Diamond AIW5000 Multimedia Set

Manufacturer: Diamond Multimedia
Product Name: All-In-Wonder HD Premium 5000
Model Number: AIW-5000
Price As Tested:$129.99 at Amazon and other online merchants

Full Disclosure: The product sample used in this article has been provided by Diamond Multimedia.

Now that Blu-Ray and 1080p are well entrenched into the entertainment industry, Diamond has released their latest update to the All-In-Wonder series. The HD Premium 5000 (aka AIW5000) bundles an ATI HD5570 graphics card with an ATI HD 750 tuner. This duo has the power to handle the most frequently used video signals for viewing, recording and other routine multimedia tasks. At Benchmark Reviews we are compelled to tweak, tune, stress and measure to see how well our new gadgets perform. The AIW5000 performed well; read on too see how we put it to work.

Although the format war has been settled, the content delivery model is constantly being morphed. While cable and dish were once considered the standard, people are choosing from a myriad of new content delivery models. Ubiquitous broadband and wireless options are providing new and expanding channels through which to funnel your content. Even after choosing a delivery method you have to decide on some combination of hardware for interacting with your content.

The combinations are almost endless, and the best fit depends on your personal needs or wants. Will you choose cable + DVR, Netflix + Wii, Hulu + PC, Blu-Ray + PS3, Amazon VOD + Roku, iTunes + iPad, Boxee + Something? I think you get the point. Regardless of the choice I don't think there is a single product out there that does everything a person could want. So most of us end up with some combination of multiple devices. Sometimes it is too hard to try and follow which technologies are in and which are on the way out. You can also get stuck with proprietary equipment that works in only one setup.

Regardless of your setup there may be utility in a hardware package that can handle both your incoming and outgoing multimedia. I am a fan of the All-In-Wonder series since it is designed for that purpose. Two small cards in a PC of my choice allows me to handle all major forms of content delivery and gives me endless modification and display options. I can add drives and software of my choosing to build a custom setup without proprietary limits. Since I am always building on a budget the performance and cost matter greatly to me.

In this review, performance, utility and cost will be the major factors for rating the AIW5000.

Diamond HD5570 Features

• Engine clock speed: 650 MHz
• Processing power (single precision): 520 GigaFLOPS
• Polygon throughput: 650M polygons/sec
• Data fetch rate (32-bit): 52 billion fetches/sec
• Texel fill rate (bilinear filtered): 13 Gigatexels/sec
• Pixel fill rate: 5.2 Gigapixels/sec
• Anti-aliased pixel fill rate: 20.8 Gigasamples/sec
• Memory clock speed: 1600 MHz
• Memory data rate: 1.8 Gbps
• Memory bandwidth: 25.6 GB/sec
• Maximum board power: 45 Watts
• Idle board power: 10 Watts

Diamond HD5570 Specifications

Diamond HD750 Features

• Supports worldwide broadcast signals.
• Watch, pause and record live TV.
• Watch your favorite TV programming when it's convenient for you
• Enjoy the latest Blu-ray movies and other HD content with a dedicated hardware video decoder.
• Analog video capture with AVIVO.
• Convert videos to popular formats.
• Export video to portable devices.
• Edit compatible videos.
• Burn videos to DVD or VCD.
• Intelligent Image Enhancement
• TVW 750 Media Center Remote Control
• TVW 750 Antenna

Diamond HD750 Specifications

System Requirements:

Closer Look: Diamond HD5570

Since the AIW5000 includes two separate pieces of hardware it may suit our purposes best to briefly consider them as a package before digging into the individual parts. One feature that is frequently mentioned by Diamond's advertising is "portability". Having the tuner and video card in the same PC certainly makes things less complicated, but I hardly consider a PC to be portable. It's not something I would consider taking on an international flight. If I really traveled frequently and wanted portable TV I'd lean towards a USB tuner on a laptop.

