Scan 3XS Z87 Vengeance SLI review

Ultra-high end gaming PCs aren’t for everyone, but they’re always a welcome spectacle. Built into a heavy-duty Corsair Obsidian 650D case and equipped with liquid cooling, dual graphics cards and a dedicated sound card, the Scan 3XS Z87 Vengeance SLI’s specification reads like every gamer’s wish-list. The PC’s interior is expertly assembled, too, and all of its cables are neatly routed out of sight.

Two of the six 3 1/2in drive bays are occupied by a 256GB Samsung SSD and a 2TB Seagate hard disk, so you get a great combination of a fast system disk that provides quick boot-up times and a large capacity mechanical disk for general storage. On the subject of media, the 5 1/4in drive mounted in one of four external bays is a DVD-RW drive rather than a Blu-ray drive.

Another 5 1/4in bay holds a multi-card reader that includes SDXC and microSD slots. None of the slots are labelled, so you’ll need to identify which slot is which yourself. The extra connectivity is useful nonetheless. Alongside the card slots are two USB3 ports that linked to a header on the motherboard. At the very top of the case is an external hot-swappable SATA hard disk bay and above the front panel card reader are two more USB ports and two USB3 ports. The latter ports are actually connected to two of the USB3 ports at the back of the computer, but it’s much more convenient to use USB3 ports than scrabble around under your desk to attach something to your PC.

At the back of the PC, in addition to the pair of USB3 ports connected to the front panel, are another two USB3 ports, two USB2 ports, a PS/2 port, a Gigabit Ethernet port and some audio ports. However, you won’t need these audio ports because the Z87 Vengeance SLI is equipped with a Creative Labs Sound Blaster Z gaming card. The Sound Blaster Z gives you 5.1 analogue surround sound, it supports 192KHz/24-bit high-resolution audio and it has a built-in headphone amp that can power headphones of up to 600 ohms impedance. The Sound Blaster Z really is a big improvement over onboard audio in terms of sound quality and comes with drivers that allow you to optimise your audio settings easily.

BEST SERVED COLD

The 3XS Vengeance is powered by an Intel Core i7-4770K processor overclocked to 4.6GHz. In combination with 16GB of DDR3 RAM, it’s well equipped for the most processor-intensive tasks. That’s ably demonstrated by the PC’s overall score of 135 in our benchmark tests.

The processor is liquid cooled, with the radiator and its fans neatly mounted at the top of the chassis. There’s also a large 200mm fan at the front of the case and a 120mm exhaust at the back. Only two of the memory slots are occupied, so you can add two more 8GB modules to bring the motherboard up to its maximum of 32GB of RAM. Two of the motherboard’s six SATA ports are vacant, so you can also add extra storage if needed.

The system is powered by a 750W power supply, which proved to be far less power hungry than we expected. Power consumption peaked at around 282W when we were gaming, but dropped to around 80W on the desktop with standby power consumption of just 2W.

It’s worth noting, though, that there’s little scope for adding extra expansion cards. There’s just one free PCI-E x1 slot on the motherboard, along with a PCI-E x16 slot that actually runs at x2. Neither of these slots aren’t easily accessible because they’re wedged between the graphics cards.

However, the graphics cards are perhaps the highlight of this PC, as they’re a pair of overclocked EVGA Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 graphics cards with 3TB of memory apiece, and they’re linked by SLI which means they work together to produce truly blistering frame rates. Needless to say, the 3XS Vengeance SLI blasted through our tests. In Dirt Showdown, the PC produced an average frame rate of 163.8fps at a resolution of 1,920×1,080 with graphics quality set to Ultra, and a phenomenal 148fps at 2,560×1,440.

In our challenging Crysis 3 benchmarks the PC produced a silky smooth average frame rate of 59.6fps at a resolution of 1,920×1,080 with 4x anti-aliasing and graphics quality set to High. Things became even more thrilling when increased the resolution to 2,560×1,440 and set the graphics quality to maximum with 8x anti-aliasing. These settings would destroy many other systems, yet the 3XS Vengeance SLI produced a full playable average frame rate of 44.7fps. That’s a stellar performance and it shows that you’ll have absolutely no problem playing the latest games at ridiculously high graphics quality and resolutions.

Between them, the graphics cards have four DVI outputs, two HDMI ports and two DisplayPort connections, but if you want to create a multi-monitor configuration you must connect all of your monitors to a single card. However, this PC ships with a single large and very high-resolution monitor, the Asus PB278.

The Asus PB278 is a stunning matt 27in display with a resolution of 2,560×1,440. You can swivel it into portrait mode if required, and its highly adjustable stand can be shifted up and down by 120mm and tilted through 25 degrees, making it easy to find the perfect viewing angle. The monitor has a full range of inputs: HDMI, DisplayPort, DVI and VGA. We were slightly annoyed by their position on the underside of the monitor where they’re hard to identify and connect, but that’s a minor irritation that’s unlikely to crop up once you have everything connected.

As the PB278’s screen is matt, there are no unwanted reflections, and we couldn’t fault the vividness of the colours on screen. Cheaper matt screens can look a little washed out, but there’s no such problem here. Even before calibration, we measured an sRGB gamut coverage of 96.9 per cent in addition to a contrast ratio of 935:1 and a black level of 0.31cdm2. These figures are fantastic for a non-calibrated screen.

The 3XS Vengeance SLI’s peripherals are of equally good quality, too. The Corsair Vengeance K60 mechanical keyboard is one of our all-time favourites for both gaming and typing. It comes with interchangeable WASD keys that are textured so you can feel them in the dark, as well as a contoured detachable wrist rest to support you while gaming.

The Corsair Vengeance M65 laser mouse is a similarly thoughtful piece of engineering that’s perfect for FPS games. It comes with a set of interchangeable weights and it has low-friction pads on its underside to ensure it glides effortlessly across almost any surface. The mouse has an 8,200dpi sensor, and there’s a sniper button that instantly switches the mouse’s resolution to make it easier to aim your shots. It’s not particularly attractive, but it fits well in even a small hand and it proved comfortable to use over extended periods.

CONCLUSION

It’s worth noting that if you don’t need the monitor, mouse and keyboard, you can buy the base unit only for £2,099. Scan provides the first year’s warranty service on-site, so if anything goes wrong you won’t have to return the system to the shop. The second and third years are return-to-base with full coverage of parts and labour.

The Scan 3XS Z87 Vengeance SLI is, at £2,699, very expensive. However, it’s also extremely well built and capable. If a gaming PC is your main source of entertainment and you have the money to spend, you’d be hard pressed to find one better than this. It wipes the floor with the most graphically challenging modern games and is powerful enough to keep you at the cutting edge of gaming for years to come.