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Review: Scan 3XS Cyclone PC - first with watercooled GeForce GTX 480

by Tarinder Sandhu on 15 June 2010, 08:46 3.5

Tags: 3XS Cyclone, SCAN

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qaynz

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A look inside



A front-facing shot of the CM 690 II chassis shows just how the GeForce GTX 480 is cooled; the reservoir/pump assembly takes up the two central 5.25in bays. Switched on, the front's 140mm intake fan has a cool blue LED theme that's matched by the reservoir.



As usual, Scan thoughtfully ships all systems with anti-static bubble-wrap surrounding and cushioning the components. One has to be careful when removing it from around the CPU cooler, because the holding mechanism for the heatsink's fan is rather fiddly and prone to coming away.

A peek inside highlights how the watercooled GeForce GTX 480 dominates the chassis. Considering just how much room the thick tubing and associated cooling takes up, the interior is neat and tidy.

Hard-drive storage potential is plentiful and further drives can be added with a minimum of fuss.



The pièce de résistance is the overclocked GeForce GTX 480, operating at 852MHz, up from the default 701MHz. The 21.5 per cent overclock is impressive, yet it's compromised by no associated overclocking for the GDDR5 memory, which remains at default speeds.

Scan uses an EK FC480 GTX copper block that ships with an acetal topside. Costing around £70 on its own, the GPU-and-block combination, as mentioned earlier, would etail for almost £500 on their own.



A different look at the block confirms that the card only takes up a single expansion slot, but the thick piping and small chassis makes adding another almost impossible.



Bent around the PSU and leading up to the 5.25in bays, the tubing is fed in and out of the reservoir and 240mm-wide radiator that's located above the CPU. Two 120mm fans exhaust heat out of the top, whilst a third case-mounted fan is used as a rear exhaust.



Shipping with a total of six fans - two chassis, two radiator, CPU and PSU - the system cannot deemed to be quiet when idling in Windows. Scan forgoes the ASUS board's Q-Control fan-speed function in an effort to keep the components cool enough inside the CM 690 II. Our Prime95 stability tests show that the 4.0GHz-clocked CPU hits a toasty 78°C under load within 15 minutes.

Rather more promising is the performance of the GPU, where the watercooled system is able to hold the pre-overclocked card to 72°C in FurMark's stability test, which is all the more impressive in light of an ambient temperature of 26°C.

Scan finishes the system off with Windows 7 Premium and a perfunctory software line-up. Our feeling is that the 3XS Cyclone is designated for the enthusiast who wants something a little different but doesn't want to build it themselves.

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