ECS Elitegroup have released new motherboard bioses! :D hit Read more for the full list of updates...

AMD has released a new processor roadmap in their press lounge describing their schedule till 2nd half of 2003. As one can see 64bit Hammer will be introduced to the market in late 2002 early 2003 so still some time to go:

Asus have released new bios updates so here goes! :D

ASUS PC Probe V2.15.07

ASUS AFlash 2.00

ASUS P4B Mainboard bios 1007 - 02 Beta

ASUS P4T-E Mainboard bios 1005 - 02 Beta

ASUS P4T-F Mainboard bios 1007 - 01 Beta

Asus A7M266 1006 - 001-A Beta

Asus TR-DLS 1003 - 01 Beta

Can't remember if i posted this, but anyway, Abit has released a new bios update for their KG7 / KG7-RAID / KG7-Lite mainboards. This is version 5W and contains the following fixes:

When AMD introduced the Athlon XP on the OPGA (organic pin grid array) substrate they alleviated the problems seen by some Athlon and Duron owners where overzealous heatsink application cracked the processor in two. The move to fiberglass packaging made allowances for some flexing during heatsink installation and also improved processor performance by lowering impedance. The only downside was the rather ugly brown colour of the chips...

More info and pictures here

Source: XPFreaks.com

The new VIA Eden Embedded System Platform will spur the further development of the emerging new generation of quiet running, low profile small factor designs that are being adopted for a myriad of connected information and entertainment systems ...

The VIA Eden Platform VE1400, VE1500, VE2400, and VE2500 models

Download the VIA EDEN Movie

Poseidon GPU/DDR Water Cooler is now availaible for sale at $189 inc S&H

Increase longevity while increasing performance on your GeForce 3 graphic accelerator with the Poseidon Water Cooler unit. The Poseidon water-cooling solution replaces your GPU fan and covers both the graphics processor and RAM memory allowing you to overclock your GPU and Memory clocks safely.

Abit have released new BIOS updates for the Abit GeForce2 T200 and T400: v1.37.

Abit GeForce2 T200

Abit GeForce2 T400

I feel the need for speed ? well here it is the Fastest Geforce3 TI 200 out there, Evga Geforce3 TI200 600MHZ DDR 3.3 ns RAM w/TV out and a DVI connector and if u pre-order it now u get 100 dollars off! Regular price: $299.00 Sale price: $189.00

Evga Geforce TI200 600MHZ DDR 3.3 ns RAM

Amazon Tech have got a new workstation card and it's called the PURE PCI Render Card and what's so Amazing about this card u say well it cames with 512 megs of on-board SD RAM! WOW :D

Amazon Tech PURE PCI Render Card

Another day of beta releases for you Asus owners: Bios TUSL2-M ( i815e ) 1011 - 07 Beta Bios TUSL2-C / TUEP2-M ( i815ep ) 1011 - 07 Beta Bios TUEG-VM ( i815eg ) 1011 - 07 Beta Use caution when flashing your BIOS.

MSI has a new BIOS for their KT266A board. Changelog is: Fixed Win98SE/ME/2000 will have ! mark after installing NEC USB 2.0 driver Don't disable on-board AC97 when install PCI sound card Support AMD XP 2000+ CPU Grab BIOS 3.3 here if you own this board.

A new day, a new BIOS. TUV4X 1004 - 04 Beta

A very decent review has been posted on the renowned Sharky Extreme website. Editor Vince Freeman took the ATI boards for a ride and he has some good conclusions in his review concerning the future and to-be-expected support from ATI. Also Vince took a slightly different approach to evaluating Radeon 8500 performance adding a one-week real-life test run to the review. As this is the most interesting part here's a snip for you: The first thing we found is that the RADEON 8500 is an exceptional 2D card. For basic Windows duties it makes a great choice, with excellent performance and image clarity all around. Whether it was used for manipulating huge image files or scrolling through graphic-laden documents, the RADEON 8500 performed like a real champ. [...] While we didn't run the gamut of available 3D games, our initial results were very promising. CounterStrike, Unreal Tournament, Quake 3 and many other popular first-person shooters ran like a knife through butter on the RADEON 8500 and it was difficult to find any issue with overall performance or stability. Now if you're still undecided if the Radeon 8500 is worth your attention the give the SharkyExtreme review a good read.

Void Your Warranty has taken Lian Li's aluminium tower case to their labs for testing. Personally I prefer midi towers cause most stuff fits in well and it doesn't take half of the room. Here's a tidbit of their review to make your mouth water: There are many things about the PC70 that deserve attention. First of all, the bezel is toolless, and pops off by simply pulling it from below. This is made possible by plastic pieces that hold the bezel onto the frame. This works exceptionally well and was possibly the nicest method I have seen for holding a bezel in place. In the unlikely event that you damaged one of the clips, you could simply replace that clip rather than the entire bezel. VYW Lian Li PC70 review

The IBM Feature Tool allows you to control some of the features in the newer IBM high performance ATA hard disk drives. The IBM Feature Tool allows you to: Enable or disable the read-ahead or write cache. Change the drive Automatic Acoustic Management settings to the: - Lowest acoustic emanation setting (Quiet Seek Mode), or
- Maximum performance level (Normal Seek Mode). Change the predefined capacity of the drive. This option can be used in situations where there is a BIOS limitation and the drive is not recognized. See the Users Guide for specific details. Switch the Ultra DMA mode (replaces the IBMATASW utility) Change Advanced Power Mode - allows you to change between the lowest power consumption and the highest power consumption (maximum performance level). Show Drive Temperature - shows the current drive temperature in Celsius and Farenheit. Download IBM Feature Tool 1.40 Windows Download IBM Feature Tool 1.40 Linux

Tom's Hardware have done a review of Maya 7.1 Gold soundcard

Here's a bite from their review

On-board sound systems are standard today. However, the quality of codecs meets only basic requirements such as system and application sound output. If you want high fidelity sound, you might want to upgrade your sound system. We introduce two interesting products from Audiotrak: Maya 7.1 Gold, a high-quality sound card at $129, and a PC amplifier called CARDamp.

Maya 7.1 Gold Review

Did you ever think about that you're spending most of your time in a 2D envorionment when using your PC? Apparently nearly noone does when sucked into the swirl of todays 3D hype. HardwareCentral has taken a note on superior 2D quality and performance of ATI's 400Mhz RAMDAC sportied on the Radeon 8500: I should note that in no way is the GeForce2 Ultra (or GeForce3) a poor 2D performer, but the Radeon 8500 proved superior at higher resolutions. Performing tasks such as manipulating or scrolling through large images or even a worksheet full of Excel graphs was noticeably smoother with the ATI card, and 2D image and text clarity is a bit better -- especially at 1,600 by 1,200 or higher. Check out Vince Freeman's findings @ HardwareCentral.

[H]ardOCP has upped their review of Abit's VIA KT266a offering branding it a top notch board to get. With the recent onslaught of KT266A motherboards, there has been one board in particular that has been conspicuously missing from the recently released KT266A board lineup...the ABIT KR7A motherboard. Whether this was by design or simply ABIT cooking their board "extra" in an attempt to squeeze everything it can out of this chipset, we'll know today. ABIT has long been a leader in the performance arena, some even think that they put their priority on performance above all else... while that may or may not be true, when all is said an done, we will know exactly what ABIT had cooking for so long. Check out the full review

Uhhh, yeah some new beta BIOSes from Asus Germany for Intel based boards were released today. The list includes 8 new BIOSes so if you feel like testing one of those read more.