Product Reviews

Mesh went pretty light on the added extras when it made this system. On the other hand, it did build a solid all-rounder of a PC that won't let you down.

Features

By now, you won't be surprised when we say that the Matrix has the obligatory 256Mb of RAM and 40Gb hard disk. Along with the Multivision, it also has the fastest CD burner in this month's group test, and a fairly nippy DVD drive as well. Mesh has also taken advantage of the nForce's Dolby Digital decoder to provide onboard 5.1 surround sound. Not all system builders chose to do this, so it's a real plus.

Ergonomics

The Mitsubishi Diamond Plus monitor that comes with this PC suffered a little in the power regulation tests, with the image wobbling noticeably. The focus was good, but didn't compete with the CTX EX710F monitor that comes with the Systemax and the CCL. While there was a little misconvergence around

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the corners, it was hardly noticeable. The keyboard and mouse are both made by Microsoft. The Microsoft Internet keyboard is really nice to type with and has lots of ergonomic buttons to control different Windows functions, useful if you're feeling too lazy to navigate round your PC.

Expansion

If you want to add a floppy or a Zip drive to this PC, you'll need an adapter. Otherwise, there's not much you won't be able to stick straight in. There's space for an extra CD drive as well as a second hard drive and another stick of memory. You also get four USB ports.

Performance

If there were one thing that might really have boosted this PC's performance, it would have been a faster hard disk. The 5,400rpm Fujitsu model in this PC just can't compete with the Systemax's IBM Deskstar. A speedier processor wouldn't have hurt, but with a faster hard disk an Athlon XP 1600+ would probably have performed well enough. But we don't want to sound churlish about this PC's performance, though. While it didn't quite come within spitting distance of the Systemax, it wasn't far off! And considering that it has a slower processor and hard disk than the A1700MB, that's not bad going at all.

Overall

Mesh has built a good PC, but it really could have done with a faster hard disk and more goodies. For example, it would have been nice to see the nVidia games pack that includes Aquanox and Lego Racer 2, which was bundled free with the Multivision and Systemax.