Scan goes pint-sized with this high-end
gaming pocket rocket
The dinky performance PC market is rapidly
expanding, with new enthusiast mini-ITX motherboards and cases arriving every
month. After all, why does your PC need a full-tower case when something a
quarter of the size will do? As we saw in Issue 109, a mini-ITXPC can now be
just as powerful as a full-sized one and Scan is one of the first PC
manufacturers we've seen offering a full-fat gaming PC focused purely on
mini-ITX hardware.
Scan 3XS FT03 Nanu
The3XS FT03 Nanu is built inside Silver
Stone's FT03 Mini. When we looked at it (see Issue 109, p60) we decided that
the price was a little too high to warrant using it for your own system.
However, with our preferred case for a home build, BitFenix's Prodigy (see
Issue 109, p54), lacking in the build quality department, the FT03 Mini makes
sense for a system builder. It has superb build quality, it looks sleek and
unimposing, and it was the smallest case on test too. In fact, that the 3XS
FT03 Nanu is the smallest gaming PC we've reviewed that uses off-the-shelf
hardware.
That doesn't mean Scan has skimped on
components though. The price tag of $2066 buys you an Asus P8Z77-I Deluxe last
month's Labs-winning mini-ITX motherboard-an Intel Core i5-3570 K overclocked
to 4.4GHz using a score of 1,3V, 8GB of RAM and an EVGA GeForce GTX660Ti 2GB.
Meanwhile, for storage, Scan has opted for a 120GB Corsair Force 3 SSD and a
2TB Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 hard disk, while a slim line Blu-ray reader
resides in the side of the case, meaning that this system could happily sit
unobtrusively under your TV and perform media center duties too.
As the FT03 Mini doesn't have much room
inside, a large air cooler is out of the question, as is a high-end all-in-one
liquid cooler. However, Scan has managed to fit a Corsair H60 all-in-one liquid
cooler instead, which will be much better than a low-profile air cooler.
There's on-board sound for the simple reason that the motherboard has no
additional expansion slots.
Basically, the specification is
mind-boggling given the tiny size of the PC, and the 3XS FT03 Nanu is also
fully configurable via Scan's website. For instance, you could opt for a 256GB
SSD for an additional $106.55, or ditch the Blu-ray drive and save $51.55. As
standard, the 3XS FT03 Nanu includes a three-year warranty too, with the first
year on-site and the remaining two years return-to-base with parts and labor
included.
The asking price of $2066 may sound a
little high for a PC that lacks a decent sound card and high-end graphics card
- the Dino PC Tyrannosaur3570K costs just $32 more, but it's important to
remember that the GeForce GTX 660 Ti retails for over $404, and the individual
cost of the components, should you buy them yourself, comes to well over $1777.
The premium saves you the tricky task of building a PC into the FT03 Mini,
overclocking and installing Windows, as well as netting the peace of mind of a
three-year warranty.
A slim line Blu-ray reader resides in the
side, meaning that this pc could sit unobtrusively under your TV for media
duties too
Performance
In our Media Benchmarks, the 3XS FT03 Nanu
was extremely fast. In fact, the additional 100 MHz of CPU frequency over the
Dino PCTyrannosaur3570K made it faster in all these tests. It had the edge by
99 points in the Gimp image editing test, 23 points in the Handbrake H.264
video encoding test and 233 points in the multi-tasking test, giving it a lead
of 118 points.
The EVGA GeForce GTX 660 Ti2GB sits vertically in the case, exhausting hot
air out the top. Even though there's only one case fan, the GPU never went
above 80°C in our 24°C lab
Unfortunately, Arma II received a large
patch between testing previous PCs and the3XS FT03 Nanu arriving in our lab, so
our game test results isn’t directly comparable. Even so, the3XS FT03 Nanu
managed a minimum frame rateof46fpsat 1,920 x 1,080 at Very High settings, so
there's plenty of headroom if you game at higher resolutions or want to turn up
the eye candy to absolute maximum.
We also put the3XS FT03 Nanu through our
usual stress test of Prime95 and 3DMark 11 to make sure that it was stable, and
we also noted the temperatures and power draw while it was running these tests.
The CPU topped out at 78°C in our 24°C lab, with the Corsair H60 clearly doing
a very good job and remaining quiet. The GTX 660 Ti 2GB was a little
warmerat79°C, but was still fairly quiet, even under load. Incredibly, the
system only drew 256Wfrom the wall at peak too, so the small 450WSFX PSU
supplied by Scan will usually be under 50 per cent load.
We couldn't push the CPU much higher
without seeing the temperature skyrocket, but we squeezed a little more out of
the graphics card, settling on a 70MHz core frequency increase and 100MHz memory
frequency increase. This added 3fps to the average frame rate in Arma II. The
system was noisier at these settings, mainly due to the graphics card and PSU
when gaming, but it's no louder than other PC's we've seen recently.
Conclusion
The Scan 3XS FT03 Nanu is a fantastic mini
gaming system. Despite its small size and low noise, the temperatures were well
within limits, although you won't be able to apply crazy overclocks. It's
faster than some full-sized overclocked Intel Ivy Bridge PCs, and you can use
Scan's configurator to chop or change too. The three-year warranty is the icing
on the cake.
The inside of the FT03Miniis very cramped, and slim line optical drives and
SFXPSUs are the only options. Despite the PSU only being rated at450W, this was
more than enough for the system, which drew256W at peak
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Details
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Price
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$2066
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CPU
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3.5GHzIntelCore i7-3570K overclocked to
4.4GHz
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Motherboard:
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Asus P8Z77-I Deluxe
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Memory:
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8 GB 1,600MHzCorsairDDR3 Vengeances
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Graphics:
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EVGAGTX660Ti 2GB
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Sound:
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On-board
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Hard disk:
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128GB Corsair Force 3 SSD, 2TB Seagate
Barracuda 7200.14
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Optical drives:
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Sony Blu-ray reader
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Case:
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Silver Stone FT03 Mini
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Cooling CPU:
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Corsair H60; case1 x 140m bottom intake
fan
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PSU:
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SilverStone450W StriderSST-ST45SF Ports
Front: 2x USB 3, mic, headphone; Rear: 4xUSB2, 4xuSb3, LAN, audio out, mic,
headphone, optical S/PDIF out, 2x DVI, HDMI, Display Port.
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Extras:
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Windows7 Home Premium
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Warranty:
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One year on-site, plus two years RTB
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Pico:
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Fast performance; tiny size; low noise; three-year
warranty
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Micro:
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Limited overclocking headroom
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