The other feature touted most by Diamond is the ability to record and watch TV on your PC. This definitely makes more sense to as a stationary application. The video and tuner card in one package is perfect for a new build. A new build makes the most sense if the PC is going to be dedicated to multimedia. In this regard the All-In-Wonder series is best utilized for recording and viewing broadcast television in an HTPC arrangement.

Now let's discuss the hardware that deals with digital content display. The All-In-Wonder 5000 includes a Diamond manufactured HD5570. While ATI's version was a low-power form factor card, Diamond's rendition uses a larger heat sink on a full-sized board. Based on this arrangement I'd expect more power, more features and potentially better performance.But I'm not expecting much since thespecs listed by Diamond practically mirror those of the reference card. The one expectation is the memory clock running at 1600 MHz instead of 900 MHz.

It's not clear exactly why Diamond chose a full-size over a low-profile board since there is plenty of room for components on the back. It could be a limitation in their PCB manufacturing process, or it could be a cost-cutting move. In either case they have precluded their ability to fit any low-profile HTPC setup. This is a big drawback for me since the 5570 was about the most power you could fit into an HTPC. You could actually game with reasonable framerates and resolutions with a 5570. We'll show this a little later on.

One great advantage of the HD5570 is the wealth of features provided at such a low cost. DirectX 11 enables a whole suite of video features such as multiple displays, stream acceleration and AVIVO support. Diamonds HD5570 includesone VGA port, one HDMI port and one DVI port. There shouldn't be any concerns about display comptibility unless you want to run something to a really old TV. Overall the HD5570 is a great card for an HTPC application. It is low cost and high performance without going over the edge in either direction.

Closer Look: Diamond HD750

When it comes to an HTPC or PVR setup, it's the TV Tuner that makes most of the magic happen. With video cards the choices are practically endless, and most products will deliver decent return on your investment. With the TV Tuner the variation in features and performance is much greater, and the selections are fewer. So it's more important to make sure you get a tuner that has the features you need. When building your own system knowing the resource demand is important for choosing the right CPU and memory while keeping costs minimal.

The TV Wonder HD750 is Diamond's newest release. While there is a USB version, the AIW5000 includes the PCIe version. The actual card is small enough to fit in any PC case, but the mount bracket is for full-height mounting. The layout is quite simple relying on only a handful of chips. For any given technology, the board layout is often a good indicator of the feature set.

There are only two ports, one digital andone analog. There is only one visible tuner, and no visible encoders. As you could guess, this is a single tuner card which can decode digital signals and record analog inputs from S-Video, composite, and stereo.The lack of encoders also means that any encoding work will be software based. Software-based encoding or transcoding is CPU intensive unless you have software and hardware which can distribute the load across the GPU as well.

The HD750 has three ports. One F-Type coaxial port, one S-Video port and a micro-jack for the IR reciever. If you want to pipe multiple signals into the tuner then you'll need to daisy-chain your devices or use a switching device. For me this is a can of worms that I'll open during my final thoughts.

To make TV watching and recording easier the HD750 includes a kit of peripheral. A remote is included with the IR receiver so you can watch from a couch without requiring a wireless mouse and keyboard. Digital tuners are still slower than their analog counterparts when it comes to changing channels. I've grown accustomed to the extra delay while switching channels on set-top tuners. But using the remote with this PC tuner was more than I could bear. I had to hold down the button "forever" until I saw the screen change. But if I held it for even a split second too long then I'd end up changing two channels instead of one.

Also included with the kit is an adapter cable for the S-Video port which allows S-Video, composite and stereo inputs. A metal adapter for the coaxial port converts it from unthreaded F-Type to threaded.Finally there is a small antenna whilch plugs into the coaxial port for receiving radio and TV signals. While the antenna is a nice thought, it only worked for the strongest signals.

Diamond AIW5000 Software

Bundled up with the HD5570 and HD750 was a full version of TotalMedia 3.5 by Arcsoft. This provides an out-of-the box alternative to Windows 7 Media Center. I tested the AIW5000 with Windows 7 Media Center, and installation was quick and flawless. I scrapped the dinky antenna that came in the box for a middle-range unit from a local store. Within ten minutes I was recording TV froma full list of local broadcast channels.

