Mesh Elite 4770K Gamer System Review

Today we are taking a look at the Mesh Elite 4770K Gamer system. Equipped with an Intel Core i7-4770K clocked at 4.4GHz, an MSI Geforce GTX 770 and Samsung 840 Pro solid state drive, this system looks set to power through any games you could throw at it. With a price tag of £1499 the Elite 4770K is a serious investment, but is it worth the money? Specifications: Fractal Design Define R4 Black Pearl Mid Tower. 730W be quiet! Pure Power L8 BN183, Modular, 88% Eff', 80 PLUS Bronze. MSI Z87-GD65 GAMING Intel® Z87 ATX Motherboard - SLI / CrossFireX™ Support. New 4th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-4770K Quad Core Processor (3.5GHz, 8MB Cache). Corsair H100i Hydro Series Ultimate Performance Liquid CPU Cooler. 16GB DDR3 1866MHz Memory (2x8GB) Kit. 2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 770 - 1536 Cores,2 DVI,HDMI,DP - 3D Vision Ready. 240GB SSD - Solid State Drive. 2TB SATA III 6Gb/s, 7200rpm, 64MB Cache, 8ms Hard Drive. Pioneer Blu-Ray Writer (read & write Blu-ray, DVD and CD). Memory Card Reader - (Internal 80 in 1). Integrated 7.1 High Definition 8-channel Audio. High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections). Microsoft Windows® 8.1 - 64 bit inc. DVD & Licence. FREE 60 Day Trial of Microsoft Office 2013. BullGuard Internet Security ver. 13 - 90 Day Trial (pre-installed OS required). Free 3 Years Gold Warranty - (2 Years Parts, 3 Years Labour, 3 Months Free Collect & Return). Mesh ship the system in a large brown box with layers of styrofoam and packs of molded foam for protection. Mesh have chosen to use the Fractal Design Define R4 which has won our Must Have Award in the past. If you missed our full, indepth review you can catch up by clicking here. The I/O panel on top houses audio and mic jacks on the left-hand side, a small Reset button, a large Power button, two USB 3.0 ports and two USB 2.0 ports. The front panel door swings open to show the 80-in-1 Akasa card reader and optical drive. Up top we catch a glimpse of the Corsair H100i's fans with its white fan blades, creating a pleasing contrast against the black chassis. Turning the case around shows the MSI z87-GD65 motherboard offers plenty of connectivity for demanding users. The Define R4's white expansion slots further accentuate the design of the case. Some readers on our Facebook page have expressed concern about systems shipping without protection for the GPU. These readers will be happy to know Mesh make sure to include a large warning in the box and on the system to let users know that a block of molded foam is protecting the system's components during transport. Bequiet! have made great impressions with their wide range of power supplies and it is nice to see a UK system builder using their Pure Power L8. The MSI GTX 770 shows no signs of sagging and our attempt at moving the card proved unsuccessful. The cables have been routed along the side and bottom of the case to avoid obstructing the card's cooling. Following the direction of the power supply cables, the Corsair H100i's tubing has been routed towards the front of the case, creating a large open space. On the far right we can see the 2TB storage drive and Samsung 840 Pro solid state drive in their metal caddies. The MSI z87-GD65 motherboard boasts a wide range of features, including an Audio Killer chipset. The board also prominently features MSI's iconic logo. A lower angle shows the Corsair H100i fits snugly above the motherboard's heatsink. This shot gives us a better look at the cable routing in the bottom of the case. Overall, the build has a clean look and would certainly look great with a windowed side panel. The other side of the case shows Mesh have taken advantage of the Define R4's cable routing options, keeping the right half of the motherboard tray clear of cables. All cables have been routed directly next to the rubber grommets so no cables can be seen when viewed from the front. Finally, a closer look at the cable routing near the hard drives shows the use of angled SATA connectors. All cables seem to have some slack in them, reducing the physical stress that is placed on components. Our review sample of the Mesh Elite 4770K Gamer shipped with Windows 8 pre-installed. The