The last motherboard we looked at from Albatron was their KX400-8X. This KT400 board was a good performer but really lacked some of the power options needed to make it a must have, though as we stated in the review part of this is down to the enigmatic nature of the KT400 chipset itself and can't all be laid at Albatron's door.

Today I'm looking at the Albatron KX400+ Pro, a KT333 (rev CE) motherboard that brings onboard the 8235 South Bridge and therefor adds USB 2.0 and ATA-133 to the mix. Let's do the specs then we can move on

[View Here]

First off, I want to say that this is a dangerous mod, you will void your warranty and could possibly ruin your hard drive. If you try this at home, neither I or hitechmods.com can be held responsible for your actions. Ok, now that we got that out of the way we can start this mod. I have seen a few hard drive window mods around the net, but not too many of them. This is one of the reasons I went ahead with this mod. I think that this is one of the coolest looking mods that can be done now.

[View Here]

Overall, the unit is a god send for the many that are just getting into using LCDs. If you can plug in a USB mouse, you can install this device. There are no strange and exotic steps to getting this installed.

[View Here]

Ever since I wrote a story on him a couple of weeks ago (www.freep.com/money/tech/mwend22_20021122.htm), he says he's been inundated with ads, catalogs and brochures delivered by the U.S. Postal Service to his brand-new $740,000 home. It's all the result of a well-organized campaign by the anti-spam community, and Ralsky doesn't find it funny.

"They've signed me up for every advertising campaign and mailing list there is," he told me. "These people are out of their minds. They're harassing me."

[View Here]

Although the rollout of Serial ATA seems to be dragging its proverbial feet, Fujitsu is pressing ahead: their current line of 2.5" disk drives is available as a Serial ATA version. What practical benefits does the new interface have to offer?

[View Here]

Today we have in our lab the HIS Excalibur RADEON 9700 Pro. It's actually a copy of the reference sample. Moreover, I think it was manufactured at the PC Partner's factory. As you know, first RADEON 9700 Pro based cards were made at the same factory and then the partners stuck their names and numbers and packed them into their boxes. It was done to give them time to prepare for such a complicated layout and in order not to lose time by selling cards made by the OEM orders. That is why only the Hercules's card had a PCB of a different color, and the rest were exact copies of the reference design. The key task for today is to test the RADEON 9700 Pro in the DirectX 9.0 RC0, which is possible due to the already released API and ATI's drivers for it and the RADEON 9500/9700.

[View Here]

One has to remember that what might seem acceptable through gamer's perspective is most probably not the view of someone on the street. The MX range from NVIDIA was introduced with the Geforce 2 and was extremely popular with mainstream consumers. It provided a good blend of price and performance and NVIDIA revamped the MX for the Geforce 4.

[View Here]

We've already previewed the 9500 Pro a while back, and now it's time to take a look at the final retail version of the card that's shipping and compare it with the competition. Read inside for the lowdown on ATI's answer to the mainstream market.

[View Here]

Situated next to the memory sockets are the IDE and RAID connectors, which can support a total of eight ATA133 devices compliments of the VIA VT8235 Southbridge and the Promise PDC20276 RAID Controller. The VT8235 Southbridge is located to the right of the second PCI slot, which integrates an updated version of the VIA V-Link chip interconnect, bridging the North and Southbridge at 533MB/s compared with the 266MB/s limitation of the KT333 chipset's V-Link architecture.

[View Here]

I've put this board through the normal rigorous tests that we use here at Hexus and it never flinched. I have only played briefly with the overclocking options as the test cpu isn't the best, and the undervolting made it hard to get much of an increase.

[View Here]

This time for an Intel twist, we are giving away the Zalman CNPS5700D-Cu Quiet CPU Cooler! To enter this contest, please enter your name and email address in the form below! A winner will be randomly determined on Dec 24th.

[View Here]

While not quite a necessity, an LCD display in your PC has become a luxury to many case modders. The ability to check CPU, video card and case temperatures on the fly is great. Unfortunately many of these LCD displays run upwards of $60. Wouldn't it be great if the "budget" modder could get the same features as those more expensive LCD's, and perhaps a little extra? How about an LCD display unit that also provides front USB 2.0 and FireWire connections? And what if on top of the LCD display and front access ports, this same unit provides a fan speed control device as well? Join us as we check out a unit that has all of these features and more, the Vantec Nexus Multifunction Panel.

[View Here]