This $966 PC holds an amazing pack of
power at this price.
Price: $966
Ranking: 4/5
Mesh
Elite 3450-W8CS
Mesh Elite 3450-W8CS might be a PC at a
very reasonable price, but specifications are not what you have to sacrifice
for that; it has the Intel Core i5 processor và 8GB of fast RAM. Its components
are not at top rank, but they combine with each other to produce a high-quality
PC at a totally reasonable price.
The Cooler Master case is cheap and generic,
with flashy silver plastic highlights on its front. On the inside, it is made totally
of grey metal, but the edges are appropriately finished, but a bit rough. It can
do just little to keep system noise from coming out, as there are big vents on
the side panels and at the bottom of the case.
There are 7 3½-inch drive bays, one of
which is used by the 1TB hard disc. There are also four 5¼-inch bays with one
of them used for a DVD-RW drive. There is a common 450W power supply at the
bottom of the case, which we will not trust in to provide electricity for
anything but a replacement mid-range graphics card.
The motherboard, an MSI Z77A-G43, is a
compact one with only one PCI slot, one PCI-E x1 slot and one PCI-E x16 slot. Both
the PCI và PCI-E x1 slots are easy to access, though one card in the PCI
Express x1 may limit the airflow to the graphics card, depending on its size. The
graphics card installed in x16 slot is a Nvidia GeForce GT 640 with 1GB RAM and
VGA, DVI and HDMI ports on the back. It is not really powerful, producing the average
frame rate of 11.3fps in Crysis 2 ơat 1920x1080 and Ultra quality. Reducing the
resolution to High quality produces the playable average frame rate of 26.8fps;
despite not being excellent, it is possible for that card to obtain reasonable
performance from any modern 3D games.
The
motherboard, MSI Z77A-G43, is a compact one with only one PCI slot, one PCI-E
x1 and one PCI-E x16.
The processor is an Intel Core i5-3450. It
cannot be overclocked, but its inherent speed of 3.1GHz did excellently in
applications benchmark tests with the overall score of 105. This makes it
faster than the Intel Core i5-2500K – our favorite processor of 2012 and so
there is a lot of power for daily applications.
The system has a DDR3 1600MHz memory of 8GB
in two 4GB modules, pretty large for most users’ needs. There are only two
memory slots on the motherboard; therefore, if you need more, you need to
replace the current modules. There are also not many SATA ports, with only one
SATA3 port and three SATA2 ports. Two available SATA2 ports are for extra
storage.
The PC is accompanied with an Acer G22HQL
monitor. It is a 21½-inch display with wonderful viewing angles and even
backlight, though it has a slightly grainy structure and a pinkish tone right
at the beginning. In spite of this, clear images make it comfortable for users
to carry on with the monitor for a long time. The Logitech wireless keyboard
and mouse set is also comfortable and practical, although the keyboard feels
rather loosely soft.
In spite of its limited upgrade potential,
this is an outstanding system at this price, with the processor and graphics
card that can handle the latest software and applications. It will certainly be
a good buy if you prefer Windows 8 at a reasonable price.
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Basic
Specifications
·
Part Code: Elite 3450-W8CS
·
Rating: 4/5
·
Processor: Intel Core i5-3450
·
Processor external bus: 100MHz (DMI)
·
Processor multiplier: x31
·
Processor clock speed: 3.1GHz
·
Processor socket: LGA1155
·
Memory: 8
·
Memory type: PC3-12800
·
Maximum memory: 16GB
·
Motherboard: MSI B75MA-E33
·
Motherboard chipset: Intel B75
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