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Mesh Slayer Xtreme Gamer review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £1200
inc VAT

This great Core i7 PC has masses of upgrade potential and a great monitor. It's expensive, though, and there's no Blu-ray drive.

Specifications

2.66GHz Intel Core i7-920, 6.000000 RAM, 24in 1,920×1,080 display, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Mesh Computers

Anyone who buys Mesh’s Slayer Xtreme Gamer had better make sure they have room for the huge tower case.

It measures a whopping 470mm tall and 520mm deep. At least it keeps the noise down to a low-pitched hum thanks to its huge case fans and a heavy-duty CPU cooler.

There’s lots of space inside; all the internal cables are neatly routed without obstructing any of the components or slots. The Asus PT6 SE motherboard has a pair of PCI-E x16 slots, one of which is used. This means you can fit an additional graphics card to go with the Radeon HD 4890 in CrossFire mode. There are two free PCI slots but only one PCI-E x1 slot, which is blocked by the graphics card. This means that any extra PCI-E cards will have to go into the spare PCI-E x16 slot, assuming you don’t want dual graphics cards. Given the power of the 4890, you probably won’t need to.

Performance was excellent. The 6GB of DDR3 RAM should serve you well into the future. We also like the fact that Mesh has installed two hard disks. The first, used for the operating system, is a 64GB solid-state disk. The second, a 1TB hard disk, is left empty for your documents and media. This setup means you can upgrade or reformat your operating system without affecting your personal files.

Mesh includes a 64-bit version of Windows 7 Home Premium, so you won’t have to go to the trouble of upgrading from Vista. The choice of a 24in Iiyama ProLite E2407HDS monitor is a good one – its image is bright, vivid and sharp. It’s a shame there’s no Blu-ray drive, though, as the monitor’s full HD resolution would make it good for HD movies. The Razer Arctosa keyboard is great for both gaming and typing, with responsive, low-profile keys. We like the Razer Diamondback 3G mouse, too.

While not the fastest PC we’ve seen, there’s great potential if you want to overclock it yourself. However, it’s £120 more expensive than RL Supplies’ Modula Enduro, which has a two-year warranty and a Blu-ray drive.

Basic Specifications

Rating ****
Processor Intel Core i7-920
Processor external bus 133MHz (2,400MHz QuickPath Interconnect)
Processor multiplier x20
Processor clock speed 2.66GHz
Processor socket LGA1366
Level 1 cache 4x 32KB
Level 2 cache 4x 256KB
Memory 6.000000
Memory type PC3-10600
Maximum memory 24GB
Motherboard Asus PT6 SE
Motherboard chipset Intel X58
Power consumption standby 4W
Power consumption idle 134W
Power consumption active 242W

Ports

USB2 ports (front/rear) 2/6
Firewire ports (front/rear) 0/1
eSATA ports (front/rear) 1/1
Wired network ports 1x 10/100/1000
Wireless networking support none
Other ports none

Internal Expansion

Case tower
PCI-E x1 slots (free) 1 (0)
PCI-E x16 slots (free) 2 (1)
Free Serial ATA ports 4
Free memory slots 3
Free 3.5in drive bays 6

Hard Disk

Hard disk model(s) Samsung PB22J, Samsung HD103UJ
Interface SATA 300
Total storage capacity 1,064GB
Spindle speed 7,200rpm

Graphics

Graphics card(s) 1GB ATI Radeon HD 4890
Graphics/video ports 2x DVI, TV out

Sound

Sound Realtek ALC1200
Sound outputs 7.1 line out, coaxial S/PDIF out, optical S/PDIF out, stereo line out, mic in
Speakers none

Removable Drives

3.5in floppy drive no
Supported memory cards none
Optical drive model TSST SH-S223B
Optical drive type(s) DVD+/-RW +/-DL

Display

Viewable size 24 in
Screen model Iiyama ProLite E2407HDS
Native resolution 1,920×1,080
Response time 5ms
Screen inputs DVI, VGA, HDMI

Other Hardware

Modem No
Keyboard Razer Arctosa
Mouse Razer Diamondback 3G Mouse

Software

Software included Microsoft Works 8.5, Cyberlink Video Editing Suite
Operating system Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Operating system restore option Windows disc

Buying Information

Warranty one year RTB
Price £1,200
Details www.meshcomputers.com

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