While you may never look under the hood, the Denali actually has the makings of a competent computer. Its use of slightly older parts, such as the GeForce 6600 GT video card and the 3.2GHz Pentium 540 CPU, may seem odd for a premium system, but they produce less heat than the latest components. To improve the chance of long-term system stability, some high-end home-theater vendors prefer using technology that they consider mature. In CNET Labs' BAPCo SysMark 2004 benchmark tests, the Denali finished in a statistical dead heat with the other high-end Media Center machines we tested: the Creature Scylla S301, which runs a 2.4GHz AMD Athlon 64 3800+, and the S1Digital Media Center, with a 3.2GHz Intel P4 640. We would have liked to have seen a dual-core chip in this system (as well as the others), but we expect we'll see them as the technology matures.
Although not designed as a gaming machine, the Denali comes with an Nvidia GeForce 6600 GT 3D graphics card, which can run most of today's games at moderate resolutions. Both Half-Life 2 and Doom 3 ran at more than 30 frames per second at 1,024x768 resolution. The Creature Scylla S301 was the only high-end Media Center we tested that included the GeForce 7800 GTX, which allowed it to crank out 160 percent more frames on our Doom 3 test and 125 percent more on Half-Life 2. If you want to invest in a premium gaming system instead, the Dell XPS 600 costs about $1,200 less than the Denali and uses a GeForce 7800 GTX to display a whopping 268 percent more frames per second.
The Denali's TV tuners worked well, playing back and recording simultaneously without a glitch. Image quality was as good as we've seen from a PC-based DVR setup, which usually suffers from a slightly softer image than a direct line from your cable box to your television.
Besides the giant 60-pound computer, our Denali came equipped with Windows XP Media Center Edition, a Media Center remote control, and two IR blasters for connecting to your cable box. Also included was an excellent Gyration gyroscopic keyboard and mouse--a favorite for HTPC users. We would have liked to have seen more cables included for connecting the Denali to your big-screen display.
The Denali comes with a standard one-year warranty with both phone and e-mail support. Niveus provides neither warranty upgrades nor onsite service, although many customers will no doubt have their systems installed and configured by a home-theater specialist, who may offer onsite service. This seems a little chintzy for a high-end system, especially if you're dropping more than $6,000. Nonetheless, Niveus has a reputation for personalized service, and if you're willing to pay for it, the company will perform hardware and even software upgrades for you. Plus, there's little chance you'll be redirected to an overseas call center if you call the toll-free number.
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
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BAPCo's SysMark 2004 rating | |
SysMark 2004 Internet-content-creation rating | |
SysMark 2004 office-productivity rating |
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
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Doom 3 1,600x1,200 4XAA 8XAF | |
Doom 3 1,024x768, 4XAA 8XAF | |
Half-Life 2 1,600x1,200 4XAA 8XAF | |
Half-Life 2 1,024x768 4XAA 8XAF |
Find out more about how we test desktop computers.
System configurations:
Creature Scylla S301
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005; 2.4GHz AMD Athlon 64 3800+; Nvidia Nforce-4 Ultra SLI chipset; 1,024MB DDR SDRAM 400MHz; 256MB Nvidia GeForce 7800 GTX (PCIe); four WDC WD2500JD-00HBB0 250GB 7,200rpm Serial ATA; Hitachi HDS728080PLA380 80GB 7,200rpm Serial ATA; integrated Silicon SiI 3114 SoftRAID 5 controller (RAID 0)
Dell Dimension XPS 600
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005; 3.8GHz Intel Pentium 4 670; Nvidia Nforce-4 SLI Intel Edition chipset; 1,024MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 256MB Nvidia GeForce 7800 GTX (PCIe SLI); two Hitachi HDS725050KLA360 500GB 7,200rpm Serial ATA; integrated Nvidia Nforce-4 Intel Edition SATA RAID Controller (RAID 0)
HP Digital Entertainment Center z555
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005; 3.0GHz Intel P4 530; Intel 915G chipset; 512MB DDR SDRAM 400MHz; 128MB Nvidia GeForce 6600 (PCIe); Maxtor 6B250S0 250GB 7,200rpm Serial ATA
Niveus Media Center Denali Edition
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005; 3.2GHz Intel P4 540; Intel 945G chipset; 4,096MB DDR SDRAM 400MHz; 128MB Nvidia GeForce 6600 GT (PCIe); two Seagate ST3400832AS 400GB 7,200rpm Serial ATA
S1Digital Media Center Platinum HDTV Edition
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005; 3.2GHz Intel P4 640; Intel 915P chipset; 1,024MB DDR2 SDRAM 533MHz; 128MB Nvidia GeForce 6600 GT (PCIe); WDC WD3200JD-00KLB0 320GB 7,200rpm Serial ATA
