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The blazing speed of
Xi's MTower 64 AGE-SLI should provide plenty
of power for graphics professionals as well
as for gamers looking for extreme
performance--it's one of the fastest
performers we've seen. Using a 2.6-GHz AMD
Athlon 64 FX-55 and 2GB of DDR400 SDRAM, our
test model scored 125 in our WorldBench 5
tests, the highest mark recorded so far.
Equipped with a 256MB
EVGA E-GeForce 6800 Ultra graphics card, the
$3799 MTower also posted strong performance
scores in our graphics tests. At
1280-by-1024 resolution, it churned out 152
frames per second in Return to Castle
Wolfenstein and 390 fps in the Unreal
Tournament 2003. Only two or three other
systems narrowly outperformed the MTower at
the same resolution.
The case's front door
provides access to bays for five
removable-media drives, including a floppy
disk drive and a multiformat, double-layer
DVD±RW drive. Clearly, with those extra bays
this machine is designed for users who want
to add components, such as a memory-card
reader. A small flap under the door reveals
a FireWire port and two of the PC's six USB
2.0 ports, but no audio sockets, so you have
to fumble on the back to hook up headphones
or a microphone. One other (albeit minor)
concern: Because the front door opens to the
left, it hampers easy access to the front
drives if the case is on your right.
Case locks are
included for the front door and a clear
acrylic side panel, which requires a
screwdriver to open. Inside the roomy
interior, we found neatly organized cables
and plenty of expansion options, including
six drive bays, two open memory slots, and
five open PCI slots. However, one of those
PCI slots isn't really available because its
bracket rail is used by the motherboard's
USB/game ports module. Even though several
fans keep this blistering performer cooled,
we didn't hear any significant noise with
the MTower except when using the floppy disk
drive, which made a grinding sound.
Our MTower system
shipped with a flexible 19-inch ViewSonic
VP191b LCD monitor that tilts, swivels,
adjusts horizontally, and pivots to portrait
mode. (Perfect Portrait pivoting software is
included.) When displaying our test images,
the monitor showed clear readable text and
colorful graphics with fine details. DVD
playback also was impressive, with bright,
realistic color and smooth motion quality.
Our review
configuration came with the Logitech X-620
(6.1-speaker) sound system, which produced
strong and full sound in our tests, and came
with ample cables for placing the speakers
far apart. Other components included a
Logitech cordless keyboard and optical
mouse, both of which performed well. We
especially liked the additional shortcut
keys, such as the dedicated media player
controls, on the enhanced keyboard. Xi also
provides several applications, including
Corel WordPerfect Office 11, an ArcSoft
graphics suite, and some older game
software. Documentation is limited to
component guides; no overall system manual
is included.
Upshot: The MTower 64 AGE-SLI is a
powerhouse system for entertainment or
industrial-strength graphics applications.
There's even plenty of room to grow if your
needs change.
-- Richard Jantz
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