Mesh has been in the direct channel since 1978, since which time it has built up a reputation for manufacturing value for money, performance based, quality systems, with a sound but solid technical support team. We were keen to see its latest incarnation the Mesh Matrix 700GDR.

Mesh had no problems meeting our deadline and delivered the system with plenty of time to spare. This helped us no end as it provided us with ample time to vigorously test the Mesh in both standard (as supplied) and tweaked formats. Yes, we can hear you! tweaking, yes absolutely, and why not?, if the system is capable of tweaking then one must try it. Tweaking has become a serious platform, and as such users now tweak their systems to get that extra bit of performance, and for this reason we have made it mandatory in our labs to test for tweaks. Over clocking on the other hand is a separate issue and as such we do not recommend it.

How we carried out our tests

The suite of benchmarks we used enables comprehensive system performance measurement with the most popular applications covering a wide rage of Office Productivity applications running under Windows 98 operating system. To achieve this we ran BAPco 2000. When doing our testing we used the full versions of 3DMark 2000 Pro and referencing them to Winstone 99 1.1.

First Impressions

The Mesh packaging was exemplary, just three boxes - the system unit, keyboard, mouse, a robust plastic wallet containing all the documentation and disks together, were all housed in one large box, printed in full four colour halftone using Mesh's corporate colours. Before opening the box you able to check what the content is inside by glancing over the label on the top left side detailing the exact specification of the system supplied. Mitsubishi Monitor was in the original box, and the Pc Works Four-speaker surround in the third box. Mesh puts out a clear message with it's packaging, "we care about our clients", and wants the system to work first time when it arrives. Dead on Arrivals (D.O.A) has been a major issue for PC Manufacturers in the last decade and as such only a few have addressed this problem, it is clear Mesh has understood the value of getting it right first time.
Once out of the box, the deep midi-tower case has the striking Mesh logo embossed on it with a decent size Power button and a small reset button to ensure no accidents occur. All the auxiliary ports are clearly labelled, while the main ports are colour coded. Mesh has left nothing to chance and has provided an A2 poster detailing what should be in the box and how to connect up the system.
Top Marks!

Features

Mesh's list of supplied components is impressive, the two 5.25" bays house a Teac CD-W54E (4x4x32) and a Pioneer DVD 114 drive, below these is a 3.5" (1.44Mb) floppy disk drive. The Motherboard is the MA-6195 K7 Pro from MSI. The K7 Pro integrates the popular AMD chipset combination of Irongate (North Bridge) and AMD 756 Viper (South Bridge) Controllers, supporting a 200MHz Internal System Bus. At the heart of this beats a hefty AMD K7 Athlon 700 Processor backed up by an IBM DPTA-372050- 20.5Gb 7200rpm ATA66 UDMA Hard drive, and 128Mb SDRAM PC100. The Video and Monitor combination is breathtaking; Guillemot 3D Prophet Ge-Force 32 SDR AGP Video card feeds to the naturally flat Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 720 both award winners in our previous One2Surf labs. The Diamond Pro 720 supersedes the 710 and supports a refresh rate of 75Hz @ 1600 x 1200 with a .25mm aperture grille. An internal Diamond Supraexpress 56i V Pro modem with V90 will, more than meet your communication needs, the sound combination is by Creative in the form of a Sound Blaster Live! 1024 and the popular Pc Works FPS Four speakers surround for an adequate output for audio and games playing. Ms Works Suite 2000 includes the popular Word 2000; Windows 98 SE and Nero Burning Rom make up the software bundle.

Ergonomics

The supplied Microsoft Keyboard has buttons to access the Net, control the CD, pop-up the calculator and is combined with the excellent but versatile Microsoft Intellimouse. Almost immediately you turn on the system the first thing you notice is how quite it is, especially considering we have seen a few Athlons in our labs and the racket they make resembles the take-off tower at Heathrow Airport. Once started, you are presented with the familiar Windows 98 screen, the resolution is set at 1024 x 768 - 85Hz this is ideal for the monitor supplied. The system from boot up to Windows 98 loading is quick, in fact very quick, this is mainly down to enabling a Bios option titled 'Quick load' - nice touch. Mesh provides it's own Help files to guide you through some of the procedures, and the option of connection to VirginNet, even more useful was a neat folder titled 'Archives' which contains all the latest drivers and updates currently available for the PC. Beware backup this folder in case you need to reinstall Windows.
Access inside the case is via six screws, (we would have preferred a tool free case), once inside the case the cables are neatly tied out of the way to allow access to everything so nothing is obscured. There is a lot of room inside for extra components with spare 4 x PCI and 1 x ISA slots so the Mesh is about as future proof as you can expect from any PC these days.

Performance

In the speed stakes the Matrix 700 gives a good account of itself under Winstone 99 1.1 with a score of 27.9, well above average. In our SYSmark 2000 application benchmark suite, the Matrix 700 scores 141 and in our 3DMark 2000 scores 3672 and instantly becomes the fastest PC we have tested in our labs in it's class.
Mesh has certainly hit on a good blend of components, and paid attention to details other PC Manufacturer's lack.
Our next solid test for the Matrix was to raise the Clock frequency in the Hardware options for the Guillemot 3D Prophet (see figure 2) and test the system. The results were awesome, the Matrix came through with flying colours a sure sign of excellence with a score of 3819 3DMark 2000 benchmark (see figure 1)

Final Analysis

The Mesh Matrix is an excellent all-rounder, with a clean pair of heels for performance, value for money, and an eye for detail. The Matrix strolls away with our Excellence award without any hesitation.

Well done Mesh.

Mesh have informed us that the PC will not be available until the week commencing 15th May 2000.