After Installing TotalMedia 3.5 It took only slightly longer to get to watching and recording live television. The main difference in setup was finding local channels. Windows 7 MediaCenter downloads them as a first option, while TotalMedia prefers to scan the local channels. This can be a real annoyance if you have only a moderate signal on some channels. Where I live the signals for some of our favorite channels is rather weak, even with a strong antenna. Running a channel scan in TotalMedia is an "all or nothing" affair. You can't just run a scan with the antenna in a different position to pick up the ones you missed. It always overwrites the old channels with the most recent scan. Trying to manually add a channel is an exercise in frustration. It's really not worth the time.

Despite this drawback, the HD750 performed wuite well; it exceeded my expectations. Using the same antenna it found more chanels than my set-top tuner. I swapped out the HD750 for my ASUS PHC3-150 and ran the exact same scan with the exact same setup. It found only a handful of channels which displayed less than half the time. I was really, really impressed with the HD750 signal decoding. The EPG function is TotalMedia was a flop. It was more work to fenagle a schedule out of TotalMedia than to just look it up on my computer. I hope they improve this feature. Specifically, when using the internet feature it was impossible to update the schedule to reflect my local broadcast.

Well, I'm not big on watching live TV. I'llrecord or watch online whenever possible. The recording feature in TotalMedia was straight forward to use and hassle free. The scheduling worked well and allowed me to add multiple scheduled recordings. It takes a little time to setup with the remote, but using a mouse made thing really quick. The scheduling module allows you to setup a one-time record or to schedule a repeating show. It wasn't smart enough to do anything fancy like find similar shows or even the same show at different times. Also, with only a single tuner you can only record one show at a time. This also means you can only watch what you're recording or have already recorded.

The HD750 receives FM radio along with a glut of other signals. Just like the TV module you can scan for channels, listen to live radio and record. I was able to get most of my normal radio stations, but some of the weaker ones didn't get picked up. I again swapped in my PHC3-150 for comparison, and it didn't pick up any stations. Again, I'm impressed by the reception from the AIW5000.

Once you've recorded a video, what can you do with it? Well, you can watch it, edit it, burn it to disk, or export it to a mobile device. The burning module worked reasonably well. The software supports burning to both DVD and CD, but is a little finicky about how you go about it. You absolutely must set the media type in the settings before attempting to do anything. It won't even accept a blank disc that doesn't match the selected type. Shouldn't it just automatically detect my media and offer appropriate burning options?! Oh well, once you have your media loaded TotalMedia allows you to select which video to burn, and even includes the ability to build a quick disc menu.

But before you go burning all your episodes of...whatever...onto disc you might want to cut out the commercials first. TotalMedia includes a video editing module that allows a rough, manual methd to cut segments out of the video. It's nothing like an automated commercial clipper, but unless you archive everything you record it shouldn't be too much work. Once you cut out the junk you can select a thumbnail for the video from anywhere in the stream.

Going on a vacation? Ride the bus to school? Prefer to watch in your room?There is a "To Go" module in TotalMedia that will convert and export your videos to a portable device. At this time the software only supports iPod, Sony PSP, a windows device, and a couple other players. For the windows device you have a very limited amount of control over the output format. If the format is right for some other device you can always save the transcoded file to your hard drive and manually transfer the file to your device. This is a nifty feature, but it falls far short for power users. I need full-blown transcoding options. For me that means turning to an external application. It's just as well since it was hard for me to determine if TotalMedia really uses the GPU at all for decoding. If it does it doesn't take full advantage of the features from the graphics card.

