Philipp

Blue Hardware has posted a french review on the Racer RCC-GRA 241040 CD-RW The computer materials are always in evolution : processors are more and more powerful, graphics cards are more and more better and burners too. Today the new generation of CD-Writers is able to burn CD in 24x. what is worth this speed? It´s that we will see in this article... Read more (french) Translator

Hot Hardware has posted a review on the Epox 8K7A+ motherboard. If you are a hardware enthusiast and have been following the battle between AMD and Intel, you are no doubt familiar with the Athlon and DDR (Double Data Rate) memory. When the Pentium 4 was first introduced, even the most die-hard AMD fanatics marveled at the impressive memory bandwidth scores Intel´s flagship processor, coupled with RDRAM, was capable of. Not to be outdone, AMD set out to find an alternative to standard SDRAM that could provide increased memory bandwidth to their platform. AMD, among a few other major players, decided to embrace DDR memory. To take advantage of the increased bandwidth associated with DDR memory though, a new motherboard chipset had to be designed. Hence the introduction of the AMD 760 chipset. The product we will be taking a look at today, the Epox 8K7A+, is a hybrid motherboard equipped with an AMD 761 Northbridge and a VIA 686B Southbridge. Having no prior experience with an Epox product, I was eager to test the 8K7A+. Soon after it arrived in our lab, we installed it and ran it through the wringer. Did the engineers at Epox produce a quality product that does the AMD / VIA / DDR combination justice? Read on and find out... Read more

X-bit labs has posted a Contemporary Socket A Chipsets Comparison. In this article we compared all the contemporary Socket A chipsets for Athlon CPUs supporting 266MHz bus. We took a closer look at the already familiar AMD 760 and VIA KT133A chipsets as well as at newcomers such as VIA KT266, SiS735 and ALi MAGiK 1 Rev. B0. If you haven´t yet made up your mind about the best Palomino platform, this article may be of interest to you. Read more

3D Game Man has posted a video review on the CLAW-Gaming Controller Check it out

Microsoft executives said on Wednesday that the company´s Passport authentication service will soon support an emerging privacy standard called Platform for Privacy Preferences, or P3P. The standard is advocated by the World Wide Web Consortium, a Web standards body, and was adopted by Microsoft in June for use in its software. Read more

Saw over NeoWin that ExtremeTech has posted an article about the Windows Product Activation (WPA) for Windows XP Microsoft´s Windows Product Activation (WPA) for Windows XP has become one of the most hotly debated topics online, in IT departments and in the computer media. It has also generated an incredible amount of misinformation and FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt), and has sparked an increased interest in Linux as an alternative to "Paying the Piper". In this article, we´ll explain what WPA is about, how it works, and what effect it will have on your computing environment if you upgrade to Windows XP. In addition, we performed product activation scenario testing on the latest Windows XP Release Candidates (RC1 and RC2), and we´ll share the surprising results. While Office XP also uses product activation, our focus for this story is Windows XP. Read more

Adrian´s Rojak Pot has posted the downloadable PDF version of the BIOS Optimization Guide Rev. 6.20 Here are the changes since the last update :- Added the following new BIOS options :- - AGP 4X Drive Strength - AGP Drive Strength P or N Ctrl Rewritten the following BIOS option with new details :- - Boot Other Device - Memory Hole At 15M-16M - Byte Merge - HDD S.M.A.R.T. Capability - EPP Mode Select - PIRQ_0 Use IRQ No. ~ PIRQ_3 Use IRQ No. Read more

Maximum Hardware has put up a Copper Cooler Round-up Overclocking and performance cooling is starting to fill a big hole in the computer enthusiasts market, its everywhere these days. Even AMD has all of a sudden turned a blind eye on the clocking of its chips and stopped cutting the bridges on its processors meaning no hindrance to the humble tweaker. Numerous online stores catering for the jumper switch jugglers have sprung up selling all kinds of coolers and pre-tested CPU´s. So where might you ask does that bring us, well it´s a new age, the dawn of copper is upon us, the king is dead, long live the king! Read more

Code Red claimed two major victims this week, as Microsoft confirmed that some servers running its MSN Hotmail service were infected with a version of the worm and express-shipping giant Federal Express said the worm interfered with some deliveries Wednesday. Microsoft spokesman Jim Desler said Thursday that some Hotmail servers were brought offline to deal with the problem and that service was not disrupted. About 110 million people have accounts with the free Web-based e-mail service, according to Microsoft. Read more

Warp2Search send words that a new version of NvMax is out. Another update to the most famous Nvidia tweaking tool is out and ready to rock. Fixes: :: D3D anisotropy settings :: Detection problems (2K/XP) :: Some overclocking problems, if not all. :: Interface problems inc. - Large fonts text problem - relocated help - big back button :: Removed driver update - It will appear very soon as a plugin :: Internal code fixes. Download

Thanks to Clutch for this one: IISAnswers Bulletin: NT4 Sites with Redirects can crash from Code Red It has been confirmed that despite being patched, some NT4 servers are subject to crashing when processing URLS from Code Red and its variants. This occurs on patched NT4 servers that use redirection. W2K is not affected. Those of you using redirection enabled in the IIS Snap-in should take immediate action to ensure you are not vulnerable to this problem. This is not a problem if you use scripting to redirect your site or pages. Microsoft evidently knows about this but has not commented on it publicly. Below is the posting including a response from a Microsoft IIS support team member about the problem. http://archives.neohapsis.com/archives/incidents/2001-08/0218.html

