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MGE Quantum

Maximum PC — Sun, 16 Jan 2005 04:13:43 -0600

This is one of the coolest cases we’ve ever tested—literally

Month Reviewed: February 2005
Verdict: 8
URL: www.xgbox.com

The Quantum is a serious enclosure that is both quite large and jam-packed with features. This full-size ATX case is made entirely of steel, so you probably won’t be toting it around to LAN parties. But the upside of its heavy metal construction is sturdiness.

The front bezel is a two-piece design. The outer door contains a system-monitoring LCD display, and when opened reveals four 5.25-inch bays, two 3.5-inch bays, and the power switch. A second door swings open for easy drive installation. With both doors closed, the bezel can be locked shut to prevent unauthorized access, which is a great security feature.

With a twiddle of two thumbscrews, both of the ventilated side doors pop off to reveal an extremely spacious interior. Drive installation is mostly tool-less, with snap-on rails used for both optical and magnetic drives. Two 3.25-inch bays in the standard location require screws. Below these bays is another side-facing bay that holds all the plastic rails in little trays. If you remove the trays, the space can accommodate an additional three 3.25-inch drives, although there are only enough extra hard drive rails included for two drives (oddly, rails for up to six optical drives are included). PCI slots use a tool-less locking mechanism that holds cards very securely.

Cooling is not a problem, as the Quantum includes a total of five fans. There are three 80mm fans—one down in front, one on top, one near the CPU—and two 92mm units mounted on a swing-out door that covers the entire left-side of the interior. All fans plug into to a convenient seven-fan connector mounted inside the case, so there’s even room for two additional fans, not that you’d ever need them.

Now for the bad news: The case comes with no documentation. Furthermore, there is no “support” for the Quantum case on the company’s web site, and calls to the support center were not returned. Who needs support for a case? You will. The front LCD panel lets you tweak numerous settings as well as control fan speeds, but without instructions, you’ll have a hard time figuring out how to implement these features. --Josh Norem

+ Black steel: Obscene cooling, locking panels, tool-less.

- Blue steel: Largely useless front panel, no tech support.

Velocity Micro Raptor 64 Dual X

Maximum PC — Sat, 15 Jan 2005 17:00:23 -0600

The wait for PCI Express is over for AMD fans

Month Reviewed: February 2005
Verdict: 9 Kick Ass
URL: www.velocitymicro.com

Oh, the ignominy. For months, Intel fans have been laughing Nelson Muntz-style at the AMD crowd over the lack of PCI Express on Athlon 64 FX mobos. It’s as if AMD users have been swimming in the “cement pond” and showing up to work without shoes on—that’s just how backwards their PC lifestylings have been of late. Well, prepare to say “ha ha” back, AMDers, because you’re now fully up to date.

The Velocity Micro Raptor 64 Dual X shows that waiting an extra six months has been worth it. In fact, the Dual X doesn’t just boast PCI Express, it also features SLI, and a pair of wicked eVGA GeForce 6800 Ultra cards. The Raptor 64 Dual X isn’t the first SLI system we’ve tested of course. Alienware sent us a water-cooled SLI rig last month. Unfortunately, however, that Alienware machine was running a Xeon processor, not to mention DDR2-400 RAM—registered memory being a requirement of the Xeon pedigree.

Velocity Micro’s Dual X is powered by AMD’s jack rabbit–fast Athlon 64 FX-55 processor, while storage duties are handled by a pair of 10,000rpm Raptors drives, a 250GB Western Digital drive, and a pair of Lite-On burners (one of which is a dual-layer DVD burner.) The entire package is wrapped in an aluminum case custom-made by Lian Li for Velocity Micro. It’s a snazzy number that simultaneously looks understated and sexy. It doesn’t scream crazy PC nut-job, but it’s not your father’s Oldsmobile either.

When it comes to 3D gaming, you’d expect two videocards to be faster than one—and they basically are, but not every test exposes the power of SLI. Take Jedi Academy. For us, this OpenGL gaming test has effectively become a CPU benchmark, especially at the 1280x1024 resolution we run it at for official scores. The Dual X kicked out 129fps in Jedi Academy, and while that’s an outstanding frame rate, it’s not a Lab record. The record goes to the Digital Storm Twister, which hit 133.8fps in December. The frame gap, though minor, is likely due to immature PCI Express drivers and the fact that SLI eats up a bit of rendering efficiency. Also keep in mind that Jedi Academy scores in the 130fps range are about 25 percent better than what we’ve seen Intel-based systems cough up. In Halo, even at a “low” 1280x1024 resolution, the Dual X set a new Lab record with a score of 114fps.

