The Sempron is the latest budget processor from AMD, a competitor to Intel's Celeron series and the Sempron 3100+ inside the Mesh Matrix S3100 Plus represents very good value for money. It forms the core of the system, along with 512Mb of memory and a large 160Gb hard disk.

In testing, it performed very well for a budget PC, which is not so much of a surprise when you consider that the Sempron is very similar to the AMD's faster processor, the Athlon. At nearly £800, it's at the high end of the budget range, but you do get a lot for your money.

The deal includes a Sharp 17in flat-panel monitor, which matches the standard Mesh case. On the front of the case you will find a Sony dual-layer recordable DVD drive (which will burn a DVD+R disc at up to 8.5Gb and other DVD discs at 4.7Gb) and a standard DVD drive. One drive bay is left free on the front panel.

Inside the case, the hard disk uses the new Serial-ATA connector, meaning it potentially runs faster. There is room for two more hard disks as well, should you feel the need to expand.

The 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600XT graphics card is not one of the fastest available, but it's capable of playing the latest games at a high level of detail, and the scores the computer achieved in our tests reflected this fact. It fits into the AGP slot on the motherboard, but because it has a large fan mounted on it, it obscures one of the five PCI slots on the board.

Another PCI slot is taken up by the modem, leaving three free for you to install your own expansion cards. Given that the Mesh has an easy-to-open case, you don't have to unscrew anything to get at the components.

You also get 5.1 surround sound audio and a network connector, which can make it easier to set up broadband and wireless networks. It also includes six USB 2 ports, two FireWire sockets and a digital audio output.

It comes preloaded with Microsoft Windows XP Home and Microsoft Works 7, as well as video-editing software Pinnacle Studio 9SE, Instant CD/DVD for creating discs, and InterVideo's WinDVD for viewing DVD movies.

The Logitech keyboard and optical mouse are good quality and also match the colour of the computer and monitor. Mesh has included a set of Creative P5800 surround-sound speakers so you can get immersed in films and games without having to buy any more hardware.

The warranty covers two years on-site and a further year on a return-to-base scheme (in the UK mainland only), for both parts and labour.

It's a lot of computer for the price and, although it's by no means near the front of the pack, it's able to deal with the latest software and games admirably. The Matrix S3100 represents very good value for its price range.

Contact: Mesh 0870 046 4747
www.meshcomputers.com

Also consider:
Digihome NS Optimum DH3.2 Smaller than the Mesh but made for media.