Multimedia Testing Methodology

TV Tuner Testing Methodology

Two aspects of TV tuner performance were of interest; resource consumption and recording quality. To monitor resource consumption each card was used to record and watch live television. Percent CPU usage was recorded while streaming over-the-air channels at resolutions of 4801, 720p, and 1080i. Next, CPU usage was recorded while recording over-the-air streams at the same resolutions. Each test was repeated three times to check for variability between runs.

For all tests the computer, antenna and software remained constant. The only changes were the tuner card and the content of the streamed videos (but not the resolution).

The recorded videos were then analyzed for recording quality. Two objective measurements were used to assess the quality of the recordings. For the first test the video size was divided by the total number of video frames to determine the kilobytes per frame. For identical file types, more kilobytes means a better image. For the second test the recording bit-rate was divided by the combination of frame rate and resolution to determine the bits per pixel. This helps compare recording quality between different resolutions. For both metrics, higher values mean more information was captured and saved from the original stream. As a subjective test, the videos were reviewed to see if there were any noticeable recording defects.

TV Tuner Test System

• Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD4P
• Processor: AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE CPU HDZ965FBGIBOX
• System Memory: OCZ Gold 4GB 800MHz DDR2
• Disk Drive: SAMSUNG HD251HJ (232 GB)
• PSU: Antec EA500 EarthWatts 500W PSU
• Operating System: Windows 7 Professional

TV Tuner Test Products

• ATI TV Wonder HD 650 PCI Combo Express
• ASUS MY-Cinema PHC3-150 PCI
• Diamond ATI Theater HD 750 PCIE

Video Card Testing Methodology

The 5000 series of products was designed for DirectX 11 and they perform comparatively better in DirectX 11 applications than in DirectX 10 applications. As such the results posted here may be considered conservative for the ATI cards.

At the start of all tests, the previous display adapter driver is uninstalled and trace components are removed using Driver Cleaner Pro. We then restart the computer system to establish our display settings and define the monitor. Once the hardware is prepared, we begin our testing. In each benchmark test there is one 'cache run' that is conducted, followed by five recorded test runs. Results are collected at each setting with the highest and lowest results discarded. The remaining three results are averaged, and displayed in the performance charts.

Video Card Test System

• Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD4P
• Processor: AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE CPU HDZ965FBGIBOX
• System Memory: OCZ Gold 4GB 800MHz DDR2
• Disk Drive: SAMSUNG HD251HJ (232 GB)
• PSU: Antec EA500 EarthWatts 500W PSU
• Operating System: Windows 7 Professional

Benchmark Applications

• 3DMark Vantage v1.0.2 (All settings at Entry)
• Devil May Cry 4 Benchmark Demo (Ultra Quality, 8x MSAA)
• Unigine Heaven Benchmark 2.0 (DX10, 2x AA, 4x AF, Low Shaders)

Video Card Test Products

• PowerColor AX5550 512MD5-PP (650 MHz GPU/900 MHz RAM - Catalyst 10.4 Preview)
• Diamond HD5570 (650 MHz GPU/1600 MHz RAM - Catalyst 10.4 Preview)
• PowerColor AX5670 1GBD5-NS3H (775 MHz GPU/1000 MHz RAM - Catalyst 10.4 Preview)
• ASUS EN9800GT/DI/512MD3 (600 MHz GPU/1500 MHz Shader/1800 MHz RAM - Forceware 197.13)
• Palit GeForce GTX 260 Sonic 216SP (625 MHz GPU/1348 MHz Shader/1100 MHz vRAM - Forceware 197.13)

TotalMedia has four fixed options for recording quality; 'High Quality', 'Standard Play', 'Long Play', and 'Extended Play'. Repeated tests indicate that the exact recording format for each option are automatically chosen by the software based on the broadcast resolution. For example, a high quality recording of both 1080i and 720p sources resulted in a 1920x1080 video, and a 480i broadcast resulted in 720x480 recording. The extended play option resulted in recordings with resolutions matching the broadcast resolution. There did not seem to be a way to capture really low quality video.

