Scan 3XS NUC N16 review

Scan has based its mini PC on one of Intel’s NUC Kits, which are used as the base for some of the smallest mini PCs available. Its take on the NUC mini PC makes for a particularly well-designed PC, however.

The 3XS NUC N16’s 49mm-high chassis is 14mm higher than previous NUC chassis we have seen, such as that used in the PC Specialist NUC Lite. The extra height allows for a welcome new addition to the traditional NUC formula: a 2.5in hard disk. While other NUCs only have space for an mSATA SSD, the N16 has space for a laptop hard disk and an mSATA drive, giving you much more flexibility when it comes to your storage.

Our review sample came with a 1TB Seagate ST1000LM014-1EJ164 SSD hybrid disk, leaving the mSATA connector empty for future upgrades. This hybrid disk consists of a 1TB laptop disk fused with 8GB of cache, so hopes to bring you the speed of an SSD with the capacity of a standard hard disk.

To test the disk’s performance, we used the CrystalDiskMark application. In this benchmark we saw an average large file read and write speed of 45.59MB/s, compared to 29.49MB/s for a standard 7200RPM hard disk, showing the cache to make the drive significantly quicker. This will mean applications will open faster and Windows will feel snappier, so it’s certainly a worthwhile addition. The hybrid disk still pales in comparison to the speeds of an mSATA SSD, however, as we measured a huge average read/write speed of 200.65MB/s for large files when we ran the application again on the PC Specialist NUC Lite.

Sadly, a taller chassis doesn’t mean the N16 comes with any more ports. There’s still just a mini DisplayPort and mini HDMI output to connect the N16 to your monitor, but thankfully Scan includes a mini HDMI to HDMI adaptor in the box, so you can start using the PC straight away if you don’t already have the right adaptor. There are also four USB3 ports, Gigabit Ethernet and a combined headphone and microphone jack.

The N16 is based on the Core i5 version of the NUC, with a 1.3GHz Intel Core i5-4250U processor. Scan has also fitted its PC with 8GB of RAM. This configuration helped it to an excellent 48 in our multimedia benchmarks. Its multi-tasking score was particularly impressive, showing the PC is capable of handling several programs simultaneously as well as demanding media software.

The PC’s Intel HD Graphics 5000 chip is also one of the most capable integrated graphics chips we’ve ever tested, as it far outstrips what we’ve seen from other mini PCs with HD Graphics 4600 chipsets. The NUC N16 completed our Dirt Showdown test with ease, producing a smooth 29fps at High quality at 1,280×720 resolution and with 4x anti-aliasing switched on. We even saw a smooth 31fps at 1,920×1,080, but this involved decreasing detail levels to Low.

This is an outstanding result for an integrated chip, and less demanding 3D games performed even better. We were able to play the beautiful platform game Trine 2 on Medium detail at 1,920×1,080 at 30fps, so you should be able to play most games at a reasonable speed without having to compromise too much on graphical fidelity.

With so much power at its disposal, the N16 would make a great living room PC. It comes with a VESA mount, so you can attach it easily to the back of your TV or monitor, and it has all the connectivity and networking options you’d need for this use. It comes with a 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth card already fitted, and its internal antennas mean you don’t have to attach any external adaptors to get a good signal.

We didn’t even need to press the power button to get the PC going, either, as the N16’s user-friendly BIOS let us wake the PC via LAN from both Sleep mode and when switched off. You’ll need to enable the Deep S4/S5 options in the Power section of the BIOS interface to take advantage of this, but it’s very easy to do and once we’d downloaded a simple Wake from LAN app on our phone, we were able to turn on the N16 on with a single button in the app.

The Scan 3XS NUC N16 is a superb mini PC. Thanks to its tall chassis, it has more storage than many mini PCs, and its superb processing power and graphics performance make it a great alternative to a laptop or budget PC. At £600, it’s still quite expensive, but it’s by far one of the most capable mini PCs we’ve tested. If you don’t mind a bigger case and aren’t interested in games, the Zotac ZBox IQ01 Plus will save you some money, but for those who want everything in a tiny chassis the NUC N16 is the PC to have. It’s a Best Buy.