Scan 3XS Z170 Vengeance 1080
A carefully crafted gaming PC that’s packed with power, thanks to Nvidia’s new GTX 1080 graphics
SCORE ✪✪✪✪✪ PRICE scan.co.uk/3xs
I£1,483 (£1,780 inc VAT)
from
f you’re building a top-end gaming rig then there’s only one item to spend your money on right now: the all-new Nvidia GTX 1080 graphics card. Of the Z170 Vengeance’s £1,780 asking price, a third is swallowed by this one component. It certainly has specs to make a grown gamer cry, with 2,560 CUDA cores (compared to 2,048 for the GTX 980) at a base clock speed of 1,607MHz. Just for fun, Scan overclocks this by 200MHz as well.
The end result is phenomenal performance in games, even at 4K. In Dirt Showdown, it averaged 103fps on the game’s highest Ultra settings (a 30fps boost compared to a similar system based on a GTX 980 Ti), and while we were initially disappointed by 22fps in Metro: Last Light Redux at its Very High settings, a little tinkering – disabling SSAA, reducing anisotropic filtering to 4x – boosted this to 48fps. And let’s remember how taxing Metro: Last Light Redux is.
1080p gaming offers no challenge to a system such as this, but to give a comparison with the Chillblast ( opposite), at Full HD the Z170 managed 162fps in Dirt Showdown and 92fps in Metro: Last Light Redux. We have only one word of caution: the graphics card fans whirred into action now and again, unlike the alwaysserene 1070 GTX in the Chillblast.
Naturally, the overclocking carries on to the processor. You might expect a Broadwell-E chip inside, but Scan chooses a sixth-generation Core i7-6700K overclocked from 4GHz to 4.6GHz. Gaming performance depends on the game – some are optimised to take advantage of as many cores as possible, others will thrive on raw clock speed – but overall it’s a judicious move, since it also saves some cash.
Only a second separated the Scan and Chillblast in our image-editing tests, but a relative lack of memory and cores held back the Scan in the video-editing and multitasking sections. Ultimately, the Scan finished with an overall benchmark score of 176 to the Chillblast’s 213 – but both are ludicrously fast.
Scan also pays its usual careful attention to the supporting cast of components. A Samsung 950 Pro M.2 SSD sits below the graphics card, with 16GB of RAM courtesy of two 8GB Corsair Vengeance LPX modules. The Corsair theme extends to the H100i watercooler, 650W RMx 80 PLUS Gold power supply and Carbide 400C case.
The latter has a full-size window at the side that opens on a hinge, making it one of the easiest systems to access. But this case is as much for show as it is practicality, with a string of white lights at the front and pulsing red LEDs on the motherboard. There isn’t as much internal expansion on offer as the Chillblast: only one PCI Express x16, one PCI Express x4, three PCI Express x1 and two DIMM slots are free.
There’s room for only one more internal hard disk too, with the single 2TB unit Scan provides being tucked away beneath a protective plastic awning. A pair
“The end result is phenomenal speed in games, even at 4K. In Dirt Showdown, it averaged 103fps on Ultra settings”
of USB 3 ports sit atop the case, with mic and headphone jacks, while the Asus Z170 Pro Gaming motherboard offers a plethora of ports at the rear: one USB Type-C, one USB 3.1, four USB 3, two USB 2, and even a PS/2 port. Even the graphics card is prepared for the future, with DVI, HDMI and three DisplayPort connectors.
Lastly, each 3XS system is supplied with a USB memory stick that includes the OS and drivers as shipped. So if you need to restore it to a new disk, you can. Plus, Scan’s technical support team is around seven days a week: 9am to 10pm during weekdays; 10am-6pm on Saturday; and 10am-4pm on Sunday.
The bottom line is that Scan has produced an awesomely powerful gaming PC with excellent levels of support. If you already own a 4K display then the Z170 Vengeance 1080 is the first machine we’ve seen that will truly take advantage. SPECIFICATIONS 4GHz Intel Core i7-6700K CPU overclocked to 4.6GHz 16GB DDR4 3,000MHz RAM Asus Z170 Pro Gaming motherboard 8GB GeForce GTX 1080 graphics 256GB Samsung 950 Pro M.2 SSD 2TB hard disk Corsair Carbide 400C chassis 1yr on-site plus 2yrs RTB warranty (parts and labour) 215 x 425 x 464mm (WDH) Windows 10 Home