Zotac MEK 1
Futuristic-looking PC hardly performs at the speed of light
According to Wikipedia, Zotac’s name comes from the combination of ‘zone’ and ‘tact’. Hmm, OK. Maybe that makes more sense when you consider it’s based in Macau, on the Pearl River Delta (Zhusanjiao). This area, which also includes Hong Kong, is the most densely populated in the world, and a region of the People’s Republic of China that’s very successfuly engaged in global capitalism. A zone of tact indeed.
The company specialises in compact PCS, and although the MEK 1 is nowhere near as tiny as the barebones Magnus (see our review, Issue 521), it’s a lot smaller than the average desktop PC. Narrower than the diameter of a CD, it’s aimed at gamers or anyone who needs a capable graphics card as well as a decent processor but doesn‘t want them to come in a tin box the size of a suitcase. Unlike the Magnus, it’s not just a black slab – it’s been styled to look like it belongs on the flight deck of a Klingon battle cruiser, with gill-like vents on the sides and an LED strip that runs up the front edges and around to the back (see image right). This can be set, in Zotac’s Spectra software, to display your favourite colour or various patterns, including a ‘breathing’ effect which is either restful or slightly sinister, depending on your feelings about Klingons.
The design is practical, too. It’s easy to take off the side for access to all the innards, which you could replace at a later date, even if there’s no room to add more. We’d usually expect to see at least a few spare memory slots, but Zotac has already filled them with a generous 16GB, so we’ll excuse it.
Windows 10 is installed on a 240GB SSD, and there’s a 1TB hard drive as well to accommodate all your files. You don’t get an M.2 socket for super-fast SSDS, or any more bays for extra drives. Unlike most desktop PCS, the MEK 1 comes with Wi-fi as standard and has two positionable aerials on the back, a nice bonus. There are plenty of USB 3.0, audio and monitor ports, and a couple of USBS on the front, along with mic and headphone jacks, behind a neat sliding cover.
As you’d expect, the GTX 1070 Ti graphics card, from near the top of Nvidia’s current range, sliced ruthlessly through our tests, running every 3D game smoothly with the highest graphics settings at Full HD or 2560x1440. Even at 4K resolution, we only had to turn down the quality options slightly on the most demanding games.
A maximum Steam VR score of 11 confirmed its readiness for virtual-reality headsets. The catch is the i7-7700 processor, which is not as fast as Intel’s newer six- core eighth-generation i5 chips. An overclocked i5-8600k PC like the Palicomp i5 Cosmos (£1,100 from Palicomp www.snipca.com/28286, see Issue 532) would be a better choice for processor-intensive tasks.
The Klingons say raw power isn’t everything. That’s no doubt very wise, but when it comes to desktop PCS, raw power is pretty much what you’re spending your money on, and there just isn’t quite enough of it here to justify the price tag.
A bog-standard mouse and a surprisingly decent mechanical keyboard are also included, but all things considered we’d be inclined to put up with a bulkier case to get more computing capability for our cash. If the MEK 1 gets updated with a better processor, we might be persuaded.
Its superb graphics will impress gamers, but for this price it lacks raw power