Product Reviews

What is the Matrix? Well, if you're a fan of the recent movie of much the same name you'll doubtless have your own rather dark and futuristic ideas. Mesh, on the other hand, has comparatively tame notions. To them, the Matrix is just a very fast PC.

With the Matrix all set up, its most striking feature is the monitor - a 19in Taxan Ergovision 980. It's a really lovely aperture grille monitor with a DiamondTron Natural Flat tube, making it extremely vivid. And, as its glass is flat as opposed to curved, the monitor is resistant to glare - even in a brightly-lit office.

Close inspection of the monitor revealed nothing to complain about. The image was crisp and clear across the whole area. Controlling and setting up the picture isn't amazingly intuitive, with six buttons to press, but the on-screen menu is massive, having icons and options which let you tweak a mind-numbing range of settings.

At the heart of the system is an Asus K7M motherboard. The board has plenty of upgrade potential, a point which may seem pretty academic at the moment but, believe me, in two or three years' time, a 750MHz Athlon will be something of a museum piece.

For example, if the 128Mb of PC100 SDRAM that Mesh has fitted becomes a little restrictive, it's possible to upgrade to a maximum of 768Mb. You'd have to be rich, mad or both to do this now, but it's comforting to know you can in future.

Beyond extra RAM, you can also insert three new PCI devices, one extra 5.25in drive and a new 3.5in disk too. Add to all this a case which is large, tidily built and has plenty of space for tools and hands. Upgrading the Mesh should be a doddle.

The system has a 25Gb hard drive. Our tests revealed that it's not just big, but fast too. Speed is aided by the fact

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it's a UltraDMA 66 drive. You'll probably see similar specs bandied about in PC adverts. Grand as it sounds, UltraDMA 66 simply means the hard disk and the rest of the system can communicate more quickly during times of real pressure.

Mesh has fitted a Pioneer DVD-114, a drive which spins CDs at 40-speed and DVDs at ten-speed. Slotted alongside it is a Philips PCA460RW CD-R/W drive. The CD-R/W sticks out like a sore thumb on the front of the PC, with its flash-looking grey and gold colouring. Aesthetics aside, it can write to CD-Rs and CD-R/Ws at four-speed. It can also read CDs at 16-speed.

A Dual Head Matrox G400 handles the Mesh's graphics. It's a fast card, particularly when it comes to 3D work. This fact is demonstrated by the Mesh's respectable 3DMark score of 6,532 when running at 800x600. With a processor as powerful as the 750MHz Athlon, however, you should be more than equipped to run your favourite 3D games at a resolution of 1,024x768. With the screen set to these dimensions, we found the Mesh scored 5,515 3DMarks - a very respectable score, which should keep your bashing and blasting smooth and free of annoying judders.

The other half of a rewarding and absorbing gaming experience is sound. Here, Mesh has played a clever but safe card by fitting a Creative Sound Blaster Live! Player 1024 board. It's a great card and, thanks to features like separate front and rear channels, should be more than enough to keep even the most ardent gamer purring.

Labtec's LCS-2514 speakers let the Sound Blaster show what it can do. The set consists of four satellites and a rather funky, space-age looking subwoofer. Of course, speakers aren't just about looks, they're all about sounds. In use, the set was quite a treat, offering plenty of bass - an essential ingredient in any action game. Higher frequencies were equally well produced, meaning the Labtecs could be delicate as well as brutal. What's more, as both the speakers and sound card are capable of surround sound, get ready for game effects to swirl around your head.

It's difficult to fault the Mesh Matrix 750Pro. It's a fast machine and has a monitor that's certainly worth writing home about. Only when you consider that Atlas' Meridian A850 is both faster, and around £200 cheaper, does the Mesh's star begin to fall. The Taxan monitor is some compensation - but not enough.