LITTLEWHITEDOG has just completed a very comprehensive review of Promise's Ultra133 TX2 controller and Maxtor's D740X-6L hard drive. While these components may bring the ATA133 drive standard to your system, are they really needed?


They ran a series of four different benchmarks on the Maxtor D740X (along with two other drives) using the Promise Ultra133 TX2 controller, and then ran them all again on a Promise ATA100 controller to see if there are any benefits to using this new standard.

Arctic Alumina is different from its predecessor Arctic Silver II, because it contains no silicone, where Arctic Silver II contains between 18 - 22% silicone. The Alumina compound uses a layered composite of Aluminum Oxide (Al2O3) and Boron Nitride (BN), which, if you remember from Engineering Class are both considered ceramics. Both of these materials have good thermal conductivity and electrical resistance, thus making Arctic Alumina neither conductive nor capacitive. In simple terms, it means if you accidentally get a little bit on the bridges on top of your CPU, the materials that make up Arctic Alumina should prevent those bridges from inadvertently or accidentally closing. LittleWhiteDog Review of the new thermal paste

My pal Zefanja from The-CAD just ICQ'ed me that he has put his review of Hercules latest offering to the graphics card market online. The review includes benchmarks of Q3A, 3DMark2001 and more. Afterall the Hercules board received 9/10. Read the full review @ The-CAD

Argh: Bios P4B-M 1002 - 04 Beta
Bios A7V266 1005 - 03 Beta
Bios A7V266-E 1005 - 03 Beta
Bios CUR-DLS / -DLSR 1012 - 01 Beta
Bios TUV4X 1004 - 02 Beta
Bios CUV4X-V 1004 - 01 Beta
We also managed to get our hands on an updated version of Asus HealthMonitor PcProbe: v2.15.04 These german Asus guys really give me the creeps...

Finally... KT7 / KT7-RAID - KT7A / KT7A-RAID: 1. Fine tune the register value of CPU driving strength to enhance the system stability.
2. HPT 370 RAID BIOS version 1.11.0402. The RAID function is for KT7-RAID / KT7A-RAID only. This BIOS version is also for non RAID boards and HPT BIOS will be automatically disabled while RAID controller chip not detected.
3. BIOS compile date: 11/07/2001. KT7A / KT7A-RAID V1.3 And Newer: 1. Support AMD Athlon XP from 1600+ to 1900+.
2. Support AMD new Duron 1G and above.
3. HPT 370 RAID BIOS version 1.11.0402. The RAID function is for KT7A-RAID only. This BIOS version is also for non RAID boards and HPT BIOS will be automatically disabled while RAID controller chip not detected.
4. BIOS compile date: 11/07/2001. KT7E: 1. Fine tune the register value of CPU driving strength to enhance the system stability.
2. HPT 370 RAID BIOS version 1.11.0402. The RAID function is for KT7-RAID / KT7A-RAID only. This BIOS version is also for non RAID boards and HPT BIOS will be automatically disabled while RAID controller chip not detected.
3. BIOS compile date: 11/07/2001.

Can't believe it. Asus Germany has some beta BIOSes ready again: Bios TUA266 1004 - 06 Beta
Bios CUV4X 1010 - 01 Beta
Bios CUV4X-E without OnBoard Audio 1005 - 01 Beta
Bios CUV4X-E(A) with OnBoard Audio 1006 - 01 Beta

NeoWin Received word that Tom's Hardware has a review of the AMD Athlon XP 2000+ 6 weeks prior to its official release. This review shows how to unlock the multiplier on the AthlonXP and how to reach AthlonXP 2000+ speeds easily.

AMD Athlon XP 2000+ Review

NVIDIA anounced their new mobile graphics chip NV17M at Comdex. The new chip unites 128Bit DDR memory and a new developed GeForce GPU on a single chip .NVIDIA says that the new chip is about 5x faster in Q3A (1024x768-32) and 4x in MDK2 compared to its predecessor GeForce 2 GO and those lucky boy's over at NvNews have put together a short preview that covers some of the exciting and revolutionary new features of the NV17M.

MSI P4 SiS645 DDR board - MSI 645Ultra Review @ OCWorkbench: MSI mainboards never fails in delivering an impressive package with lots of goodies within. It has the best features like D-bracket, 1Mhz stepping for your overclocking needs. We were able to increase the FSB to 112Mhz CAS2 Ultra, voltage:1.85v memory running at 298Mhz scoring 1239/1248 in SiSoft Sandra memory benchmarks. Voltage tweaking is also available if you find that the current performance is not enough for you. Documentation is also pretty well written and BIOS screen shots and explanations of the various BIOS settings are direct to the point. The BIOS needs a bit more tuning to make it better at DDR333. Overall, a well packaged P4 DDR solution. Asus A7N266 (nForce) Review @ HardwareMania: As a result A7N266 we tested was just an engineering sample. Asus is still working on it and they warned us about the performance when we took the sample. Neither the card, nor the drivers are ready yet. But it is a fact that even as a sample, it is better than AMD761 with the same CPU and Ram. If you consider that the street price of the nForces with integrated audio and GPU will be about 200$, it may be a good solution for the ones looking for a complete system. You will have GeForce MX400, 6 channel audio, 100MBit Ethernet and many other features at the same time for only 200$. Asus A7V266-E Review @ LostCircuits: After more or less skipping the VIA KT266 chipset, ASUS releases its view of what a KT266A chipset-based mainboard is supposed to look like. Loaded with features like support for the iPanel, SmartCard reader and onboard CMedia 6-channel sound including SPDIF support, the A7V266-E is bound for success. Using new power-supply technology supplied by ON-Semiconductor with the MOSFET drivers integrated in the core controller, ASUS does away with 2 phases, yet manages to achieve a superlative in stability, particularly under overclocked conditions.

