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Specifications
- Support for full-sized graphics cards
- Average 450W power supply
You get what you pay for with the MEK1, and its price tag brings along some pretty decent internals. You get an Intel Core i7-7700 processor, 16GB DDR4 RAM, 240GB NVMe PCIe SSD with a 1TB 2.5” HDD, and a Zotac GeForce GTX 1070Ti 8GB graphics card.
That’s enough power to get you up and running in no time at all, but the odd quirk worth mentioning is that the power supply bundled in the MEK1 is only 450W, falling short of the recommended 500W for the GTX 1070Ti. The card still runs perfectly fine, but upgrading to more powerful graphics cards in the future is certainly going to be challenging.
Benchmarks & Performance
- Strong gaming performance
- Average 4K gaming results
With a GTX 1070Ti graphics card, we expected quite a lot from the MEK1, and it delivered. Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor’s benchmark ran at a smooth 134fps at the highest settings with a 1920x1080 resolution, while Rise Of The Tomb Raider benchmark ran at 98fps with the same resolution.
3DMark yielded a score of 8402 and 4552 in the Firestrike Extreme and Ultra test, while the MEK1’s VR-readiness scored 8833, 1969, and 5531 in the Orange, Blue, and Cyan VRMark tests. This system is more than capable of performing well with whatever VR kit you hook up to it, so that’s a huge bonus.
Where things started slipping was with 4K gaming – we were only able to get about 42fps playing Shadow of Mordor, and Tomb Raider likewise dropped to about 28fps. We’re not stressing too much over this, as expecting butter-smooth 4K gameplay from a system like the MEK1 is a bit far-fetched.
The MEK1 mostly runs quiet, but after about 20 minutes of solid gaming, we noticed the internal fans starting to ramp up. It won’t be noticeable of course if you’re wearing headphones, but for anyone else in the room it can be quite a distraction.
Temperature-wise things were a bit alarming - the GTX 1070Ti reached an average temperature of 87C during our gaming marathon, which is a bit toasty. Despite being in its own chamber, the card is going to run quite hot, so keep that in mind.
Verdict
For an out-of-the-box gaming PC, the Zotac MEK1 does quite well. It packs some decent internals and ran through most games and benchmarks pretty well, making it an easy pick for anyone looking for a compact, first-time gaming PC.
What we didn’t like about it were the fiddly internals – there’s just too much hassle to go in and try to play around with the components, and there’s no guarantee that components you buy later on will fit properly into the MEK1. The bundled power supply also means that you’re limited to the kinds of graphics cards you can install.
It would have also been nicer if it included an updated processor as well, just to make the price tag seem worthwhile. DIY gaming enthusiasts won’t feel at home with the MEK1 – it’s certainly geared towards gamers who just want to grab a pre-built rig and get into their games. If this is the kind of gamer that you are, then the Zotac MEK1 can easily sort you out.
