Tempting, tempting 3XS...

[Gorlak]

Hi everyone!

I have lurked on these boards for quite a while now and having it as such a useful insight into Scan.co.uk is just making all the more convinced to purchase with them. My housemate has also just spent ~£3000 with them and I couldn't have been more impressed.

As a result of this I am now planning a Xmas purchase of a new PC (as you can see from my stats, its needed ). I have emailed Carl at Scan but thought I'd post on here for tips as well, if anyones interested?

Email as follows:

Hi Carl!

Please find attached a specification for a PC as we discussed on the phone earlier today. I am very interested in buying a 3XS system but wanted to get some quotes first. The attached image shows my current favourite system with the components I am interested in (with the notable exception of an eSATA port...!) and I wondered what the comparable Scan system would be?

I have spent some time at your website and put together a few specs (I've saved some favourites on my account; xxx at xxx), mostly using the '3XS Core™2 Duo-OC (PCW)' and ' 3XS Mid-Range Intel® Core™2 Duo'.

I am trying to keep to a budget of ~£1600-1700; its already risen once, damn you tempting Scan! ;-). I am (technically) a student if that would help with any discounts? I am also a member on SCAN.care@HEXUS so I'll probably try and use that offer to make it more comparable with the Mesh system.

Thank you for your help in this, it is much appreciated!

Mesh Elite² 8800 GTS £1606.45

System Base Price: £ 1233.19
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E6600 Dual Core Processor(2.40GHz,4MB Cache,1066MHz)
Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005
Aluminium ATX Midi Tower + 550W PSU - Black
ASUS P5N32-SLI Premium/WiFi-AP Mainboard - Pentium® D/Core™ 2 Duo - ATX [upg £ 20.00]
2048MB DDR2 900MHz Memory -( 2x 1024MB Kit) [upg £ 100.00]
500GB Serial ATA Hard Drive with 16MB Buffer
LightScribe Super Format 16x Dual Layer DVD Writer +R/-R/RW/RAM [upg £ 10.00]
640MB nVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS
19" SONY SDM-HS95PR TFT LCD Flat Panel Display -DVI-D (8ms)
Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio Sound Card (oem)
Without Speakers (T6060/T3300) [upg £ -30.00]
Logitech Cordless Keyboard & Cordless Optical Mouse
Free Microsoft® Works® 8.5 + 60 Days Microsoft Office Trial
Advantage Warranty - 2 Years On-Site + 1 Year BTB-T&C
Delivery Charge: £34.00

Subtotal: £1367.19
vat: £239.26
Order Total: £1606.45

Any input would be good, whether you think my choice of system is rubbish, any better solutions, maybe I should go for a better motherboard with eSATA (the i975x chipset...). Anyway, gone on for long enough, all comments welcome!

Thanks for your time,

Gorlak

[Carlh]

Gorlak.

I have now sent back the quotation for you to look at - if you have any queries then feel free to respond to the email

[Gorlak]

Have recieved it, thanks very much! I am looking it over now, looking very good. Its looking pretty bad for the competitors, can't get over the service quality! I now have to try and restrain my budget, I'm getting terribly tempted by so many things.

Will get back to you asap, at work at the mo tho!

Thanks again,
G

[Gorlak]

I think I am pretty much decided on spec now (at last!). Having spoken to Paul M on the phone I am leaning towards the "3XS Core™2 Duo-OC - Water Cooled" with the following spec:

• ASUS P5B Deluxe/WiFi-AP iP965, S775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533 667 800,
SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX
• 530w Tagan EasyCon - TG530-U15 - 2Force Silent Modular PSU
• Scan 3XS System - 1year RTB Warranty Watercooled Systems Only
• 3XS/Intel Extreme Gaming System
• Sharkoon 12" Blue CCFL 2in1 Kit (x2 CCFL Tubes + dual Inverter + adhesive
Velcro strips)
• Scan Newlink Bluetooth v2.1 3Mbps Mini Dongle (2" Long) 150m (350m Open
Space) Class1
• 2m DVI-D to DVI-D Monitor Cable (for TFT Monitors) Premium Signal Quality
• 50cm 3XS Round ATA133 Certified IDE Cable
• 60cm Akasa Serial ATA Cable ATA150
• 120mm Akasa Amber Case Fan, 3 Pin, 2 Ball Bearing , Ultra Quiet and Long life

Case: Akasa Mirage-62 Midi Tower Case
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 S775 2.40Ghz 1066Mhz FSB Conroe Core 4M Cache Retail
CPU Cooler: Alphacool Starter Retail Universal CPU Kit 12v (All CPUS Rad 12v Pump
Cables Tubes Coolant)
Memory: 2Gb (2X1Gb) Corsair TwinX XMS2 DDR2 PC6400 (800) 240 Pin Non-ECC
Unbuffered CAS 5-5-5-12
nVidia VGA: 640Mb XFX 8800GTS PCI-E (x16) Mem 1600 MHz GPU 500 MHz Stream 96
2x Dual Link DVI HDTV
Graphics Card Coolers: *** No Additional Graphics Cooler Required ***
System Drives: 500Gb Seagate ST3500630AS Barracuda 7200.10 SATA300 7200 rpm
16MB Cache 8.5 ms
Hard Drive Caddie : Icy Dock MB-453SPF Fits into 2 5.25" Bays with 3 SATA SATAII Hard
Drive with Hotswap
Storage Hard drives: ***Hard Drive Not Required***
Floppy Drive Flash - Card Readers & Writers: Mitsumi FA404M 1.44 Silver FDD+Int
USB2 7 in 1 Card Reader (SM MMC SD CF MD MS) Fits in 3.5 FDD Bay
DVD ROM DVD Writer: Sony Black 16x DVD-ROM + 48x CD-ROM IDE
DVD Writer: NEC AD-7173A-0B Labelflash Black 18x DVD±RW Dual Layer inc 12x RAM
Oem
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music Sound Card OEM
Wireless Adaptors: ***NO WIRELESS ADAPTOR REQUIRED***
Operating system: Microsoft Windows XP Media Centre Edition 2005
TFT Monitor: ***Monitor Not Required***
Case Fans: 120mm Akasa Amber Case Fan 3 Pin 2 Ball Bearing Ultra Quiet
Acoustic Sound Proofing Case Side Pannel: Akasa PaxMate II Acoustic Sound Proofing
Kit

All for £1657.02.
Just gotta pluck up the courage and order it now! Feel free to comment. Having seen the AMD Quad FX benchmarks this mornign, I'm all the more convinced!

Thanks

G