Product Reviews

This new PC bundle from Zoostorm aims to provide a well rounded family computer for an affordable price, including all the accessories you're likely to need. It certainly looks like a lot for the money. The question is whether the compromises made to squeeze everything into the budget are ones that you (and your family) can live with.

First things first: in a multi-purpose system such as this, the monitor will need to perform in a range of tasks. The supplied 22 inch widescreen, made by AMW, is fine as far as it goes. In testing, colours were vibrant and edges sharp, and the small amount of light bleeding through at the top and bottom of the screen - a common failing of low-cost LCDs - wasn't bad enough to distract us from working, watching movies or playing games.

But there's another challenge that's harder to meet. One of the Zoostorm's main attractions, and a generous inclusion in such a reasonably priced system, is the Blu-ray drive. Now that Sony's high definition disc format has won the war against the rival HD DVD, you can get on with starting your collection of high def movies, and the Zoostorm is ready to play them.

Unfortunately, the AMW screen isn't. The only input around the back of the monitor is an analogue VGA port. That means the output from the PC is converted to analogue and back again before hoving into view, by which time it'll be less crisp and somewhat lacking in, well, definition. You might not notice the difference too much in general use, but when it comes to HD movies, there's little point having HD quality input if you're not seeing HD quality output. It's a real shame that one of the unique selling points of the system has been rendered all but useless.

Where the heart is

Inside the box, the Zoostorm's core specification is well put together and capable of handling the varied demands of a home computer. The Intel Core 2 Duo E8200 has two processors in one chip, each running at 2.66GHz. Along with 2GB of RAM, this propelled the 63-5402 to a very healthy score of 214% in our 2D (general) benchmark. Bearing in mind that the 100% point represents a machine that'll handle everyday Windows Vista tasks without major frustrations, this is an impressive level of performance that should ensure you can get on with whatever you want to do without the Zoostorm kicking up a fuss.

When it comes to 3D gaming, though, the news is not so good. The nVidia GeForce 8500 GT graphics card is a low-end chip from the outgoing 8000 series, and it shows. It's enough to play Blu-ray discs smoothly, and cope with general everyday tasks, but in our 3D test the 8500 GT crawled to a result of 43%, indicating that you'd be better off dusting down some classics from your games cupboard than trying to get the latest and most demanding titles to work. With video settings turned down, a lot of games should run, but serious gamers won't be anywhere near satisfied.

The rest of the specification is solid. A 750GB hard disk is particularly

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generous, providing enough space for several different users to amass their own hefty collections of music, photos, music and so on. You also get a TV tuner built in, and not just a basic one but a decent, versatile card. It has dual tuners, which means you can record a programme on one channel while watching another, and has built-in Freeview, so the PC is all ready to receive digital TV, assuming you have a working aerial and live in a part of the country that the Freeview consortium has smiled on.

Speakers are also included. The Edifier M1550 is a 5.1 set, providing a beefy subwoofer and five satellites. They're adequate for music, movies and games, but we found the treble a little weak.

Another unusual - and welcome - addition is an HP DeskJet F2180 all-in-one inkjet. This compact printer also serves as a scanner and copier and, although it feels rather light and flimsy, offers decent quality. Documents were sharp, text was reproduced crisply, and areas of colour were suitably vibrant. Subtle graduations weren't too good, though, and it's not the greatest photo printer. Nor is it the quickest, but that shouldn't be as big a concern in the home. In fact, it could be a blessing in disguise if it slows down the rate at which your nearest and dearest plough through expensive ink.

Back to basics

The case is a standard Zoostorm unit that we've seen in other recent systems. We haven't been too impressed with it, and we still aren't: the two-tone metal and plastic design has several problems. The power button, for instance, is cut directly into the metal, and is annoyingly hard to push. Three doors are built into the plastic upper panel to hide the memory card reader, spare 5.25in bay and optical drive, but their construction inspires little confidence; they feel as if they could break at any time.

The interior is tidier, but still makes concessions that better built systems would sniff at. Most of the wires have been bundled away to improve airflow, and an Akasa fan is a good choice to keep the processor cool. However, below the trio of free expansion bays - one 5.25 inch and a pair of 3.5 inch, one facing outwards and the other for an internal hard disk - there's a swathe of free space. In other chassis, this would be given over to extra bays that would add more upgrade potential. The graphics card and TV tuner also hamper any potential upgrades, leaving no PCI Express 16x or 1x slots free. Still, surveys have shown that most users never get around to any internal upgrades, so you might not feel you're missing anything. At least there's a couple of standard PCI slots left empty for undemanding cards, and a spare DIMM socket for adding to the included 2GB of RAM, although other machines often provide two.

Arrested development

This bundle really does tick all the boxes for a family system, and the price is very reasonable. We're concerned, though, about some of the shortcomings. The lack of gaming potential will disappoint some family members, and the analogue monitor can only limit everyone's enjoyment. The all-in-one printer is practical, but is it a more important inclusion than a sturdy case or great-sounding speakers?

We're left in two minds, which explains why we've awarded a middle-of-the-road rating. If you need a complete setup and budget is tight, you might see this as an affordable solution, with half an eye on upgrading the peripherals later. But it might make more sense to spend your money on a solid PC, without the extras, or to try to stretch your budget a little further.