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I will be uses this new benchmark to gauge performance on some motherboards that are coming, in addition to the other benches.

Here are my score for my 1Ghz Athlon + 256MB DDR266 + K7S5A + 60GXP 20GB
CPU: 2808
Mem: 2866
HDD: 531

Click discuss this topic to talk about your scores!

LostCircuits has done an excellent job with this shootout

On a clock by clock basis, the ASUS A7M266D is the fastest board, however, if one just uses the highest possible performance that can be achieved by the system, the Tiger MPX pulls almost even. The MSI K7D holds a solid place in the middle, regardless which way one looks at it. This, er, ranking is somewhat surprising, however in retrospect, given the headstart that Tyan has had with the MP platform, the top performance of the Tiger MPX might have been expected.

Just read this. A number of other websites already expressed their feelings about that article, but I'm not going to, I'll let the readers decide .

Rage3D has updated their tweak for all Radeon cards.

• Enhanced Windows XP support.
• Reorganized tweaks listing.
• Improved custom display modes and refresh rates support and interface.
• Numerous additional tweaks.
• New installer and uninstaller
• New support for graphics/skins in the GUI
• Replaced setclk.lib with our own interface to the r6probe files for better compatibility and overclocking support across different cards and platforms.
• Split up and renamed tweaker install files for better organization and easier translation.
• Many user suggestions, complaints, bugs, etc. fixed.

Get it at this page.

I've been hearing that this new MadOnion Benchmark will be like sandra, a total performance kind of benchmark. Should be interesting to see what they come of with. Only 5 hours to go.

AMDZone has reviewed the Vantec CCK-6027D heatsink and the Antec SX840 Case

While AMD is moving to Moscow, Intel says that it doesn't need any fab partners

Otellini kept to the company line, suggesting that while the chip giant is content to outsource production of components such as LCD monitors or networking and communications hardware, the company will jealously guard its leading processor production facilities.

According to this Inquirer story, Via has finally validated memory modules for DDR333 (PC2700) operation.

Following the launch of its Athlon Apollo KT333 chipset, VIA is set to launch its Apollo P4X333 for the Pentium 4. The company has completed tests of DDR333(PC2700) memory modules for both processors and has endorsed those from Samsung Micron, Hynix, Infineon, Nanya and Elpida.

Creative posted new drivers for its graphic cards series TNT-GeForce4(full range inclusive). Drivers are based on the Detonator version 27.50. Get them here:

• Windows 95/98/ME
• Windows 2000/XP
• Windows NT4.0

Macromedia's FlashMX (formerly known as FLASH 6.0) is now available for download from this site. Nobody seems to know the reason for program leak. Flash MX was supposed to become available March 15th. As you can see you can download it now. This version is a 30-day trial shareware program.

It's ECS's turn now and the following boards have new BIOS ready:

• ECS K7S6A V1.0X BIOS v. 1.0d
• ECS K7VZA V3.0 BIOS v. 3.6
• ECS K7VZM V3.0 BIOS v. 3.6
• ECS K7SEM V1.0 BIOS v.1.1e
  

Epox shows its care for users and releases another batch of BIOSes:

• EP-8KEM BIOS rev. 2218
• EP-8K3A/EP-8K3A+ BIOS rev. 2304
• EP-4SDA/EP-4SDA+ BIOS rev. 2228
• EP-3WTM BIOS rev. 2220
• EP-3SPM/EP-3PTM BIOS rev. 2221
• EP-3SPA3/EP-3SPA3L/EP-3SEP BIOS rev. 2221
• EP-3S2A5/EP-3S2A5L BIOS rev. 2221
• EP-3PTA BIOS rev. 2221
• EP-3ETM BIOS rev.2221
  

These BIOS files are a needed update for those who use two FastTrak cards under WinNT 4.0. Get the update and solve your problems:

• FastTrak 33
• FastTrak 66
• Description available here.

Let's start with A. The following BIOS is available now:

• Asus A7M266-D BIOS v. 1005
• Asus A7V133-M BIOS v. 1006
• Abit SD7-533 BIOS v. 7s
  

According to ExtremeTech and various other sites, Creative just spent $103 million to buy 3DLabs. Creative wants to reenter the graphics card business and this will give them a nice jump.