operating system has proven very unpopular with our audience based on poll results on our Facebook page and home page. Mesh do offer the option to ship the system with Windows 7 installed or even without an operating system. A breakdown of the system in CPU-Z and GPU-Z shows the i7-4770K running at 4.4 GHz and the 16GB Patriot memory is running at 1,866MHz. The GTX 770 has proven to be a fantastic card and we expect excellent results based on the specifications of the system. CPU-Z validation for the system is available here. The Windows Performance Index score is an early indication that we are dealing with a well balanced system. Some applications were installed for the purposes of this review. Buyers can however expect a clean installation. Comparison Systems (for specific synthetic test compares): DinoPC Asusinator 4670K OC Processor: Intel Core i5 4670k @4.2ghz. Motherboard: ASUS Z87-K Coolers: Corsair H60 2013 Liquid cooler Memory: 16GB Corsair Vengeance 1,866mhz Graphics Card: Nvidia GTX770 Power Supply: 600w Corsair CX Optical Drive: 10x Bluray RW SATA Chassis: Fractal Design ARC Midi R2 Boot Drive: Plextor 128GB M5S SSD Secondary Drive: 2TB SATA Intel E5 2687W x 2 Motherboard: Asus Z9 PE-D8 WS Coolers: Corsair H80 x2 Memory: 64GB Kingston Predator 1,600mhz 9-9-9-24 1T Graphics Card: Sapphire HD7970 6GB Toxic Edition (1,200mhz core 1,600mhz memory). Power Supply: Seasonic 1000W Platinum Modular Optical Drive: Asus BluRay Drive Chassis: Lian Li X2000FN Boot Drive: Corsair 240GB Neutron GTX SSD Secondary Drive: Corsair 240GB Neutron SSD Intel E5 2660 Motherboard: Gigabyte X79S-UP5-WIFI Cooler: Corsair H100 Memory: 16GB G.Skill ARES 2,133mhz @ 9-11-10-28 Graphics Card: Sapphire HD7970 6GB Toxic Edition (1,200mhz core 1,600mhz memory). Power Supply: Corsair AX1200 Optical Drive: Asus BluRay Drive Chassis: Lian Li X2000a Boot Drive: Intel 510 120GB Secondary Drive: Patriot 240GB WildFire Intel i7 3960X EE Motherboard: Asus P9X79 WS WorkStation Cooler: Corsair H100 Memory: 8GB Corsair Dominator GT8 2400mhz memory Graphics Card: Sapphire HD7970 6GB Toxic Edition (1,200mhz core 1,600mhz memory). Power Supply: ADATA 1200W Optical Drive: Asus BluRay Drive Chassis: Cooler Master Cosmos 2 Boot Drive: Crucial C300 128GB SSD Secondary Drive: Patriot 240GB Pyro SE Intel i7 3820 Motherboard: ASRock Extreme4-M Cooler: Intel reference cooler Memory: 8GB Corsair GTX8 @ 2133mhz Power Supply: ADATA 1200W Chassis: Lian Li PC60 Boot Drive: Crucial C300 Secondary Drive: Patriot Pyro SE 240GB Intel i5 3570K @ 4.2 – OCUK Prodigy Arctic Gaming System Motherboard: ASRock Z77E-ITX Intel Z77 Cooler: Coolit Liquid Memory: Corsair Vengeance White 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit Power Supply: OCZ ZS 750W PSU Chassis: Bitfenix Prodigy Mini ITX Case – White Boot Drive: OCZ Vertex 4 128GB Secondary Drive: 1TB HDD AMD FX 8150 Black Edition Processor: AMD FX 8150 Black Edition Motherboard: Gigabyte 990FXA-UD7 Cooler: Noctua NH D14 Memory: G-SKill Ripjaws 1600mhz 8GB (2x 4GB) Power Supply: ADATA 1200W Chassis: SilverStone Raven 3 Boot Drive: Intel 40GB SSD Secondary Drive: Patriot 120GB WildFire Intel Core i7 990X Processor: Intel Core i7 990x Cooler: Corsair H100 Motherboard: Gigabyte G1 Assassin Memory: Kingston HyperX 6GB Drives: Crucial RealSSD C300 256GB Power Supply: Corsair AX1200 Chassis: Antec Twelve Hundred Core i7 970 @ 4.6ghz Graphics: Sapphire HD7970 6GB Toxic Edition (1,200mhz core 1,600mhz memory). Cooling: Coolit Vantage Motherboard: MSI X58A-GD65 Chassis: Thermaltake Level 10 GT Power Supply: Corsair AX1200 Memory: 6GB ADATA @ 2133mhz 9-10-9-32 Storage: Kingston SSDNow V+ 512GB Gen 2 SSD (Storage) / Crucial RealSSD C300 256GB (OS boot) Intel Core i7 2700k Processor: Intel Core i7 2700k Cooling: ThermalTake Frio OCK Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z68AP-D3 Z68 Motherboard Chassis: Silverstone Raven 3. Power Supply: Corsair 850W. Memory: Corsair 1600mhz memory Storage: Intel 80GB SSD (boot) / Patriot Wildfire 120GB SSD. Intel Core i7 2600k Processor: Intel Core i7 2600k Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty Z68 Professional Gen 3 Cooler: Intel XTS-100H Memory: ADATA 1600mhz DDR3 8GB (2x4GB) Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower 