The surprisingly
stable $3184 system
(as of November 11,
2008), sports 4GB of
DDR3-1333 memory and
a striped RAID of
the fastest consumer
hard drives on the
market, Western
Digital's 10,000-rpm
Velociraptors. The
downside is that you
only get 600GB of
space to work
with--actually less
once you factor in
the size of the
included 32-bit
Windows Vista Home
Premium operating
system. But that OS
is a strange choice
given its inability
to use the HAF-SLI's
full 4GB of memory.
Xi includes a
24-inch Samsung
2443BWX LCD into
the system package
for an additional
$365, although we
don't include the
performance of this
above-average
display in our
ratings.
If you ignore the
undersized
hard-drive capacity
and odd choice of
OS, you'll enjoy the
HAF-SLI's punishing
performance. Its
score of 163 on our
WorldBench 6
benchmarks matches
the top gaming
desktop we've
tested,
Falcon Northwest's
Intel Core i7-based
Mach V--an
impressive feat,
given the
technological gap
between the
HAF-SLI's older
Wolfdale processor
and the Mach V's
brand-new Nehalem
processor.
We only wish that Xi
tuned up its
graphics to match
its system's
breathtaking CPU
performance. As it
stands, the system's
two
EVGA e-GeForce 9800
GTX video cards--even
in an SLI
configuration--are
beginning to show
their age. The
latest
Radeon HD 4870 X2
offerings from ATI
crush these cards
into the dust, and
the Xi's paired 9800
GTX cards fall a bit
short on the
higher-resolution
gaming tests we run.
The average of 46
frames per second
that we saw in our
Enemy Territory:
Quake Wars test at
2500 by 1600 with 4X
antialiasing turned
on is almost half
that of the
performance we saw
on systems using a
single 4870
X2.
The HAF-SLI's name
partly arises from
the system's case, a
Cooler Master HAF
932 chassis. On
this, we commend Xi
for selecting a case
that's as beautiful
as it is innovative
and downright
exciting. With
built-in support for
water-cooling
reservoirs, and
screwless options
for all potential
upgrades, there is
nothing that this
case can't do well.
You can cram one
more video card into
the case's free PCI
Express x16 slot,
and it also offers
open bays for three
additional 5.25-inch
devices and three
hard drives.
Included with the
system are two Lite-on
DVD writers: a
DH-20A4H with
LightScribe and
a
DH-20A4P. The
ample connectivity
options in the case
nearly equal those
of the system's
motherboard: The
front of the case
sports four USB
ports, one Firewire
400, one eSATA, and
a built-in multicard
reader that should
take just about any
memory card you have
on hand. The
EVGA 790i
motherboard
supports 6 USB
devices, one
FireWire 400, and
one eSATA, along
with two ethernet
ports, built-in 5.1
surround sound, and
both optical and
coaxial SPDIF
outputs. The
included Logitech
keyboard and mouse
trade away a little
of the better
"gaming" elements
for wireless
functionality. We
like the handiness
of it all, but it
would nevertheless
be nice to see DPI
toggles on the
mouse.
If you can stomach a
bit of a loss on the
graphics end of the
gaming spectrum, the
HAF-SLI's
overclocked insanity
of a system offers
more than we'd ever
expect to see at its
floor-scraping price
point.
--David Murphy
