Why You Can Trust CNET WidowPC IX2 SLI - Core 2 Duo E6300 1.86 GHz review: WidowPC IX2 SLI - Core 2 Duo E6300 1.86 GHz
The Widow PC IX2 SLI is one of the fastest PCs to come through our labs. You'll have to pay for it, and the price tag is high, but for all the care put into this desktop, if you can afford it and you have the passion for cutting-edge game play, you'll find few other systems that can compete.
We've seen a handful of quad-core PCs so far with a single Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX 3D card in them, but we had yet to see any with two of those cards in SLI (scalable link interface) mode until the Widow PC IX2 SLI. More than simply a high-end game desktop, this system is a hyperbolic showcase of PC design and up-to-the-minute hardware. Priced at $7,361, it's also unreachable for all but the most dedicated and wealthiest gamers. Amazingly, that price seems to be about the going rate for any boutique-class system with a similar configuration. We remember when a $4,000 PC would break records. Those days probably aren't gone for the DIY crowd, but if you'd rather have someone else do the dirty work for you, this Widow PC runs as fast and is built as well as systems from better-known boutique vendors. If you have the money and the inclination, we recommend it.
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
Similar to Velocity Micro, Widow PC relies on Lian Li's clean, sturdy case design to give the IX2 SLI a strong visual impression. Inside, the IX2 SLI features a compartmentalized BTX design that helps isolate the various parts from each other for maximum thermal efficiency. We've found that as power demands have risen in recent months, high-end PCs and the fans that keep them cool have gotten louder as well. The Widow PC IX2 SLI uses a combination of liquid and air cooling, and though still loud, it's not as bad as others.
The IX2 SLI came with an Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 chip overclocked from 2.66GHz to 3.34GHz. That's the most aggressively overclocked quad-core chip we've seen so far, and it paid off on our performance tests, the results of which are below. Widow PC uses an Asus Striker Extreme nForce 680i SLI motherboard, and matches it with 2GB of L33T-branded 800MHz DDR2 memory. Its hard drive configuration includes a common pairing of two 150GB 10,000rpm Western Digital drives in a RAID 0 array, along with a large, 750GB 7,200rpm storage drive. That mix gives you fast read and write access for Windows and your applications, and leaves you with plenty of room for general data storage.
The Widow PC IX2 SLI's performance outpaced that of every other quad-core PC we've tested so far on almost all of our application and game tests. The only competitor that comes close (and that actually wins on a test or two) is the similarly configured (and soon-to-be reviewed) Velocity Micro Raptor Signature Edition, whose CPU isn't overclocked as aggressively (although Velocity Micro will push the chip harder on customer request). We have a Falcon Northwest Mach V in the lab right now with a Core 2 Extreme QX6700 that's overclocked to 3.73GHz, but we haven't been able to test it yet. That system (also priced and configured similarly to the Widow PC) stands a chance of outpacing the Widow PC, but until we actually run it through our benchmark tests, the Widow PC IX2 SLI is our current overall performance winner.
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| Rendering Multiple CPUs | | Rendering Single CPU |
If you look at the game test scores for the IX2 SLI, you'll notice that no matter how high we set the resolution on Quake 4 or F.E.A.R., the Widow PC scored over 100 frames per second, in some cases far surpassing that. We were actually hoping to challenge it even more by dialing the antialiasing and anisotropic filtering settings up to 16x, but when we did, our scores fluctuated wildly. Different test runs at the same settings wavered by sometimes more than 30 percent, and frame rates between resolutions didn't scale logically. We tried updated drivers and different patches, among other things, and tried it on several different quad-core systems with either one or two GeForce 8800 GTX cards; the same inconsistencies arose. We can report that not once did the frame rates on the Widow PC drop below playable levels, but we're just not confident that all of the settings we thought we'd turned on were actually enabled. Nvidia is looking into the problem for us, and we'll report back if we figure it out in a reasonable amount of time. Still, we feel comfortable saying that the Widow PC will handle any modern game at the highest image-quality settings, and that its pair of beefy, DirectX 10-capable graphics cards will leave you positioned well for the next-generation titles we expect will tax high-end PCs over the next few years.
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
| 2,048x1,536 (4x AA, 8x AF) | | 1,600x1,200 (4x AA, 8xAF) | | 1,280x1,024 (4x AA, 8x AF) |
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
| 2,048x1,536 (4x AA, 8x AF) | | 1,600x1,200 (4x AA, 8xAF) | | 1,280x1,024 (4x AA, 8x AF) |
A dual-layer DVD burner and a Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer sound card round out the specs of this model, but the IX2 SLI is definitely more than the sum of its hardware add-ons. Widow PC customized the Windows desktop with a custom red and black theme, and it organized the application folders on the Start Menu logically by application type. It includes handy freeware like Firefox, Trillian, and OpenOffice 2.0; various benchmarking, antivirus, and tweaking applications; and the bundled games that come with the hardware, including
The big question in our minds, though, is whether you really need to pay more than $7,000 for this kind of power. Our test case is the Polywell Poly i680SLI. If you play around with Polywell's configurator, you can build a similar PC to our Widow PC review unit for $5,830. It doesn't have the liquid cooling, its case isn't as attractive, it's not overclocked, and you don't get all of the love and care outlined above. But, you can still get all of the core parts for about $1,500 less. We like the fact that Widow PC pushed the hardware in this system faster than any other vendor with similar hardware has, but we also can't help but pointing out that by trimming a few less-than-essentials, you can get almost as much power with significant cost savings. For some of you, the careful and polished assembly will be worth it. But if you're looking to balance price with performance, a legitimate concern even with high-end PCs, we'd encourage you to shop around.
We should add, though, that just when we were ready to give up on the three-year parts-and-labor warranty, Widow PC renewed our faith in a PC vendor doing right by its customers. One year is simply too short for a system whose price tag is this high, and we're glad to see that Widow PC builds three years of coverage into the cost. In addition, Widow PC's toll-free phone support has robust 24/7 operating hours. Online, you'll find plenty of informative and entertaining articles, blog posts, and amusing Widow PC propaganda, as well as links to driver downloads and a few other useful items. There's also an online help-ticket tool, but no live chat support.
Find out more about how we test desktop systems.
System configurations:
Alienware Area-51 7500
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 SP2; 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 (overclocked to 3.2GHz); 2,048MB DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz; 768MB Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX; two 150GB Western Digital 10,000rpm Serial ATA hard drives (RAID 0); 250GB Samsung 7,200rpm Serial ATA hard drive
Apple Mac Pro
OS X 10.4.7; 2x 2.66GHz Xeon 5150; 1,024MB 667MHz DDR2 FB-SDRAM; 256MB Nvidia GeForce 7300GT; 250GB Western Digital 7,200rpm Serial ATA hard drive
Polywell Poly i680SLI
Windows XP Professional SP2; 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700; 2,048MB DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz; 768MB Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX; two 150GB Western Digital 10,000rpm Serial ATA/150 hard drives (RAID 0)
Velocity Micro Raptor Signature Edition (Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700)
Windows XP Professional SP2; 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 (overclocked to 3.2GHz); 2,048MB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM; (2) 768MB Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX; (4) 150GB Western Digital 10,000rpm Serial ATA/150 hard drives (RAID 0)
Widow PC IX2 SLI
Windows XP Professional SP2; 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 (overclocked to 3.34GHz); 2,048MB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM; (2) 768MB Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX; (2) 150GB Western Digital 10,000rpm Serial ATA/150 hard drives (RAID 0); 750GB Seagate 7,200rpm hard drive