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.

ExtremeTech has taken a view @ the new ATI Radeon 8500.
Here´s a bit:
We pitted the Brothers Radeon (8500 and 7500) in a tag-team match-up with nVidia's GeForce 3 wrecking crew of the Ti 500 and the Ti 200, and in fine WWF style, there were pile-drivers, sleeper holds and flying suplexes scored by both sides, though the judges' decision gave the nod to nVidia at this point. So without further ado, let's have at it. ExtremeTech Review

Rambus today released details of its next generation memory signaling technology during Rambus Developer Forum (RDF) 2001. Code-named "Yellowstone", the new signaling technology is capable of data transfer rates of 3.2 Gigahertz (GHz) with a roadmap to 6.4GHz.

3DXtreme follow Warp2Search footsteps with their own Audigy review. Here´s a scoop:
The EAX in certain games playing with headphones late at night had the hair on my arms standing up. It's incredible! Being that my wife was sleeping I fired up Red Faction, slapped on my headphones and headed into the world of Red Faction. I had played through it already using my original SB Live card and can say it wasn't even the same. The EAX was extremely accurate in it's directional ability and even with headphones it was intense. The advanced 3d audio makes it easy to determine where the action is coming from in a gaming environment. I have also experienced much richer bass when playing CD music or mp3's. The clarity was better than the Live Value and the bass while using my same speaker setup was much richer, cleaner. Read it

Asus have released some new BIOSes for their motherboards. Here they go:

A7A266 v1008b | 2001/10/18 Add support for AMD Athlon XP CPU.

P4B v1005 | 2001/10/17 Fix system reboots itself when shutting down from Windows 2000 in APM mode. Fix system can not boot up with RAMOS RM28S180TA-13AC 128MB 133MHz SDRAM.

A7V266 v1002c | 2001/10/16 Add support for AMD Athlon XP CPU.

A7M266 v1005 | 2001/10/16 Add support for AMD Athlon XP CPU and for AMD Morgan CPU.

A1B v2.0.3 | 2001/10/16 SiS 630 VGA Driver for Win2000/XP.

Fdrsoft seem to have found some Sparkle GeForce TI Firmware for the following cards:

GeForce3 TI 500 bios v3.20.00.18

GeForce3 TI 200 bios v3.20.00.18

GeForce2 TI 200 bios v3.15.01.04

Don't know if these's work for all Geforce cards but if you try 'em post your comments here or in the forum.

Download the Nvidia GeForce TI Firmware under Mercredi 17 Octobre.

Our affiliate friends from 3DXtreme have taken a close look on ATI's budget board. Here's a snip: The performance of this card puts it under that of a Geforce 3 but on par or above that of a Geforce 2 pro and ultra. The drivers are stable and decent but with more maturity should be able to unlock even more performance. As a gamers video card the Radeon 7500 is perfect for the gamer on a budget that wants the most price-to-performance for their buck! While taking this review from a gamers standpoint, there are many other features of the Radeon 7500 that should not be overlooked. Second to none dvd playback and Dual Monitor support using the Ati Hydravision technology. Hit their review: 3DXtreme Radeon 7500 Review

After Toms Hardware now Anandtech and Rivastation have their Radeon reviews up! The consent of the reviews is the same. The Radeon 8500 is a good performer and a possible threat to Graphzillas GeForce 3 even in Ti versions if ATI manages to improve driver performance and compatibility as well as activate promised features (Smoothvision). All I can say is Go Go Go ATI. Nvidia won't wait... RivaStation Radeon 8500 Performance Check (german only, LOTS of benchmarks)
Anandtech Radeon 8500 Review (She's got potential).

Thomas Pabst did it. He's the first with an online review of ATI latest product. Interesting are the facts he has to offer: The current driver set 4.13.7191 for Radeon 8500 does not support SmoothVision, ATi's multi sampling FSAA solution, but only the old super sampling FSAA instead, which allows only inferior FSAA performance. In fact, SmoothVision has not yet been enabled in any driver, but it is supposed to be added by the end of this month.
The current driver is known to have issues with Athlon systems, but is supposed to run fine with Pentium 4 systems.
Tests showed that the new WindowsXP-driver does not perform stable. It is also showing inferior 3D-performance compared to Win9x or Win2000.
Testing the advanced features of Radeon 8500 with the DX8 vertex/pixel shader OpenGL demo programs "Dronez" or "GLMark" is not possible or sensible, because both programs are using NVIDIA-specific extensions that only work on NVIDIA's GeForce3 family of 3D-cards. This allows Radeon 8500 to only run in DX7 mode, which is not very helpful for comparison purposes.
For the usual scoop of Tom's reviews click here.

Ah the Radeon stands up to the test again. PCPop.com took the Radeon in A12(pre-release) and A13(final) steppings against the Nvidia GeForce 3. The GeForce board also was overclocked to simulate a GeForce 3 Ti500. The results are promising so far for ATI! If they manage to tweak their drivers just as Nvidia is capapable of then we have a killer board competing with Graphzilla. Enough talk. We snapped a pic for you cause the site has a rather strange layout and I guess the lesser part speaks chinese...