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PC Nextday Zoostorm 62-2213 review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £500
inc VAT

Specifications

2.93GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E7500, 4.000000 RAM, 19in 1,440×900 display, Windows Vista Home Premium

http://www.pcnextday.co.uk

PC Nextday’s Zoostorm 62-2213 has a tough mini tower case which, like Mesh’s Nero 9850HD, has only enough room for a microATX motherboard.

The case is deeper than it is tall, so there should be enough room for long expansion cards. Poor positioning of the hard disk and some badly routed cables will make it a little difficult to fit a longer graphics card, though. The PC was fairly quiet, but it comes with only a single 80mm case fan.

The Intel Core 2 Duo E7500 processor is one of the fastest here and a strong rival to the AMD Phenom X4 9850 in the Mesh Nero. It also has a large 500GB hard disk and a good quality mid-range graphics card in the form of a 512MB Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT with two DVI outputs. PC Nextday includes an AMW X1910WDS 19in widescreen monitor, which has decent image quality, but slightly muted colours and annoying adjustment controls.

The Zoostorm 62-2213’s gaming performance was respectable, with a frame rate of 36.6fps in Call of Duty 4 at 1,440×900. While this was the fastest Call of Duty 4 score in the £500 group, the 62-2213’s performance was only average across all our tests.

Upgrade potential is limited as this PC is already equipped with its maximum 4GB of RAM in two memory slots. This is already more than the 32-bit version of Windows Vista can use, though. There’s room for up to five more 3?in drives but only two unused SATA connectors. Both PCI slots are free and unimpeded, but the only PCI-E x1 slot is blocked by the graphics card. There are three 3.5mm audio ports, which you can use for either 5.1 surround sound or line in and a microphone, but not both at the same time.

The Zoostorm 62-2213 has limited upgrade potential and its performance in our PCMark benchmarks was unremarkable. The onsite warranty is a bonus, but if you want a fast gaming machine, buy Eclipse’s Matrix i74n96GS instead. If you want a powerful system that’s easy to upgrade, buy Mesh’s Nero 9850HD.

Basic Specifications

Rating ***
Processor Intel Core 2 Duo E7500
Processor external bus 333MHz (1,333MHz quad-pumped FSB)
Processor multiplier x8.5
Processor clock speed 2.93GHz
Processor socket LGA775
Level 1 cache 4x 32KB
Level 2 cache 12,288KB (cores one and two 6,144KB shared, cores three and four 6,144KB shared)
Memory 4.000000
Memory type PC2-6400
Maximum memory 4GB
Motherboard Foxconn G31MX
Motherboard chipset Intel G31 + ICH7
Power consumption standby 7W
Power consumption idle 88W
Power consumption active 132W

Ports

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

Internal Expansion

Case mini PC
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 5

Hard Disk

Hard disk model(s) Hitachi HDP7250GLA360
Interface SATA/300
Total storage capacity 500GB
Spindle speed 7200rpm

Graphics

Graphics card(s) 512MB Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT
Graphics/video ports 2x DVI

Sound

Sound Realtek High Definition Audio
Sound outputs 5.1 line out
Speakers none

Removable Drives

3.5in floppy drive no
Supported memory cards none
Optical drive model Lite-On iHAS122
Optical drive type(s) DVD+/-RW +/-DL

Display

Viewable size 19 in
Screen model AMW X1910WDS
Native resolution 1,440×900
Response time 5ms
Screen inputs DVI, VGA

Other Hardware

Modem No
Keyboard Microsoft Basic Keyboard 1.0A
Mouse Microsoft Basic Optical Mouse 1.0A

Software

Software included none
Operating system Windows Vista Home Premium
Operating system restore option Windows disc

Buying Information

Warranty one year onsite
Price £500
Supplier http://www.pcnextday.co.uk
Details www.pcnextday.co.uk

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