Mesh Matrix II 925 HD wins the Best Buy Award from Computer Shopper!

Mesh Computers have done it again! This time at Computer Shopper, with the Matrix II 925, scoring a Best Buy award.

Take a look at the full review from Computer Shopper by Kat Orphanides, posted online at Expertreviews.co.uk.

Mesh's Matrix II 925 HD isn't the fastest PC £650 can buy, but it's a well-rounded system. The lack of processing power comes from the choice of a 2.8GHz Phenom II X4 925, which can't compete with the Intel Core i5 processors in similarly priced PCs. However, Mesh has realised that few people need the power of a Core i5, and has instead used the money saved to install a few more useful components.

One is the huge 1TB hard disk, which should cater for all your storage needs. Next is the great 22in Iiyama E2208HDS monitor. It's one of our favourite budget monitors, with accurate if slightly pale colours that retain their intensity from most viewing angles. Its full HD resolution is a perfect match for the Matrix II's Blu-ray drive for watching HD movies. It's easy to connect surround-sound speakers, too. The Radeon HD 4850 graphics card lacks the power to satisfy serious gamers, but is beefy enough to play the latest games at reasonable quality levels. The comfortable keyboard and mouse are reliable wired models from Logitech.

The Matrix's compact microATX case reduces fan noise to a soft hum. It doesn't take up much space, either. There isn't much room for upgrades, but the Asus M2N68-VM motherboard provides just about everything you'll need, including eight-channel audio and an eSATA port. The only notable omission is FireWire. The graphics card blocks the only PCI-E x1 slot, but doesn't get in the way of the SATA ports. Cables are all neatly routed and there are two free PCI slots. The motherboard has two free memory slots, which can be used to upgrade from 4GB to a total of 8GB of RAM.

Unless you really need the extra grunt of a Core i5 processor, this is a great buy for £650. It even comes with 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium installed. The Matrix II 925 HD wins our Best Buy award.

Mesh Matrix II 550BE Wins PC Advisor Best Buy Award!

The accolades keep rolling in for Mesh Computers at the moment, with the Mesh Matrix II 550BE winning the PC Advisor Best Buy Award. The Verdict was that "The Mesh Matrix II 550BE PCA offers unbeatable value and class-leading performance. If you want a gaming PC for less than £500, nothing else here comes close."

See the full review from PC Advisor written by Paul Monckton below:

Systems at this price point always involve compromises - a meaty processor or a powerful graphics card will obliterate a £500 budget. But the Mesh Matrix II 550BE PCA not only achieves the highest WorldBench 6 real-world speed score of the group, it also provides staggering gaming performance that leaves the competition stuttering and flickering in its wake.

We were somewhat surprised to find an AMD CPU under the hood of our Best Buy machine, and the Mesh Matrix II 550BE PCA's 3.1GHz Phenom II X2 500 BE marks a turn-around for our previously Intel-dominated PC charts.

All the systems reviewed here feature ATI graphics cards, but the Mesh Matrix II 550BE PCA's HD 4870 outclasses the competition and takes gaming to a new level of performance.

Other components are standard fare, with the Mesh Matrix II 550BE PCA's smart black case concealing 4GB of DDR2 memory and a 500GB hard drive. The 19in display is perfectly acceptable but lacks a digital input. Usefully, Mesh preinstalls the CyberLink DVD suite.

One slight niggle, however, is the Mesh Matrix II 550BE PCA's one-year warranty, which is disappointing in comparison with the two-year guarantees offered elsewhere.

Verdict

The Mesh Matrix II 550BE PCA offers unbeatable value and class-leading performance. If you want a gaming PC for less than £500, nothing else here comes close.

Mesh XGS PII 955CS wins Computer Shopper Best Buy award

At MESH we always try to put together award winning systems, and we're happy to say that we've done it again with the Mesh XGS PII 955CS, which has just been awarded a Best Buy by Computer Shopper magazine.

The XGS PII 955CS recorded 5 out of 5 stars rating and Computer Shopper reviewer Kat Orphanides summed up the review as saying "We're not sure how Mesh can provide 8GB of RAM, a 1TB hard disk and a top-notch processor for only £800, but we're certainly impressed"

To celebrate this win, MESH are offering a £50 discount of the ticket price on this system - simply use the voucher code 50XGS230809G to qualify!

For the full review, please visit expertreviews.co.uk or read the whole thing below.

Mesh's XGS PII 955CS has a 3.2GHz Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition processor, the fastest in AMD's current range, and a huge 8GB of memory. This combination gives excellent performance at a reasonable price. The Overall score of 112 in our application benchmarks was 12 per cent quicker than our reference PC. Most users won't make full use of all that memory, but those editing HD video will certainly feel the benefits. If you need even more power, the Black Edition processor gives plenty of overclocking options.

The ATI Radeon HD 4770 graphics card helped the 955CS to a high frame rate of 54.8fps in Call of Duty 4 and 25.1fps on the challenging Crysis test. It's easy to boost frame rates in Crysis by reducing the anti-aliasing setting. We've seen more powerful cards in £800 PCs before, but unless you're a serious gamer the HD 4770 is a good choice, which is why it's our current Best Buy.

All this impressive hardware is slotted into Mesh's latest own-brand chassis. The black-and-red case looks rather snazzy, and should please anyone

who likes their PC to stand out. Inside, there's a 1TB hard disk for storage, and plenty of room to install extra drives. We liked the convenient USB, eSATA, FireWire and audio ports mounted above the front fascia. It's well built, but although it has vibration-dampening hard disk caddies, there's no other sound-proofing. This makes it a bit noisy when compared to systems with sound-proofed cases such as Mesh's award-winning Matrix II 940CS. It's also power-hungry, consuming 148W when simply idling.

The Asus M4A79 Pro motherboard is well designed, with everything sensibly laid out. With the graphics card in place, only one of the two PCI-E x1 slots is available. However, there are three PCI slots, too, so you shouldn't have any trouble adding expansion cards.

Logitech's Deluxe 660 cordless keyboard and mouse set mean you aren't tied to your PC with cables. They work well enough, but the keyboard feels somewhat spongy. The 22in widescreen Iiyama ProLite E2208HDS monitor is outstanding, with a fast 2ms response time, a 1,920x1,080 resolution and great image quality. Colour saturation wasn't as vivid as we've seen from some screens, but this is an excellent display whether you want to play games, watch HD movies or work with multiple applications.

The XGS PII 955CS is fantastic value. It comes with more processor power and RAM than any similarly priced system we've seen. The ATI Radeon HD 4770's performance isn't powerful enough to excite serious gamers, but it's still quick enough to handle the latest games. The XGS PII 955CS is a great choice for those wanting a really powerful PC. It wins our Best Buy award.