Everything you want in a desktop PC, but smaller
Why do retailers always knock a penny or a pound off prices? Back in the 1990s, a practical general-purpose desktop PC used to cost about £1,000. But they’d always make it £999.
Some psychologists reckon this works because when we see an awkward number, we estimate the nearest round figure. So we see £999 and think £1,000. Now that we’re thinking about £1,000, £999 sounds a bit less. And a bit less must be better value!
Economists, meanwhile, note that once a price point is established, it tends to stick. The £999 PC was around for quite a while. Eventually the cost of components drifted down, and you could get a pretty decent desktop for £899, then £699. Today you can find something without too many compromises even for £499, or five hundred quid, as your brain just rightly estimated.
That being the case, why would you spend a grand on a PC? The compact Mesh Elite Voyager Mini CS answers the question rather elegantly, and, of course, with a pound to spare. On the outside, it’s not so much like a PC as a first-aid box. The plain white case also comes in black, which makes it all but invisible.
If you’re using it as part of a home-entertainment system, it could be tucked away wherever you’d put a subwoofer (assuming your cables stretch that far). Its big, quiet fans won’t be audible there. It does lack a standard DVD drive (they really will be extinct soon) so there’s no need to keep it within easy reach.
What’s inside? For starters you have an Intel Core i7-6700K processor, from Intel’s new Skylake range, which would cost you £300 on its own. It’s very fast. As a comparison, we’ve seen £500 PCs using AMD’s Athlon X4 860K processor, which runs at 4GHz – like the i7-6700K. However, the Intel processor scored nearly three times higher in our tests.
That means it’ll cruise through any task, no matter how ambitious, aided and abetted by a generous 16GB of memory. If you think you’ll need even more, for £168 you can upgrade to 32GB when ordering, or swap the modules later yourself. Heavy-duty creative jobs, like video editing, will benefit from the Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 graphics card, as long as your software can take advantage of it.
To store all your programs and files, the 1TB Seagate Barracuda hard drive is included. It is exceptionally fast, but you also get a 250GB SSD on a high-speed M.2 connector. With Windows 10 running from this, you can start up the PC and load programs almost instantly. There are three SATA3 connectors left over for more internal drives if you need them later (you will if you shoot a lot of photos or videos).
The two handy USB ports on the front of the case support USB 3.0, and there are four more like them on the back, along with two meeting the even faster USB 3.1 standard and two basic USB 2.0 sockets for your mouse and keyboard. All your older USB peripheral devices can plug into any of those. Both wired and wireless networks are handled at top speed by a Gigabit Ethernet port and 802.11ac Wi-Fi, the latter with an external aerial for the best reception.
Not everyone needs to spend this much on a PC. But if you want no limitations and no need to upgrade for years to come, the Voyager Mini CS is a fine choice.
VERDICT
The Intel Skylake i7 processor gives you exceptional processing power, and the rest of this system amply keeps up.
SPECIFICATIONS
4GHz Intel quad-core i7 6700K • 16GB memory • 250GB SSD • 1TB hard drive • Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 • 2x USB 3.1 ports • 6x USB 3.0 ports • 2x USB 2.0 ports • Gigabit Ethernet port • DVI port • HDMI port • 2x Mini DisplayPort • Windows 10 • 210x250x374mm (HxWxD) • Two-year warranty