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Its plastic-looking silver and grey front panel will not win any beauty contests, but the Mesh Elite E6600 PCW provides good performance and a number of features that put a strong emphasis on its home-entertainment and multimedia capabilities.
Like its rivals from Scan and Chillblast, the Elite E6600 is based on the Core 2 Duo E6600 processor. However, it’s the only member of this trio that runs at the standard clock speed of 2.4GHz. The other two machines are both overclocked, giving them a clear edge in terms of their raw processing performance.
As a result, the Elite E6600 can’t quite match the performance of the Scan and Chillblast machines, nor of the Evesham Solar Plus with its 2.67GHz E6700 processor. Even so, it’s hard to criticise a PC that can manage 96fps in our Far Cry test.
However, the Elite’s strongest features centre more on audio and video entertainment than on games. It includes a full set of 7.1 surround-sound speakers, which will obviously appeal to home cinema buffs.
It also has an unusual option that allows you to connect an mp3 player – or any other audio device – to the PC, so that you can play your music through the PC’s speakers, even when the PC is turned off.
Our only real concern with the Elite E6600 is that its upgrade potential may be rather limited. There are three spare drive bays available, so storage isn’t a problem.
However, a number of interface connectors – such as the USB and Firewire ports – are situated on expansion plates that hinder easy access to the various expansion slots. You may struggle to install any PCI upgrade cards, or a second graphics card.
Even so, the Elite’s performance and audio capabilities make it a good choice if you’re looking for a PC that will form the centre of your home-entertainment system.
This article is part of a group test of
£1,499 Conroe
PCs.
See also
Chillblast
Hardcore 6600 OC
Evesham Solar Plus
PC Nextday Zoostorm 5-7402 Edge PC
Scan 3XS C2D-OC
Apple launches Xeon processor in Mac Pro
Core 2 Duo numbering system
Performance graphs and table of features can be read via our pdf downloads
All Desktops
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