PC Nextday Zoostorm 6-5202 Livestyle review

Mini PCs are much smaller than their midi-tower cousins, but often lack the performance and expandability of their larger counterparts.

PC Nextday's 6-5202 Livestyle PC doesn't have a lot of room inside its case for adding upgrades, but it's well specified in almost every other respect.

The Livestyle is the first PC we've seen to use Intel's new 8GHz Core 2 Duo E4300 processor, which has a slower frontside bus (FSB) speed than processors higher up the Core 2 Duo range. It also lacks support for virtualisation, but it performed almost as well in our benchmarks as a 1.866GHz Core 2 Duo E6300-based PC. Whether you want to encode video, edit your photos or do both at the same time, the Livestyle is more than powerful enough. You won't need to upgrade its memory any time soon, either, as the provided 2GB is plenty for running several applications simultaneously.

The Livestyle can also be used as a media centre PC. The hybrid TV tuner and remote control mean you can record either analogue or digital TV broadcasts and watch them later using Windows XP Media Center Edition. You can't record one channel while watching another without adding another USB tuner, though. The 250GB hard disk is large enough to store many programmes, but you'll want to replace it with a bigger disk if you're a TV addict or if you're planning to edit video in a big way.

With an Nvidia GeForce 7600GT graphics card, the Livestyle can play today's 3D games at high resolutions, as shown by its respectable score of 48.1 frames per second (fps) in our Doom 3 test. But for the most demanding games, such as Call of Duty 2, you'll have to lower the resolution and graphical detail, or replace the graphics card with a more powerful model.

You won't be embarrassed to place the Livestyle in your living room, thanks to its attractive glossy black and silver case, which is around the size of a bread bin. Although it isn't the quietest PC we've heard, it's unlikely to annoy you in everyday use. There's not enough space inside the case to add a long or double-width graphics card, though, or one with a large fan. There's also no space for adding another internal hard disk or another PCI card. Fortunately, the computer already has a wide range of ports and extras, including a memory card reader and FireWire ports.

Although the 19in AOC widescreen monitor is ideal for watching DVDs or for working on two documents side by side, its image quality isn't well suited to editing images. Photos looked grainy, and there was noticeable banding in the darker shades of our greyscale gradient test, rather than a smooth transition towards black.

We were also disappointed by the included Genius stereo speakers, which sound harsh and distort at high volumes. Thankfully, the Livestyle has a coaxial S/PDIF port, so you can connect a surround-sound amplifier and speakers. At least you won't have to replace the Microsoft USB keyboard and mouse which, though basic, are comfortable to use.

The Livestyle is an attractive mini PC that's fast in Windows. It has plenty of RAM and a hybrid TV tuner, but it's let down by its poor monitor and speakers. It's less than ideal as a family PC, but it is good value if you intend to use it as a media centre.