850W Boot Drive: Intel 510 SSD 250GB Intel Core i5 2500k Processor: Intel Core i7 2500k Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z68AP-D3 Z68 Motherboard Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer Xtreme Rev.2 CPU Cooler Memory: Corsair 1600mhz memory 8GB (2x4GB) Power Supply: Corsair 850W. Boot Drive: Patriot Pyro 120GB SSD. AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Processor: AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Motherboard: Gigabyte 990FXA-UD7 Cooler: Noctua NH D14 Memory: G-SKill Ripjaws 1600mhz 8GB (2x 4GB) Power Supply: ADATA 1200W Chassis: SilverStone Raven 3 Boot Drive: Intel 40GB SSD Secondary Drive: Patriot 120GB WildFire. Software: 3DMark Vantage 3DMark 11 PCMark 7 AllBenchmark Blender FRAPS Professional Unigine Heaven Benchmark Unigine Valley Benchmark CrystalDiskMark Cyberlink PowerDVD Ultra 11 Cyberlink MediaEspresso Atto Disk Benchmark SiSoft Sandra Games: Battlefield 3 (Direct X 11) Far Cry 3 (Direct X 11) Tomb Raider (Direct X 11) Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon (Direct X 11) Technical Monitoring and Test Equipment: 30-130 dbA Digital Sound Level Meter Plug-in Power & Energy Monitor Canon 1100d with Canon 18-55mm lens. PCMark 8 is the latest version in the popular series of PC benchmarking tools. Improving on previous releases, PCMark 8 includes battery life measurement tools and new tests using popular applications from Adobe and Microsoft. Whether you are looking for long battery life, or maximum power, PCMark 8 helps you find the devices that offer the perfect combination of efficiency and performance for your needs. As we would expect, the system scores well in PCMark 8. Browsing, photo editing and other common tasks are not a problem for the 4770K Gamer. Futuremark released 3DMark Vantage, on April 28, 2008. It is a benchmark based upon DirectX 10, and therefore will only run under Windows Vista (Service Pack 1 is stated as a requirement), Windows 7 and Windows 8. This is the first edition where the feature-restricted, free of charge version could not be used any number of times. 1280×1024 resolution was used with performance settings. A detailed breakdown of the scores is available here. An excellent total score with 42254. The GTX 770 jumps ahead here with a score of 47392. 3DMark 11 is designed for testing DirectX 11 hardware running on Windows 7 and Windows Vista the benchmark includes six all new benchmark tests that make extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading. After running the tests 3DMark gives your system a score with larger numbers indicating better performance. Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark 11 is the best way to test DirectX 11 under game-like loads. If you want to learn more about this benchmark, or to buy it yourself, head over to this page. A detailed breakdown of the scores is available here. In 3DMark 11 we see balanced scores across the board, indicating we can expect great performance in our gaming tests. Catzilla is an OpenGL 4.0 and DirectX 9/11 benchmark for Windows that incorporates a parallel graphics engine that can take advantage of multi-core CPUs. The benchmarks consist of a literal giant cat fight scene, which stresses both the CPU and GPU, and a set of smaller benchmarks to test CPU rigid body physics, GPU smoke simulation, fur rendering, and liquid simulations. More information can be found here. The i7 4770K and GTX 770 prove to be a lovely match in the Catzilla benchmark, scoring 9570 points in the CPU+GPU test. Unigine provides an interesting way to test hardware. It can be easily adapted to various projects due to its elaborated software design and flexible toolset. A lot of their customers claim that they have never seen such extremely-effective code, which is so easy to understand. Heaven Benchmark is a DirectX 11 GPU benchmark based on advanced Unigine engine from Unigine Corp. