<strong>TweakTown, OCW, Tweaknews, OnlyNewZ, Hardware-Mag, Creative Mods, HWZ, Legion Hardware, TrustedReviews</strong>

VIA PT880 Chipset – Canterwood has competition, finally @ TweakTown

"For such as a Christian orientated company, VIA has been through hell and back in the past 18 months with battles against Intel for rights and blessings to produce Pentium 4 chipsets with their motherboard partners. We´ve got VIA´s very first Dual Channel DDR-400 Pentium 4 chipset under the spotlight today in the form of the PT880 from MSI."

Read more at TweakTown.

OCW Exclusive Review : ECS 755-A2 SIS 755 Athlon 64 Mainboard

"ECS 755-A2 is a good performer. In our tests, we have seen for ourselves that the performance level is on par or better than the SiS 755 Reference board. This is somehow what we didn´t expect as ECS was once delivering BIOS of slightly lower performance in the past. Looks like ECS is making better BIOS and we see that the BIOS options enables us to tune up the board to our common test settings of CAS 2, 5-2-2. Although it can be adjusted, the BIOS is still limited because of the range of FSB, voltage levels it can support."

Read more at OCW.

Philips Aurilium External USB 5.1 Surround Sound Center Review @ Tweaknews.net

"With OEM prepackaged computers still making up the majority of today´s computer market sales, we still see two channel setups holding their ground as the most popular soundcard specification in the everyday home computer. Now say you purchased an everyday computer with onboard or PCI card sound solution and after 6 months or a year you wanted to experience the fidelity of full 5.1 surround sound, what would be your options?
1.) You could purchase a surround sound PCI card and void your computer´s warranty by installing the card yourself.
2.) You could have the computer manufacturer install the soundcard at a high installation fee and upgrade cost.
3.) You can find an audio solution that is relatively cheap, effective and won´t involve you touching your computer other than one small connection.
If you are interested in option #3, Philips now has an external USB 2.0 compliant 5.1 sound center that can have you enjoying surround sound with a quick insertion of a USB cable."

Read more at Tweaknews.

ATI Catalyst 3.10 VS ATI Catalyst 4.1 @ OnlyNewZ

"We compared both ATI Catalyst 3.10 and the ATI Catalyst 4.1 drivers with 5 different games:
- Unreal Tournament 2003
- Halo — Combat Evolved
- Max Payne 2 — The fall of Max Payne
- Need for Speed Underground
- Turok Evolution
- Command and Conquer Generals
Compare the screenshots, check the results and make your conclusion!"

Read more at OnlyNewZ.

Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.2 GHz im Test @ Hardware-Mag

"Unser letzter Intel Prozessor Test liegt ja nun auch schon einige Monate zurück, damals handelte es sich um den brand neuen P4 3,2C mit Northwood Kern. In der Zwischenzeit hat sich wieder einiges getan, so ist der Pentium 4 Extreme Edition mit 3,2 GHz Mitte/Ende Dezember in die Ladenregale gekommen und Intel plant beispielsweise noch dieses Frühjahr einen Pentium 4 der C-Familie mit 3,4 GHz auf den Markt zu bringen. Da dieser dem nächsten Athlon 64 FX vielleicht nicht ganz das Wasser reichen kann, hat Intel noch einen Joker in der Tasche! Man nehme einen Server-Prozessor erster Güte, mit viel Cache und packt ihn in ein Desktop-Prozessor-Kleid, und schon hat man wieder die Nase vorne? Doch so einfach ist das wohl doch nicht ganz. Und um diese Problematik werden wir uns in diesem Artikel kümmern. Wir wünschen viel Spaß beim Lesen!"

Read more at Hardware-Mag.

Monthly BAWLS Giveaway @ Creative Mods

"Creative Mods has 12 bottles of BAWLS that need to be given away ASAP. Who can win this free case of BAWLS? If you are selected as the Modder of The Month on our website, and you live in the continental U.S., the BAWLS are yours. There have been very few people who have applied for the Modder of The Month title for this upcoming February (aka, very little competition for the BAWLS), and we are looking for more potential candidates. If you want some free BAWLS and to be featured on our site as the Modder of The Month, please visit our site for more information."

Read more at Creative Mods.

The Athlon 64 Motherboard Shootout @ HWZ

"Tired of wondering which of the many Socket 754 boards to buy? Find out now from this truly one and only shootout of 15 Socket 754 motherboards for the Athlon 64 in this incredibly detailed 46 page review."

Read more at HWZ.

Legion Hardware — (Albatron GeForceFX 5700 Ultra)

"Albatron continue to impress with their graphics card solutions. Their GeForceFX 5950 Ultra product was top notch, proving to be a quiet and cool solution. The new FX7500 Ultra is no exception to this and the Wise Fan II technology performed up to the standard set by the original. However, I was slightly concerned with the operating volume of this card."

Read more at Legion Hardware.

Information Highway Robbery Article @ TrustedReviews

"The Internet is a very convenient way to keep track of your finances and to purchase goods from around the world. It would therefore be a shame if you let these fraudsters stop you from making the most of the Internet for banking and buying. You just need to take a few precautions. Most of us will make sure that no one is looking over our shoulder when we punch our PIN into a CashPoint machine, so we should be equally as careful when we’re using the Internet for financial transactions. "

Read more at TrustedReviews.