I was surprised to see such high resource utilization on my quad-core PC. My past experience testing on a dual core machine had lower CPU utilization. I can't help but wonder if there was a conflict or bug with my video driver that prevented the GPU from being utilized for any of the encoding.

The differences between resolutions is drastically obvious as more work is performed in encoding and saving the larger streams. The resources for 720p almost reaches that of 1080i since the double framerate of the progressive format saves twice as many frames per second. The 1080i is larger only due to the extra pixels.

At all three resolutions the ATI HD 650 had the lowest resource consumption, closely matched by the ASUS PHC3-150. The Diamond HD750 trailed behind using much more resources than the other cards.

The difference in resources required to record on top of just viewing TV wasvery small. In some cases the CPU utilization dropped. I can't think of a logical way to explain that phenomenon. Perhaps a video guru can add a comment. I know the difference is not due to the variation in recorded content. All runs were timed at 10 minutes and repeated multiple times. The CPU usage was very consistent between runs varying by less than one percent.

Since the CPU utilzation on the HD750 was higher than the other cards I would have expected it to have a better recording quality (more data captured takes more resources?). An analysis of the recorded videos shows this was not the case. The recorded content between the HD 650 and the PHC3-150 were quite comparable while the content from the HD 750 was notably less. I recorded multiple clips to verify, and the quality from the other cards kept coming out higher. It was not quite as consistent as the resource usage, but the relative differences were still evident. Based on my repeat testing the chart above exaggerates the differences between cards.

The bits per pixel reveal slightly more information about the recordings. The bits per pixel decrease with increasing recording resolution. This means that the higher resolution frames are of lower relative quality. But the advantage of having more pixels outweighs the slight degradation. The bits per pixel analysis highlights the PHC3-150 as having slightly better quality than the other cards. In this case the videos analyzed from the HD 650 and HD 750 had very similar qualities.

In this test system very few visual defects were noted in any of the recorded videos. There was some mild blockiness that is standard in transcoded mpeg videos, but it was not very noticeable. I attribute the difference to TotalMedia 3.5. Perhaps that is another explanation for the higher resource draw. Both ATI cards had a white line that periodically showed up at the very top edge of the video. This happened in both live and recorded TV. I think it is inherent to their choice of chips or board design. I did not notice any such defects from the PHC3-150. There were no dropped frames, no frame freezes or any other common defects from any of the recorded videos. Overall the videos from the ASUS PHC3-150 were of the highest quiality from both quantitative and qualitative perspectives.

The details from the recorded videos are shown below.

Recorded Video Details:

3DMark Vantage GPU Tests

3DMark Vantage is a PC benchmark suite designed to test the DirectX10 graphics card performance. FutureMark 3DMark Vantage is the latest addition the 3DMark benchmark series built by FutureMark corporation. Although 3DMark Vantage requires NVIDIA PhysX to be installed for program operation, only the CPU/Physics test relies on this technology.

3DMark Vantage offers benchmark tests focusing on GPU, CPU, and Physics performance. Benchmark Reviews uses the two GPU-specific tests for grading video card performance: Jane Nash and New Calico. These tests isolate graphical performance, and remove processor dependence from the benchmark results.

3DMark Vantage GPU Test: Jane Nash

Of the two GPU tests 3DMark Vantage offers, the Jane Nash performance benchmark is slightly less demanding. In a short video scene the special agent escapes a secret lair by water, nearly losing her shirt in the process. Benchmark Reviews tested this DirectX-10 scene at 1280x1024 and 1680x1050 resolutions using Entry quality settings and a 1:2 scale.

In the Jane Nash test Diamond's HD5570 performed about where expected. It pulled slightly more frames than the HD5550 and less than the 5670. Two of the most popular video cards are included as a reference for Nvidia users.

3DMark Vantage GPU Test: New Calico

New Calico is the second GPU test in the 3DMark Vantage test suite. Of the two GPU tests, New Calico is the most demanding. In a short video scene featuring a galactic battleground, there is a massive display of busy objects across the screen. Benchmark Reviews tested this DirectX-10 scene at 1280x1024 and 1680x1050 resolutions using Entry quality settings and a 1:2 scale. This combination provided the highest level of graphical demand possible for the lowest performance card in this test series.

