Final thoughts
Final thoughts
They say first impressions are important. SCAN certainly believes so, packaging a high-end Athlon 64 AM2-based rig in the eye-catching SilverStone Temjin TJ07 chassis. Not only does it look fantastic, it also provides more storage space than the average user could possibly need.SCAN then outfits it well. The AMD Athlon 64 FX-62 AM2 is about the fastest consumer CPU available today and is kept in check with intelligent, quiet cooling. Foxconn's nForce 590 SLI motherboard is also a popular inclusion today, and it's easy to see why. It's feature-rich, stable, and eminently tweakable.
Two GBytes of Corsair's all-new, EPP-supporting PC8500 memory adds extra bandwidth punch to take the SCAN's performance just a touch above the other FX-62 setups tested for this review. Twin ASUS GeForce 7900 GTX 512MiB cards are pre-configured in SLI mode for superlative gaming performance and, finally, two Raided 150GB Western Digital 10K Raptors make Windows XP Professional fly.
It sounds like the dream machine, doesn't it? But SCAN doesn't specify a discrete sound card despite the near-£3,000 outlay for the base unit. And, there's only a single optical drive and no cardreader - other things we'd like to see changed. Further, and perhaps as crucial as any of the points listed above, is the two-year warranty provided with the 3XS system. It really should be three years, and onsite at that.
SCAN's judicious use of top-quality components leads to an Athlon 64 FX-62 AM2-based system that's tasty from all but the monetary angle. But the company does need to add a few components and provide a three-year onsite warranty for this to be a must-have SKU.
It's a wickedly fast and well-engineered machine that, as a package, is good but not great. As a parting shot, savvy readers will also do well to see how a certain Intel chip will influence the market in the coming months.
Thoughts on this review, on the review of the Evesham FX-62 system and on AM2 and Conroe generally? You know we want to hear them over in the HEXUS.community.
HEXUS.links
SCAN Computers - UK home page
SCAN Computers - 3XS Athlon 64 FX-62 AM2 system - Direct buy link
Foxconn - Mainboard home page
Foxconn - nForce 590 SLI - C51XEM2AA (still not posted)
Foxconn - AM2 mainboard at E3 (part of the massive HEXUS.E3 show coverage)
AMD socket AM2 - Wikipedia
DDR2 SDRAM - Wikipedia
EPP - Corsair's take
NVIDIA - SLI home page
NVIDIA - 500-family core logic at CeBit 2006
CeBit 2006 - All HEXUS coverage
HEXUS review - Evesham FX-62 AM2 system
HEXUS review - Intel's Conroe spanks AMD FX-62's botty - for real!!
