System setup and notes
| System name | Evesham Technology Solar Storm | MESH Elite E6600 Express HX |
|---|---|---|
| Processor | Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 (2.13GHz, 2MiB L2 cache, 1066MHz, dual-core) | Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 (2.40GHz, 4MiB L2 cache, 1066MHz, dual-core) |
| Motherboard | Foxconn P9657AA - Intel P965 | ASUS P5N32 SLI SE Deluxe - nForce4 SLI x16 |
| Memory | 1GiB (2 x 512) PC5400 DDR2 | 2GiB (2 x 1024) Nanya PC4300 DDR2 |
| Memory timings and speed | 5-5-5-15-2T @ 667MHz | 4-4-4-12-2T @ 533MHz |
| Graphics card(s) | XFX GeForce 7900GS 256MB | Leadtek GeForce 7950GT 256MB |
| Disk drive(s) | Western Digital WD3200JD 320GB SATA, 8MB cache | Seagate 320GB Barracuda SATA2 7200.10, SATA2, 16MB cache |
| Chassis | Chenbro/Evesham ATX midi tower | MESH new-style aluminium |
| PSU | FSP 350W | HEC-550TD-PTE |
| Graphics driver | ForceWare 97.46 (Vista) | ForceWare 91.47 |
| Chipset driver | Intel 8.1.1.1002 | ForceWare 6.82 |
| Operating System | Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium | Windows XP MCE 2005 | Monitor | 20in ViewSonic VG2030WM DVI TFT - 5ms - 1680 x 1050 | 19in Sony SDM-HS95PR 1280 x 1024 |
| Price, excluding delivery, including VAT | £999.99 | £1,099.99 |
| Benchmarks |
ScienceMark 2.0 HEXUS Pifast Benchmark HEXUS.in-house MP3 Encoding Benchmark using LAME 3.97a (Intel HT compiler) - 701.5MB WAV HEXUS.in-house DivX encode using DivX 6.4 and VirtualDub on 416MB DV file CINEBENCH 2003 v9.5 multi-CPU render HDTach 3.0.1.0 Far Cry v1.33 - HEXUS custom benchmark Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory v1.05 - HEXUS custom benchmark Quake 4 v1.04 HEXUS Custom Benchmark |
|---|
Notes
We took a look at a £1,099 MESH PC a couple of months ago and found the Elite E6600 Express to offer good value and a sensible selection of components for the asking price. It's currently available for the same outlay and will provide a good yardstick for measuring the Evesham's performance.Vista testing issues
We were able to run the majority of our testing suite, listed above, without issue. However, our DivX encoding test result isn't included due to the non-encoding of MP3 audio under Microsoft Vista, thereby giving the Evesham PC an artificially faster time.We use HDTach for the system's storage evaluation and that doesn't run properly under Vista Premium either. Further, in terms of gaming, Far Cry wouldn't initialise correctly and so that benchmark is also omitted. Adding to the woes was the inability to run Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, with the StarForce FrontLine updates not even recognising the SC disc or program.
We'll be taking a closer look at Vista compatibility in the near future but due to the limited time we had with the evaluation system, further investigation wasn't possible.