When the number of objects gets large the HD5570 didn't seem to fare as well. I would have expected better performance due to the extra memory and faster clock rate, but for some reason (again possibly the driver) it performed under the HD5550. To be fair, the HD5550 I used was one handpicked by PowerColor for their PCS+ line. The clocks are set back to the ATI reference clocks. But that specific GPU performed like lightning matching the 5670 with an extra overclock. Both 5500 series card come from the same process, and it just may be that 5550 version fared better on the manufacturing variation.

The 3DMark Vantage results are typical of the remainder of the tests, but the differences between cards is much higher.

Devil May Cry 4 Benchmark

Devil May Cry 4 was released on PC in early 2007 as the fourth installment to the Devil May Cry video game series. DMC4 is a direct port from the PC platform to console versions, which operate at the native 720P game resolution with no other platform restrictions. Devil May Cry 4 uses the refined MT Framework game engine, which has been used for many popular Capcom game titles over the past several years.

MT Framework is an exclusive seventh generation game engine built to be used with games developed for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and PC ports. MT stands for "Multi-Thread", "Meta Tools" and "Multi-Target". Originally meant to be an outside engine, but none matched their specific requirements in performance and flexibility. Games using the MT Framework are originally developed on the PC and then ported to the other two console platforms.

On the PC version a special bonus called Turbo Mode is featured, giving the game a slightly faster speed, and a new difficulty called Legendary Dark Knight Mode is implemented. The PC version also has both DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 mode for Microsoft Windows XP and Vista Operating Systems.

It's always nice to be able to compare the results we receive here at Benchmark Reviews with the results you test for on your own computer system. Usually this isn't possible, since settings and configurations make it nearly difficult to match one system to the next; plus you have to own the game or benchmark tool we used.

Devil May Cry 4 fixes this, and offers a free benchmark tool available for download. Because the DMC4 MT Framework game engine is rather low-demand for today's cutting edge multi-GPU video cards, Benchmark Reviews tests with 8x AA (highest AA setting available to Radeon HD video cards) and 16x AF. The benchmark runs through four test scenes, but scene #2 and #4 are the ones that usually offer a challenge. Displayed below is our result for the test.

Both 5500 series cards had a very similar performance. They were several frames behind the HD5670 and half of what the 9800GT and GTX260 could produce.In the big picture what I want to point out is that the video card bundled for an HTPC is getting 30 FPS on a demanding DX10 game. Based on these results there should be very little problems playing the most popular games on the market at decent resolutions and frame rates.

Scene #4 is mostly a reiteration of what we saw from teh Scene 2 benchmark. The HD5550 and HD5570 are well-matched lagging behind the more powerful mid-range cards.

Unigine Heaven Benchmark Results

The Unigine "Heaven 2.0" benchmark is a free publicly available tool that grants the power to unleash the graphics capabilities in DirectX-11 for Windows 7 or updated Vista Operating Systems. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. With the interactive mode, emerging experience of exploring the intricate world is within reach. Through its advanced renderer, Unigine is one of the first to set precedence in showcasing the art assets with tessellation, bringing compelling visual finesse, utilizing the technology to the full extend and exhibiting the possibilities of enriching 3D gaming.

