only difference between this one and an ordinary GeForce2 GTS is core and memory frequencies:

GPU GeForce2 GTS: 175 MHz. DDR SDRAM: 286 MHz (143 MHz), 7ns.

According to unofficial information, this card can be easily overclocked to the standard GeForce2 GTS frequencies(200/333) and even up to "extraordinary" for such cards 200/375.

WinOsCentral has a fix for your Audigy + Windows XP problems so here goes:

A lot of people have complained about the drivers that ship with the Audigy cards especially those running Windows XP. It seems the problem lies in the WinXP file sfman32.dll. This file is NOT being updated properly when the drivers are installed causing all kinds of crashes and problems. There is a fix for it that I found over on Live Center.com which is a pretty detailed/involved fix but it does seem to correct the problem.

If you are experiencing a problem with the drivers that came on the Audigy CD then this might be the answer you have been looking for. Now you can also try the "leaked" Audigy XP drivers over on (where else) Warp2search.com which I installed and they seemed to work just fine.

Just thought some of you would like to get this fixed since you dropped a cool $100.00 on the card.

Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C. Thursday, October 25, 2001 - ABIT's Siluro line of high-speed video cards just got bigger -- and meaner. Introducing the Siluro GF3 Ti200 and Siluro GF3 Ti500. These video cards feature nVidia's newest GeForce3 Ti200 and Ti500 GPUs to bring you unsurpassed graphic performance. Model Feature Siluro GF3 Ti200 Siluro GF3 Ti200V Siluro GF3 Ti200DVI Siluro GF3 Ti500 nVidia GF3 GPU Ti200 Ti200 Ti200 Ti500 GPU Core Speed 175Mhz 175MHz 175MHz 240MHz Operations/sec 700 billion 700 billion 700 billion 960 billion Memory 64M DDR 64M DDR 64M DDR 64M DDR Memory Speed 400MHz 400MHz 400MHz 500MHz High-Resolution AA Yes Yes Yes Yes Lightspeed Memory Architecture Yes Yes Yes Yes 2nd Generation T&L Engines Yes Yes Yes Yes Vertex & Pixel Shaders Yes Yes Yes Yes TV-Out No Yes Yes Yes DVI-Out No No Yes Yes

There are new Iwill BIOS files for KA266, KK266 and more.

KK266-R RAID Bios for Product No is 35102A, BIOS Date Code: Oct.22.2001 Update Micro code for Athlon XP

KK266 Bios for Product No is 35103A, BIOS Date Code: Oct.22.2001 Update Micro code for Athlon XP

or visit Iwill BIOS Downloads

emXry :)

ABIT have released a new Bios for the KG7 family of motherboards. This version, 5W, fixes the problems many of you have experienced with CD and DVD devices and also adds support for the Athlon XP 1900+ processor.

Source: Paul's Unofficial ABIT FAQ

Official 5W was Released 24 October 2001.
Paul from the FAQ has modified it to include the latest Highpoint 2.0.1019 BIOS here . (He's using this version on his KG7-RAID).

X-Bios has some great updates. So here they are:

First , they got some new released BIOSes for GeForce 2 GTS/Pro from Prolink PixelView.

GeForce 2 GTS/Pro BIOSes

Next is what's looks to be a great BIOS editing tool! Here are some screen shots . First beta release will be availabe in near future. Developing now at testing stage. This program will support all BIOSes from TNT2 and up to Ti 500. Except TNT and TNT2 with old version of Control BLock (less than version 3). Does not require any .dll, and will work under any version of Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP.

And finally they got a link to nonofficial ASUS utilities for their video cards:

ASUS Smart doctor v1.76 (1.19 Mb)
ASUS Video Decoder v1.0 beta for Win9x/2k/NT (60 Kb)
ASUS Tweak Utility v3.22 (600 Kb)

New 1009 final for the A7A266 is out and ready to go!

Get it from Asus FTP here. Flash your bios @ your own risk! Thx goes out to KnightFal for sending this in!

The TechReport has evidence that NOT only third-party OEM cards of the Radeon 8500 shipped in 250/250 configurations, cause they got one of those in their labs!

Anadtech takes a first look at three available KT266A mainboards namely: EPoX 8KHA+
MSI K7T266 Pro2
Shuttle AK31 Revision 3.1 They perform quite well, but it seems noone has noticed that there are some BIOS issues with the MSI board! For the stuck FSB issue, move your DIMM module to the slot nearest the CPU and all shall be cured. This only occurs in the 3.00 BIOS. In the newer 3.10 BIOS, this issue is gone, but memory performance seems to be lower than in 3.00. So flash back to 3.00 if you are running it and pop your memory in the slot nearest the CPU. That FYI on judging the MSI board. Check the short comparison via the above link!

While its only recently VIAHardware has publicised the MSI BIOS bug in WinXP, many users including myself have grappled with the problem for quite a while now. So much so that I have engaged in an intensive feedback and have cooperated with Corbell & MSI to find a fix to the problem. Im glad & happy to announced that I've received a Beta BIOS that fixes the issue permanently and have been testing it for several weeks already without any problems. With that in mind and after getting tremendous amount of mails requesting for BIOS W6330VMS.311. Im now putting it up at the Pit and M3DZone for everyone interested to download until the official version release is final. Pls take note however that this is a BETA BIOS that is intended to solve MSI-6330 family of Boards with BIOS IO-port addressing in Windows XP. A special thanks goes out to Kee Hong for the kind & relentless support in addressing this issue.

Pls click here to download MSI Beta BIOS W6330VMS.311

Asus Germany has pumped out a couple of updates: Asus Detonator 14.62 Windows 9x/ME
Asus Detonator 14.62 Windows NT4
Asus Detonator 14.62 Windows 2000
Bios P4B 1005 Final (=1005 - 02 Beta)
Bios A7A266 1008.B Final (=1008 - 02 Beta)
P4T-F 1006 - 02 Beta
Bios A7S-VM 1007 - 04 Beta
Bios TUA266 1004 - 03 Beta
Bios CUV4X-D 1014 - 03 Beta
Bios CUV4X-DLS 1014 - 03 Beta

Promise have released some new drivers and BIOSes! So here we go:

SuperTrakSX6000 BIOS Firmware Build 58 For SuperTrak SX6000 Adds 48-bit LBA support (for drives >137 GB). NOT FOR SUPERTRAK100 OR SUPERTRAK66 - Use only with SuperTrak SX6000. File size 416 KB Released: 10-22-2001

SuperTrakSX6000 Driver 1.10 Build 31 Driver For SuperTrak Series Controllers Self-extracting file, includes driver for Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows XP. File size 50 KB Released: 10-22-2001

SuperTrak100 Driver 1.10 Build 31 Driver For SuperTrak Series Controllers Self-extracting file, includes driver for Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows XP. File size 50 KB Released: 10-22-2001

DigitalInsanity.org has just wrapped up a showdown between the Creative LiveDrive!, FrontX CPX Multimedia Ports, and the NewQ Platinum.

3D Drivers have posted their review of the SoundBlaster Audigy Platinum eX!

"The SoundBlaster Audigy Platinum eX ($249) and Audigy Platinum ($199.99) is Creative's latest product in the high-end Soundcard market with the Audigy Gamer serving the gaming community. Using the EMU10K2 processor and the EAX Enhanced (EAX 3) it delivers superior sound quality with an ease of use incomparable to other soundcards. Here we will examine this product and its future role in the gaming community."

So warp to 3DDrivers and check out their SoundBlaster Audigy Platinum eX Review.