Labs

When we looked at the spec list for the 4-4418 Advanced Premium PC, we had to double-check Zoostorm hadn't sent the wrong system. But they really are selling this for £650.From the outside, there's admittedly not much to look at. The case, while offering cleaner lines and nicer colours than Advent's, is as plain as plain can be. It's joined on the desk by a cheap-looking 19 inch monitor. Once you switch both of these on, however, things get a lot more interesting.

Greased lightning

Most of the systems here offer good performance considering the budget, but the Zoostorm raises the bar that little bit further. It's the first PC we've seen with an Intel E8400 Core 2 Duo processor. This brand new chip has two cores, both clocked at 3GHz straight out of the box. While this is the same as the heavily overclocked E4500 in the Cyberpower PC, the E8400 is part of Intel's latest generation of high-bandwidth, super-efficient chips, built using a finer manufacturing process, meaning that the millions of transistors are smaller and therefore more efficient. We couldn't wait to get the benchmarks running to see what it could do - and we weren't disappointed.

Shopping for an affordable PC usually means you have to choose between great 3D gaming performance or great 2D application performance. The Zoostorm amazingly achieves both. Its graphics card is just as impressive as the processor: nVidia's

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8800GT is a great performer, as seen with the Eclipse, that's easily capable of playing modern games smoothly at high resolutions. It may not satisfy serious gamers at the extreme end of the market, but they'll need to spend a lot more.

If you're waiting for the catch, there really isn't one. Zoostorm have backed up these two powerful components with 2GB of RAM, perfect for playing massively multiplayer online games such as Eve or Everquest II, which can bring 1GB systems to their knees. It's also great for running multiple office applications or editing the multi-megapixel photos from today's digital cameras, and will help avoid Vista ever feeling noticeably sluggish.

The hard disk continues the list of premium features. With 500GB capacity - or half a terabyte, which sounds even better - it's the largest on test. While there's no TV tuner or WiFi adaptor, these are easy to add in the spare PCI slots or via one of the six USB ports. In short, this is a heck of a PC for the price, which includes delivery.

Look at me

Opting for a 19 inch screen is a wise decision in this price range if you want to leave some money to get the fastest system. Looking at the weedy frame of the AMW monitor, though, we were a little worried that Zoostorm might have scrimped and saved too much. But once up and running it proved to offer solid image quality - nothing special, but pleasant to look at, and fast enough to watch video without any obtrusive ghosting.

The keyboard and mouse are from Microsoft's dependable Value range, and while not having the finesse of something like the Cherry set supplied by Very PC, they're fine for general use.

The Zoostorm is a real powerhouse in this price bracket. Of all the PCs on test, it boasts the best processor, the best graphics and the best hard disk, and complements these with 2GB of memory and solid peripherals. If you want the biggest bang for your buck without compromising too much on the frills, here's your next PC.