Specifications and discussion
Specification
| MESH Elite Extreme QX G80 | |
|---|---|
| Chassis | ATX midi tower |
| Processor | Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 (2.66GHz, 2 x 4MiB L2 cache, 266MHz FSB, LGA775) |
| Mainboard | ASUS NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI |
| Memory | 2GBytes (2 x 1GByte) OCZ Platinum PC-7200 EPP @ 4-4-3-14 2T / DDR2-888.8 |
| Hard Disks | Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500GB SATAII (ST3500630AS) SATA2 16MB cache |
| Display | 22in Iiyama E2200WS-B TFT LCD Flat Panel Display -DVI-D (5ms) - 1680 x1050 |
| Graphics Hardware | NVIDIA GeForce 8800GTX PCI-E Dual DVI 768MiB |
| Optical Drive 1 | Sony AW-G170A 18x Dual-layer DVD ReWriter |
| Optical Drive 2 | Sony AW-G170A 18x Dual-layer DVD ReWriter |
| Sound Hardware | Creative Labs X-Fi Xtreme Audio |
| Speakers | Creative Labs Inspire T7900 7.1 surround with subwoofer |
| Modem | None |
| Networking Hardware | 2 x 10/100/1000, Marvell 88E1116-NNC1 PHYs, 680i
Texas Instruments FireWire400 controller |
| I/O Ports (usable) | 10 x USB2.0 (4x front, 6x rear I/O), 1 x FireWire400, 2 x RJ45 (Gigabit), audio, optical/coaxial S/PDIF-out, PS/2 |
| Operating System | Windows XP MCE 2005 |
| Additional Software | CyberLink DVD Solution, Microsoft Works 8.5 |
| PSU | OCZ OCZ1000PXS 1000W ATX 2.0 |
| Included Warranty | 3 years onsite parts and labour |
| Price | £2,249 including VAT |
| Shipping | £39.95 including VAT |
| Others | Logitech G15 Gaming keyboard, Creative Fatal1ty 1010 Gaming Mouse, 33-in-1 memory card reader |
The two headline components are of unquestionable ability. Both Intel's Core 2 Extreme QX6700 quad-core CPU and NVIDIA's GeForce 8800GTX graphics are currently without challengers in their respective areas. Unusually, MESH has opted to accompany them with a mainboard from ASUS. It complements the processor and graphics well, offering a second 16x PCI-Express slot for dual 8800 GTX SLI, should the single card supplied start to feel sluggish sometime next decade. The 1000W OCZ PSU has watts to spare for any future multi-graphics configuration, too, but we found it rather noisy in testing. MESH has rounded off the core components with 2GB of OCZ Platinum PC-7200 EPP DDR2 SDRAM, which runs at 888.8MHz with reasonably aggressive 4-4-3-14 2T timings.
Main storage consists of a healthy 500GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10, which uses the new perpendicular recording system to squeeze a massive 167GB per platter across three platters. Strangely, MESH has chosen to supply a pair of 18x Sony dual-layer DVD-RW drives, rather than the usual single DVD-RW plus DVD-ROM. We can't imagine many people will be using both simultaneously, although the cost difference between ROM and RW is so small these days it's not likely to have wasted any money to have two RWs.
Instead of relying on the motherboard's built-in ALC885 7.1 HD audio, MESH has added discrete sound in the shape of a Creative X-Fi Xtreme Audio. This should further enhance gaming frame rates by taking the audio processing onus off the CPU. The X-Fi is partnered by Creative's Inspire T7900 7.1 surround speakers, which should complement the sound card's high fidelity well.
If there's one area we could criticise MESH for it's the monitor supplied. The 22in Iiyama E2200WS-B TFT isn't exactly a low-end screen. It has great image quality and a healthy 5ms response, which is ideal for the intended gaming function of the QX. However, its native 1,680 x 1,050 lags behind what the GeForce 8800 GTX graphics will be capable of in virtually all games. With G80 even able to play the crushing Oblivion at 1,920 x 1,200 with 4x AA and HDR, the graphics grunt available will be somewhat wasted.
