Notebook review: Mesh Dynamo 7800GTX PCW

Too large to be easily carried around, but without the power requirements to make it a full desktop replacement, the Mesh Dynamo 7800GTX PCW sits uncomfortably between two stools.

It uses Centrino technology with an Intel Pentium M 760 with 2MB cache and 2GB of 533MHZ DDR2 memory.

The sizeable amount of memory is impressive, particularly for a notebook, and although the processor is a similarly eye-catching model (clocked at 2GHz), the Pentium M series is still less powerful than its full-on desktop Pentium brother.

It's also not as powerful as the new Core Duo processors, as seen in our Asus V6X00J and Acer Travelmate 8204WLMi reviews.

It's a sturdy enough model though. and at 4.45kg it could be carried around, albeit on short journeys only. Keyboard construction is good and the size of the notebook means it's sufficiently deep to make typing fairly comfortable.

The Dynamo's Sysmark 2004 SE result came out at 163, which is a little on the low side compared with other desktop replacements. You can check out other notebook performance scores here.

But it's with the graphics that this notebook excels - a 256MB Nvidia Geforce Go 7800GTX managed to notch up 65fps (frames per second) in Far Cry and a score of 6,720 3Dmark05.

The chassis houses two USB2 ports, a mini-Firewire socket, PC Card slot and memory card reader (Memory Stick, MMC and SD) on one side, while a DVD burner sits on the other.

A further pair of USB2 ports is mounted on the rear, along with the DVI, Ethernet and modem ports, and an S-video output.

You also get a 1.3 megapixel webcam mounted at the top of the screen, which is useful for videoconferencing.

Considering the powerful graphics, battery life is actually quite reasonable at around 105 minutes on a full charge.

Although there's nothing particularly wrong with this notebook, the fact is it doesn't offer much over and above what you would expect for this price.