Product Reviews

The cases used by Mesh for its computers may not change often, but the technology used inside them certainly does. The Elite E6600 R600 comes equipped with ATI's latest graphics card, the high-end Radeon HD2900XT. While it's a good PC in its own right, it isn't as good value as other HD2900XT-equipped computers we've seen.

As our 3D benchmark scores show, the Elite has no trouble playing demanding 3D games at high resolutions with detailed graphics settings enabled. You'll also be able to play upcoming DirectX 10 games. The Elite also did very well in our 2D application benchmarks, with high scores of 261 and 202 in our video- and image-editing tests respectively.

The 22in widescreen monitor has a native resolution of 1,680x1,050 pixels, which gives you a spacious Windows desktop on which to work. Image quality is slightly disappointing, though. While it's fine for watching DVDs, it's flawed for image editing and we'd expect more from a monitor included

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with a PC at this price. Areas of pure white were displayed brightly and consistently and it has decent viewing angles. Unfortunately, there was noticeable banding in our greyscale and colour transitions tests.

The motherboard has a second PCI Express x16 slot so you can add another ATI graphics card in CrossFire mode for even better 3D performance if you wish. Doing so would block off one of the three empty PCI slots, though. You won't need to add wireless networking, FireWire or eSATA adaptors, however, as these are already integrated into the motherboard.

If the roomy 500GB hard disk isn't spacious enough for your needs, you can add three more hard disks. You can choose to configure them as a RAID 0, 1 or 10 arrays. There's also room for three more optical drives and a floppy drive. You won't need to add a memory card reader as one is already built in.

Gamers will appreciate the 5.1 surround-sound Creative speakers. They're good enough for watching DVDs and gaming, but they sound woolly and muffled, so music fans may want to invest in a better set. While the wireless mouse is fine for everyday use, the spongy keyboard can be tiresome to type on and dedicated gamers may want more responsive USB models.

The three-year onsite warranty is generous, but if you need a fast DirectX 10-compatible gaming PC, RL Supplies' Modula 400 OC, is cheaper. CyberPower's Infinity Crossfire GT (reviewed last month) has a RAID array, an EAX-compatible sound card and a better keyboard and mouse, but is £90 less than the Elite.