Next-Generation PCs
What will the everyday PC of tomorrow look like? Probably a lot like these super systems, all packing an array of cutting-edge technologies--and all available right now.Kirk Steers
Contributing Editor Kirk Steers writes PC World's Hardware Tips column and is the author of the new book PC Upgrading and Troubleshooting QuickSteps (Osborne Press, 2005). He was once an analyst in the PC World Test Center.
The pace of PC innovation continues to quicken, and today's high-end systems contain technologies that few people could have imagined even a handful of years ago. From speedy dual-core desktop processors to 64-bit operating systems and superpowerful graphics that employ a tandem of brawny video cards, if it's computing power you want, you can have it--for a price.
As our roundup of super PCs and workstations shows, high performance doesn't come cheap. Nevertheless, even the budget conscious should pay attention to what happens at the top of the proverbial PC food chain. Today's cutting-edge computer will be tomorrow's affordable desktop. All you have to do is wait.
In the PC World Test Center we examined six of the best-equipped PCs on the market today: Alienware's Aurora 7500, Apple's Power Mac G5, Polywell's Poly 916NF4-SLI, Sony's VAIO VGC-RA842G, Voodoo Computers' Omen DCC A:221 Opteron workstation, and Xi Computer's MTower X2 AGE-SLI. (See "Power Mac G5 Is Fast, Yet Easy to Support" for details on that machine.) We also examined HP's Xw4300 Workstation; see "Should Your Next System Be a Workstation?"
This roundup includes high-powered gaming systems, consumer multimedia systems, and commercial workstations, all equipped with an assortment of the latest processors, dual SLI graphics cards, and high-speed hard drives using RAID configurations.
In This Article:
PC World Test Center
Test development by Elliott Kirschling; testing by Elliott Kirschling and William Wang of the PC World Test Center.Twice the CPU
All the systems we looked at, except the Apple Power Mac G5, came with the latest dual-core CPUs from either Intel or AMD. A dual-core CPU is essentially two processors built into a single chip. This can significantly boost performance when you run multiple programs at one time. It's also suitable for apps written specifically to support multithreaded CPU operations, such as Adobe's Photoshop CS2. You can expect many more programs to utilize multithreading capabilities by the time dual-core PCs become commonplace. (Click on the link for more on dual-core CPUs.)
Scores on our WorldBench 5 test suite depend on the whole PC, but they're still a good indicator of CPU performance. In our lab tests, the systems using AMD's dual-core processors shone in comparison with those using Intel CPUs; but the AMD dual-cores were not much faster than some systems using AMD's single-core, 2.6-GHz Athlon 64 FX-55 processor.
The two systems using AMD's new dual-core 2.4-GHz Athlon 64 X2 4800+ processor--Alienware's Aurora 7500 gaming system and Xi's MTower X2 AGE-SLI workstation--posted WorldBench 5 scores of 118 and 130, respectively. The MTower X2's score of 130 eclipsed the previous high mark of 125, set by its sibling, the Xi MTower 64 AGE-SLI with a 2.6-GHz Athlon 64 FX-55 CPU, a system that we reviewed this summer.
The Pentium dual-core entries outperformed many--but not all--of the single-core Pentium systems we've tested. Polywell's Poly 916NF4-SLI with a Pentium Extreme Edition 840 and Sony's VAIO VGC-RA842G with its Pentium D 830 earned scores of 98 and 89, respectively, significantly slower than their AMD counterparts. To get the most out of both AMD and Intel dual-core systems, we'll have to wait for more software that's designed to take advantage of the increased bandwidth.
Twice the Graphics
Your next PC's video system will have a new look. System builders are replacing the old AGP and PCI slots used for graphics cards--and in the case of PCI, other expansion cards--with higher-bandwidth PCI Express slots. All the desktops in this review (except Apple's Power Mac G5) came with motherboards offering one or two PCI Express x16 slots for video cards and several general-purpose PCI Express x1 slots for other cards (such as gigabit ethernet adapters).
In this roundup, the motherboards with two PCI Express x16 slots support NVidia's Scalable Link Interface (SLI) technology, which allows two video cards to work together as one, greatly boosting a system's graphics processing power.
A PC that supports SLI generally isn't cheap; in addition to the SLI-enabled motherboard, it requires two identical--the same model and the same vendor--SLI-ready graphics cards. But you can defray costs by buying one card with a new system and the second later on (after prices drop).
