- Abit KW7 VIA KT880 Spotted

Yet another new AMD AthlonXP based motherboard surfaces, proving that manufacturers alike are still seeing plenty of demand for alternative motherboard solutions based on the old budget performance platform. ABIt's KW7 is the latest board on the market to make use of VIA's dual channel KT880 chipset along with all the other useful features such as GigaBIT LAN, SATA RAID and firewire. Although no reviews seem to be floating around just yet, AMDBoard have an image up of the board along with a listing of specifications for you to take a looksy at folks.

The KW7 series based on the VIA KT880 chipset and supports AMD K7 processor with 400FSB, and dual DDR 400 that deliver up to a 50% increase in bandwidth. With SATA RAID, LAN, and 6 channels sound, this board can easily be your foundation for a superb system.

- Sapphire Adds "Lower Cost" RADEON X800 XT into Lineup

An interesting article from XBit brings to our attention a lower cost / slower variant of ATI's flagship X800 XT PE based graphics card, closing the gap between the somewhat lacking performance of their 12 pipeline X800 Pro compared with nVidia's equivilent 6800GT based cards. Sapphire look to be the only mob to dish out the non Platinum Edition XT's at this stage, at core and mem speeds of 500mhz / 1000mhz respectively (as opposed to the well known highest end PE cards operating at frequencies of 520mhz/1120mhz).

In early May, 2004, Markham, Ontario-based chip designer ATI Technologies unveiled two graphics card designs to support high-end market: RADEON X800 XT Platinum Edition and RADEON X800 PRO. Both types of graphics cards are based on the same R420 chip, but with different number of pixel pipelines enabled. The RADEON X800 PRO features 12 pixel pipelines with 6 geometry pipelines and is clocked at 475MHz. The RADEON X800 XT Platinum Edition graphics processor packs in 16 pixel pipelines with 6 geometry pipelines and is clocked at 520MHz.

"You will note that the product that we referred to as the RADEON X800 XT during your briefing is now called the RADEON X800 XT Platinum Edition. We are very pleased with the performance of this card and thought that it deserved a special name," ATI said in early May, explaining the name of the premier product. Though, the company has never announced a "non-Platinum Edition" flavour of its RADEON X800 XT chip.


- Articles and Reviews from around the Web

- Altec Lansing FX6021 Speakers @ SLCentral
- USB 2.0 to IDE Cable @ DansData
- Video and Memory September Price Guide @ Anandtech
- Foxconn 915A03-P-8EKRS Motherboard @ MBReview
- RCA Lyra 40GB Audio Player @ GideonTech
- Asus Crux P4 XB7N Heatsink @ FrostyTech
- AeroCool VM-101 Fanless VGA Cooler @ OCIA
- Interview with Microsoft's Peter Moore @ ByteSector
- Microsoft Wireless Desktop Comfort Edition @ Hardware Pacers
- Cooler Master Cavalier 1 Case @ Viperlair