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Scan 3XS OC PC system review. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 SLI graphics

by Tarinder Sandhu on 19 November 2010, 07:00 4.0

Tags: SCAN, NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qa25y

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A look at the high-end goodies

The 'X' is Cooler Master top-line High Air Flow (HAF) chassis. It comes pre-plumbed with a front-mounted multi-port dock that's home to a couple of USB 3.0, two USB 2.0, eSATA, FireWire, and audio/mic ports. It's a shame you can't hide them behind a drop-down cover.

As is the norm with all Scan 3XS systems, the internals are filled with anti-static bubble-wrap that helps cushion the components during transit. Common sense dictates that it be removed before usage, and Scan provides clear instruction on the box that this needs to happen before powering up.

Swing it around and you can see how it looks when switched on, sans side cover, and lighted by 'NVIDIA-approved' green CCFLs, which can be switched off by a button at the top.

The USB 3.0 ports from the dock are tidily routed through to the I/O section; ASUS' upcoming 6-series boards will feature a special connector on the board for this duty, by the way.

Corsair's AX 1,200W PSU is stout enough to power even three GTX 580s or a trio of upcoming Radeon HD 6970 Cayman cards, making this a one-fits-all system.

Look at it from side-on and chassis aficionados may realise that Scan has changed the LEDs on the 230mm intake fan to match the rest of the system; they're red on standard HAF X models.

The windowed side panel houses a 200mm fan that blows over the GPU section, and there's space for a further two 200mm fans in the roof - only one fitted, mind - and a 140mm exhaust fan by the CPU.   

Build quality is very good for a high-end PC, with no errant wires or unnecessary clutter. Storage is taken care of by the aforementioned Corsair Force F120 SSD and a couple of Samsung 1TB disks set up in data-protecting RAID1. The capacity can easily be doubled-up by adding more drives, if you so wish.
A closer look at the stock-clocked GPUs shows that the Fatal1ty soundcard is the meat in a GeForce GTX 580 sandwich. Look lower down and the red-coloured PCIe slot means a third card can be added with the minimum of fuss.

With the chassis weighing almost 16kg on its own and around 24kg when all the components are screwed together, it's certainly not a LAN-friendly system. But we don't imagine you'll be moving the beast around too often.

In summary, a well-built, sturdy system designed for power users above all else. Let's now see how it performs.

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