Artwork: Rick Rizner, John Goddard

The Xi Computer MTower 64X is one of a new generation of systems termed black-box PCs. That signifies a system that houses powerful components in a generic black tower--albeit an expensive one. Our MTower came in at $3399.

This model's power features include a 2.2-GHz Athlon 64 3400+ processor, 1GB of DDR400 SDRAM, two 10,000-rpm Serial ATA drives, and a 256MB NVidia GeForce FX 5950 Ultra-based graphics card. The combination delivered a PC WorldBench score of 143--outstanding for PCs in general, but about average for systems on our power list. (The highest score we've recorded to date is 150, posted by Alienware's Aurora Extreme.

Of course, you don't have to configure the MTower 64X with the host of high performance features that bumped up the price of our test model. Gamers, for example, may not need the two Serial ATA 74GB Western Digital Raptor hard drives in a striped RAID 0 configuration. Videophiles, on the other hand, may keep the drives but forgo the high-performance graphics card.

The MTower 64X has plenty of room for upgrades. Inside, you'll find one spare slot for memory, and three open internal bays for additional disk drives (to accommodate your growing MP3 and digital photo collections). If you do choose to add a hard drive, it may have to be an IDE drive, as the motherboard has only two SATA connectors and both are in use. (You could also add additional SATA connectors via a PCI card, but since the system has only one PCI slot open and you may need it for other upgrades, that solution may not be viable.) You'll have no problem adding external peripherals, as there are six USB 2.0 ports on the system. Unfortunately, two front-mounted ports are nearly inaccessible, housed under a flap that's so low that it's difficult to reach the ports if the PC is sitting on the floor.

In our graphics tests, the MTower 64X did well with the demanding Unreal Tournament 2003, scoring top-notch frame rates at 1280-by-1024-pixel resolution, putting it among the best we've seen. Less stellar was its performance at 1280-by-1024-pixel resolution on our other standard game test, Return to Castle Wolfenstein; there, its performance was middling, trailing that of systems using ATI's Radeon 9800 XT graphics chip.

Still, graphics looked very good on our test system's 18-inch ViewSonic VP181B LCD (which no longer seems to be offered on Xi's site). This sleek monitor displayed crisp, readable text even at small type sizes. However, the desk stand for the monitor extends further forward than on a typical monitor, and we didn't like how it encroached on our desk space.

Our MTower came with a Logitech cordless mouse and keyboard that had lots of programmable buttons, and Logitech's Z5300 5.1 surround-sound speaker system. A Creative Audigy 2ZS Platinum sound card (which includes a control panel that occupies one of the external drive bays) powered the speakers--a combination that should produce terrific sound. In the MTower we tested, however, audio had an annoying buzzing from the left and right front speakers that spoiled the experience. Even after repeatedly reseating cables and components, we could not exterminate the buzz.

The MTower lacks an overall manual but comes with a huge pile of application and driver CDs (mostly games) for the various hardware components.

Upshot: This MTower is a capable performer well suited for most high-end tasks, but our enthusiasm is tempered by the system's anomalous audio and comparatively high price.

Paul Jasper