Velocity Micro Vision FX DX-W
Well-constructed desktop system offers fast performance and thorough documentation, at a price.
Artwork by Rick Rizner, John Goddard
The Vision FX DX-W has plenty of performance features: It's built around a 2.4-GHz Athlon 64 FX-53 CPU that Velocity Micro overclocks to run at 2.52 Ghz--a practice that may shorten the life of the processor. The company claims, however, that it covers the overclocked processor under the three-year warranty. This fast processor is teamed with 1GB of DDR400 SDRAM, and the combination achieved a creditable WorldBench 5 score of 104. Aimed at users who like to control what goes on inside their PC, the Vision FX DX-W offers two methods of regulating internal temperature: a front LED gauge that monitors the temperature inside the case and adjusts the speed of the fans attached to the CPU heat sink and graphics card; and a rear-mounted PCI fan card that sports an external fan-speed slider. By adjusting the fans' speeds, users can regulate the temperature inside the case, while keeping the fan noise to a minimum. Be aware, however, that the system could overheat if the fans are turned down too low.
The system's EVGA E-GeForce 6800 Ultra-based graphics card with 256MB of RAM produced high frame rates in our test games. And the games looked great on the 19-inch NEC MultiSync FE990BK CRT monitor; Text was clearly legible text even at low point sizes, colors were sharp and crisp, and DVD playback was excellent.
The Vision FX's performance receives an additional boost from the dual 36.7GB hard drives in a RAID 0 configuration. The system has an additional 120GB hard drive for storage.
The system's attractive graphite-colored case and sleek silver front give the midsize tower a sophisticated look. The front USB 2.0 ports lie hidden at the bottom of the case front behind a poorly designed door that we had some trouble opening. The transparent side panel came off easily with a turn of the thumbscrews, revealing a neat, accessible interior with six open bays, three open PCI slots, and two vacant memory sockets. We loved the well-organized binder, which held thorough documentation, troubleshooting information, software, and recovery disks. But these features don't come cheap: At $3745, this is one of the more expensive systems we've looked at lately.
This muscular system's overclocked CPU and heat-management features make it an ideal machine for power-hungry expert users.
Scott Plamondon
Artwork by Rick Rizner, John Goddard
Photograph by Rick Rizner
Photograph by Rick Rizner