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• Rather than add expensive bells and whistles to its $2,233 gaming machine, Digital Storm chose a few of the best parts it could fit within the system’s budget. That means there isn’t any Blu-ray capability, as a single 20x DVD burner occupies one of the Cooler Master 932’s six front bays. The minimalist theme with a mind to performance continues to the inside, where a single XFX GeForce GTX 295 graphics card uses its dual graphics processors with slightly better performance scaling than one might expect from expensive 3-way and quad-GPU configurations. For us, the poorly-concealed ribbon cable is the only distraction in an otherwise cleanly-assembled system. We have no clue why any company would use Ultra ATA rather than SATA, when prices are nearly identical. Choosing Ultra ATA doesn’t just make cables messier, it also forces users to leave the motherboard’s third-party controller enabled when they might otherwise deem it unneeded. Asetek’s LCLC (low-cost liquid-cooling) single 120 mm radiator cooler reduces leverage against the CPU socket area compared to tall cooper coolers, while also leaving extra room around the CPU socket for easier access to cables and RAM. Though Asetek-brand components aren’t normally available to retail customers, Corsair now sells the single-radiator design as its H50 model. RAID and SSD’s are out of the question when value focuses on gaming performance. Digital Storm uses a single Western Digital Black Edition 1 TB hard drive. With five expansion slots, three memory slots, five external bays, and four internal bays empty, the Gaming Dominator is ready to fill the future expansion needs of most buyers. A file folder contains a certificate of ownership, Windows Vista Home Premium booklet, Windows 7 upgrade code, warranty and service information, setup instructions, the original Windows OEM DVD, motherboard and graphics card driver/support disks, and a three-DVD set of restore DVDs. An accessory box provides the cables and hardware originally included with the motherboard, graphics card, case, and power supply. See more products MSI X58 Pro LGA 1366 Core I7... PC Connection $227.36 Amazon.com $169.87 Directron $184.99 ElectronicsPLUS $198.89 TriStateCamera.com $214.87

• Test System ConfigurationCPU    VIA Nano U1700 1.0 GHz 1MB L2 Cache 200 MHz QDR FSB (FSB-800)Intel Atom 330 1.60 GHz 1MB L2 Cache 133 MHz QDR FSB (FSB-533)Intel Celeron 430 1.80 GHz 512KB L2 Cache 200 MHz QDR FSB (FSB-800)CPU CoolerShuttle CPU/Chipset Passive SinkShuttle Proprietary CoolersIntel Retail Boxed CoolerMotherboardShuttle FM23, BIOS (05/25/2009) VIA VX800 ChipsetShuttle SFM27, BIOS 11/04/2008 Intel 945GC/ICH7 ChipsetECS G45T-M2, BIOS 08/29/2008 Intel G45/ICH10R ChipsetGraphicsVia Chrome9 HC3 IGP 166 MHz, 256MB Shared MemoryIntel GMA 950 IGP 400 MHz, 224MB Shared MemoryIntel GMA X4500HD IGP 800 MHz, 256MB Shared MemoryRAMPNY 2GB DDR2-667 at DDR2-667 CAS 5-5-5-15PNY 2GB DDR2-667 at DDR2-533 CAS 4-4-4-12PNY 2GB DDR2-667 at DDR2-667 CAS 5-5-5-15Hard DriveSeagate Momentus 7200.2 160GB: 7200 RPM, 8.0 MB CacheSoundIntegrated HD AudioNetworkIntegrated Gigabit NetworkingPowerShuttle internal 12V to ATX, Seasonic external 100-240V to 12V/5ACorsair CMPSU-850HX EPS12V, 80-Plus GoldOpticalOpticarc BD ROM BC-5500SSoftwareOSMicrosoft Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit SP1GraphicsVIA 21.09.01LIntel GMA 15.8.3.1504Intel GMA 15.9.9.1527ChipsetVIA HyperionPro 5.24AIntel INF 9.0.0.1008Intel INF 9.0.0.1009 VIA’s Nano processor might be 64-bit capable, but Windows Vista x64 requires a hotfix to operate with it. Since that hotfix has not been rolled into a service pack and integrated into a DVD, users would be forced to slipstream it to their installation DVD prior to installation. This might not be a problem for Windows 7 users, but our benchmarks have not been updated to run under this yet-to-be-released OS. Thus, all systems were tested using Vista x86 and a few of our benchmarks were rolled back to the 32-bit version. We tried to keep the performance-per-watt comparison as fair as possible by carrying over most parts, though the power supply used by the