It seems such a long time since AMD had anything to truly match Intel's mainstream processors, but with the recent 45nm Phenom II X3 and X4 processor launches, AMD has at last been able to give Intel a run for its money in the mainstream segment.

So much so that many system builders have started producing AMD-based systems with conviction. One company giving AMD a lot of love at the moment is Mesh, its latest AMD system being the XGS PII iQ, a fast all-rounder with a hefty price tag.

The XGS PII iQ is built around one of AMD's Phenom II X4 920 quad core processors running at its stock speed of 2.8GHz and sitting in an Asus M4A78Pro motherboard. The M4A78Pro is based around AMD's Socket AM2+ and uses AMD's own 780G / SB700 chipset combination. Backing up the CPU is 4GB of PC2-6400 800MHz DDR2 memory, all of which gives the XGS PII iQ good all-round performance, adequately proved by its PCMark05 score of 10,160.

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Normally in an all-rounder, the graphics are powered by an average to middling graphics card and it's usually the first thing that needs to be upgraded. With the XGS PII iQ, however, Mesh has gone down a different route and fitted a half-decent card in the shape of an HIS HD4850 IceQ, based on ATI's Radeon HD4850 GPU, which until the recent arrival of the HD4770 was the best bang-for-the-buck card around.

The card may well struggle to play games at the native resolution of the bundled TFT but at a resolution of 1,280 by 1,024 pixels it gave an average frame rate score of 40fps when tested with World in Conflict's built-in benchmark, with all the in-game details set to their highest; drop these down and the frame rates will rise.

That aforementioned bundled TFT is a rather nice 26-inch Iiyama widescreen monitor with a native resolution of 1,920 x 1,200 pixels and built-in HDMI, which is good as the integrated graphics chip of the motherboard supports an HDMI-out port on the board's rear I/O panel. To add to the all-round feel of the PC there is also a digital/analogue TV card together with a Windows Vista remote control.

To add to your gaming or movie watching experience, Mesh has bundled a set of Hercules XPS 5.1 40, 5.1-channel speakers with the system, which are powered by the integrated 8-channel audio chip on the motherboard.

All this hardware is neatly built into a Mesh XGS Xtreme Gaming case which has plenty of space for extra drives should you wish to upgrade later on. There are six 5.25-inch bays, one of which is occupied by a Blu-ray combo drive (Blu-ray read, DVD and CD read and write). Four 3.5-inch drive bays are provided by the case, in one of which sits a 750GB Samsung hard drive.

Rounding out the hardware bundle is a Logitech Cordless keyboard and optical mouse. The software bundle provided is small but nevertheless useful: besides the 64-bit Vista Home Premium OS there is Cyberlink's Video Editing suite, Microsoft's Works 8.5 and a 90-day trial of BullGuard's Internet Security suite. Mesh backs the XGS PII iQ with a year's RTB hardware parts and labour warranty.

Mesh's XGS PII iQ uses AMD's latest processor technology well and is a fast gaming machine which offers a nice change from all the usual Intel-based systems. It also provides plenty of space for future upgrading, but it comes with a hefty price tag.