Best Computer of 2006 Goes Quad

Work, Work, Work: Playing Games, Watching HDTV

Getting the system up and running was an interesting exercise since I was able to watch the Viewsonic N2761w before the system was put together. It is a HDTV after all. The remote has nice features like a pair of favorite buttons so you can cycle between just those channels you want to view now instead of the entire collection. Unfortunately there are separate lists for the TV and HDTV tuners. There is one of each and you have to switch modes to view one. Individual tuners also mean separate antenna inputs that can be handy if you have digital cable and still want to check out the local stations.

The picture-in-picture support is nice to have. I was able to view input from other sources like a DVD player or a PC at the same time. Image scaling and other features are just a button press away.

Of course, I had to finish setting up the hardware so I could check out some of the games. While I don't have a full review of the games I did want to touch on the impact of the Agiea PhysX chip.

I started with Agiea's Hangar of Doom demo. This first person shooter places you in the middle of an airplane hangar with an anti-aircraft gun. Just the thing for shooting down airplanes that are strafing you as they fly through the hanger and out the other side. The interesting thing about the demo is the ability to simulate different video quality and the use of the PhysX chip. As I noted elsewhere, the differences are noticeable but subtle when playing fast first- or third-person shooting games. I had to act, stop and watch to see the differences. Eventually it was easy to see what was happening as the scenes were more complex and movement was smoother and more natural. Objects that broke up had more complex movements, although some objects remained intact. I suspect that this is more of an issue of game designers taking advantage of the chip rather than any limitation on its performance.

I was also able to check out some other titles that take advantage of the PhysX chip like Cryptic Studios' City of Villians (Fig. 30), distributed by NCsoft. This is a massive multiplayer game that is part of a series that includes, of course, City of Heroes. Like Hanger of Doom, the game takes advantage of the PhysX chip but it is obvious that even more could be done. This is similar to taking advantage of the capabilities of the X1950XTX dual board solution. These are top of the line hardware enhancements and the game designers have to put together a game that not only addresses these platforms but the less capable ones as well.

The other game was Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (Fig. 31) from Ubisoft. This seems more refined in terms of taking advantage of the PhysX chip. Still, there is definitely more to come. Having the horsepower to handle the details of the physical environment is something relatively new but it is definitely worth having.

Over all, the hardware and software combination worked well. The wireless Logitech mouse and keyboard let me place the large HDTV near the back of the desk. The keyboard provides volume controls so I was not always playing with the Viewsonic remote. It was definitely the Best PC of 2006.