Not surprisingly, the two systems we looked at with dual EVGA E-GeForce 7800 GTX graphics cards, the Omen DCC A:221 and the Poly 916NF4-SLI, posted very high scores on our Unreal Tournament and Return to Castle Wolfenstein graphics tests. However, it's worth noting that at 1024-by-768-pixel resolution, Xi's MTower--with its single, EVGA E-GeForce 6800 Ultra graphics card--generally outperformed both systems.
What happened? Both games' performance is heavily affected by the CPU at lower resolutions. The MTower also came with 2GB of system RAM; the dual-card SLI PCs each had only 1GB. SLI will show its greatest benefits when more software vendors write apps to exploit its particular talents. We did get a glimpse of SLI's potential, though, in the Omen's top frame-rate scores on one portion of the demanding 1600-by-1200-resolution graphics-acceleration tests, which use the games Doom 3 and Far Cry.
Aside from waiting for more software, you may want to hold off on SLI entirely until you've had a chance to look at ATI's competitive offering, Crossfire. Like SLI, Crossfire technology requires the purchase of a new motherboard and graphics card, but Crossfire will work with some current ATI cards.
While SLI is already well established, the first Crossfire graphics cards and motherboards were just coming to market at this writing, and the PC World Test Center had not yet had a chance to examine and benchmark any PCs using the new video technology.
More Memory
Another big factor affecting performance is RAM. Vendors still seem to think 1GB of RAM is the sweet spot, as four of our test systems came with 1GB of either DDR (for AMD systems) or DDR2 (for Intel systems) memory. But our Test Center believes that the Xi MTower's 2GB of RAM probably made a substantial contribution to that machine's achieving the best WorldBench 5 score that we've seen.
For anyone moving massive amounts of data--while editing digital video, for example--there is no such thing as too much RAM. All the systems we tested except the Sony VAIO VGC-RA842G can support a whopping 8GB of RAM. But you'll need to be running a 64-bit operating system such as Windows XP Professional 64 Edition if you want to use more than 4GB.
Speedier, Safer Storage
The biggest news in storage doesn't concern just speed; it also relates to the safety of your data, or the lack thereof.
RAID, the Redundant Array of Independent Disks, was once an expensive technology exclusive to servers and high-end workstations. It speeds up data transfer and protects stored data by linking together multiple hard drives in a single PC. RAID comes in seven official levels, RAID 0 through RAID 6, plus a couple of extensions (RAID 0+1 and RAID 10) and proprietary implementations (RAID 7 and RAID S), with each level offering different trade-offs between performance and fault tolerance. (Fault tolerance is a system's ability to keep running if part of it fails. Also, the numbers used in RAID levels do not indicate that a higher number is better.) Every system here, except the Power Mac G5, supports at least RAID 0 and RAID 1 in hardware.
Five of the systems we examined came with two hard drives configured as a RAID 0 array. RAID 0 spreads, or stripes, data across two or more drives so files can move on and off the drives faster--two hands are better than one, so to speak. For anyone who moves lots of data, such as engineers or graphics professionals, RAID 0 can speed up many tasks substantially. But for the average user, RAID 0 has one serious drawback: It provides no fault tolerance in case one of the drives crashes.
Slower But Safe
RAID 1, on the other hand, offers little performance gain but complete hard-drive fault tolerance. The RAID controller continuously makes an exact copy, or mirror, of the first drive on the second. If one of the drives should fail, RAID 1 can keep the system running--or at least, enable you to quickly repair or replace the failed drive, restore its data from the mirrored drive, and resume operation without losing any data.
A RAID 5 configuration, which four of the systems here support, provides the best of both worlds: striping for fast data access and good fault tolerance for system reliability. The catch, though, is that RAID 5 requires at least three hard drives, and performance suffers in applications that write to disk a lot (in which case RAID 1 or RAID 1+0 would be a better choice).
The Voodoo Omen carries two 10,000-rpm Western Digital Raptor hard drives in a striped RAID 0 array for peak performance. This combination can produce noticeably faster data transfers when you copy large files or load graphics-rich software programs--such as games.
Water Works
Some high-powered PCs require high-powered cooling--water cooling. For today's hot-running CPUs, fans sometimes aren't ideal. The Apple Power Mac G5, the Sony VAIO, and the Voodoo Omen all use water cooling instead of fans to keep their CPUs from overheating.
Apple and Sony have each chosen to hide the cooling apparatus in closed compartments inside the case, perhaps because they think the sight of water flowing next to a motherboard would disturb seasoned PC users. Whatever those users' reasons, the folks at Voodoo have no such qualms: One side of the Omen's case is a window that reveals translucent purple cooling tubes snaking through the PC's interior and backlit by fluorescent lights. Is water cooling reliable? We haven't tested long-term performance, but Apple assured us that its sealed cooling system is designed to outlast the useful life of the Power Mac G5. And you never have to top it off or add antifreeze in the winter.
