Verdict:
The Matrix64 3500+ GT is incredibly fast. So quick, in fact, that not even its own flat-panel monitor can keep up!
If you see the initials 'GT' on the back of a vehicle, you usually know that you're looking at the exhaust pipes of a very fast and very luxurious 'grand tourer' sports car. Mesh's new PC, the Matrix64 3500+ GT, derives its GT label from its ludicrously fast nVidia GeForce 6800GT graphics card. This isn't, however, the only bit of extremely high-performance hardware in the Mesh. The processor is the brand new version of AMD's Athlon 64 chip. This chip now attaches to the motherboard using a socket with 939 pins, up from the original 754. Those extra pins add dual-channel memory access, which means it can access the RAM even more quickly.
NEED FOR SPEED
Mesh's standard black case is hardly the best-looking in the world, but here its imposing bulk is put to good use. The components inside the Matrix64 3500+ GT exude power. The Athlon 64 3500+ is one of the fastest chips available, and Mesh has paired it with a hefty gigabyte of RAM. This means that even editing very large files - such as digital photos taken by 4- or 5-megapixel cameras - will be quicker than a Ferrari accelerating from 0 to 60mph. Our 2D benchmark test measures a PC's performance using everyday software, and the Matrix64 3500+ GT's high score of 1704 is testament to the abilities of the new Athlon 64 chip. It places the Mesh only 55 points behind the fastest PC we've ever seen (Evesham's Axis 64 34V PC). The Matrix64 3500+ GT's single huge 250GB hard disk means that you'll also be able to store a lifetime's worth of pictures, digital music and documents without much fear of running out of space.
The Sony DW-U18A DVD writer will also come in handy for making backups of all that data. It's equally happy with DVD+R and DVD-R discs, as well as CD-Rs, CD-RWs and re-writeable DVDs of both formats. It's paired with a DVD-ROM, so you can copy DVDs directly from disc to disc.
While the Matrix64 3500+ GT is very fast in 2D, a significant proportion of its price goes
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towards the graphics card, whose principal benefit is for 3D gaming. The 256MB nVidia GeForce 6800 GT uses the same brand-new graphics chip as the amazing 6800 Ultra, so it can handle all the complex DirectX 9 effects that make the latest games look so stunning and detailed. The GT version, somewhat confusingly, runs at a slower speed than the Ultra, so it's £100 cheaper than the Ultra's absurd £400 price. The GT is still far from a budget card, though. The Mesh's score of 23,147 in our 3DMark 2001 games test shows that it still provides fabulous performance. Even in a demanding game like Far Cry (reviewed in our July 2004 issue), you'll be able to turn every fancy graphic effect to maximum -something that will make every gamer smile, especially when it makes no dent in the game's speed.
THERE ARE LIMITS...
There is, however, one problem with this PC. Mesh supplies the Matrix64 3500+ GT with a Sony TFT monitor. Initially, this seems a good move. It's a very smart piece of kit. The casing is extremely thin, and our first few minutes using it were a treat. Colours are bright but not too bold, and images were sharp. Unlike CRT monitors, though, TFTs have a 'native' resolution at which they look best. For a 17in TFT, this is usually 1280x1074 pixels. This screen is a big 19-incher, but its native resolution is no higher. This means that although images on the screen are physically bigger, there's no extra space in Windows for applications. Even a 2-megapixel digital camera takes photos at 1,600x1,200, so you'll be scaling down most of your digital images. The extra physical space actually results in a blurrier image, because it's being stretched and blown up.
When it comes to games, too, the monitor limits the Mesh's capabilities. When we played Toca Race Driver 2, a great-looking recent driving game, the PC was more than happy to run it with every graphics option on full. Trouble is, we weren't able to increase the resolution to see them clearly! The pixels in the monitor screen also have a response time of 25 milliseconds. This is pretty slow, and means that fast-moving objects blur because the monitor can't update quickly enough.
BUYING ADVICE
The Mesh is a very powerful and well-specified PC. However, its brilliant graphics card and excellent processor are too quick for the Sony TFT screen. For a PC that's clearly made for games, it can't achieve all it should do. The Evesham Axis 64 34V is marginally faster in the benchmarks, slightly cheaper and has a better TFT screen, and so it retains the edge.
By Alex Watson
SPECIFICATIONS:
PROCESSOR Athlon 64 3500+ MEMORY 1GB 400MHz DDR HARD DISK 250GB (240GB) GRAPHICS 256MB nVidia GeForce 6800GT DVD WRITER Sony DW-U18A 8xDVD+R 4xDVD+RW 8xDVD-R 4xDVD-RW 16xDVD 40xCD-R 24xCD-RW 40xCD DVD DRIVE Sony DDU-1612 16xDVD 40xCD SOUND Creative SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum SPEAKERS Creative Inspire T7700 (7.1) MONITOR 19in Sony SDM S94B TFT EXTRAS Microsoft Works 7.0, Pinnacle Studio 9SE, Instant CD/DVD and Intervideo WinDVD
