Specs. and initial thoughts
Specification
| 3XS Triad “Tian Di Hui” | |
|---|---|
| Chassis | SilverStone TJ09S-W (Silver) TEMJIN Aluminum Supertower Case |
| Processor | Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 (2.67GHz, 10.0 x 266, 8MiB L2, quad-core, LGA775) |
| Mainboard | eVGA NVIDIA nForce 680i |
| Memory | 2GiB (2 x 1024) Corsair TwinX DDR2 XMS2 Dominator PC8500 CAS 5-5-5-15 EPP |
| Hard Disks | 150GB Western Digital WD1500AHFD Raptor X SATA150 10,000RPM 16MB 750GB Seagate ST3750640AS Barracuda 7200.10 SATA300 7,200RPM 16MB |
| Display | None, optional extra |
| Graphics Hardware | XFX GeForce 8800GTX PCI-E Dual DVI 768MiB |
| Optical Drive | Pioneer DVR-111DSV Silver 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer DVD Writer |
| Sound Hardware | Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty™ + Creative HS600 Gaming Headset |
| Speakers | None, optional extra |
| Modem | None |
| Networking Hardware | 2 x GigE LOM |
| I/O Ports (usable) | 8 x USB2.0 (6 rear, 2 top), 2 x Firewire 400 (rear, top), 2 x GigE Ethernet (rear), PS/2 (rear), TosLink digital audio output (rear) 8-channel analogue audio (rear) |
| Operating System | Windows XP Professional SP2b |
| Additional Software | TBC |
| PSU | 1kW Enermax EG1000 Galaxy Modular |
| Included Warranty | 2 years. 1st year on-site, 2nd year BTB (labour cover only) |
| Price | £3099 including VAT |
| Others | Alphacool watercooling, Sharkoon CCFL, Akasa fan controller, overclocked (full-production) |
We can appreciate that SCAN's 3XS Triad is a SKU that's designed to showcase the power of NVIDIA's GeForce 8800 GTX 768MiB graphics card and 680i motherboard, so the system has been outfitted with some of the finest hardware available. It should be, too, as this, taking away the niceties, is a £3K+ base unit: the very luxury end of the market.
SCAN's favoured SilverStone's aluminium TEMJIM tower chassis for a while and we saw the TJ07 model used on the AMD Athlon 64 FX-62 showcase SKU. The Triad system is housed in the TJ09S which was designed with the enthusiast in mind; you'll see why a little later on.
The front's silver-coloured aesthetic is broken up by the black front panel for the Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty soundcard that's installed inside. The Akasa fan controller makes sense when you see the internal fan arrangement and the liquid-filled section, above the Pioneer DVD ReWriter, is the reservoir for the system's liquid-based cooling. In this configuration there's no room for a second optical drive, so you'd have to give up a 5.25in device (most likely to be the Akasa controller) if you wanted to opt for one, or go for an external model.
Looking at it from the top, the chassis incorporates a flip-up I/O section that's home to the usual ports and sockets. Looking further back, though, and the chassis has slots for dual 120mm fans and a meshed exterior for better airflow.
The large left-hand side panel has a meshed section behind which you'll install 3.5in drives, so some thought has been given to cooling already.
Premium-quality tower chassis tend to situate the PSU at the bottom (Lian Li V2000 being another example) and we see that manifested here. There are a couple of holes dedicated to channeling hoses from external watercooling setups, again an enthusiast touch. The soundcard you see is the aforementioned Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty and the graphics card is the GeForce 8800 GTX 768MiB.
Externally, then, so far so good.