Final thoughts and rating
Scan has chosen to launch an HTPC-based system with NVIDIA's ION platform - Intel Atom chip and GeForce 9400M graphics - taking centre stage. Housed in a reasonable-looking chassis, the specification is strong, with ZOTAC's all-in-one, feature-rich motherboard, a 1TB hard drive, 4GB DDR2, TV tuner, and Blu-ray drive. The system seeks to be all things to all people and gets most things right.
Our performance numbers show that the dual-core Atom N330's performance
is still some way off a Core 2 CULV's and there's no getting around
that, especially as some tasks cannot yet be palmed off to the GPU,
including accelerating Flash. This is the kind of system would benefit
from a little more poke in the form of a CULV SU9400 chip, or similar.
When the GeForce 9400M does come out to play it makes a good fist of
general movie and Blu-ray decoding, as well as basic gaming, managing 20fps in
Enemy Territory at 1,024x768. However, the choice of motherboard
precludes the addition of a discrete card, meaning the specification is
relatively fixed.
As good as Scan's integration and attention to detail is, we find it
hard to justify an ION-based system that costs over £700.
Sure, you can reduce the cost by £200 or so by removing the
Blu-ray drive, TV tuner, and software, but that takes away much of the
attractiveness. As a comparison, you can purchase a Core 2
Duo/Blu-ray/GeForce laptops for less
money and use it for the same purpose, and the Acer Revo,
albeit a far lower configuration, for £250.
Ultimately, we see the Scan 3XS ION as a case of Marmite: you will
either love it or consider it pointlessly expensive. We like most
things other than the price, and should it come down by at least
£150 then it becomes a better bet. As it stands, a
£700-plus mini-ITX base unit could do with a low-power Core 2
Duo chip instead of Atom, together with the possibiilty of augmenting
graphics with a discrete card. Standalone ION doesn't cut it at this
price.
HEXUS Rating
We consider any product score above '50%' as a safe buy. The higher the score, the higher the recommendation from HEXUS to buy. Simple, straightforward buying advice.
The rating is given in relation to the category the component
competes in, therefore the ION platform is evaluated with respect to
our 'high-end' criteria.
HEXUS Awards
Expensive it certainly is, yet it fits in so well in the living room.
HEXUS Where2Buy
HEXUS Right2Reply
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