Ergonomics

Almost immediately you turn on the system the first thing you notice is how quite the Mesh is, we have to say this is not unusual for Mesh as all their previous cases have been a joy to have in our labs, allowing you to have a quite conversation with your colleague sitting next to you. What was clearly evident was the lack of fans for air-cooling. Mesh informs us that the cooling fans are not a standard accessory for Duron based systems, and if the customer wanted to upgrade to Thunderbird processors than the fans would be shipped out to them on request. This is not an ideal situation and having discussed it with Mesh, they shall include the fans as standard, so much so that they also send us a fan to fit into the system.

Now that's what we call service, well done Mesh. In terms of looks well this really is a personal choice, we liked it, including the choice of Microsoft twins the Keyboard and Mouse, both fine peripherals and one that is very important as you will be using it all day along. The inside of the Mesh is pristine enough to have your lunch in; the cables are neatly tied away to allow access to everything so nothing is obscured. What also deserves a mention is Mesh's effort with its documentation, written clearly and is easy to follow, it is a lot more than many system integrators will provide in this day and age.

Mesh has made a tremendous effort especially considering the rapid changes that occur in technology rendering user manuals out of date as soon as there are hot off the press. Once started, you are presented with the familiar Windows 98 screen, the resolution is set at 1024 x 768 - 85Hz this is ideal for the monitor supplied. In terms of upgrades there are 4 x PCI slots free, 2 x 3.5" internal bays, and 2 x DIMM slots for memory upgrades allowing a maximum 1.2GB in the current configuration. The ASUS A7V can currently handles all AMD processors up to 1.1GHz, and supports the installation of 8 storage units on the EIDE platform, this is as much future proofing as you are likely to get currently.

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