Mesh Nero Pro review

The first thing that you notice about the Mesh Nero Pro is the massive 23in Full HD monitor it ships with. It is fantastic looking and gives the impression that this PC is a lot more valuable than it really is.

Fortunately, it’s more than just appearances and the Hanspree HF237 also displays a brilliant picture with rich, vibrant colours. Its 1,920×1,080 resolution gives you plenty of room for desktop work, and you’ll easily be able to open two applications side-by-side. If you’d rather have a bit of entertainment, the resolution makes the display perfect for HD movies, while the VGA and HDMI input means you can connect your PC and another device, such as a Blu-ray player or modern games console.

Fortunately, Mesh hasn’t had to compromise on the quality of the PC to include the monitor. Squeezed inside the small tower case is a very good PC. The Athlon II X4 635 processor is a decent choice and has been overclocked from 2.9GHz to 3.2GHz. Its four processor cores means that it’s a powerful chip.

Combined with the 4GB of RAM, the Nero Pro managed an overall score of 99 in our benchmarks. In other words, it’s fast enough for any application. At this price we don’t expect to see a dedicated graphics card, and the onboard graphics aren’t capable of handling games. They are capable of decoding HD video, which is useful given the Full HD monitor. This makes this computer a good candidate for adding a Blu-ray drive later on.

Despite its diminutive case, the Nero Pro has ample room for expansion. There’s a free PCI-E x16 slot, and even though the vertically-mounted hard disk makes things difficult, we managed to find enough room for a full-length, double-width ATI Radeon card.

You can upgrade the motherboard’s memory to 8GB of RAM, although you’ll have to replace the existing two sticks of RAM, as there are only two memory slots. Fortunately, Mesh has installed 64-bit Windows, so you can use all of the RAM that you install.

There are plenty of expansion slots and four SATA ports, which is more than enough to cater for the three free drive bays. Not that you should need to expand storage any time soon, as there’s a large 750GB hard disk fitted.

On the outside, there are six USB ports (two on the front and four on the rear), which can be used for external storage or adding other peripherals. Two are taken by the wired Logitech keyboard and mouse, which are both decent choices for a budget computer. There are no eSATA ports, but if you really want one a blanking plate that converts a SATA port costs a few pounds.

The motherboard only supports 5.1 surround via three 3.5mm analogue outputs on the rear, but this should be enough for most people. If you fit a Blu-ray drive and want full-quality surround sound a

A decent budget computer is all about getting the right balance, and Mesh has done this perfectly with the Nero Pro. For the money you get a very powerful desktop with lots of storage. The fantastic monitor is a real bonus, making this a fantastic desktop computer and a deserved Best Buy award winner.