A visual look
Having a list of components is only one part of the PC puzzle. A decent case that allows for future expansion, excellence in hardware installation, and a correctly setup system allows an integrator to go from average to highly recommended. Let's take a visual look at the Scan 3XS OC system now. Starting off with the tank-like case.
The beast of a chassis that is the Casetek 1018BM. It's primary steel with a lockable plastic front. Its dimensions of, approximately, 540mm (h) x 550mm (d) x 205mm (w) put it between mid and tower classes. Heavy-duty steel construction pushes its base weight to over 15kg. The complete system weighed around 20kg, so portability isn't high on its list of features. After having used aluminium cases over the past year, steel chassis seem cumbersome and needlessly heavy. Extra weight is the price one pays for a cheaper material. Four plastic feet help to even out the load and maintain stability.
Opening up the lockable front reveals a possible 4 5.25" and 2 3.5" drive bays in the upper section. That's where the 16x Samsung DVD-ROM and NEC multiformat DVD-ReWriter reside. Lower down is the floppy drive and an excellent multicard reader. It supports all the usual suspects, including Compact Flash / Microdrive, Secure Digital, MultiMedia and Sony's Memory Stick. We've bemoaned the lack of such a reader in our MESH / Evesham review.
Most systems now use case-mounted expansion ports and jacks, presumably for easy connectivity. The Casetek, which appears to be a rebadged Enermax, has a couple of USB 2.0 ports, a FireWire 6-pin port, along with microphone and headphone jacks. The ports are located at the very top of the chassis. This may cause problems for users who wish to position the chassis under a desk. General build quality is first-class, however.
A sideways shot of the rear shows the considerable size of the case. Cooling has been well thought out. 2 80mm fans can be set to blow across the motherboard. You can also clearly see the dual DVI nature of the Gainward FX 5700 Ultra graphics card. The IS7's a budget Springdale motherboard but it adds another 4 USB 2.0 ports, a single FireWire port, 10/100 Ethernet, and optical input / outputs to the back panel. The Scan 3XS OC is pretty good on the outside. Let's take a look at the innards and sexy TFT.
