MESH Elite Extreme QX G80

Review: MESH Elite Extreme QX G80

Thoughts, HEXUS.awards, HEXUS.where2buy, and HEXUS.right2reply

SCAN's 3XS Triad 'G80' (aka "Tian Di Hui", an 18th century precursor to the triads) is around £800 more expensive than the Elite Extreme QX G80, even without a monitor. So it would be hard to deny MESH the nod for putting together yet another great-value PC. Factor in that performance is also neck-and-neck in virtually every test, bar the synthetic hard disk HD Tach benchmarks, and the picture looks even rosier.

However, it should be underlined that the SCAN did include water cooling and a premium pair of hard disks. So the two systems are not quite comparable. We would also reiterate our concern over MESH's choice of monitor, which is fine on its own but doesn't do the 3D graphics justice. Since there is no MESH monitor option available with this system capable of 1,920 x 1,200, we suggest saving £190 on the QX by purchasing it without the Iiyama TFT, then putting that towards something more in keeping, such as Dell's 2405/7FPW (if you can find the extra £500). Otherwise, some of the GeForce 8800GTX's power will be going to waste.

Nevertheless, even with the monitor supplied, MESH has put together an incredible package for the money. If you've got two grand burning a hole in your pocket, and your old 386SX is starting to have a seriously negative effect on your Oblivion frame rates, you could do far worse than spend it on the Elite Extreme QX G80. Just be mindful of that noisy PSU!

HEXUS Awards

The MESH Elite Extreme QX G80 is awarded the HEXUS Extreme Recommended award for offering so much performance for, dare we say, reasonable money.

MESH Elite Extreme QX G80

HEXUS Where2Buy

You can access the online configurator here.

HEXUS Right2Reply

At HEXUS.net, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any of MESH's representatives choose to do so, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.

Login with Forum Account

Don't have an account? Register today!

Hi everyone

Great to read the excellent review of the Mesh Extreme QX G80 and - as you suggest - I did drop the IIyama and broke the bank for a Dell 2407WFP.

Unfortunately, however, it's been a tale of woe from when “it” arrived on Jan 3rd 2007 (currently it's hiding in a cardboard box ready to go back) - more detail on the Extreme Patience Required thread.

The reason for this quick note is to say that earlier today I got to speak to a service guy at Mesh who was asked to call me to explain why my replacement machine had not arrived today as expected.

He mentioned that yesterday - as part of the bench testing - they found an issue with the OCZ memory - at 900Mhz it's running too hot and constantly shutting the machine down. Mesh RnD, as I understand, are in serious conversations with the manufacturers and appeared rightly concerned over this issue.

At 533Mhz - apparently no issue at all with the set-up.

I'm awaiting a call tomorrow with an update and, hopefully, some positive news that this issue will have a rapid fix! Over three weeks on and still no PC, gaming, use for work or anything!

Has anyone else seen this issue with the Mesh Extreme QX G80? Or indeed with the memory itself? Or in conjunction with the ASUS motherboard?

I'll obviously pass on any updates…

They made a gaming pc and they used x-fi AUDIO???? Even creative themselves say “The Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio is the ideal sound card for music and movies. For gaming, please consider the other Sound Blaster X-Fi products.” on the card's main page.

http://www.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=209&subcategory=669&product=15855

Creative x-fi audio doesnt have hardware acceleration. Which means that it is barely any better than your on board sound card(at least when it comes to perfomance).

And obviously this sentence in the article is false.

This should further enhance gaming frame rates by taking the audio processing onus off the CPU

————-

And fatality gaming mouse sucks when compared to mx518/g5/g7/mx revolution by logitech. Pick whatever you want, according to your taste. Personally i think mx518 is superior for gaming because it has 2 thumb buttons, it is optical(it has none of those laser disadvantages) and it is wired(no batteries running out during an intense battle+light).

————–

The X-Fi is partnered by Creative's Inspire T7900 7.1 surround speakers, which should complement the sound card's high fidelity well.

100$ speakers arent exactly high fidelity. If anything, they are as cheap as they come.

Things like 1000w psu, double dvdrw and overpriced mobo add to the price while offering almost no advantage.

Anyone thinking of buying one of these QX G80s may be interested in knowing that Mesh have admitted that they are not currently able to supply these PCs in the standard configuration which was reviewed at Hexus and PCPro, winning awards during both reviews.

How 2 reputable organisations like Hexus and PCPro can be given PCs to review which MESH then cannot supply when ordered defies belief. I wonder if MESH is working with such a tight margin on these machines that they are refusing to source the same quality of RAM which they would have inevitably used for the test rigs…. perhaps they're using cheaper RAM….. but I'm naturally a cynic….

So I ordered my rig on the 12th of Jan, was assured that it would be delivered on the 25th of Jan. I Rang them to confirm that delivery on the 24th of Jan so that I arrange to work from home to receive it and was assured that it was in its box and ready for collection by the courier. An hour later I'm called to be told that there's a minor issue with the RAM and that there will be a 3-4 day delay. After 4 days I have to chase them because it seems that Mesh don't bother to keep you informed, even if you've spent close to £3K with them. When I get through I'm told that there's an issue with the RAM and it'll be another 3-4 days. Again, today I've called Mesh and been told that there's a compatibility issue with the 900Mhz RAM and the motherboard and Mesh are:

1. Taking the 900MHz RAM model out of their catalogue (I wonder if they will attribute the same awards to the 533 MHz model?)
2. Redesigning the model with a new motherboard to get around the issue
3. Unable to give me a delivery date - it could be weeks…

You would have thought that Mesh themselves would have the courtesy to tell us all this on this forum, wouldn't you?

So I've tried to speak with the Sales Director, Dario, who doesn't return my calls. I've phoned the MD (Max Sherafati) who hasn't been available and have also spoken with the Editor's office at PC Pro who are investigating on my behalf…. you may see a letter from me in next months magazine at this rate. I've done everything except drive to Neasdon to have a ‘friendly chat’ with my mate Max….

So…. What do you think I should do….. cancel my order and buy another Dell? Is the outlandish incompetance that I'm experiencing normallity in Meshland or have I been unlucky? I've never dealt with them before so I'd genuinely like some opinion and advice…..

Thanks

NIB
Creative x-fi audio doesnt have hardware acceleration. Which means that it is barely any better than your on board sound card(at least when it comes to perfomance).

Please get your facts right. *All* X-Fi's have hardware acceleration - bags of it.

andrewt
Anyone thinking of buying one of these QX G80s may be interested in knowing that Mesh have admitted that they are not currently able to supply these PCs in the standard configuration which was reviewed at Hexus and PCPro, winning awards during both reviews.

If it's a change in specification to improve the reliability/performance then it sounds kosher.