Mesh Elite i3570K CS review

The Elite i3570K CS has a heavily overclocked Intel Core i5-3570k processor running at 4.4GHz. This is a big increase over the stock speed, but Mesh has opted to use the stock Intel CPU cooler rather than a tower-style heatsink, to more effectively dissipate the extra heat caused by overclocking.

Sensibly, Mesh has installed an additional 120mm intake fan on the side panel to push a constant flow of air onto the CPU cooler. This helped it stay cool. The PC completed our multimedia benchmarks with an overall score of 131. This was brought down by the multitasking score, which was lower than expected because the system only has 4GB of RAM.

Impressively, the Elite i3570K CS has a Sapphire Radeon HD7850 graphics card. It’s powerful, has 2GB of dedicated video memory and is capable of playing even the latest games at Full HD resolutions, as our graphics benchmarks show. Dirt3 produced a stellar 57.1fps, and even Crysis 2 produced a perfectly playable 28.9fps. Very few games should pose a problem for this machine, even with DirectX 11 and anti-aliasing enabled.

Another welcome inclusion is the 120GB SSD, which handles both Windows and storage. This is great if you have a large external hard disk or NAS device for your multimedia files, but less so if you want to play a lot of modern games – their large install sizes could quickly fill up the SSD. Mesh hasn’t fitted a secondary hard disk, so once it’s full you’ll have to start deleting files.

Thankfully, there’s ample room for expansion inside its Cooler Master case. Only one of the external 5.25in drive bays is occupied with a DVD re-writer, leaving three empty, along with one external 3.5in bay. The motherboard has three PCI slots, one PCI-Express x1 and one PCI-E x16 slot available, with the dual-slot graphics card using one PCI-E x16 and blocking the other PCI-E x1 slot. Three empty RAM slots mean you can upgrade your memory without removing the existing 4GB.

Beyond the CPU cooler setup, system cooling is fairly basic. One 120mm front intake and one 120mm rear exhaust are preinstalled, leaving one 120mm fan mount in the bottom of the case and a second 120mm mount next to the one installed in the side panel. This level of cooling was fine for the PC’s current configuration, but if you’re planning on adding a lot of expansion cards or extra hard disks, we definitely recommend upgrading the CPU cooler to better balance system cooling.

From the outside, the Elite i3570k CS is rather plain, with a minimal front I/O panel containing just two USB ports and two 3.5mm audio jacks. Most connectivity is around the back, with four USB ports, two USB3 ports, three 3.5mm audio jacks and a digital optical output, Gigabit Ethernet and a single PS/2 port, as well as DVI, HDMI and VGA connections for the integrated GPU.

The Hanns.G 23.6in monitor bundled with the system is an LED model, with a Full HD resolution and integrated stereo speakers. It only has VGA and DVI inputs, but it supports HDCP for playing protected content. Image quality is above average, helped by the matt finish, which creates believable skin tones and colour hues. Less impressive is the basic Logitech mouse and keyboard set.

With its stock CPU cooling and limited memory, the Elite i3570K CS isn’t quite as well balanced as we‘d prefer to see against the similarly priced competition. A huge overclock, powerful dedicated graphics and a large SSD are certainly shouting points, but system stability can’t be overlooked. Unless you’re prepared to upgrade the CPU cooler yourself, the Palicomp Alpha Excite would be a better buy.