Mesh Titan Dual X2 Plus

The current fad in the PC market is to double up on hardware components to improve performance. We've already seen hard disks and graphics cards being paired to make computers faster and now the trend continues with dual processors.

The Matrix Titan Dual X2 Plus comes with an AMD Athlon64 X2 4200+ processor. To cut a long story short, two processors are fitted onto a single chip, each of which can (theoretically) work on a separate computer task.

It won't make the computer twice as fast but it can improve performance when more than one job is being done at a time.

Supporting the processor is 1Gb of memory, which is arranged to work in dual-channel mode - another trick for improving performance. This impressive combination gave the best score we have yet seen in our system tests.

Simply put, if you want raw power and a computer that will run anything, this is the one to buy.

Graphics are provided by a Radeon X800XL card. The motherboard itself is capable of using dual graphics cards (commonly called SLI), but only if they are particular cards from nVidia.

So, you'd have to replace the current card with two new ones. The Titan Dual X2 Plus fared very well in our 3D graphics tests but didn't score anywhere near the level of dual graphic-card systems. Only serious gamers need worry about this.

There is no compromise with the excellent 19in Viewsonic LCD monitor and it supports DVI, so very little adjustment is needed to get a great image. Surround sound sockets and digital audio ports can be found on the back and the bundled speakers are Creative Labs Inspire T7900.

The massive 300Gb hard disk should be more than enough for anyone, and up to seven more can be added inside the case.

The front of the case is a classic Mesh design with a floppy drive, a DVD drive and a recordable DVD drive capable of writing to all disc formats (bar DVD-RAM). Floppy disks are occasionally useful but a memory card reader would have been more welcome. The front panel also has two USB 2 sockets.

The back contains all the connections you could possibly want, and the Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse are comfortable to use.

The Titan Dual X2 Plus is a powerful computer and the price is extremely good. The only things that would bolster its appeal would be an integrated memory card reader and dual graphics cards.