Product Reviews

On paper, this Mesh system ticks all the boxes, covers all the bases, and generally packs an impressive amount of hardware into a reasonably priced package. However, it it would be fair to say that a few corners have been cut.

As a general purpose PC, the system has plenty of power to offer. The Core 2 Duo E6850 sits at the top of Intel's dual-core range, and it's one of the fastest processors on the market. While it has two processing cores, as opposed to the four available in quad core packages, they're both clocked at a rapid 3GHz, meaning the PC will simply eat through just about any applications you throw at it, from office software to video production.

The Mesh comes with 32-bit Windows Vista installed, so a large chunk of the installed 4GB of RAM is going to waste. The maths of memory addressing says 32-bit operating systems can use up to 4GB, but that includes a certain amount set aside for your graphics card's RAM and other bits and bobs, leaving only about 3.2GB of main memory accessible. Still, if you upgrade to 64-bit Vista in the future, once the majority of add-ons start becoming compatible, you'll get the benefit.

The rather bland black and silver case may not scream 'high-end gaming system', but the Mesh is no slouch in this department. The 320MB nVidia 8800GTS is a powerful graphics card, and almost any game should look good and play well. In our tests, the processor and graphics card earned the Elite E6850 excellent scores in both 2D and 3D.

Gaming credentials are given a further boost

ADVERTISEMENT

by a Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer soundcard. As well as awesome sound in games, this also provides 24-bit 'Crystalizer' technology that makes low-quality MP3s sound a little less dull and flat. Audiophiles may not be convinced, but you're unlikely to want to turn it off once you've heard it.

That 22 inch monitor represents something of a victory of quantity over quality, and doesn't offer the wide viewing angles or the even backlighting you'd expect from the best models. That said, if you're not too fussed about the subtleties, it's OK.

Room for maneouvre

Just about every PC task these days seems to demand plenty of hard disk space, and Mesh obliges with not one but two drives, a 500GB Seagate Barracuda and a 250GB Samsung Spin Point, totalling three-quarters of a terabyte. Other systems may pair up drives in impressive-sounding RAID arrays, but the benefits are negligible for everyday tasks, so we're happy with Mesh's arrangement. A Samsung DVD rewriter completes what's a very strong core specification.

Unfortunately, the peripherals don't match the quality of the main system. The keyboard and mouse are wireless and made by Logitech, both good points, but are very basic, no more than usable. If you plan on playing a lot of games, you'll probably want to upgrade to a more responsive mouse. The 5.1 speakers are a bigger let-down. A 5.1 surround system can be excellent for films and games, but a good set could cost quite a bit. These ones evidently didn't, and the small, lightweight satellite speakers sounded thin and harsh as we turned the volume up to room-filling levels. That's disappointing when you consider the potential of the sound card. A good two-speaker kit would have been preferable, especially for listening to music.

If you're simply interested in getting plenty of performance for your money, the Elite E6850CBX may well appeal. But we'd have preferred a little more of the budget to be allocated to the peripherals. After all, a £1000 PC shouldn't just go fast, it should feel and sound like the expensive and desirable multi-purpose system that it is.