Sometimes after restarting Windows XP some users experince this message - "System has recovered from a serious error" which is quite upsetting. Now there is a remedy to this problem in Microsoft's patch.

Download the patch / read about the patch.

Get the newest BIOSes here. This is for the EP-8K3A and the EP-8K3A+.

Count down to what? What do you think it is? Any ideas, discuss this one in the forums!! I double posted this because it goes under both software and hardware!!

Count down to what? What do you think it is? Any ideas, discuss this one in the forums!!

ATI will finally move into the chipset business and compete with Nvidia's nForce.

ATI will use the name A3 for both the Intel Pentium 3/Celeron and the AMD Athlon/Duron families, and will come with Radeon 7000 integrated.

The Canadian outfit will borrow Nvidia's Nforce ideas by offering an AGP expansion slot to let users bung in their own graphics card. If manufacturers show much interest in this chipset, ATI might even disable the graphics on board and sell the chipset cheaper. - Inquirer

Another Inquirer article tells that Via will buy Kyro, the graphics division of ST Microelectronics.

The hopeful outcome is that Via will take over the Kyro II and Kyro III (Power VR Series 3) chipsets, and also wants to get its mitts on the Kyro III Series 4 stuff, which has not yet taped out.

The Inquirer has the story about ATI releasing not only their R8500XT, which is a normal 8500 with 128MB and 300/600 core/mem, but there new chipsets as well.

Still, the Radeon 8500 with 128 MB cards, Radeon 8500XT, FireGL 8800, 8700, Radeon 8500/7500 AIW, FireGL 7800 mobility and Radeon 7500 mobile as well as two chipsets A3 and A4 are a great bundle to show to CeBIT hacks.

This Inquirer reports says that Acer will use the VIA chipset motherboards for the Pentium Desktops it makes. As you may or may not know, Via and Intel are in a suit over the Via chipset.

The acceptance by Acer of Via Pentium 4 chipsets is a breakthrough for Via, which had to create its own motherboard division following the legal action between it and Intel.

I've tested these drivers and they have a slight increase in performance, and no noticable errors. Get them at Rage3D.

This reminds me of the dsktop Pentium 4 launch. The Pentium 3 mobile CPU can kill the Pentium 4 in performance. But, to achieve higher clock speeds, the Pentium 4 can beat the Pentium 3. Remember, clock speed isn't the same as performance though. Read this article at the Inquirer.

According to the review, the 1.7GHz Inspiron 8200 which Dell released earlier this week may actually lag behind so called "desktop-notebook" configurations and ZD Net said that in some tests it ran, it fell below a 1.13GHz Pentium III-M on office suites. - Link

Got an email from PCStats. Looks like they did a good job at reviewing a stackable KVM (Keyboard, Video, Mouse).

With rack mount servers in such close proximity to one another it's not feasible to have one monitor/keyboard/mouse per system. If we take a standard 42U filled to the brim with 1U servers that would require something on the order of 40 sets of monitors and keyboards/mice - which is just silly.
Long ago, companies realized there was a very big and very real requirement for rack mount KVM - Keyboard, Video, Mouse switch boxes. Intended for especially for 19" server racks, the RK-800R has little flanges which attach to the side so it can be mounted in the rack, taking up just 1U of space. - Read more

Jerry Sanders, who is retiring in the coming months, just unloaded a bunch of information about their business plan.

He said that AMD's XP 2000 was slightly better than Intel's 2.2GHz Pentium 4 and vowed that the firm would double performance every 18 months. To maintain that level, AMD would have to deliver a 30-50 per cent increase with the 64-bit chip.

"There will be a steady increase in performance and by end of this year we'll have a model 3400 by the end of this year which will outperform a 3.4GHz Pentium 4," he claimed. Read it at the Inquirer.

Warrior Kings a real-time strategy with a promising graphics gone gold and should be available in stores any time. The game seems to be quite interesting at a first glance.
Take a look at this site to learn more.

As compared to Asus this BIOS list is rather short:

• DX34 Plus v. R1.22
• DX34 v. R1.22
  

Matrox technical support released this utility for G550 (AGP), G450 (AGP), G400 (AGP) and G200 (AGP and PCI) graphics cards only. Utility revision 4.03.002 allows flexible tweaking of the cards mentioned above.

Get Matrox Tweak / read release notes.