In general productivity apps, the Dual X didn’t disappoint us either, as the rig hit a respectable 207 in SYSmark2004 (the Lab record belongs to Falcon Northwest’s 3.6GHz P4 Prescott-based FragBox II, which hit 214). In MusicMatch and Premiere Pro, the Dual X schooled all other Athlon-based machines, but didn’t have the legs to defeat P4-based boxes. In fact, the record in MusicMatch actually belongs to a slightly overclocked P4EE-based Velocity Micro box we reviewed in June 2004.

The Dual X’s final victory came in our Photoshop test. We’ve seen the Photoshop performance pendulum slowly swing from Intel to AMD in our processor showdowns, and now this month’s system testing confirms the power shift once and for all—the Dual X is now the fastest machine in our Photoshop action script. It not only clipped our own Dream Machine (based on a 4GHz Prescott P4), but also bumped the ZT Group’s 3.46GHz P4 Extreme Edition rig from the winners circle.

Is there anything to bitch about? Well, while we love the case, the performance, and the looks, the system borders on loud. It’s not leaf-blower loud, and we’ve heard far worse, but you’ll definitely know when this baby is on. Of course, that’s to be expected with this amount of hardware stuffed inside, and it’s nothing that can’t be fixed with a good set of surround-sound speakers and your favorite AC/DC album. --Gordon Mah Ung

+ Arby's Horsey Sauce: PCI-E and dual GeForce 6800 Ultra cards can make a dead man smile.

- McDonald's Special Sauce: Just bordering on loud. Water cooling might be a good option.

Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe

Maximum PC — Sat, 15 Jan 2005 15:04:48 -0600

SLI for the masses arrives (sorta)

Month Reviewed: February 2005
Verdict: 9
URL: www.asus.com

If you’ve followed our coverage of nVidia’s scaleable link interface (SLI), you know that we’ve been anxiously waiting for an SLI-capable mobo that doesn’t require registered memory or an expensive workstation CPU. (SLI, of course, is nVidia’s solution for running two PCI-E videocards in tandem for extra 3D rendering oomph.)

Well, our wait is over, because the nForce4 chipset in the ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe lets you run an Athlon 64 FX-55 CPU, regular DDR memory, and not one but two GeForce 6800 Ultra cards (as well as any other nVidia videocards that support SLI). Unlike some monstrous hardware kludge projects that yield very little performance for extra effort and money, the A8N-SLI/ 6800 Ultra combo delivers the goods—ultra-high-res gaming with AA turned on. You can, for example, comfortably play Half Life 2 at 100 fps per second with 4x AA and 8x anisotropic filtering at 1600x1200.

The board features two x16 PCI Express physical slots, two x1 PCI-E slots, and three 32-bit PCI slots. Even with the board packed with two GeForce 6800 Ultra cards, you still have two slots free.

Located between the two long x6 PCI-E slots is the nForce4’s magic ingredient—a PCI Express lane configuration board. When the board is set in single-card mode, the main PCI-E slot runs in x16 mode, while the second long PCI-E slot runs at x1. Reverse the board, and the two slots go into SLI mode, each running at x8. Nvidia says it’s found that the best performance comes from running both videocards balanced at x8.

The mobo is ATX 12V 2.0 complaint, which means it uses the new 24-pin power connector. For running the ASUS off an older 20-pin power supply, ASUS provides a feature called EZ-Plug, which lets you plug a standard four-pin peripheral power connector into the motherboard next to the PCI-E slots. ASUS says this will let the board operate with older 20-pin PSUs when two videocards are installed. It sounds good on paper, but we found EZ Plug to be a little unreliable with our test motherboard. For PSU duties, we used a PC Power and Cooling 510 Deluxe Express, and even with both videocards plugged directly into the power supply and the 24-pin connector in place, the BIOS prompted us to plug a power cable into the EZ-Plug.

The A8N-SLI gives you a smorgasbord of storage options. Between onboard chipset support for four SATA 3Gb/s drives (which support a unique form of RAID that can combine PATA and SATA drives) and a separate Silicon Image 3114 controller with four SATA ports, you’d be hard pressed to places to plug in your storage options. We also like the inclusion of two PATA ports, as a lot of newer PCI-E boards are cutting back to only one. There are simply too many legacy devices in use today for any mobo manufacturer to assume just one PATA port is enough.

Contrary to what we originally thought, the nForce4 chipset will not support Intel’s HD Audio. For this reason, the ASUS board taps a 16-bit RealTek part for sound chores. Of course, 99.99 percent of all geeks will ditch the integrated sound for higher quality audio (we did all of our testing with an Audigy 2 ZS Gamer card).

In the benchmark hoedown, the A8N-SLI and its FX-55 lil’ buddy busted a mighty respectable jig. To wit: We’ve seen a 3.6GHz Xeon system running SLI'ed 6800 Ultras pull down 3DMark 2005 scores in the 7,300 range. We put the same two cards into the A8N-SLI and hit 9,475 without any serious tweaking. And some vendors have told us that they’ve cracked the 10,000 barrier with the A8N-SLI and 6800 Ultra cards already.

