September 2, 2004
In many ways, the MS32-XS can be seen as the little brother of the Carrera PC. In a number of areas, CCL has installed a component that’s either one step less powerful or one step lighter in features than the equivalent component in the Zenith. This adds up to a system that, while still feature-heavy and well up to handling most tasks, isn’t quite as desirable as Carrera’s.
Let’s take the processor for example. A 64-bit 3200+, installed within the VIA K8T800 chipset, is supremely powerful; usually we’d give it a hearty recommendation. All the same, it’s not quite as future-proof as the 3400+. It’s a similar story with the graphics. The Radeon 9800 Pro won’t let anyone down (as a 3DMark2003 score of 5,709 shows), but it can’t compete with the might of a 9800 XT, and certainly not with the new market leader that is the X800 XT. As for sound, CCL hasn’t even attempted to rival Carrera’s Creative Audigy 2 ZS, opting instead to make do with the motherboard-integrated Realtek AC’97 offering. This is fine, but won’t satisfy real audiophiles.
There are a few areas in which this machine excels. If you’re into video editing, for instance, then you’ll be hugely impressed by the twin 160GB Maxtor hard drives, supplied in a RAID array. HD Tach readings of 47.4Mbps for average read speed and 12.9ms for random access time illustrate the performance benefi t of this arrangement, but the main plus point is, of course, the huge amount of storage space. You’ll also have no complaints with an optical provision of an NEC 8x DVD/RW and a Sony 16x DVD-ROM.
And, if you fancy dabbling with a bit of multimedia tomfoolery, an 8-in-1 card reader and a Pinnacle TV tuner card will certainly appeal. You should also note that this attractive silver case is one of only two on test to feature a built-in speaker. Predictably, this doesn’t boast any true power, but it’s better than nothing.
As SYSmark scores of 301 for the 2002 version and 143 for 2004 show, this is a more-than-capable performer within everyday applications. With an extensive list of extras balancing out deficiencies in some of the main components, the MS32-XS is a only a more substantial warranty away from scooping our Value Award. If storage and upgradability (two PCI slots and a DIMM are free) are important to you, then it could even prove to be a better buy than the Carrera.
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