Product Reviews

We're continually amazed by just how much PC manufacturers can fit into ever-decreasing budgets, and much of this can be attributed to the price war between Intel and AMD, who make the processor chips at the heart of most computers. With even top-end processors now available for less than £150, companies like Zoostorm can spend a fraction of that on more modest chips and still produce a decent PC.

For the 5-3401, Zoostorm has opted for one of Intel's lower-end Core 2 Duos, the 2.2GHz E4500. While it has a smaller cache than the full E6000-series CPUs, it still packs enough of a punch to run your applications smoothly. It's assisted here by 2GB of fast 800MHz DDR2 RAM, so Vista Home Premium runs without a hitch, and you can keep several programs open at once without any slowdown.

Playing nicely

It's not long ago that such a level of performance would have been unfeasible at this price, but the Zoostorm has even more to offer. Besides being very capable in general use, it also offers a decent amount of gaming ability, thanks to the inclusion of an nVidia GeForce 8600 GTS graphics card. While it's not up there with the heavyweight 8800 cards, the 8600 GTS is the next best thing. The monitor supplied with the Zoostorm has a native resolution of 1,440 x 900 pixels, and you should be able to run all but the most demanding games without lowering it. Our Call of Duty 2 benchmark, with high detail settings,

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ran at a playable 21.4 frames per second.

That monitor is a 19-inch gnr TS902W, which is a reasonable if not stunning choice. The desktop was sharp and the brightness pretty fair, but on our sample we noticed quite a bit of backlight bleeding through at the top edge of the screen. It's only really noticeable on an empty black screen, and once immersed in a game or DVD we soon stopped seeing it at all. Given the low price of this system, it would be a little harsh to call the monitor a weakness - it's absolutely fine for basic everyday tasks - but it's the first thing we'd recommend upgrading if you can stretch your budget a little further.

The display has a pair of built-in speakers, which is a good job, since the Zoostorm doesn't come with an external set. But to really enjoy a film you'll want to buy a pair of speakers or hook up the PC to your hi-fi, as the integrated speakers predictably lack volume and sound a bit tinny.

You shouldn't have any problems with storage space, as there's a 320GB Western Digital hard disk inside, along with a 20x DVD writer for backups and burning video. Add to that a card reader mounted in a bay at the front, which supports all the major formats, plus a grand total of seven USB ports and one FireWire, and you're well set up.

The case itself is of a nice enough design, with its contrasting silver and black trim. We're not huge fans of the flimsy sliding panel over the card reader (slid off in the picture), but that's a minor irritation in an otherwise surprisingly solid chassis. Plus, on the off-chance that anything does malfunction, the5-3401's warranty, though it only lasts a year, does provide on-site service.

All things considered, we have very few complaints about this PC. For the low price, it offers an excellent level of performance in both 2D and 3D tasks, and the rest of the components more than match up. The monitor isn't the best, and you'll need to add your own speakers, but otherwise you couldn't ask for a better-equipped budget PC.