HTPCnews was allowed an advanced preview of the highest anticipated software release in the history of Home Theater PC's. With so much hype around this product and the hope that it will revolutionize the entire HTPC market, Meedio has some seriously big shoes to fill. Coming out of the starting gate with 21 already built plugins, a solid foundation application, and a team of programmers that would make any corporation proud, Meedio tries it's best to please. Come check out the review and see if it's as good as everyone had hoped or if it's time to go back to the drawing board.

AnandTech have thrown up their preview of ATi's soon to be released RS400 core logic chipset!

The major advantage of RS400 over RS350 is the adoption of a real DirectX 9 IGP. Even though RS350 utilizes a Radeon 9100 Pro for IGP, it is still technically DX8.1. RS400 will integrate the Radeon 9600 Non-Pro GPU onboard, which should give Intel's 915G a run for its money. If ATI's roadmaps are to be trusted, this is a bit of a surprise for us. Our original roadmaps in April market RS480 to launch with DX8.1 instead of DX9. Unfortunately, graphics performance is only the secondary function of an IGP chipset, and thus the northbridge must be up to snuff. ATI's memory controller has been its downfall many times before in the past.

Lyncoln "MissinLynx" Gill over at Bjorn3D was at the Fragapalooza LAN party in Canada on Friday, were he took a short video of nVidia Showing off their Dual GPU SLI aka Scalable Link Interface technology!

The new card will be produced only by MSI and is to bring Nvidia?s six series graphics cards down into the sub $200 range. Click here to read the full news story

There was a time when processors were relatively simple. You had a model name (Pentium, Athlon, Celeron...) and a clock speed, and that was pretty much it. With the Athlon XP, things started getting complicated. Suddenly, the number at the end of the name was no longer the clock speed. At first, you could sort of crib up a cheat sheet by starting with 1533MHz for the 1800+, then adding 66MHz for every additional 100 in the model number. Pretty soon, however, there were multiple chips with the same model number that differed in clock speed, cache size, and bus speed.

TrustedReviews.com is giving away a GeForce 6800 graphics card together with some goodies from nVidia, head over here for the chance to win one -

Ever wanted desktop replacement, with an ATI 9700 128 meg of independant video memory, Athlon 64 Bit CPU and 5.1 sound. Yes that right, 5.1 sound, with 15.4" wide screen and more features than you find average laptop. Well after you read this review, it will make all other laptop seem inferiar. Also laptops of similar features, u would expect to pay over £2000, but this one retails for under £1000. Its so good, its almost a steal ;-)

The FiringSquad have thrown up their Performance preview of ATi''s Mobility 9700 mobile GPU that's based on ATI's desktop Radeon 9600 XT! Here's a snip.

ATI starts the MOBILITY 9700 off with their M11 graphics core, which is fundamentally quite similar to ATI?s RADEON 9600 XT on the desktop. Image quality is the same from both chips because of this. However, due to the stringent power and thermal requirements found in a laptop system, core and memory clocks aren?t up to the same level as the RADEON 9600 XT on the desktop. ATI has specified a clock frequency range of 390MHz-450MHz on the M11 core. This is an improvement of at least 40MHz on the MOBILITY 9600 PRO, as most notebook manufacturers clock their MOBILITY 9600 PRO?s at 350MHz.

We have not received any specific information as to what will be included in the package, but we are assuming that standard things such as the user's manual, an installation guide, and connection cables are the least we can expect. Read the full PREVIEW here

OCIA.net and NZXT have teamed up to bring you a chance to win an NZXT Sword! You can learn more about it and enter the contest by visiting the OCIA.net forums.

Just got word from X-bitlabs that part 3 of their Hard Disk Drive Roundup is out in which they take a closer look at the performance and features of 21 hard disk drives from such well-known storage device manufacturers as Western Digital, Samsung, Seagate, Maxtor and Hitachi. They test solutions with 160GB storage capacity to find out which one is the today?s best, fastest and most attractive choice.

The Sempron?s front side bus will have a 25 percent increase as compared to the lower end Athlon XP processors that operate at 133 front side bus. The above Sempron chips will be replacing the Athlon XP 1700+ to 2400+ chips.

While Corsair, Crucial and Samsung are already starting to deliver DDR2-667, Intel is also getting ready to ship the 925XE this quarter, which offers 266 MHz FSB and will be the basis for the Pentium 4 720 with 3.73 GHz. We already took a look at what benefits the FSB clock increase will bring. Also, we benchmarked with 280 MHz FSB and DDR2-730. Read the Full article at THG

Apple Computer, Inc. has launched the fourth-generation of its highly popular iPod portable audio player today. One of the biggest upgrades that the new iPod features is the extended battery life. The battery life has been increased to 12 hours. Click here to read the full news report.

WindowsForDevices has received exclusive advance information on a new dual mode Smartphone to be introduced initially in the Korean market this fall. The prototype device, codenamed "Flint," features dual network CDMA/WiFi support with a built-in 802.11b module, and full-motion video from its integrated 2 megapixel camera. Our source, speaking on condition of anonymity, asked that the vendor of the device not be revealed at this time.

The chinese site D-Cross.com have snagged the first picture of Nvidia's NV43 chip .... Click Here

The asetek lab team shows that the VapoChill LightSpeed with sub-zero temperatures is the exact right cooling unit when it comes to overclocking Intel?s top processor (3,6GHz). In the pre-benchmarking the core speed showed 4584 MHz - a 28 percent performance boost! The PC platform was based on state-of-the art hardware from ABIT, Kingston, ATI and Intel.

More than 10 months ago, S3 began its PC graphics comeback with DeltaChrome. Decked out with DirectX 9 support, 24-bit pixel shaders, and component HDTV output, DeltaChrome looked pretty sweet. Unfortunately, immature drivers and stiff competition conspired to ruin the eight-pipe S8's coming out party. S3 had difficulty attracting board makers to sell cards based on its GPU, especially in North America. Over time, S3 improved its drivers and released the DeltaChrome S8 Nitro with higher clock speeds and more competitive performance, but the card still couldn't keep up with ATI and NVIDIA's updated mid-range lineups.

There are GOBS of home theater subs out there now, and I know many of you out there are turning your computers into the center of your home theater (I sure have!). How much are you people willing to spend? Okay, so who's under the microscope today? That would be Klipsch and HSU Research. Both are known for neither uber-high-end, nor utter-crap, so the competition amongst them should prove interesting.

OCIA.net and TweakMonster.com have teamed up to bring you a chance to win an 80mm Dual Fan Bracket Kit and a 120mm Fan Bracket Kit! You can learn more about it and enter the contest by visiting the OCIA.net forums.