Enthusiast PC winner
Scan 3XS Carbon
Verdict
Superb in every respect, from performance to peripherals: a worthy ultimate PC
Review Date: 16 Sep 2011
Price when reviewed: £3740
Overall Rating
Alternative products
Chillblast Fusion Dimension
Awesome speed, a rock-solid chassis and with the added bonus of 3D, this is one of the best high-end machines we’ve seen
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Comparison
| Product |
Chillblast Fusion Dimension
|
Scan 3XS Carbon
|
| Details | ||
|---|---|---|
| Part Code | Fusion Dimension | 3XS Carbon |
| Review Date | 20 Dec 2010 | 16 Sep 2011 |
| Price ex VAT | £1,699 | £3,740 |
| Price inc VAT | £1,996 | £4,488 |
| Overall rating |
|
|
| Performance |
|
|
| Features & Design |
|
|
| Value for Money |
|
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| Warranty | ||
| Warranty | 1 yr return to base | 1 yr return to base |
| Basic specifications | ||
| Total hard disk capacity | 1,080GB | 4,000GB |
| RAM capacity | 6.00GB | 8.00GB |
| Screen size | 24.0in | 30.0in |
| Processor | ||
| CPU family | Intel Core i7 | Intel Core i7 |
| CPU nominal frequency | 3.07GHz | 3.40GHz |
| CPU overclocked frequency | 4.00GHz | 4.70GHz |
| Processor socket | LGA 1366 | |
| HSF (heatsink-fan) | Prolimitec Megahalem Version 2 | Thermalrite Silver Arrow |
| Motherboard | ||
| Motherboard | Asus Sabertooth X58 | Asus P8Z68-V Pro |
| Motherboard chipset | Intel X58 | Intel Z68 |
| Conventional PCI slots free | 0 | 1 |
| Conventional PCI slots total | 2 | 2 |
| PCI-E x16 slots free | 2 | 0 |
| PCI-E x16 slots total | 3 | 3 |
| PCI-E x8 slots free | 0 | 0 |
| PCI-E x8 slots total | 0 | 0 |
| PCI-E x4 slots free | 0 | 0 |
| PCI-E x4 slots total | 0 | 0 |
| PCI-E x1 slots free | 2 | 1 |
| PCI-E x1 slots total | 2 | 2 |
| Internal SATA connectors | 6 | |
| Internal SAS connectors | 1 | |
| Internal PATA connectors | 1 | |
| Internal floppy connectors | 0 | |
| Wired adapter speed | 1,000Mbits/sec | 1,000Mbits/sec |
| Memory | ||
| Memory type | DDR3 | DDR3 |
| Memory sockets free | 3 | 2 |
| Memory sockets total | 6 | 4 |
| Hard disk | ||
| Hard disk | Corsair Force 80GB SSD | Western Digital Caviar Green |
| Capacity | 80GB | 2.00TB |
| Hard disk usable capacity | N/A | |
| Internal disk interface | SATA/300 | |
| Spindle speed | N/A | |
| Cache size | N/A | |
| Hard disk 2 make and model | Samsung Spinpoint F1 HD103SJ | Western Digital Caviar Green |
| Hard disk 2 nominal capacity | 1,000GB | 2,000GB |
| Hard disk 2 formatted capacity | 931 | |
| Hard disk 2 spindle speed | 7,200RPM | |
| Hard disk 2 cache size | 32MB | |
| Hard disk 3 make and model | N/A | |
| Hard disk 3 nominal capacity | N/A | |
| Hard disk 4 make and model | N/A | |
| Hard disk 4 nominal capacity | N/A | |
| Drives | ||
| Optical drive | Samsung SH-B123L | LG BH10LS30 |
| Optical disc technology | Blu-ray reader/DVD writer combo | Blu-ray drive |
| Optical disk 2 make and model | N/A | |
| Optical disk 3 make and model | N/A | |
| Rear ports | ||
| USB ports (downstream) | 8 | 6 |
| FireWire ports | 1 | |
| eSATA ports | 2 | 1 |
| PS/2 mouse port |
|
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| Electrical S/PDIF audio ports | 0 | |
| Optical S/PDIF audio output ports | 1 | |
| Modem |
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| 3.5mm audio jacks | 6 | |
| Graphics card | ||
| Graphics card | Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 | POV GeForce GTX590 Dual-GPU |
| Multiple SLI/CrossFire cards? |
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| 3D performance setting | Low | |
| Graphics chipset | Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 | Nvidia GeForce GTX590 |
| Graphics card RAM | 1.46GB | 3.00GB |
| DVI-I outputs | 2 | 6 |
| HDMI outputs | 1 | 0 |
| VGA (D-SUB) outputs | 0 | 0 |
| DisplayPort outputs | 1 | 2 |
| Number of graphics cards | 1 | 2 |
| Monitor | ||
| Monitor make and model | Asus VG236HE | Dell Ultrasharp U3011t |
| Resolution screen horizontal | 1,920 | 2,560 |
| Resolution screen vertical | 1,080 | 1,600 |
| Resolution | 1920 x 1080 | 2560 x 1600 |
| Pixel response time | 2ms | |
| Contrast ratio | 100,000:1 | 880:1 |
| Screen brightness | 400cd/m2 | 221cd/m2 |
| DVI inputs | 1 | |
| HDMI inputs | 1 | |
| VGA inputs | 0 | |
| DisplayPort inputs | 0 | |
| Additional Peripherals | ||
| Speakers | Creative A500 | Blue Sky EXO Mk 2 |
| Speaker type | 5.1 | 2.1 |
| Sound card | Realtek HD Audio | Asus Xonar Essence STX |
| Peripherals | N/A | |
| Case | ||
| Chassis | Silverstone FT02 | SilverStone Fortress FT02 |
| Case format | Full tower | Full tower |
| Dimensions | 212 x 616 x 497mm (WDH) | 212 x 616 x 497mm (WDH) |
| Power supply | ||
| Power supply | N/A | Corsair CMPSU-1200AXUK |
| Power supply rating | N/A | 1,200W |
| Power supply efficiency | N/A | |
| Free drive bays | ||
| Free front panel 5.25in bays | 5 | |
| Front ports | ||
| Front panel USB ports | 2 | |
| Front panel memory card reader |
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| Mouse & Keyboard | ||
| Mouse and keyboard | Razer Lycosa keyboard, Razer Abyssus mouse | Logitech G510 Gaming keyboard, GX9 Gaming mouse |
| Operating system and software | ||
| OS family | Windows 7 | Windows 7 |
| Noise and power | ||
| Idle power consumption | 163W | 277W |
| Peak power consumption | 514W | 833W |
| Performance tests | ||
| Overall application benchmark score | 2.75 | |
| Office application benchmark score | 2.43 | |
| 2D graphics application benchmark score | 2.89 | |
| Encoding application benchmark score | 2.30 | |
| Multitasking application benchmark score | 3.37 | |
| 3D performance (crysis) low settings | 171fps | |
| 3D performance setting | Low | |
| Overall Real World Benchmark score | 1.16 | |
| Responsiveness score | 0.94 | |
| Media score | 1.30 | |
| Multitasking score | 1.23 | |
Printed from www.pcpro.co.uk