Mesh Elite Pro
TheTh desktop PC that looks – and does – the business
£600 is a reasonable amount to spend on a desktop PC. You don’t want to skimp, but you don’t need Deep Thought either. Software and web pages should load quickly; Office software shouldn’t keep you waiting; photo editing should be smooth; and a little video editing should present no problems. You might even be tempted by the occasional game. Well, this is that kind of PC. It doesn’t need to bowl you over; it just needs to do its job.
Actually, Mesh has decided it might as well bowl you over anyway. With its chunky finned grille, giant side window (pictured below) and a devilishly red-lit interior, this isn’t your standard understated home computer. You might even think it’s a bit much, but then you’ll catch yourself admiring it when you’re working late. Why shouldn’t a real-life PC look like the computers in science fiction?
Peer inside and you’ll see some good-quality components. The quad-core Intel Core i5 processor runs at 3.5GHZ – that’s three-and-a-half billion clock cycles per secondd – that not only sounds impressive but makes it one of the quicker mid-range processors, and it shows.hows. Paired with a 120GB Kingston SSD and 8GB of fast memory, it makesakes Windows 8.1 feel as responsiveve as you could wish for, and with a freee upgrade to Windows 10, you’ll be able to keep your options open.
When it comes to more intensense tasks, the Elite Pro continues to shine,ne, running fancy photo filters and convertingting videos in next to no time. As long as you keep things tidy and don’t install a lot of programs you don’t need, this is a system that’ll serve you well for years to come. Not that you can’t fill it up with plenty of stuff you do need. Besides the SSD, which is really just for Windows and your programs, there’s a 1TB hard drive, which is ideal for larger files like photos and videos as well as your music collection and documents.
Even when working flat out, the Elite doesn’t generate much noise; unless it’s positioned right next to your ear, you’ll just hear a quiet whooshing sound. Running 3D games will fire up the fan on the graphics card, an Nvidia Geforce GTX 750Ti, which comes with its own 2GB of memory. It can’t match the performance of the GTX 960 in the PC Specialist Trion 960 system (see our review, Issue 454), but it’ll handle most of the latest games on medium settings, and less demanding ones with all their bells and whistles.
There’s room for upgrades, too. Three free RAM slots let you add memory up to 32GB – a DIY job anyone can manage. There are also three unused SATA connectors on the motherboard, so you can install as much storage as you want, if plugging storage into one of the three USB 3.0 ports creates too much of a mess.
One of the 3.0 ports is on the front with one USB 2.0 port, while the other two are at the back with four more USB 2.0 ports – so you probably won’t need to use a hub. There are DVI, HDMI and Displayport connectors for monitors, and you can plug screens into all of them at once if you like; the graphics card supports up to four. There’s also Gigabit Ethernet, but as on many big desktop PCS, Wi-fi is an optional extra.
Competition is fierce at this price. The PC Specialist Trion 690, for example, is only £50 more, with a slightly faster processor and a much better graphics card. But if those things are not your priority (and you have a secret yearning for red LEDS), the Mesh Elite Pro is a fine choice.
VERDICT: A powerful system wrapped in a case to die for, ready for all your tasks today and for the next few years
★★★★☆
ALTERNATIVE: PC Specialist Trion 960 £650 An overclocked processor and powerful graphics card make this a good bet if you need maximum oomph
It looks like a computer from science fiction, but it’s fast, easy to upgrade and gets the job done