We also saw excellent memory bandwidth numbers using SiSoft Sandra: The A8N-SLI was able the break the 6,000MB/s barrier. In comparison, a 3.46GHz P4EE system running DDR2 topped out at 5,780MB/s, while a VIA K8T800 Pro board running an Athlon FX-55 and regular DDR got winded at 5,780MB/s.

The A8N-SLI isn’t a perfect motherboard. We’re still a little bewildered by the configuration of the EZ-Plu, and the arms for the RAM modules are too close to the videocards for comfort. Still, we give ASUS points for shipping the first PCI-Express Athlon 64 FX mobo—and it supports SLI to boot! --Gordon Mah Ung

+ nForce: Pluses: PCI Express and SLI arrive for the Athlon 64 FX!

- nFarce: RAM slots too close to video card can scrap components off your video card.

Creative Gigaworks ProGamer G500 5.1 speakers

Maximum PC — Fri, 14 Jan 2005 20:23:31 -0600

Hard on your organs, but not on your wallet

Month Reviewed: February 2005
Verdict: 9
URL: www.creative.com

Creative Labs has downsized its 7.1 speaker system—the GigaWorks S750—to a more manageable 5.1 system “tuned for gaming.” This translates into one less driver in the satellites and a muscular subwoofer that’s capable of turning your steak and tomatoes dinner into chili while it’s still in your tummy. The satellites feel noticeably lighter, thanks to the absence of a midrange driver. The four 36 watt sats sport a 3-inch full-range driver with a flared port to cover the lower midrange. During testing, the satellites’ performance was damn good—they belted out crisp, piercing highs that never crackled or sounded muddy. Their output is a little on the bright side when the volume is cranked, but mids and highs sound delightful.

The other half of the equation is the subwoofer, and this 8-inch front-firing unit proved capable. When playing Half-Life 2 with the G500 system, the Pulse Rifle’s primary fire felt like someone was beating our chest with a set of massive drumsticks. Explosions shook the Lab walls and the satisfying “kaboom!” of the .357 Magnum felt and sounded like we were firing a real hand cannon. The subwoofer’s only weakness is that it has trouble producing extremely deep bass tones, which cause it to fart and rattle a bit. The rattling never occurred while gaming, but rather only when playing sound files around 50Hz or lower.

The G500 offers six-channel analog input, and includes a two-into-one mini-jack adapter for connecting a game console, though it unfortunately lacks a digital decoder and optical or coaxial jacks, which is what every game console uses for audio. A nice touch is that each satellite includes a removable stand, and we’re impressed that Creative includes the necessary screws and brackets for wall-mounting the rear-channel speakers (Logitech could learn a lesson here). There’s also an auxiliary jack for plugging in an MP3 player, but it’s difficult to access because it’s located on the rear of the subwoofer.

In the final tally, the G500 set scores major points for offering performance on par with systems costing almost twice as much. Despite a few small niggles, the G500 would make us think twice about shelling out $400 for a competing system from Logitech or Klipsch. --Josh Norem

+ Creative Labs: Excellent gaming performance, great controls, excessive power.

- Creative Fibs: No digital decoder, Auxiliary jack is hard to access, trouble with really deep bass.

Razer Diamondback

Maximum PC — Fri, 14 Jan 2005 19:32:34 -0600

It’s ultra-sensitive--for your pleasure

Month Reviewed: February 2005
Verdict: 9
URL: www.razerzone.com

We’re not going to waste time writing about Razer’s miss-and-miss history with high-precision gaming mice. We’re just going to say that the new Diamondback is the smoothest, most accurate-feeling mouse we’ve ever tested.

The two main buttons are slightly larger than we’d like, but their chubbiness isn’t unacceptable. And unlike earlier Razer mice, you can actually put pressure on the Diamondback’s buttons without accidentally clicking and shooting your buddy in the head, which is definitely nice. We’re not as enthusiastic about the side buttons. There are four poorly positioned side-mounted buttons on the ambidextrous Diamondback, two on each side. It’s easy to hit them accidentally, and it’s practically impossible to hit the correct side button on the first attempt during a heated deathmatch. (Solution? Just don’t map the side buttons to important firing keys!)

The Diamondback’s optical sensor is the real star of this one-mouse show. The 1600dpi sensor boasts a higher refresh rate than that of other optical mice, and its ultra-high performance is manifest when you play games that demand superhuman reflexes, such as Counter-Strike. In a nutshell, the mouse is pixel-accurate, providing smoother movement than we’ve ever experienced before from any mouse—optical, mechanical, even mice of the laser persuasion.

Once you configure the bundled software, pressing the mouse’s number four button will toggle you through sensitivity settings. This is great when it comes time to use a sniper rifle, as the mouse’s extra-sensitive default setting can quickly be toggled to something less sensitive so you can dial in on a target half a mile away.

