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Mesh has overclocked the 3570K-W8CS’s Intel Core i5-3570K processor to 3.8GHz, which gives it the boost it needs to achieve an overall score of 118 in our benchmark tests. We’ve seen other PC manufacturers squeeze a lot more speed out of the same processor, but this is still a useful speed boost and means Mesh hasn’t had to fit a custom processor cooler.
The motherboard, an MSI Z77A-G43, provides plenty of scope for expansion with its three PCI slots, a PCI-E x1 slot and two PCI-E x16 slots. The second PCI Express x16 slot runs at x4 speed. The motherboard’s clever design means no slots are blocked by the dual-slot graphics card. This is an EVGA Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti with 2GB of memory, and is a proper enthusiast card. In our challenging Crysis 2 test, we saw an average frame rate of 30.8fps at 1,920×1,080 and Ultra quality. It’s safe to say that you needn’t anticipate any problems playing the latest games at high detail levels.
The Cooler Master Elite 430 case seems to be almost ubiquitous among PCs of a certain price range, but this is by no means a bad thing, as it has a well-finished interior, decent sound proofing and fine mesh covers over most of the air vents that serve to keep most ambient dust and fluff out of your PC. The PC has a generic 650W power supply, but this should be sufficient for all but a top-of-the-range graphics card.
You’re in luck if you want to supplement the existing 2TB hard disk and DVD-RW drive, as there are six unused 3 1/2in bays – two of them externally facing – and three empty 5 1/4in drive bays. The motherboard has two SATA3 ports and four SATA2 ports – currently only one of each is in use. Two of the motherboard’s four memory slots are occupied by a 4GB DDR3 module running at 1,600MHz. There are two USB ports on the front panel, plus the usual 3.5mm mic and headphone ports. The back of the motherboard provides four USB2 ports, two USB3 ports, a PS/2 port, Gigabit Ethernet and 7.1 analogue audio outputs.
The Hanns.G HL249 monitor is a 23.6in widescreen LCD display with a matte finish, so doesn’t struggle with overhead light sources like a reflective panel. Its even lighting and lack of reflections are easy on the eyes but we were disappointed by its poor viewing angles and slight reddish tint. The keyboard and mouse – a Logitech wireless set – feel lightweight and made of cheap plastic but work well enough. The keyboard tends to rattle as you type, so we’d recommend upgrading to a smarter model in the future.
For your £800, the Elite 3570K-W8CS gives you a powerful processor that still has potential for further overclocking if you’re prepared to add a third-party CPU cooler. Its Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti graphics card is also seriously quick. However, it doesn’t have a Blu-ray drive and its monitor is a bit disappointing compared to those we’ve seen with other, similarly priced systems. We prefer the Chillblast Fusion Blaze, which has similar graphics performance, a better monitor and higher-specification optical drive.
