Specs. and initial thoughts
Specification
| MESH Elite E6600 Express HX | |
|---|---|
| Chassis | Mesh ATX aluminium midi tower |
| Processor | Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 (2.40GHz, 4MiB L2 cache, 266MHz FSB, LGA775) |
| Mainboard | ASUS P5N32 SLI SE Deluxe - nForce4 SLI x16 |
| Memory | 2GBytes (2x 1GByte) Nanya DDR2 @ 4-4-4-12-2T @ 533MHz |
| Hard Disks | 320GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 SATA2 16MB cache |
| Display | 19in SONY SDM-HS95PR TFT LCD Flat Panel Display - DVI-D - 1280x1024 (8ms) |
| Graphics Hardware | NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GT 256MB |
| Optical Drive | Super Format Sony 18x Dual-layer DVD ReWriter |
| Optical Drive 2 | Sony 16x DVD-ROM |
| Sound Hardware | Onboard from nForce4 AC'97 |
| Speakers | Creative Labs. T7900 7.1 |
| Modem | None |
| Networking Hardware | Gigabit Ethernet from Marvell 88E8053 PCIe controller and from NVIDIA MAC Texas Instruments FireWire400 controller |
| I/O Ports (usable) | 6 x USB2.0 (2x front, 4x rear I/O), 1 x FireWire400, 2 x RJ45 (Gigabit), audio, optical/coaxial S/PDIF-out, PS/2, eSATA, Parallel |
| Operating System | Windows MCE 2005 |
| Additional Software | CyberLink DVD Solution, Microsoft Works 8.5 |
| PSU | HEC 550W ATX 2.0 |
| Included Warranty | 3 years onsite parts and labour |
| Price | £1099 including VAT |
| Delivery | £39.95 including VAT |
| Others | Logitech Cordless Keyboard and Cordless Optical Mouse, 33-in-1 memory card reader |
The Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 makes a lot of sense. It's still a Core 2 Duo with the full 4MB of cache, and likely to be overclockable should you so wish. Mesh has sensibly partnered this with an Asus P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe motherboard and a healthy 2GiB of memory. However, the latter is just PC-4300 so won't give you much room for overclocking. The Asus motherboard is also based on Nvidia's previous Nforce 4 SLI X16 for Intel chipset rather than the latest 570, 590, or 680i SLI, but at least this offers a pair of 16x PCI Express graphics slots for full-speed SLI.
The storage options are also reasonable if not out of this world. The hard drive is a slightly above average 320GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 - a fast drive, with a dense 160GB per platter, and Mesh has supplied the 16MB cache version rather than the cheaper 8MB variant too. The system also comes with two optical drives - a 16x DVD-ROM and 18x dual-layer DVD rewriter, both from the Sony stable. This will allow you to perform disc copies, and the low cost of DVD-ROM drives means it's not really a waste of money to have two optical drives. Removable options continue to a built-in multi-format memory card reader (yay! We've been campaigning for this), and even a floppy drive.
Mesh has chosen a good midrange graphics option, too, in the shape of Nvidia's GeForce 7950 GT. This is a decent performer, and you have the option of adding a second at a later date for improved frame rates and higher resolutions, or to cope with more demanding new games. One area where Mesh has cut corners, however, is by relying on the Nforce 4 chipset's on-board AC97 sound - a common economy in our experience, which even premium systems from the likes of Alienware make. This still offers the required eight-channel sound to drive the decent Creative Inspire T7900 7.1 speakers, but won't be to the discerning gamer or audiophile's taste.
Looking beyond the system chassis, Mesh has bundled a fine-looking Sony 19in TFT monitor, which has a reasonably quick 8ms response time. Its native 1,280 x 1,024 resolution is relatively well matched to the graphics card's capabilities, although we did find it failed to detect the BIOS screen without being turned off and on again. This is also an X-Black TFT, which means it has an anti-glare rather than anti-reflection surface treatment. So more light is allowed through for a brighter image with better contrast, but the much glossier surface is not to everyone's taste.