McAfee Virus definitions has been updated to version 4153 If you are using VirusScan 5.x, you can easily update your DAT files from the VirusScan Central (the main VirusScan menu) and click on the Update button. The DATS will be downloaded and applied for you. Updates for VirusScan, and all McAfee products that include VirusScan, ensure that your virus protection is constantly updated as cures for new virus threats are published. The cures are included in a virus definition file called a DAT file. The easiest way to obtain new DAT files is to use the UPDATE button from VirusScan 5.x Central. DAT files are published weekly, or in the event of a virus outbreak. Download

Symantec has released a new virus definitions update for Norton Antivirus. This update will work on the following products: NAV for Lotus Notes (Intel) NAV for MS Exchange (Intel) NAV 4.0, 5.0 and 2000 for Win9x NAV 4.0, 5.0 and 2000 for WinNT NAV 2000 for Win2000 NAV for Firewalls pcAnywhere32 7.5 and higher for WinNT Norton Utilities for Windows 95/98 (all versions) Norton SystemWorks (all versions) Download

Gainward has released a new bios for the CARDEXpert GeForce 3 video card. Download

To keep the spread of the Code Red worms from slowing down its cable Internet network, AT&T is blocking access to Web servers that residential customers are running, a spokeswoman said Wednesday. Read more

Elsa has released new bios updates for the Elsa Gladiac 511 series. Download

GamePC has posted a review on the Plextor PlexWriter 24/10/40A CD-ReWritable drive We´ve been expecting a 20x drive from Plextor for some time, but now they´ve gone and surprised us all and decided to ship a 24x burner out to market. Now, not only does Plextor have one of the fastest drives on the market, in pure burning speed, but has one of the most complete feature-sets of any manufacturer. So today, we´re taking a look at Plextor´s new 24/10/40A CD-ReWritable drive. Does it live up to the Plextor quality name? Guess we´ll have to wait and see.. Let´s take a quick glance at the specs before we take a closer look at this drive, shall we? Read more

GideonTech has posted a review on the EN5100 15" LCD monitor from Envision. To be totally honest, I did not even bother touching the menu and changing any kind of settings. When you first turn on the monitor and your system, the unit goes into a Auto Config mode. It configures your Clock (pixel frequency) and Focus automatically. Clock basically controls the number of pixels scanned by one horizontal sweep. If this frequency is not correct, vertical stripes appear and the width of the screen will be off. The Focus is the horizontal direction with the same idea as the Clock. The auto config also resizes your screen with your video input signal and adjusts the screen perfectly for you. Very convenient! Read more

HardwareExtreme has posted up a review of the Mouse Bungee Crystal Pro. The Mouse Bungee Crystal Pro is basically the regular Mouse Bungee, but with the added benefit that you don´t have to buy a mouse pad to use it with. The Mouse Bungee Crystal Pro (for only about $10 more) will give you a high quality mouse pad attached to a Mouse Bungee. Read more

Viper´s Lair has put up a review on the Vantec FCE-62540 heatsink Vantec has had a long history of making quality products, and the Vantec FCE-62540 is no exception. It´s probably going to be the last of these big aluminum heatsinks we´re going to see for awhile, as more manufacturers move towards copper. Read more

3D Spotlight has posted a Abit Siluro MX400 video card review Abit has become something of a brand name, and has built up a lot of respect from computer enthusiasts. Although mainly known for their motherboards, Abit have started to push out GeForce graphics cards, under the name of "Siluro". Today at 3D Spotlight, we are looking at the MX400 version of this product line. Read more

The security firm Vigilinx Inc. is alerting customers of a first-ever worm that replicates using an Adobe portable document format (PDF). The PeachyPDF@mm worm mass mails itself through Microsoft Outlook. Not only does it send itself to 100 addresses from an infected users´ address book, it also sends itself to the users´ alternative E-mail addresses. Read more

PC makers that choose to ship Windows XP with icons on the desktop will have to include at least three Microsoft-mandated icons. While news of a MSN Internet access icon emerged last week, Microsoft spokesman Vivek Varma on Wednesday revealed PC makers could also have to place icons for Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player as well as the Recycle Bin. Read more

Digit-Life has posted a review on the Philips Seismic Edge and Rhythmic Edge sound cards Philips is mainly famous for its home audio and video equipment. In the PC multimedia sphere the company makes a series of inexpensive multimedia acoustic systems. A year ago the company also released sound cards for the USA market with "Edge" suffix: a 2-channel Rhythmic Edge (PSC702), a 4-channel Seismic Edge (PSC704) and a 6-channel Acoustic Edge (PSC706). Read more

Storage Review has posted a review on the Yamaha CRW2200E CD-RW recorder Over the years, Yamaha has earned a reputation as a solid manufacturer of CD-RW recorders with nearly 30 models released in those 7 years. The CRW2200E represents Yamaha´s current apex of CD-RW development: 20X burn speeds yielding 3 MB/sec writes. Read on as we compare the CRW2200E not only to Yamaha´s previous-generation 16X burner, but to 20X competition from Ricoh and the cream of the 16X crop. Read more