Thoughts
With a specification like the Chameleon has, it's hard not to be impressed on a number of levels. Without sabotaging performance somehow it was always going to be a bit speedy, with the benchmarks bearing that out. It could be even quicker, that much is obvious, but it's no slouch in the tested configuration. While I hate the metric, 12500 3DMark05 points out of the box is very impressive. Everything else, from disk controller testing (110MB/sec sustained average read from the boot array, 92MB/sec sustained average read from the RAID3 storage array, which mirrors Steve's findings) to burning independant DVDs with no CPU hit on the Sony writers, made me wish in some way that the Chameleon was my own desktop workstation.A couple of things did irk about the Chameleon and its tested configuration, though. The radiator cage stopping the use of all the display outputs without serious cable bending would irritate me no end, as a user of multiple monitors. And I'd be asking Scan to get rid of the fairly useless RAID0 boot array in favour of a fast and plentiful single disk (or indeed RAID1 of a larger volume to give me data protection and good performance over a larger volume, for the same money). Upgrading graphics on it would be a bugger, too (although with SLI overclocked GTXs, err....).
And while the Chameleon was undergoing testing, including using it for a day to see if it worked well as a serious workstation under my normal usage patterns, I was absolutely terrified of scratching the £960 paint job. Scan don't supply touch up paint for the Chameleon like they do with the Cobra, so serious care has to be taken to not slight the multi-layer paint application unless you want to send it back for repair work. That fear would diminish over time, but it was tangible and I hadn't even spent a penny to aquire it!
However, the Scan 3XS AMD Chameleon - as it stood in full-on, full-bore, balls on the table for all to see mode - seriously impressed, despite the flaws. As an exhibition about what can be built given enough money, I'd be tempted if I happened to have £5000 spare to invest in as fast and impressive a PC as money could buy.
The configuration would need some tweaking to fit my needs and taking on the paint job, no matter how impressive, would take serious consideration, but I'd have one. Mad performance and workstation ability from a great looking chassis. Obviously a completely boutique piece of hardware for the well-off only, at £5078 inc VAT in the tested state (without any productivity software, monitor, speakers, keyboard or mouse), but for those folks with the means it shows that Scan have the ability to join the likes of Alienware, SavRow and VoodooPC in building this kind of box for those kind of customers.
Absolutely cuckoo looney tunes, but very lovely with it.
HEXUS Awards
Scan 3XS AMD Chameleon
Scan 3XS AMD Chameleon