There are reports that a new hardware bug exists if you use a specific hardware/software combination: Windows 98/ME
Detonator XP 21.83; official release
GeForce 3
VIA based motherboard The bug not further described causes a performance loss of up to 60%. Discuss about this bug in our forums. Source: Onlinekosten (german site)

The OCA crew have been running this board nearly 2 weeks now and finally have the review posted for reading. They have quite a few pics, benchmarks and experiences with MSI's flagship KT266A based motherboard. Here's a snip from the review. Read More

Asus Germany is keeping the goods coming: Bios CUR-DLS 1011 Final (=1011 - 06 Beta)
Bios TUV4X 1004 - 01 Beta

X-bit Labs are reporting Gigabyte didn?t make any official announcements about the launching of new graphics cards based on the chips from the Canadian ATI Company, these cards appeared in Japanese hardware stores this week.

GA-R8500/AGP. This graphics card is built on ATI RADEON 8500 and is equipped with 64MB DDR SDRAM. Its working frequencies are the same as those for RADEON 8500LE: 250MHz core and 500MHz memory. The card has a D-Sub, DVI and TV-Outs and goes with a DVI-to-D-Sub converter.

GA-R7500/AGP. This graphics card on ATI RADEON 7500 chip looks absolutely like the original RADEON 7500 from ATI. The difference makes only the PCB color. The card is equipped with the same 64MB DDR SDRAM and works at 270MHz core and 460MHz memory frequency. The card has a D-Sub, DVI and TV-Outs and goes with a DVI-to-D-Sub converter.

So for the full low down on these's cards warp to X-bit Labs.

MSI Taiwan has a new BIOS for their VIA KT266A based mobo. Looks like all issues discussed in most reviews are fixed with this release: BIOS Type: AMI BIOS
File Size: 519.23 Kb
Version: Ver 3.2 Fixed problem system can't run On-Board RAID BIOS when adding SCSI Card & SCSI HDD
Fixed problem wherein there will be a ! yellow mark on secondary IDE when enable 'CPU Critical Temp' in the BIOS
Add "CPU Fan Detection" item in hardware monitor setup. Set this as disable if you connect your fan directly to the power supply
Fixed problem wherein Cherry PS2 Keyboard can't work
Fixed Memtest program fail when using 3 pcs 256 DDR memory Download Asus has a new quick update from yesterdays release. The new A7V266-E BIOS is v.1004.B Final ( 07.11.2001 ).

NvNews have found a NVIDIA demonstration displaying various aspects of their nForce motherboard chips in a cool 3D demonstration. It's much cooler than your typical flash presentation.

nForce Tour in 3D

With nForce solutions almost availble from retail store shelves more & more reviews pop up. Since MSI was first to come up with a ready-timed board most reviews concentrate on MSI: MSI K7N420 @ TBreak: Overclocking wasn't one of K7N420's biggest strengths. The board does offer some overclocking in terms of CPU voltage as FSB speeds. For voltage, you have the option of increasing it by 0.02, 0.05, 0.10 Volts. Even though we upped the voltage on our 1.75V Athlon by 0.10 the BIOS continued to report the Voltage at only 1.77V. For selecting FSB speeds, the board doesn't provide 1MHz increments that we've come to know and love. Product Score: 81 MSI K7N420 @ AMDWorld.co.uk: Memory performance is outstanding, the combination of this board with an external GEFORCE3 is absolutely perfect and also I see no reason why the internal onboard GPU will keep many who are on the upgrade path very pleasantly surprised. It has a big attraction to the OEM market without a doubt and anyone fortunate enough to buy an off the shelf ready built machine with this installed will be very satisfied and still have the option to improve if necessary. Performance Award

Asus Germany has released a couple of updates today: Bios A7V-M 1004 Final ( 02.11.2001 )
Bios CUV4X-D 1014 - 05 Beta
Bios CUV4X-DLS 1014 - 05 Beta
ASUS HealthMonitor PcProbe v2.15.02 (ASUSLM) for Win9x/2000
Thanks to Dodge from M3DZone for the pointer.

SUNNYVALE, CA -- November 05, 2001 --AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced the new AMD Athlon? XP processor 1900+, which sets a new level of performance and continues to extend AMD?s leadership with the world?s highest overall performing PC processor. The AMD Athlon XP processor 1900+ features QuantiSpeed? architecture and delivers up to a 25-percent performance advantage versus competitive processors on real-world applications, in such categories as digital media, office productivity and 3D gaming. There are already a couple of reviews up so check these out: AMD Athlon XP 1900+ Processor Review - Amdmb.com
AMD Athlon XP 1900+ Processor Review - VIA Hardware
AMD Athlon XP 1900+ Processor Review - Tech-Report
AMD Athlon XP 1900+ Processor Review - AnandTech

A new video card manufacturer is offering what they call a Ti 600. The Argos Ti 600 from EKcomputer uses 3.3ns DDR SDRAM to get maximum performance out of the GeForce3. EKcomputer has a full line of cards coming to market soon.

So warp to Guru of 3D for more details on the full line and the Geforce3 TI 600.

Our buddies over @ EntCity have posted a nice,small review/article about Overclocking A Geforce 3!. Here´s a bit:
What?s the most important piece of hardware for a gamer? A fast cpu? No. Fast RAM? Nope. It all boils down to your videocard. What?s the most important thing for a visual freak (crazy gamer) An overclocked one. (I am aware that a fast cpu and RAM is important notice how I said MOST important) I took this card up to 220/480 from 200/460, not much but I?m kinda scared from my last overclocking experience to try and find the limit....long story. So head over by using the above link!