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. Interactive mode provides emerging experience of exploring the intricate world of steampunk.Efficient and well-architected framework makes Unigine highly scalable: Multiple API (DirectX 9 / DirectX 10 / DirectX 11 / OpenGL) render Cross-platform: MS Windows (XP, Vista, Windows 7) / Linux Full support of 32bit and 64bit systems Multicore CPU support Little / big endian support (ready for game consoles) Powerful C++ API Comprehensive performance profiling system Flexible XML-based data structures The Elite 4770K Gamer had no trouble powering through Unigine Heaven and never dropped below 30 FPS. Valley Benchmark is a new GPU stress-testing tool from the developers of the very popular and highly acclaimed Heaven Benchmark. The forest-covered valley surrounded by vast mountains amazes with its scale from a bird’s-eye view and is extremely detailed down to every leaf and flower petal. This non-synthetic benchmark powered by the state-of-the art UNIGINE Engine showcases a comprehensive set of cutting-edge graphics technologies with a dynamic environment and fully interactive modes available to the end user. We used the above settings to test different quality settings at a consistent resolution. Unigine Valley paints a similar picture with smooth performance throughout each run. Blender is a free and open-source 3D computer graphics software product used for creating animated films, visual effects, art, 3D printed models, interactive 3D applications and video games. Blender's features include 3D modeling, UV unwrapping, texturing, rigging and skinning, fluid and smoke simulation, particle simulation, soft body simulation, sculpting, animating, match moving, camera tracking, rendering, video editing and compositing. It also features a built-in game engine. We used a popular render amongst the Blender crowd, a BWM created by user MikePan. The scene can be downloaded here. Completing the render in 2 minutes and 16 seconds demonstrates the Elite 4770K Gamer's capability of handling rendering tasks with relative ease. On this page we test the performance of the Samsung 840 Solid State Drive. Many enthusiasts are already aware that the Samsung 840 drives offer excellent value for money and CrystalDiskMark confirms this once more with strong performance across the board. The Samsung drive consistently breaks 500 MB/s read speeds in ATTO Disk and over 200 MB/s write speeds. Excellent results. According to EA, Battlefield 3 garnered 3 million pre-orders by the day of its release. It is unknown at present whether these figures are worldwide or just for the US. The pre-order total makes it “the biggest first-person shooter launch in EA history”, according to the publisher. The engine is beautiful on the PC and very demanding of the partnering hardware. We used the settings above and recorded the average framerate with FRAPS. Battlefield 3 posed no threat with the system delivering an average of 74.3 FPS. Far Cry 3 is an open world first-person shooter video game developed mainly by Ubisoft Montreal in conjunction with Ubisoft Massive, Ubisoft Red Storm, Ubisoft Shanghai and published by Ubisoft for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360 andPlayStation 3. The game was released on November 29, 2012 in Australia, November 30 in Europe, and December 4 in North America. A stand-alone expansion titled Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon was released on April 30, 2013. The above settings were used for our test and average frame rates were obtained with Fraps. The system powered through Far Cry 3 with an average of 58.3 FPS. Tomb Raider received much acclaim from critics, who praised the graphics, the gameplay and Camilla Luddington’s performance as Lara with many critics agreeing that the game is a solid and much needed reboot of the franchise. Much criticism went to the addition of the multiplayer which many felt was unnecessary. Tomb Raider went on to sell one million copies in forty-eight hours of its release, and has sold 3.4 million copies worldwide so far. We used the above settings and ran the in-game benchmark. Enabling TresFX was not enough to bring the system to its knees and it continued to deliver an average of 53 FPS. Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon is a first-person shooter video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. The game, a satire of 1980s action films, takes place on aretro-futuristic open world island crawling with evil, with players assuming the action role of eye-patched cyborg protagonist Sergeant Rex Power Colt. The game was released on April 30, 2013, for PlayStation 3 via the PlayStation Network and on May 1, 2013, for Microsoft Windows and for Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Arcade. The above settings were used for our tests and we obtained average frame rates using Fraps. Averaging 75.9 FPS, the Elite 4770K Gamer powered through Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon with ease. The tests were performed in a controlled air conditioned room with temperatures maintained at a constant 22c. Idle temperatures were measured after sitting at the desktop for 30 minutes.Load measurements were acquired by playing Battlefield 3 for 30 minutes and measuring the peak temperature. All fan settings were left on automatic. The Core i7-4770k is known to run hot when overclocked but the Corsair H100i manages to keep temperatures in check with a maximum recorded temperature of 60 degrees. The MSI GTX 770 reached a maximum temperature of 85 degrees. Ambient temperatures in the case reached a maximum of 31 degrees, rising only 5 degrees compared to idle temperatures. We measure from a distance of around 1 meter from the closed chassis and 4 foot from the ground to mirror a real world situation. Ambient noise in the room measures close to the limits of our sound meter at 30dBa. KitGuru noise guide 10dBA - Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves 20-25dBA – Whisper 30dBA - High Quality Computer fan 40dBA - A Bubbling Brook, or a Refridgerator 50dBA - Normal Conversation 60dBA - Laughter 70dBA – Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer 80dBA - City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal 90dBA - Motorcycle or Lawnmower 100dBA – MP3 player at maximum output 110dBA - Orchestra 120dBA – Front row rock concert/Jet Engine 130dBA – Threshold of Pain 140dBA – Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range) 160dBA – Instant Perforation of eardrum Under normal conditions the system's noise levels fell below the lower limits of our meter. Once we fully loaded the system noise levels raised to 37 dBa, making the system noticeable but never annoying or loud. We measure power consumption at the socket via a calibrated meter – system wide. The monitor is not included in the draw. Power results were measured at idle and when loading the system in the final ‘combined’ test in 3DMark 11. The system consumes 76 Watts when left to idle. This rises to 307 Watts under load. Overall, the Mesh Elite 4770K Gamer is a well built system for those who do not have the know-how or desire to build one from scratch. From the Fractal Design Define R4 to the MSI Z87-GD65 and Bequiet! Power Zone L8 power supply, it is clear Mesh have not cut any corners in their selection of components and it shows in the results of our benchmarks. Regular readers will know that Bequiet! have won us over with their excellent range of L8 power supplies and we feel it is a good move that Mesh have decided to adopt the brand for their systems. We have seen a number of systems using the Geforce GTX 770 in recent times and we believe it is still an excellent card for gaming at 1080p without compromising on visual quality. Those who are willing to lower some settings will find that even at higher resolutions the Geforce GTX 770 is a very capable card. At the end of the day, the Elite 4770K Gamer delivers on its promise of performance, attention to detail and peace of mind with quality packaging. One minor concern is in regards to the GPU's maximum temperature of 85 degrees, though it is important to note that the card will not be under full load 24/7. At a price of £1499 inc vat. the Elite 4770K Gamer is an expensive system. However, with stress testing and 3 years of warranty included it is certainly worth buying. Pros: Top quality components. Excellent gaming performance. Excellent build quality. 3 Years warranty included. Cons: The GPU's maximum temperature of 85 degrees would benefit from additional airflow. Expensive. KitGuru says: An excellent system that justifies its high asking price with quality components and peace of mind.

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Mesh Elite 4770K Gamer System Review

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