Scan 3XS Z77 FT03 Nanu review

The step down to a smaller case hasn’t entailed major compromises when it comes to specification, though. The processor is an Intel Core i5-3570K – as seems to be the case with every high-end PC these days – and, while we’ve seen greater overclocks, a boost from 3.4GHz to 4.4GHz is nothing to be ashamed of. Its application benchmark score of 1.12 is a little quicker than the 1.09 scored by the Overclockers.

It’s also the first time we’ve seen an Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti in a system. This is our favourite mid-range card, and it returned a solid set of benchmark results. It scored 63fps in our 1,920 x 1,080 Very High-quality test and 36fps when we increased the resolution to 2,560 x 1,600; the Overclockers pulled ahead here, thanks to its overclocked GeForce GTX 680, which scored 79fps in the Very High-quality benchmark.

Elsewhere, there’s a 120GB boot SSD (a Corsair Force 3), but this didn’t perform particularly well in our benchmarks. In the AS SSD test, it wrote and read sequential files at 102MB/sec and 198MB/sec respectively; the Mach Xtreme drive in the Overclockers system sprinted through the same tests at 299MB/sec and 505MB/sec. The rest of the specification includes 8GB of RAM, a 2TB Seagate Barracuda hard disk and dual-band wireless internet.

Despite the powerful components and cramped build, though, the system didn’t produce much heat or noise. The Scan’s low hum only increased to a quiet rumble during our stress test, and the processor and graphics card hit peak temperatures of 74¡C and 76¡C respectively. The Overclockers system had a cooler processor and a hotter graphics card, and was significantly louder when stressed.

As usual, your money will go further if you’re willing to scale up to a full-sized tower: the Palicomp Alpha Detonator is £65 cheaper but both its processor overclock and graphics card are faster.

Compared with the Overclockers, however, this PC is better value for money. It’s quicker in applications, quieter, fits into a smaller enclosure and is more than £150 cheaper, with its sluggish SSD the only black mark. For all but the keenest of gamers, the Scan is our new small-form-factor system of choice.