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Mesh Matrix II 940 CS review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £824
inc VAT and delivery

Specifications

3GHz AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition, 4.000000 RAM, 22in 1,920×1,080 display, Windows Vista Home Premium

Mesh Computers

Mesh’s Matrix II 940 CS is one of three PCs in this month’s Labs fitted with a new AMD Phenom II X4 processor.

This top-of-the-range 3GHz 940 Black Edition processor and 4GB of RAM made the 940 CS one of the fastest PCs here in all our application benchmarks. The Black Edition suffix means the multiplier is unlocked, allowing you to overclock the processor simply by increasing the multiplier in the BIOS. This doesn’t affect the speed of any other component – which happens when you overclock the external bus speed – so the PC should remain stable even at faster speeds.

The 940 CS wasn’t the fastest PC here for gaming, but its Radeon HD 4850 graphics card is still more than powerful enough for playing the latest action-packed 3D games. Despite its powerful performance, the 940 CS is one of the quietest PCs here thanks to its foam-lined noise-dampening case.

Like most of the other £800 PCs in this round-up, the 940 CS comes with a 22in monitor. The Iiyama ProLite E2208HDS has a resolution of 1,920×1,080 pixels, which is higher than the 1,680×1,050 resolution of the other 22in monitors here. It’s great for watching 1080p high-definition video and for working in multiple windows simultaneously. Colours weren’t particularly vibrant, but it’s a bright screen with even backlighting.

The 750GB hard disk is the largest here, but if you need even more storage there’s room inside the 940 CS’s sleek black case for five more disks (but only four spare SATA ports). You can also fit three more optical drives. There are three PCI and two PCI Express x1 slots, but one of the x1 slots is blocked by the graphics card.

Mesh’s Matrix II 940 CS is a well-rounded PC with something for everyone. It’s fast in Windows and games, has a huge hard disk, comes with a high-resolution monitor and is quiet. Unless you want even faster 3D performance, there’s no need to look any further for a great-value £800 PC.

Basic Specifications

Rating *****
Processor AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition
Processor external bus 200MHz (1.8GHz HyperTransport)
Processor multiplier x15
Processor clock speed 3GHz
Processor socket AM2+
Level 1 cache 4x 64KB
Level 2 cache 2,048KB
Memory 4.000000
Memory type PC2-6400
Maximum memory 8GB
Motherboard Asus M3A78
Motherboard chipset AMD 770
Power consumption standby 3W
Power consumption idle 137W
Power consumption active 250W

Ports

USB2 ports (front/rear) 3/6
Firewire ports (front/rear) 0/0
eSATA ports (front/rear) 0/0
Wired network ports 1x 10/100/1000
Wireless networking support none
Other ports none

Internal Expansion

Case midi tower
PCI-E x1 slots (free) 2 (1)
PCI-E x16 slots (free) 1 (0)
Free Serial ATA ports 4
Free memory slots 2
Free 3.5in drive bays 5

Hard Disk

Hard disk model(s) Samsung SpinPoint F1 HD753LJ
Interface SATA 300
Total storage capacity 750GB
Spindle speed 7,200rpm

Graphics

Graphics card(s) 512MB ATI Radeon HD 4850
Graphics/video ports VGA, DVI, TV out

Sound

Sound VT1708B
Sound outputs 7.1 line out, optical S/PDIF out
Speakers none

Removable Drives

3.5in floppy drive no
Supported memory cards CF, SD, SDHC, MMC, HDMMC, MMCPlus, Memory Stick Pro/Duo
Optical drive model Samsung SH-S223F
Optical drive type(s) DVD+/-RW +/-DL

Display

Viewable size 22 in
Screen model Iiyama ProLite E2208HDS
Native resolution 1,920×1,080
Response time 5ms
Screen inputs DVI, VGA

Other Hardware

Modem No
Keyboard Logitech Deluxe 660 Cordless Desktop
Mouse Logitech RX 650

Software

Software included CyberLink DVD Suite 5, Microsoft Works 8.5
Operating system Windows Vista Home Premium
Operating system restore option Windows disc

Buying Information

Warranty one year RTB
Price £824
Details www.meshcomputers.com

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