We recently looked at ATI’s X1800 XL version of the All-In-Wonder, which combined powerhouse graphics along with its multimedia capabilities. We were impressed by how much gaming power the card had on top of the video features, but questioned how practical it would be given the price. The X1800 XL A-I-W handled graphics as well as any high-end card can be expected to do, but many of those on the market for an All-in-Wonder ATI card would probably prefer something a little less bulky and pricey (in the graphics dept), but still have the features of the newer A-I-W.
Luckily, ATI has an answer for this in the form of the ATI All-In-Wonder 2006 PCIExpress Edition. The A-I-W 2006 is based on ATI’s X1300 line, making it more budget-friendly than it’s X1800 XL big brother. Because it’s based on a budget part, the A-I-W 2006 looks like a much more practical alternative for an All-In-Wonder solution, if not quite as impressive. Still, the full motion video playback and recording features, as well as the hefty software bundle add to the desirability of this card.
This is our first look at the All-In-Wonder 2006 PCIe Edition, and apart from the obvious graphical performance difference from the X1800 XL All-In-Wonder, these two cards are very similar. The All-In-Wonder series offer various multimedia features such as TV playback and recording, as well as online program downloading and scheduling for recording shows. We’ll be looking at these features more closely later in the review.
Final Words
Hopefully we will actually be seeing some All-In-Wonder 2006 Edition PCI-e parts on sale today, and not just “out of stock” either. This is a card that would make an excellent gift for any pc user interested in video and multimedia, but as close as it is to Christmas it might be difficult getting a hold of one in time, especially given ATI’s history with availability after launch. The fact that certain parts (ie. X1600) took so long after launch to actually become available made us go from slightly annoyed to eventually worried that something horrible had happened at ATI to cause such delays. Thankfully we are seeing some X1600s for sale now though, and hopefully ATI will be true to their word to be better about getting parts out on the day of release now.
The X1300 based A-I-W 2006 is not quite as impressive as the recent X1800 XL version, but that’s mostly because it doesn’t have the kind of raw power that the X1800 XL has for gaming. It could be argued however that for a card like this, all the extra gaming power isn’t really necessary, and the power of an X1300 clocked slightly lower than stock would be much more practical for people in the market for an A-I-W card. Just the fact that it will most likely be much lower-priced is incentive enough for many to choose the A-I-W 2006 over the X1800 XL A-I-W. With a retail price of $199 it’s still a little pricey, but as we said before, whether it’s worth buying is very subjective based on each person’s needs.
Right now you can buy a standard X1300 Pro for about $105, and given the fact that the A-I-W 2006’s engine is clocked 155MHz lower than a standard X1300 Pro, the All-In-Wonder features are what you would really be buying this card for. But again, prices are subject to change, and the different multimedia features of the A-I-W 2006 are what will draw different PC users to the card. The A-I-W 2006 is a little less specialized than the X1800 XL A-I-W, as it will be geared mainly towards people who want the video playback/recording features of the card over gaming performance. But in spite of this, even with the lower clock speeds it can still run games like Halflife 2 and Doom 3 at resolutions up to 1280x1024 reasonably well.
This card does what it claims to do very well and it has a lot of good video features. Another great thing it has going for it is its incredible ease of use. The thought of finding and installing computer hardware for recording and playing video on a PC can be daunting to some, but for people not very familiar with this kind of thing, it shouldn’t be much trouble at all getting everything setup and running quickly. Setting up the Gemstar GUIDE Plus+ to record and watch shows is fairly easy and straightforward as well, and we commend ATI for making the A-I-W 2006 so easy to use.
As with other All-In-Wonder cards, the A-I-W 2006 won’t do the kind of job that a full media center PC would do for a home theater system, but it will let you watch or record video on your PC, among other things, and probably for a pretty decent price. ATI seems to have hit a little closer to the mark with this version of the All-In-Wonder in terms of value, and most of those on the lookout for a multimedia solution this Christmas will find that this is the card for them.
waiting for bottle to buy & review it for us 