The big advantage of water cooling for you: All three of these systems are noticeably quieter than comparably equipped air-cooled systems. But they're not completely silent; the power supplies still have fans, and hard drives always make noise, too.
Alienware Aurora 7500
Alienware's Aurora 7500, with a dual-core Athlon X2 CPU, is a gamer's delight.
Serious game players looking for instant gratification and long-term satisfaction will find both in the $4041 Aurora 7500. Built for speed, our review system included a 2.4-GHz Athlon 64 X2 4800+ processor, an ATI Radeon X850 XT graphics card, 1GB of dual-channel DDR400 RAM, and two Seagate Barracuda 160GB hard drives striped in a RAID 0 array for a total of 320GB of storage. This powerful configuration pushed the system to the fourth-best WorldBench 5 score that we've seen (118) and helped the machine post strong frame rates on our Unreal Tournament and Return to Castle Wolfenstein graphics tests, as well as on our advanced tests with Doom 3 and Far Cry.
You can add even better graphics performance down the road by swapping out the X850 XT card and adding two NVidia-based SLI graphics cards to the Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe motherboard.
The system is readily expandable. Inside the Alienware signature case, with its stylish rounded face and alien "eyes," are the second PCI Express x16 slot, three open drive bays, two PCI and two PCI Express x1 slots, and two free memory sockets--and they are all easily accessible. The only drawback we noted is that one of the two free PCI Express x1 slots is blocked by the graphics card.
Polywell Poly 916NF4-SLI
Polywell's Poly 916NF4-SLI comes with two EVGA E-GeForce SLI graphics cards.
Few would call a $3999 computer a budget system, but if you're looking for a machine with a dual-core CPU and two SLI graphics cards--and a lot more--the Poly 916NF4-SLI comes close.
Off the shelf, the 3.2-GHz Intel Pentium Extreme Edition 840 CPU, the two EVGA E-GeForce 7800 GTX graphics cards, and the Asus P5ND2-SLI Deluxe motherboard would cost you nearly $3000. Throw in 1GB of dual-channel DDR2-533 RAM, three hard drives (including two 10,000-rpm 74GB Western Digital Raptors), a 16X rewritable DVD drive, a 32X CD-RW drive, and a wireless keyboard, and this Poly is one high-priced, loaded system that gives you decent bang for your buck.
The machine's WorldBench 5 score of 98 beat that of every other Pentium Extreme Edition 840 system we've tested, though it still lagged behind all of the AMD-based units in this roundup. The Poly's dual SLI graphics cards helped it reach respectable graphics scores, but it really shone on the high-resolution portion of the advanced graphics test.
The system is reasonably expandable, with three open externally accessible drive bays, one open internal bay, and a single PCI Express x1 slot. However, the Poly required more effort than the others to work inside the case: We had to unscrew a metal strip to gain easy access to the cramped interior.
Sony VAIO VGC-RA842G
Sony's VAIO VGC-RA842G, with a dual-core Pentium D 830 CPU, uses side vents for style and cooling.
The VAIO VGC-RA842G boasts some cutting-edge technology--such as a dual-core 3-GHz Pentium D 830 CPU, 1GB of DDR2-533 RAM, and quiet liquid cooling--but it's not for the graphics professional or the hard-core gamer. Our tests show it's better suited to the multimedia enthusiast who wants a complete audio, video, and graphics package out of the box. The system comes with two 250GB Western Digital Caviar hard drives that are striped with RAID 0 to provide fast and ample storage, a Pioneer rewritable DVD drive and a DVD-ROM drive, a five-in-one multimedia card reader, and a remote control for audio and video playback. A full complement of audiovisual software includes Windows XP Media Center, Adobe Premiere LE, Adobe Elements, and Sony's audio, video, and graphics utilities suite.
The slowest machine in this roundup, the VAIO had a WorldBench score of just 89, which puts the unit on a par with comparably configured PCs that run on Intel's 3.4-GHz Pentium 4 550. (Intel launched that chip back in June 2004.) The VAIO's video frame-rate scores on our standard graphics tests were similar to scores we've seen from other systems using comparable graphics cards based on the NVidia GeForce 6600 chip set.
Don't expect to add a lot of hardware down the road, however: The PC has no open PCI Express slots or externally accessible drive bays. Although there is room for one more hard drive and two more pieces of memory, the liquid cooling system hinders access to the cramped interior. That said, this VAIO already has the components you need for most multimedia applications.
Voodoo Omen DCC A:221
The interior of Voodoo'S Omen DCC A:221 workstation impresses with its water-cooled, twin CPUs.
