Mesh Ice 5 750 CS review

We’re used to seeing Mesh undercut its rivals at a particular price point, and the Ice 5 750 CS does it again.

While rivals struggle to fit a Core i5 processor and motherboard into their budget, Mesh appears to have no problems, matching competitors’ specifications inside its tower case, and beating them outside when it comes to peripherals.

The bundled Iiyama E2208HDS monitor and wireless keyboard and mouse are superb. Some may prefer to switch to a wired Logitech set when ordering, but we’re sure no-one will want to change the monitor. Not only does it look stylish, but it has excellent image quality, with impressive brightness and colour reproduction. You’ll want to spend a little extra on a DVI cable, as there’s only a VGA cable in the box, a common trait across all the PCs here.

Mesh’s latest tower case is relatively inoffensive, although the red lights that flash in Standby mode are a potential annoyance. It’s good to see USB, FireWire and eSATA ports on the front, plus a wide array of interfaces at the rear of the Asus motherboard. Please note, though, that the FireWire port isn’t connected as the motherboard doesn’t have a FireWire controller. If you want to use the FireWire port, you’ll need to buy a PCI or PCI Express expansion card. The only other absentee is coaxial S/PDIF, but this isn’t likely to bother many people.

The inside of the case is neat, although the snake of power supply cables may hinder the installation of extra optical drives. Transverse hard disk trays make it simple to add more, but the 1TB disk shouldn’t fill up too quickly.

It’s good to see front and rear 120mm fans, plus a third in the power supply, and all three are quiet. The only noisy component is the fan on the HIS Radeon 4890 graphics card, which makes a din even when idle. The large grille in the side panel does nothing to damp the noise.

The card put in a sterling performance, which makes up for the racket – it achieved over 75fps in Call of Duty 4 and a whisker under 40fps in Crysis. Needless to say, the Core i5 750 processor performed very well.

If there’s any criticism of the Ice 5, it’s the one-year return-to-base warranty. However, since Mesh’s rivals provide the same, the 750 CS gets to the winning post first and walks away with a Best Buy award.