Review: Mesh X-treme G71 desktop PC

Buying a desktop computer for sheer power comes with its concessions. Size is usually the main culprit as to generate the kind of processor and graphics speeds, components need to be well chilled and allowed to breathe.

The easiest way to accomplish this is for manufacturers to use a big case and some clever cooling technology.

The Mesh X-treme G71 is an absolute monster, boasting a Cooler Master Praetorian ATX Midi tower case with a Musketeer display on the front to alter fan speeds and system temperature and glowing blue lights that shine through the case meshing.

Lurking inside is an AMD Athlon64 X2 4400+ (2.2GHz) dual-core processor and a 256MB Nvidia Geforce 7900GT graphics card.

Add to this a 300GB hard disk, 550W power supply and £1,399 price tag and you've got a machine that offers a serious punch for the pound.

The X-treme G71 is, by no means, the fastest desktop weíve tested over the last few months but benchmark scores of in 5,512 PCmark05 and 215 in Sysmark 2004 SE prove itís no lightweight either.

The 3Dmark05 rating of 7,853 shows that, while there are faster gaming machines out there, for the X-treme G71's price and additional features it offers fantastic value.

Should you want to add another graphics card at a later stage, the Asus A8N32-SLI will be more than happy to accommodate it.

The system also ships with a Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi soundcard, a set of 7.1 Creative Inspire T7900 speakers, a 20in Viewsonic VA2012W display and both DVD-Ram and a multi-format DVD-writer.

Thereís room for future upgrades too, with one free 5.25in bay and three free 3.5in drive bays, two spare PCI Express slots and two standard PCI slots.

And with a very healthy software bundle, including titles such as Microsoft Works 8.5, Cyberlink Powercinema 4 and PowerDVD 5 into the mix, itís the cherry on an already scrumptious cupcake.

The warranty offers two years onsite with one year back to base. There's also Mesh's 24-hour online support and lifetime hardware support charged at the national rate.

The Mesh X-treme G71 might not be the quickest out of the blocks but it's a safe bet where today's and tomorrows computing demands are concerned.

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