Nano and Atom didn’t have an ATX12V output required for the microATX platform. A further search of our labs revealed no high-efficiency low-power units. Normally this would be a problem, since power supply efficiency often drops significantly at anything below 20% of its rated capacity. The 80 PLUS Gold rating of Corsair’s CMPSU-850HX, along with its highly-favorable certification charts, gave us hope, and further testing proved this enormous unit capable of delivering superior efficiency compared to any of our previous-generation, lower-capacity units. Benchmark ConfigurationAdobe Photoshop CS3Version: 10.0x20070321 Filtering 69MB TIF Photo Benchmark: Tom's Guide-Benchmark V1.0.0.4AVG AntivirusVersion 8.5 build 287, Virus Database 2094 Scanning 334MB folder of compressed filesTMPGEnc 4.0 ExpressVersion 4.6.3.268 5 Minutes Terminator II SE DVD to MPG4DivX 7Codec Version: 6.8.5: Insane Quality, Enhanced Multi-Threading, SSE4, Quarter Pixel SearchXvid 1.2.1Version 1.2.1-04122008 Display encoding status = offWinRARRelease version 3.80 Recompressing 334MB folder of compressed filesWinZip 12Version 12.0 Pro (8252), best compression 334MB folder of compressed files WinZip Command Line version 3.0SyntheticsPCMark VantageVersion 1.0.0.0 (32-bit)Sandra 2009Version 2009.4.15.92 Our hopes for a test of true office applications were dashed when we found the VIA Nano platform unable to complete any version of SYSMark. Its graphics driver was most troublesome, appearing incompatible with one of SYSMark 2007 Preview’s video encoding tests, while SYSMark 2004 SE threw fits under Windows Vista x86.

• Here is a table to compare some of the major features.   Memory Cooling Video Software DVD player AOpen PA256 Pro 32 MBs of 6ns Infineon DDR at 333 MHz Standard Video-out No ELSA Gladiac 32 MBs of 6ns Infineon DDR at 333 MHz Standard Optional Yes * Leadtek WFGF2 32 MBs of 6ns Infineon DDR at 333 MHz Excellent Video-out Yes * Not in retail box but can be requested through technical support. Performance - Test Setup i840 Configuration CPU Intel PIII 866 Motherboard (BIOS rev.) OR840Intel OR840 (BIOS OR840700.86E.0219.803.0003081415) Memory 2 Modules of 128 MB 800 MHz RDRAM Network Netgear FA310TX i440BX Configuration CPU Intel PIII 600E @ 800 MHz Motherboard (BIOS rev.) MS BX Master (BIOS 5.1 031400) Memory 1 Module of 128 MB Crucial PC133 CAS2 SDRAM Network Netgear FA310TX Driver Information AOpen PA256 Pro 4.12.01.0516 ELSA Gladiac 4.12.01.0200-0020 Reference GeForce 256 DDR 4.12.01.0516 Leadtek WFGF2 4.12.01.0516 Environment Settings OS Version Windows 98 SE 4.10.2222 A DirectX Version 7 Quake 3 Arena Retail version command line = +set cd_nocd 1 +set s_initsound 0 Shogo V2.14 Advanced Settings = disable sound, disable music, disable movies, disable joysticks, enable optimized surfaces, enable triple buffering, enable single-pass multi-texturing High Detail Settings = enabled Fortress Demo 3DMark 2000 16-bit settings = 16 bit textures, 16-bit Z-buffer, triple buffering 32-bit settings = 32-bit textures, 24-bit Z-buffer, triple buffering All test were done with high detail only. Test Expectations Seeing as most of the boards are based on the NVIDIA 5.16 driver, I don't expect to see much of a performance difference. Aside from vsync I've left all the default settings alone to represent what most people will see. This means fast writes are on and no other changes were made to tweak the visuals. I did also compare default settings of each manufacturer and found no major differences. Layout differences typically give more stability benefit than raw performance unless there is a major change to the design. I expect our scores to be very close among the competing boards. Test Results - Shogo At this low resolution the benchmark is much more CPU dependant although we do see the GeForce2 based cards pull slightly ahead of the older GeForce reference card. Lifting the resolution upwards begins to show the fill-rate advantage of the GeForce2 based cards. All the GeForce2 cards are basically tied. At this high resolution and in 16-bit color the GeForce2 boards take a nice lead over the older GeForce board but still score right next to each other.