The distinguishing feature in the Unigine Heaven benchmark is a hardware tessellation that is a scalable technology aimed for automatic subdivision of polygons into smaller and finer pieces, so that developers can gain a more detailed look of their games almost free of charge in terms of performance. Thanks to this procedure, the elaboration of the rendered image finally approaches the boundary of veridical visual perception: the virtual reality transcends conjured by your hand. The "Heaven" benchmark excels at providing the following key features:

• Native support of OpenGL, DirectX-9, DirectX-10 and DirectX-11
• Comprehensive use of tessellation technology
• Advanced SSAO (screen-space ambient occlusion)
• Volumetric cumulonimbus clouds generated by a physically accurate algorithm
• Dynamic simulation of changing environment with high physical fidelity
• Interactive experience with fly/walk-through modes
• ATI Eyefinity support

I always enjoy the Unigine Heaven benchmark because to me it feels the least biased. The test is rigorous and always returns repeatable marks. When using this benchmark the gradation between card generations and between various models always seems more obvious. The Nash test put the HD5570 slightly ahead of the HD5550 while the other tests put it slightly behind. Unigine repeatedly places them both on nearly the same performance level. I would have expected the HD5570 to perform consistently better, but I am convinced that I'm comparing the best of the 5550's to the worst of the 5570's.

Diamond HD5570 Temperatures

When taking measurements the video card is first idled in 2D mode to obtain an idle temperature using GPU-Z.Then Furmark is used to stress the GPU and raise the card temperatures until they are steady. Temperatures are again recorded from GPU-Z under this stressed scenario. During testing the ambient temperature remained steady at 20.2°C.

FurMark does do two things extremely well: drive the thermal output of any graphics processor higher than any other application of video game, and it does so with consistency every time. While it's been proved that FurMark is not a true benchmark tool for comparing video cards, it would still work very well to compare one product against itself at different stages. FurMark would be very useful for comparing the same GPU against itself using different drivers or clock speeds, of testing the stability of a GPU as it raises the temperatures higher than any program. But in the end, it's a rather limited tool.

The temperatures recorded for the Diamond HD5570 are recorded in the table below.

These temperatures are not on record-low scale, but I wouldn't be concerned about overheating during some long movie sessions. When we tested ATI's 5570 it measured at 35°C idle and 50°C under a load in a sdifferent hardware configuration. The idle numbers are close, but the performance under load is much different. Despite the marks being similar between tests the heat generation is much higher. I doubt the difference is due to case cooling since we're comparing a HAF 912 to CM Storm Sniper. But why do we have more heat at comparable performance even with the faster memory clock? Another indicator that something was not up to snuff with the card.

Diamond AIW5000 Power Consumption

If you're going to build n HTPC that will remain powered 24/7then power consumption will be a big issue.We can already predict that the HD5570 included with the AIW5000 will have more power consumption than the ATI factory standard card. It got the same marks and produced more heat, and that energy has to come from the outlet.

To measure isolated video card power consumption, Benchmark Reviews uses the Kill-A-Watt EZ (model P4460) power meter made by P3 International. A baseline test is taken withouta video card installed inside our computer system, which is allowed to boot into Windows and rest idle at the login screen before power consumption is recorded. Once the baseline reading has been taken, the graphics card is installed and the system is again booted into Windows and left idle at the login screen. Our final loaded power consumption reading is taken with the video card running a stress test using FurMark. Below is a chart with the isolated video card power consumption (not system total) displayed in Watts for previously tested products:

The HD5570 test system used 64W at idle without a video card. The power consumption values are recorded in the table below.

The ATI factory model only pulled 12 W at idle and 52 W under a load. Even though we anticipated this result it is still drastic; double the power consumption. I'm not too excited to use this exact card in a PC that will be on day and night. But all things are relative. Twenty watts isn't so large a drain that it will even be obvious in my monthly budget. After all, it only takes 4 hours of SLI gaming to use the same amount of daily energy.

TV-Tuner Card Final Thoughts

Multipurpose...I believe that is the word that best describes the appeal of the All-In-Wonder products. My computers are so powerful that I often have a difficult time buying other pieces of hardware around the house. I balk anytime I consider buying something dedicated for a single purpose, especially when it is for something my computer could do instead. DVD players are a classic example. I hate buying set-top players that die every 5 or so years when I have a perfectly good DVD drive on my PC that's been working for longer. It bugs me more when I have 50 different boxes in my entertainment center, each with its own power cord and connecting cables. Can't I just squeeze them all into onemaster device that allows me to use a single power cable and swap out modules as needed?

