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More…This excellent WorldBench performer (it scored 132) turned me blue--literally. There was so much reflected blue LED light inside the roomy midtower case that I felt Smurf-like as I perused the Centurion's top-notch set of components. These include a 3.16-GHz Core 2 Duo E8500 CPU and a pair of 2.5-inch striped RAID 0 Western Digital VelociRaptor drives, which are embedded in 3.5-inch heat sinks.
Xi MTower PCIe Centurion
- Spec Navigator
- Processor
- Memory
- Storage
- Multimedia
- Software
- Optical Drives
- Expansion Slots
- Display
- Modem / Networking
- Case
- Other Features
- Interface Connection
Multimedia
| Audio Adapter Model | Integrated Realtek High Definition Audio |
| Audio Channels | 7.1 surround |
| Graphics Board RAM Type | DDR3 |
| Video chipset | EVGA e-GeForce 9800 GTX |
| Installed video memory | 512 MB |
| Video bus | PCI Express |
Software
| Operating system | Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (32 bit) |
| Included Software |
|
Optical Drives
| Optical Drive Speed | 8 |
| Optical Drive Type | DVD±RW |
| Second Optical Drive Speed | 16 |
| Second Optical Drive Type | DVD-ROM |
Expansion Slots
| Open PCI Express X16 Slots | 2 |
| Number of PCI slots | 2 |
| Open PCI Express X1 Slots | 1 |
| PCI Express Slots | 5 |
| Slots | 5 |
Display
| Included monitor | No |
| Monitor model number | Samsung SyncMaster 245BW |
| Display type | LCD |
| Display size | 24 inches |
- Lab Tested
- How We Test Desktops »
Pros
Nice case with lots of drive bays
Lots of front and back ports
Cons
Bundled Logitech keyboard has odd layout
Bottom Line
A nicely expandable system with blue LED bling, gaming muscle, and bundled Logitech peripherals.
Xi MTower PCIe Centurion Power Desktop PC
MTower PCIe Centurion Review, by Jon L. Jacobi, PC World August 21, 2008
The case offers a whopping nine 5.25-inch bays, although two were used by the Liteon DH16D2P and DH20A4P optical drives and four by a 3.5-inch drive subchassis with the VelociRaptors inside. Unusually, all nine are externally accessible. The interior's look is enhanced by an elegantly rendered XFX nForce 790i Ultra SLI motherboard (which reflects the blue light nicely) and the 80-Plus-certified, 850-watt Cooler Master power supply is bottom-mounted, giving the whole deal more lateral stability. All in all, it's a very nice case and setup.
I loved the included Logitech Laser mouse, but not the Logitech MX3200 keyboard. The nonstandard size and arrangement of the Insert, Delete, Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down keys drove me nuts when I typed my notes. Some may not mind this setup, but touch typists are likely to have issues with the layout.
I found no faults with the 24-inch Samsung 245bw display. With its 5-millisecond response time, pictures just don't get much crisper or faster. That fast pixel response is a good thing, because the EVGA e-GeForce 9800 GTX graphics card racked up some of the fastest gaming frame rates we've seen in recent tests of power desktops: 200 to 250 frames per second.
The MTower PCIe offers a combination of outstanding workstation performance and high gaming frame rates that comes close to matching the Poly X4800-Extreme--for roughly $1400 less. For that kind of discount, I don't mind looking like a member of the Blue Man Group when I pop the lid.
--Jon L. Jacobi
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PCWorld Lab Results
- Rating Breakdown
-
75
-
80
-
78
- See Complete Lab Results »
Performance Comparison with Similar Desktops
75
100
90
90
Performance
| Adobe Photoshop CS2 | 286 |
| Autodesk 3ds max 8.0 SP-3 DirectX | 302 |
| Autodesk 3ds max 8.0 SP-3 Rendering | 487 |
| Doom 3 with AA, 1024 by 768, 32-Bit | 201.23 |
| Doom 3 with AA, 1280 by 1024, 32-Bit | 202.07 |
| Doom 3, 1024 by 768, 32-Bit | 203.73 |
| Doom 3, 1280 by 1024, 32-Bit | 204.27 |
| Enemy Territory Quake Wars High 1024x768 | 104.47 |
| Enemy Territory Quake Wars High 1680x1050 | 68.8 |
| Enemy Territory Quake Wars High 1920x1200 | 63.07 |
| Enemy Territory Quake Wars High 2560x1600 | 43.07 |
| Enemy Territory Quake Wars Normal 1024x768 | 107.4 |
| Enemy Territory Quake Wars Normal 1680x1050 | 71.17 |
| Enemy Territory Quake Wars Normal 1920x1200 | 63.9 |
| Enemy Territory Quake Wars Normal 2560x1600 | 44.63 |
| Far Cry with AA, 1024 by 768, 32-Bit | 252.27 |
| Far Cry with AA, 1280 by 1024, 32-Bit | 256.94 |
| Far Cry, 1024 by 768, 32-Bit | 250 |
| Far Cry, 1280 by 1024, 32-Bit | 253.53 |
| Firefox 2 | 174 |
| Microsoft Office 2003 with SP-1 | 319 |
| Microsoft Windows Media Encoder 9.0 | 174 |
| Nero 7 Ultra Edition | 222 |
| Overall Graphics Score | Fair |
| Roxio VideoWave Movie Creator 1.5 | 185 |
| Unreal Tournament 3 Highest 1024x768 | 80.32 |
| Unreal Tournament 3 Highest 1680x1050 | 78.36 |
| Unreal Tournament 3 Highest 1920x1200 | 75.65 |
| Unreal Tournament 3 Highest 2560x1600 | 55.11 |
| Unreal Tournament 3 Medium 1024x768 | 114.61 |
| Unreal Tournament 3 Medium 1680x1050 | 107.4 |
| Unreal Tournament 3 Medium 2560x1600 | 66.19 |
| Unreal Tournament 3 Medium1920x1200 | 98.04 |
| Winzip Computing WinZip 10.0 | 183 |
| WorldBench 6 Score | 132 |
| WorldBench 6 Word Score | Very Good |
WorldBench 6 Tests
| Multitasking | 218 |
User Reviews
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