This Voodoo Omen is not your ordinary PC: It's gorgeous--some might say garish--and packed with processing power. Positioned as a performance tool for animators and other digital-content makers, the system looks as if it could have been designed by its creatively inclined prospective buyers.
Inside the window that takes up one side of the Omen's case, glowing purple tubes carry cooling liquid past our review unit's two 2.2-GHz AMD Opteron 875 dual-core CPUs and two SLI EVGA E-GeForce 7800 GTX graphics cards to a radiator that is attached to the back of the huge, blue case.
Fluorescent light from built-in bulbs bounces off the mirrored surfaces and colorful components, giving the case the look of a tropical aquarium, especially with the room lights dimmed. All that's missing are the fish. And although it's not completely silent, the system runs with eerie quietness.
Given our review unit's impressive complement of hardware, which also includes 1GB of DDR400 RAM and two small (74GB) but fast 10,000-rpm Western Digital Raptor hard drives striped in RAID 0 for speed, we hoped for superlative performance scores. On WorldBench 5, Unreal Tournament, and Return to Castle Wolfenstein, the Omen DCC A:221 did indeed produce excellent marks--though not the best we've seen. On one of our advanced graphics tests using Doom 3 and Far Cry at 1600-by-1200-pixel resolution, however, we received a glimpse of what a high-powered system with SLI graphics cards can do: The A:221 was almost twice as fast as the quickest non-SLI machine in this roundup.
The gigantic, roomy case can accommodate two more hard drives, two more optical drives, and six more RAM modules, but we were surprised to see only one open PCI Express slot.
All in all, the Omen DCC A:221 is an impressive computer. But for $7995, you'll want to make sure you're running software that can take advantage of its doubled-up hardware.
Xi MTower X2 AGE-SLI
XI'S MTower X2 AGE-SLI is the fastest PC benchmarked in the PC World Test Center.
If the designers of this powerful gaming and graphics-oriented PC were looking for speed, they made all the right decisions. The 2.4-GHz Athlon 64 X2 4800+ CPU, 2GB of DDR400 RAM, two RAID 0-striped 300GB hard drives, and single EVGA E-GeForce 6800 Ultra graphics card delivered a WorldBench 5 score of 130, the highest score we've recorded to date.
Better yet, the system posted the top frame-rate score in our standard graphics tests, outperforming two machines in this review that were equipped with dual SLI graphics cards. (The MTower was helped in part by its 2GB of RAM.) Best of all, this MTower also had top scores on some parts of our advanced graphics test, which better measures the capabilities of dual SLI graphics cards. And because it has an SLI motherboard, you can add a second graphics card when you're ready.
Power users will appreciate the MTower's expandability. There's room for two more hard drives and three more optical drives. Adding RAM to the two open slots or a PCI Express expansion card to any of the three open x1 slots is no problem; the case's interior is well organized and uncluttered.
The system has all the connectivity you'd expect of a top-notch PC: Two of the eight USB ports are placed on the front of the case along with a microphone and line-out connector, and two gigabit ethernet ports and two FireWire ports are on the back.
Features Comparison: High-end PCs Show Desktops' Future
Systems with dual-core CPUs, dual graphics cards, and lots of storage will soon appear in affordable, everyday desktops.
Power Mac G5 is Fast, Yet Easy to Support
The Power MAC's elegance tells you it's not just another PC.
Any tour of the latest high-end computers wouldn't be complete without a look at the newest topflight offering from Apple, the Power Mac G5. Like most Apple products, the G5 looks great: The perforated metallic surfaces of the Power Mac's case project an industrial elegance that gently reminds you this computer is a workstation, not just another consumer offering. (This may be one of the last high-end Macs with a PowerPC processor that we review in the PC World Test Center; starting in 2006 Apple will switch over to Intel processors.)
Open up the system, and the Power Mac continues to impress: A clear plastic screen covers the innards and directs airflow around the chassis. When you open the cover, a reserve fan kicks in, maintaining thermal control.
Inside, you'll find two water-cooled 2.7-GHz PowerPC G5 processors and a hefty 4GB of RAM (expandable to 8GB). Our test unit came with an ATI Radeon 9600 graphics card and a single 250GB Maxtor 7200 hard drive; but the case has room for another drive, which you can link to the first via software-based RAID 0 or RAID 1. Apple also includes the latest Pioneer DVD ± RW drive, which reads and writes double-layer DVDs--discs with a capacity of up to 8.5GB.
