Gaming performance
Just a recap: the Shuttle P2 3700G and Alienware Area-51 7500 systems feature a default-clocked GeForce 7950GX2 1GiB graphics card. The MESH PC features a couple of Radeon X1950 XTXs in CrossFire mode, so we expect performance to be better in our high-resolution tests.
That's evidently the case in Far Cry, with CrossFire trampling all over 7950GX2. However, NVIDIA's much-maligned card still produces healthy framerates.
Shuttle's little box of wonders chomps through Quake 4, and it's the fastest of our high-performance trio.
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory looks fantastic and also runs smoothly on the P2 3700G. It also happens to be the poster child for the effectiveness of 'real' multi-GPU technology.
Once we run into gaming that's bound by the performance of the GPU, which happens at high resolutions with decent image quality, the NVIDIA GeForce 7950GX2 can be considered an adequate performer. We'd like to see the GeForce 8800 GTX and Intel's Core 2 Extreme QX6700 CPU present here, but Shuttle's SilentX PSU may not live up to its name and go out with a bang.
