Scan 3XS Isotope X2 SLI OC

Recently, we have published quite a few system reviews on bit-tech. They're interesting to look at from an enthusiasts point of view, but with the lack of new chips from AMD and a rolling, if rather unexciting, release of cards from NVIDIA and ATI, we were contemplating giving things a rest for a bit. After all, there are only so many SLI-FX60 systems we can take, right?

That was, until we saw this little beauty from Scan Computers. When the opportunity arose to be the first people in England to get our hands on this rig, we knew we just had to have it. It's a small form factor rather unlike any other. Not only does it sport a fantastic case design that is inspired, (and, we suspect, inspired by our very own WMD) but this new revision has two 7900GT cards in SLI, making it almost as powerful as just about anything else out there.

It's also overclocked out of the box to provide more performance for your cash.

So is this the ultimate in attention-drawing LAN rigs? Or will it end up being overpowered, overpriced and underwhelming? There's only one way to find out...

As you can see, the machine is in a distinctive 11-sided tube (Undecagon - Ed) which gives it the appearance of being a bomb, or a canister of radioactive material. The top of the case is left open to form a carrying handle, enabling you to pick it up and take it LANning.

Specifications

The insides are powerful for such a relatively small package. Not only does this look da bomb, but it's got the components inside to match. Scan has also endeavoured to provide better value to buyers by taking components and overclocking them out of the box. In no particular order, you'll find:

• AMD Athlon X2 3800+ processor - stock 2.0GHz, overclocked to 2.4GHz
  
• XFX 7900 GT 256MB cards in SLI - stock 470MHz/1370MHz, overclocked to 520MHz/1500MHz.
  
• EVGA nForce4 motherboard
  
• 2GB Corsair Platinum PC4000 memory
  
• Samsung Spinpoint 250GB hard drive
  
• Pioneer DVR-111D DVD writer
  
• FSP 600W power supply
  
• Price: £1586.24 inc VAT.

Initially, that appears like a pretty good price for a system that is not only at the top-end in terms of components, but also in terms of chassis too - and getting the system pre-overclocked is pretty funky too. If we were going to make any changes to the system, we'd possibly try and get a bigger hard drive in there - if you're going to cart this system around, you'll want to make sure it's got all your data on it with room to leech from others, too. The 3800+ processor is a great choice in terms of value and performance, and gets a decent performance increase from being overclocked, as you'll see. The processor is cooled by an Arctic Cooling Freezer Pro 64, which does the job admirably.