How does the Power Mac's video performance rate against that of a first-rate PC? That's a bit like comparing oranges and, well, apples. Differences in software implementations across the two platforms make an exact comparison impossible, but to get a general idea we performed a number of timed tasks using two cross-platform programs, Adobe Photoshop CS2 and video editor Avid Xpress Pro 4.6. We also timed the conversion of AVI files to the QuickTime and TIFF formats using Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 on the PC and Apple Final Cut Pro 5 on the Power Mac.
The upshot: Although the Power Mac G5 was quicker on a few tests, it generally ran slower than our comparison PC, Xi Computer's MTower X2 AGE-SLI. In tests applying four Photoshop CS2 filters, the Power Mac G5 was marginally faster on one test and 19 percent to 37 percent slower on three others. Similarly, on tests using Avid Xpress Pro, the Power Mac imported and exported large files 41 percent faster on one test, but 58 percent slower on another.
Of course, a by-the-numbers performance comparison with a PC isn't what draws people to the Mac platform.
"They're fast, but also easy to maintain," says Carlos Del Castillo, IT Manager for Cell Signaling Technology, a biotechnology development company in Beverly, Massachusetts, that switched completely to Apple systems two years ago.
"My graphics people all prefer to use Photoshop on the Mac platform," Del Castillo says. Why? "Because on a Mac everything just works." Plus, there's another advantage: "We need only one support tech for 150 machines."
Should Your Next System Be a Workstation?
HP's Xw4300 can power a 15,000-rpm hard drive.
Not long ago, workstations were far different from PCs. These Unix-based systems ran on proprietary hardware platforms and were largely reserved for companies with deep pockets and a need for ultrahigh performance on specific applications. Today's workstations are more an evolutionary offshoot of their PC brethren than a different animal, sharing much of the same hardware and software.
What separates a workstation from a mere PC? According to Vince Dougherty, workstation seller and owner of Wine Country Computers in Healdsburg, California, "We sell workstations to people with very demanding, very specific needs, like architectural and engineering firms that work with complex 3D models and animation. Workstations more than make up for the extra cost with speed and reliability."
A typical entry-level unit, the Xw4300 Workstation from HP uses either a 32-bit Intel Pentium 4 processor or a 64-bit, dual-core Pentium D CPU. Its subdued gray-and-black case lacks the adolescent flash of some expensive gaming systems; inside and out, it's all business. Here's what separates the Xw4300 and other workstations from standard, everyday PCs.
Performance: Squeezing every last ounce of performance out of a PC means having high-powered hardware. In our $4200 review configuration, the Xw4300 came with a Pentium D CPU and 2GB of RAM; HP also offers more advanced (and expensive) workstations that carry Intel's Xeon or AMD's Opteron processors.
The Xw4300 supports up to 8GB of RAM but requires a 64-bit OS, such as Windows XP Professional X64 or Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation, to use more than 4GB. Down the road you can expect heavy-duty workstation applications to move to 64-bit sooner than average desktop software because they're most in need of, and benefit most from, more memory.
High-speed bus: You won't find any PCI expansion slots on most of today's workstations, just the newer PCI Express x16 and x1 slots. The Xw4300 also has a PCI Express x8 slot with the bandwidth to run a SCSI host adapter for 15,000-rpm SCSI hard drives.
Fast and stable 3D graphics: Graphics board makers tune high-end consumer cards for fast game play, not stability. HP offers the Xw4300 with a number of expensive professional graphics cards, including models from ATI's FireGL and NVidia's Quadro lines. These cards supply proven stability plus hardware acceleration for the OpenGL API that 3D graphics and animation professionals use. In addition, the key software vendors test and certify the cards to work with their applications.
Fast and safe hard drives: Workstations also must be reliable, as busy professionals don't have time to recover from a hard-drive crash. The Xw4300 comes with two hard drives and supports up to four drives with RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, and RAID 10.
High-end ECC RAM: Computers using multiple gigabytes of RAM are more likely to experience random data errors that can result in corrupt data, buggy software performance, and system crashes. That's why many mission-critical workstations use the more expensive Error-Correcting Code RAM, which stores a 7- or 8-bit code with every 32 or 64 bits of data to identify and fix random errors in the data.
ISV certification: Buyers want to know that a workstation will work with their software before they buy. Leading workstation vendors submit their systems to independent software vendors (ISVs) for certification and maintain a list of ISV certifications. The Xw4300's ISV certifications include Adobe's Photoshop CS, Premiere Pro, and After Effects, as well as Alias's Studio Tools and Discreet's 3D StudioMax.
Superior warranty: A workstation should come with a good warranty. HP provides a standard three-year warranty on parts, labor, and on-site service for the Xw4300.