Scan 3XS Velocity X79 SLI Extreme review

£2687
Price when reviewed

Scan likes its PCs big and powerful, and the 3XS Velocity X79 SLI Extreme is no different, thanks to an overclocked Sandy Bridge E Series processor and stylish Corsair Obsidian 650D chassis. The biggest draw of all, however, is the pair of hulking graphics cards visible through the side window.

They’re Nvidia GeForce GTX 580s from EVGA, and each comes with a fearsome specification: a core overclocked from 772MHz to 797MHz, 512 stream processors running at 1,594MHz instead of 1,544MHz, and 1,536MB of GDDR5 RAM clocked up to a formidable 4,050MHz.

The two cards in tandem provided some of the best gaming results we’ve yet seen from a PC. The Scan averaged 86fps in our 1,920 x 1,080 Very High quality test, 66fps when we upped the resolution to 2,560 x 1,600, and still 56fps when we added 4x anti-aliasing. That’s much quicker than the only other X79-powered PC we’ve seen, Chillblast’s Fusion Photo OC IV, which included a mere GTX 560 Ti.

Scan 3XS Velocity X79 SLI Extreme

The processor’s no slouch, either. Scan hasn’t gone for the top-end Extreme Edition i7-3960X, but a 3.2GHz Core i7-3930K boosted to run at 4.7GHz is still a monster. Its benchmark result of 1.34 is a little behind the 1.39 of the Photo OC IV, but it’s stunningly fast nonetheless.

As well as that raw power, the rare inclusion of a discrete sound card – in this case a Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Titanium – will please audio buffs, and the Scan also has 16GB of DDR3 memory, a 120GB Corsair Force GT SSD and a 1TB hard disk. The Blu-ray drive reads but also writes to discs.

The Corsair Obsidian 650D is a tall, striking and well-built enclosure. The painted interior and motherboard tray lend themselves to an attractive, tidy machine, and the top of the enclosure houses a SATA dock. There are two USB 3 ports on the front, and four more, alongside USB 2 and a pair of eSATA ports, on the rear.

Warranty

Warranty 2 yr return to base 1st year on-site, 2nd year RTB

Basic specifications

Total hard disk capacity 1,120GB
RAM capacity 16.00GB

Processor

CPU family Intel Core i7
CPU nominal frequency 3.20GHz
CPU overclocked frequency 4.70GHz
Processor socket LGA 2011
HSF (heatsink-fan) Corsair H100

Motherboard

Motherboard Asus P9X79 Pro
Motherboard chipset Intel X79
Conventional PCI slots free 0
Conventional PCI slots total 2
PCI-E x16 slots free 1
PCI-E x16 slots total 3
PCI-E x8 slots free 0
PCI-E x8 slots total 0
PCI-E x4 slots free 0
PCI-E x4 slots total 0
PCI-E x1 slots free 1
PCI-E x1 slots total 2
Internal SATA connectors 6
Wired adapter speed 1,000Mbits/sec

Memory

Memory type DDR3
Memory sockets free 4
Memory sockets total 8

Graphics card

Graphics card Nvidia GeForce GTX 580
Multiple SLI/CrossFire cards? yes
3D performance setting Medium
Graphics chipset Nvidia GeForce GTX 580
Graphics card RAM 1.50GB
DVI-I outputs 4
HDMI outputs 2
VGA (D-SUB) outputs 0
DisplayPort outputs 2
Number of graphics cards 2

Hard disk

Hard disk Corsair Force GT
Capacity 120GB
Hard disk usable capacity 111GB
Internal disk interface SATA/600
Hard disk 2 make and model Western Digital Caviar Black
Hard disk 2 nominal capacity 1,000GB
Hard disk 2 formatted capacity 931
Hard disk 2 spindle speed 7,200RPM
Hard disk 2 cache size 64MB

Drives

Optical disc technology Blu-ray writer

Additional Peripherals

Sound card Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Titanium

Case

Chassis Corsair Obsidian 650D
Case format Full tower
Dimensions 229 x 546 x 521mm (WDH)

Free drive bays

Free front panel 5.25in bays 3

Rear ports

USB ports (downstream) 6
eSATA ports 2
PS/2 mouse port yes
Electrical S/PDIF audio ports 0
Optical S/PDIF audio output ports 1
Modem no
3.5mm audio jacks 8

Front ports

Front panel USB ports 2
Front panel memory card reader no

Operating system and software

OS family Windows 7

Noise and power

Idle power consumption 231W
Peak power consumption 843W

Performance tests

3D performance (crysis) low settings 131fps
3D performance setting Medium
Overall Real World Benchmark score 1.34
Responsiveness score 0.98
Media score 1.50
Multitasking score 1.53

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