That's exactly what I love about PC's. Add the tuner card and I've eliminated one more box. The AIW5000 works well enough that it could be an upgrade for your video card in addition to adding the tuner capability. Plus you can game with it. I was able to play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and BattleField: Bad Company 2 at decent framerates. There were times at high resolutions when I would get some video lag, but it was defiitely playable and I won the match.

Gaming and multimedia are the more demanding tasks, the other routine stuff will be a breeze with this setup. While the AIW5000 is geared for an HTPC, there's no reason it can't be expanded to include other functions.

Regarding hardware expansions, it would be nice if the tuner card could be expanded to include other functions, like a mini receiver. Or on an even smaller basis allow multipl inputs for HDMI, composite, etc. perhaps even with a switching functionality. If I have multiple devices that I want to connect through the PC I either have to daisy chain them or use an external switching device or reciever. Using a nice external piece of hardware kind of defeats the purpose of having a tuner in the PC. I'll just opt for a video card with video-in.

I was slightly disappointed with my test results. I had hoped for better performance particularyl from the video card. It did fine, but I felt it could have done better. If power draw and temperatures were large factors in my purchase decision I would consider going for a more powerful card from a previous generation or a power-saving, budget model from the current generation.

Diamond AIW5000 Conclusion

When it comes to finding stations and getting a crystal clear signal, the HD750 was bounds ahead of other cards tested. That is probably the single most important reason someone would opt for the AIW5000 over other options. This is especially important if your computer will be moving from place to place and picking up different signals. But this benefit comes at the cost of computer resources. The default package of hardware and software demanded a larger amount of CPU resources than expected. A decent CPU will be required to run it out of the box. But performance could be improved by upgrading the drivers and trying different media software. The HD5570 performed on par with ATI's factory version but produced more heat and drew more power. Neither issue was so drastic as to warrent scrapping the cards, but it will be an important factor in considering other alternatives.

There's not much that can be said regarding the appearance of two normal PCI cards. Their colors don't match which is kind of tacky. But these cards are meant for utility, not a flashy gaming setup. So their look is apt for their purpose.

The main drawback of these cards is the full-height case requirement. The AIW5000 is perfect for an HTPC but Diamond built the HD5570 on a full-height board so it won't fit in the smaller cases. Often a dual-slot video-card overshadows a PCIe port rendering it useless. Both cards only utilize a single slot which will help them fit into cases where the horizontal space is cramped.

There are so meany features provided by this package it's impossible to discuss them all without writing a true book. The tuner probably has the fewest features compared to other competing products. It's only a single tuner capable of decoding the most common signal. It has no on-board encoding ability and depends entirely on software for encoding and transcoding. Thus you need to pay greater attention to software choice. A fully licensed version of TotalMedia 3.5 is included in the package and it works well for TV watching and recording. It includes basic to moderate feature like scheduling, radio, video editing, and DVD / CD burning. There's a light video export module, but it's nothing close to full-powered transcoding. Power users will want to look for more advanced software. Finally, the HD5570 has the features of DirectX 11.

For a little over one hundred dollars you get a TV tuner, a full-featured DX-11 video card, and fully licensed PVR software. That's a killer deal any day. Look for the AIW500 at Amazon for $129.99. You could probably save some money by swapping out any or all of the package for cheaper alternatives, but the basic build is solid, gauranteed to be compatible, and provide all the basic features. From box to watching TV was about 15 minutes for me.

Pros:

+ Fast Installation
+ Good Reception
+ Good Performance
+ Full version of TotalMedia
+ Bundle Value

Cons:

- Single Tuner
- No Hardware Encoder
- Full-Height PCI Brackets

Ratings:

• Performance: 8.50
• Appearance: 7.50
• Construction: 7.50
• Functionality: 8.00
• Value: 8.50

Final Score: 8.00 out of 10.

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