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PC Nextday Zoostorm Advanced Premium PC review

PC Nextday Zoostorm Advanced Premium PC
Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £399
inc VAT

A decent budget computer, PC Nextday's Zoostorm Advanced Premium PC is quick enough for most jobs. However, faster PCs are available for the same money.

Specifications

2.5GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Q8300, 4.000000 RAM, N/A display, Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit

http://www.pcnextday.co.uk

PC Nextday’s Zoostorm has an attractive glossy black front panel, but the rest of the PC looks rather plain. It’s also a little noisy, so you’ll probably want to stow it under your desk out of sight anyway. A basic Genius keyboard and optical mouse are included. The mouse works well enough, but the keyboard feels too spongy to use for anything other than writing short documents and emails.

The Zoostorm is equipped with a 2.5GHz Core 2 Quad Q8300 processor and 4GB of RAM which sped through our Windows application benchmarks. The Nvidia GeForce 8400GS graphics card isn’t up to playing the latest 3D games, though. At least it doesn’t share system memory as an integrated graphics chip does, however.

The 8400GS is not only slow, it’s also just large enough to block the PCI Express x1 expansion slot. There are still two spare PCI slots for adding internal peripherals, though. There’s also space for adding four more internal hard disks and a second optical drive, but the motherboard has only two SATA ports, so you’ll need a SATA PCI card if you want to fill your PC with lots of internal storage. The 255W power supply will be a concern if you want to add lots of internal upgrades. You won’t need to add a memory card reader, as one is already present.

The Zoostorm is already fitted with its maximum amount of RAM, 4GB. This should be enough for most tasks, but other PCs can accommodate as much as 8GB or even 16GB for especially memory-intensive applications.

PC Nextday’s Zoostorm isn’t powerful enough for gaming, but it’s quick enough for more serious work. However, its real problem is that the competition is so good and you can buy better-specified computers for the same amount of money.

Basic Specifications

Rating ***
Processor Intel Core 2 Quad Q8300
Processor external bus 333MHz (1,333MHz quad-pumped FSB)
Processor multiplier x7.5
Processor clock speed 2.5GHz
Processor socket LGA775
Level 1 cache 4x 32KB
Level 2 cache 2x 2,048KB
Memory 4.000000
Memory type PC2-6400
Maximum memory 4GB
Motherboard Foxconn G31MX-K
Motherboard chipset Intel G31
Power consumption standby 2W
Power consumption idle 53W
Power consumption active 75W

Ports

USB2 ports (front/rear) 2/4
Firewire ports (front/rear) 0/0
eSATA ports (front/rear) 0/0
Wired network ports 1x 10/100/1000
Wireless networking support none
Other ports none

Internal Expansion

Case midi tower
PCI-E x1 slots (free) 1 (0)
PCI-E x16 slots (free) 1 (0)
Free Serial ATA ports 2
Free memory slots 0
Free 3.5in drive bays 4

Hard Disk

Hard disk model(s) Samsung EcoGreen F2 HD502HI 500GB
Interface SATA 300
Total storage capacity 500GB
Spindle speed 5,400rpm

Graphics

Graphics card(s) 512MB Nvidia GeForce 8400 GS
Graphics/video ports HDMI, DVI, VGA

Sound

Sound Realtek ALC662
Sound outputs 5.1 line out
Speakers none

Removable Drives

3.5in floppy drive no
Supported memory cards SDHC, MMC, MMCplus, Memory Stick Pro/Duo, MicroDrive, xD
Optical drive model TSST SH-S223B
Optical drive type(s) DVD+/-RW +/-DL

Display

Screen model N/A
Native resolution N/A
Response time N/A
Screen inputs N/A

Other Hardware

Modem No
Keyboard Genius KB-06XE
Mouse Genius Netscroll 120

Software

Software included none
Operating system Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit
Operating system restore option Windows disc

Buying Information

Warranty one year RTB
Price £399
Supplier http://www.pcnextday.co.uk
Details www.pcnextday.co.uk

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