DECEMBER 2004 MA XIMUMPC 57
Alienware DHD-305
Each of the PCs you’ll read
about offers a unique interpre-
tation of the type of functional-
ity, power, and formfactor a
Media Center system can pos-
sess. Unexpectedly, we found
ourselves unable to shake the
feeling that in the process of
assembling theirMedia Centers, each manufac-
turer makes a clear statement
regarding their fundamental
PC-building philosophy.
As an example, consider
Alienware’s DHD-305, which
melds a feature-laden, high-
powered PC and a beautiful30-inch widescreen LCD display
into a single unit. Hy-Tek manu-
factures the DHD’s integrated
chassis—astute readers will
remember our February 2004
review of the company’s simi-
lar-looking Tek Panel 300.
Ostentatious, versatile, and
powerful, the DHD embodies
Alienware’s notions
of PC design. While
we found ourselves
puzzled by the low
Halo benchmark
score of 41 frames
per second—the
Media Center app
definitely creates
some slowdown,
but it can be closed
for optimum perfor-
mance—the DHD
outpaced all the
other Media Centers, often
doubling the scores of the
competition. In real-world tests
that consisted of web-brows-
ing and e-mail checking while
the Media Center simultane-
ously recorded live television,
all of the Media Center PCs
exhibited a moderate to slight
clunkiness; we found that theDHD’s P4 Extreme CPU (with
an 800MHz FSB) minimized
this slowdown the most.
On the storage front, the
massive 400GB Hitachi SATA
drive (we consider big drives
a necessity in all Media Center
PCs, given their nature) means
you can store tens of thousands
of songs and pictures as well
as record hours of TV shows
and movies. We also appreciate
the built-in 8-in-1 media reader,
which allowed us to move pho-
tographs directly from a cam-
era into the Media Center.
The drawback to this much
power is that the DHD gener-
ates a considerable amount of
heat; over the course of a few
hours, it raised the temperature
in a slightly ventilated 12x12-
foot room by five full degrees.
The DHD is surprisingly quiet,
however. In fact, if it weren’t
for the bright blue light emit-
ted by the glowing eyes of the
Alienware logo mounted at the
top of our test model, this sys-
tem would make for a perfect
bedroom entertainment center.
We were impressed with
the DHD’s reliability. In markedcontrast to a few of the Media
Center PCs we tested, dur-
ing the course of our exten-
sive two-week test period,
we experienced only a few
instances where the system
crashed and/or failed to come
out of sleep mode, thereby
preventing us from recording
our favorite TV programs.
Now for the downside: At
almost $8,000, the DHD is, as
we say, hella-pricey. Granted,
the price includes a high-quality
large-size LCD, but therein lies
the rub. Buy the DHD and you
are essentially locking yourself
into a 30-inch display for the life
of this Media Center. As much
as we hate to say it, 30 inches
just isn’t that big for the living
room these days, making this
rig more appropriate for your
office, bedroom, or dorm room.
Thankfully, Alienware also
offers the DHS—a more tradi-
tional, no-LCD-included Media
Center PC for $1,800.How We Test Media Centers
Testing Media Center PCs presented
the Maximum PC Lab with an interest-
ing and unique predicament: Typically,
our system reviews revolve almost
primarily around two key factors:
performance and reliability. However,
Media Center PCs are a unique breed;
while performance remains important,
we considered real-world functionality
and reliability critical. Here’s the suite
of tests we used this month:4 REAL-WORLD TESTS: To test this
batch of PCs, we spent two weeks rig-
orously using each system in our liv-
ing room. This entailed a large num-
ber of hours of TV watching, but we
were up to the task. We recorded at
least 25 different programs at the
highest quality level with each rigand tracked the number of failed
recordings as a result of crashes or
other malfunctions.
A special adjunct to this real-world
testing is a rarely used Maximum PC
test we call SpouseMark 2004. This test
entails encouraging our spouse or
partner to regularly use the Media
Center and report how easy it was to
use and how reliable the experience
was, particularly in comparison to Tivo.
An interesting side note: During
our testing, we discovered that the
WinXP Media Center application
appears to create a 20-30 percent
performance hit in general WinXP
computing when the TV watching
capabilities are in use. Gaming perfor-
mance appears to suffer a more sub-
stantial hit during Media Center oper-ation. We’ll be investigating this more
and reporting more specific numbers
in a coming issue.4 BENCHMARKS: After consider-
able discussion, we pared down
our usual suite of system tests to
three: Doom 3 measures high-end
gaming performance and Halo mea-
sures videocard/CPU performance.
Additionally, because we found
ourselves turning these rigs off and
on so much in order to avoid the
noise and heat they generate, we
also found it important to measure
how long it took for them to come
out of standby mode. In effect, this
measures how long it takes to “turn
on the TV.”VERDICT 8 $7,930.00
http://www.alienware.comMedia Centers, each manufac-
turer makes a clear statementdoubling the scores of the
competition. In real-world tests
that consisted of web-brows-assembling their powerful, the DHD embodiesother Media Centers, often
doubling the scores of theother Media Centers, often
doubling the scores of the