MESH Matrix II 955BE Hush

Portable computers such as laptops and netbooks are fine if you have to get things done on the move.

However, they don’t cope particularly well with demanding tasks such as video editing or playing recent games. To do that you will need a more powerful computer, and that means a desktop PC such as the Mesh Matrix II 955BE Hush.

The Hush takes its name from the NZXT Hush case it comes in, which is designed to be quiet.

The case’s blue light and curved door make it look attractive and futuristic, although that only extends to the front panel: the rest of the case is a much more generic-looking black number.

A layer of foam covers the inside to muffle noise from the fans and hard disk. In use, we found the noise dampening to be fairly effective at keeping the PC quieter than most, although it is far from silent.

Mesh has chosen an AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black processor, an ATI Radeon HD4870 video card and 4GB of main system memory in the Hush.

The combination of a powerful processor and video card is essential for playing the most up-to-date PC games in high resolution and with the detail settings turned up.

Although there are faster alternatives available, these would have raised the price of the Hush considerably.

Mesh is selling the entire computer for £799 (excluding delivery) so has chosen wisely, as both the processor and video card offer excellent value and are easily capable of playing any game on the market today.

This price also includes a widescreen 22in Iiyama ProLite monitor with a 16:9 aspect ratio.

That’s the same as most widescreen television programmes so you wont have to put up with black bars when watching shows (most computer widescreens have a 16:10 aspect ratio).

Although the screen is too small to make high-definition video a big deal, the Hush also comes with a Blu-ray drive, which will read and write DVDs and CDs as well as reading Blu-ray discs and HD DVDs, the short-lived former rival to Blu-ray.

Although the 22in screen is not an expensive model, its picture quality and colour representation were very impressive.

The Hush comes with Windows Vista 64-bit installed on the 750GB hard disk, which should be enough storage for most people, unless you have an exceptionally large music collection.

However, Mesh could have easily included a larger 1TB disk without adding much to the cost.

There is plenty of room for expansion, both inside and outside: it has 12 USB ports at the back, along with surround sound outputs.

It also includes a Logitech cordless keyboard and mouse, plus Microsoft Works 8.5 for word processing, spreadsheets and other office tasks.

Although this is a good-value gaming computer, at £799 it's slightly more expensive than similar PCs from other retailers and some of Mesh's own cheaper products.

The Matrix II Hush does offer superb gaming performance, though, and although it isn't silent, the fact that it’s quieter than most will be a bonus, as is the excellent monitor.