It’s also worth mentioning that the Diamondback’s sensor is actually in the proper place—under your knuckles, not under your palm. You don’t have to move your entire arm to get good mouse movement; a flick of the wrist will suffice.The awkward side-mounted buttons are a drag, but the incredible precision and smooth movement of the mouse more than make up for the relatively superficial flaws. --Will Smith

+ Field mice: If its high-resolution sensor and pixel-perfect accuracy aren’t enough, it also comes with its own carrying case.

- Lab rats: The side buttons are so difficult to use we unbound them in the control panel.

256MB MPIO FL300

Maximum PC — Fri, 14 Jan 2005 18:27:59 -0600

Smaller and better than most larger MP3 players

Month Reviewed: May 2005
Verdict: 8
URL: www.buympio.com

Like the psychotically belligerent short guy you knew in high school, the MPIO FL300 seems determined to prove that its size is no reflection of its abilities. It’s not only the smallest MP3 player we’ve ever tested, but, to our amazement, also one of the most insanely feature-packed, monster-garaged MP3 players in history. Don’t let the dainty size fool you—this baby plays MP3 and WMA files loud as hell, and we’re impressed that a bauble of these proportions can eke out more than 9.5 hours of battery life per charge.

Loading the player couldn’t be easier, as the FL300 shows up as a removable drive in Windows Explorer (as do all the players in this roundup). But while most players will simply dump all the tracks into a single directory, the FL300 can retain folder structures, so you can quickly navigate to the album of a particular artist, or create a playlist by dragging tracks into a folder and then dragging that folder onto the player through Explorer. Why don’t all flash- and hard drive-based players work this way?

Extras range from the practical (custom EQ settings, voice recording through a built-in mic, and audio scanning so you can hear a track as you fast-forward through it) to the ridiculous (like a digital alarm clock that can wake you up with your own MP3s—if you happen to sleep with your earbuds in). The FL300 is so small you can wear it around your neck, stuff it in a pocket, or tuck it behind your ear, but its size will be an annoyance to big oafs with huge paws. And the transfer rate is atrocious, slower than most USB 1.1 players. But the FL300 is still a surprisingly badass player, packed with goodies for nimble-fingered folk. --Logan Decker

+ Buns: Big sound and an orgy of features.

- Puns: Slow transfer rate, and may be too small for some.

256MB WeWa Zealot WMP-4000+

Maximum PC — Fri, 14 Jan 2005 18:16:14 -0600

Austere design and great sound come together in the Zealot

Month Reviewed: February 2005
Verdict: 7
URL: www.cirago.com

After the Stanchion, the Zealot is the second in a series of MP3 players from WeWa that appear to have gotten their names from words pulled out of the dictionary at random. But we’re more than willing to accept the company’s strange practices—its hardware developers do know how to make a damn good-sounding player. The volume is downright intimidating, and sounds slightly less trebly and more mellow than the MPIO FL300. Sound quality is right up there with the iPod Mini, although we can’t say the same of the interface.

In fact, the Zealot is sort of the anti-iPod in that respect. Although it allows you to use folders as playlists (like the FL300), you’d never guess that you access the folders by holding down the leftmost button for a few seconds, and if you can figure out how to make a voice recording without consulting the manual, we’ll throw you a fish. That’s too bad, because the scary interface discourages use of interesting features like the adjustable-speed fast-forward.

If you’ve got the patience for the interface, you’ll dig the wonderful sound of the Zealot. But please don’t turn to WeWa for advice when naming your kids. --Logan Decker

+ Salary: Fantastic sound!

- Malady: Awful interface!

5GB Rave-MP ARC5.0

Maximum PC — Fri, 14 Jan 2005 18:08:40 -0600

Five gigabytes never sounded so bad

Month Reviewed: February 2005
Verdict: 0
URL: www.rave-mp.com

The ARC5.0 is not an MP3 player you’d wear with pride. The silver plastic looks tacky. It’s molded in a shape that recalls Kenny from South Park. The rubber USB port cover won’t stay put and flaps around as if it were desperate for attention. Despite all this, it was still incumbent on us to test how it sounds. The news is not so good. It doesn’t get very loud, which might be a safety feature, but more likely is just a way of disguising the terrible bass response that distorts even mild thumps ‘n bumps.

There’s a smattering of attractive features, including an FM tuner and FM recording, and the battery lasted more than 11 hours, which isn’t disgraceful. But we can only endorse the ARC5.0 insofar that it’s better than not having any MP3 player at all. Especially considering that for the same price you can buy the Rio Carbon—the player that kicked the iPod Mini’s shiny butt. --Logan Decker

+ Whole grain: It does, in fact, play MP3s.

- Migraine: Generally unpleasant and inferior.