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Numbers vary, but we reckon at least 500,000 people build a PC in the UK each year. Once you’ve built your own, it’s unlikely that you’ll ever go back. But that’s a small fraction of the PCs that actually get sold. So what can you do if you need a fast, powerful system – at a sensible price – but don’t want to build it yourself? KitGuru will investigate the pre-built market over the coming weeks. We’ll get to the Dell and HP rigs as well, but we wanted to start with a local company that’s been going for 23 years, MESH.
When we spoke with them, they had just completed R&D testing on the new nVidia GTX series, so they offered us 2 of these brand new rigs. With MESH, it seems that Elite means Intel-based and all of their systems come with a 12 month hardware warranty as standard.
The high-end version boots from an SSD and offers the GTX480 at £1,399 inc vat.
Just under the £999 mark, there is a similar system that boots from a SATA2 drive and uses the GTX465 for DX11 graphics. In all other aspects, the 2 systems are identical – right down to the 22” Iiyama HD monitor, Logitech Keyboard and Mouse. Let’s check the full spec sheet:-
| Mesh Elite GTX 480 (GTX 465 system remove SSD drive) |
| 1 Year Return to Base Hardware Warranty – inc 3 months free Collect and Return |
| 1536 nVidia Geforce GTX 480 with CUDA Graphics accelerator |
| 1TB Serial ATA 2 Hard Drive with 32MB Buffer |
| 22″ Ilyama Full HD Monitor – Prolite E2208HDD (1080p – 1920×1080) |
| 22x Dual Layer DVD Writer Super Format +R/-R/RW/RAM |
| 4GB DDR3 1333mhz Memory |
| Samsung 64GB MLC SSD SATA Solid State Hard Drive |
| 7.1 High Definition onboard sound card – for 8 Channel Cinema Sound |
| 950W Power Supply |
| Akasa Freedom Tower Quiet Heat Pipe CPU Fan |
| Asus P7P55 LX Mainboard -Intel Core i5/i7 LGA 1156 ATX |
| Asus WL-138g V2 Internal IEEE802.11 b/g PCI adapter |
| BullGuard Internet Security Ver 9- 90 Day Trial |
| Cyberlink Video Editing Suite Utility Suite – 7 titles |
| Intel Core i5 750 Quad Core Processor (2.66ghz,8mb Cache) – LGA 1156 |
| Logitech Cordless Keyboard and Cordless Optical Mouse – Black |
| Microsoft MDA Rebate |
| Windows 7 – Home Premium |
| MS Royalty Works 8.5 & 60 Day Trial |
| Network ready PCIe Gigabit LAN |
| Thermaltake Element ‘S' Gaming Chassis |
Those 480GTXs need far too much cooling.
prices seem competitive, but the CPU cooler and ram put me off. ill go check out the customisations.
they need a hardcore case for 480, that thing is getting way too hot.
465 is solid performer, id opt for the cheaper system and maybe add a reasonably priced SSD for the OS drive.
good review, noise seems a bit high with 480 and those temps scare me. 98c long term? thats an RMA waiting to happen. guess the warranty is a good option! would make more sense for Mesh to offer better cases for 480 to save their potential costs in 9 months time. I can see a lot of those failing.
good review, the one thing that put me off the system is the use of really cheap ram without heatspreaders. I know the audience wont care, but Mesh really should.
Nice enough system, I dont overclock and don’t care about state of the art cooling,. I like warranty cover from companies, so im not ashamed to say I buy them prebuilt. worth the hassle free gaming experience with long term peace of mind 🙂
ITs not a bad system and very competitive, which I think MESH aim for. nothing fancy, but solid workmanship and good warranty cover with good parts.
Nice to see a zotac branded card in the system, I have always liked them.
That CPU cooler is pretty good for a reference cooled system. Would like to see branded ram from OCZ or Corsair, or even Crucial with heatspreaders however. That really does add a feeling of “our audience wont care to open the case, lets put in cheap ass modules to make a few more quid on profit”.
Just my views anyway, but its a generally positive looking system(s)
I would agree, of everything in the system, I would only be unhappy about the use of unbranded, low spec memory. Surely for a company like MEsh, spending £3 more in a build to use good ram would be better not only for the customer but them long term.
If this review has whet your appetite at all, then give the MESH team a shout and ask them what the price would be with 1600Mhz ram, an improved cooler and the fan-side-panel version of the Element S case