Product Reviews

Quad-core PCs can be dramatically faster than their dual-core counterparts but they are usually much more expensive. All the quad-core PCs we've seen previously cost around £2,000, but PC Nextday's Zoostorm 5-7404 is much more affordable.

Despite its comparatively low price, the Zoostorm scored an impressive 438 in our video-encoding test, only a few points behind CyberPower's Infinity SLI 900 PC, which costs £1,000 more (reviewed in What's New, July 2007). It wasn't as fast in our image-editing or multiple-applications tests as other quad-core PCs, though, as it uses PC2-5300 RAM instead of the faster PC2-6400 memory. In any case, you'll see the best performance only if you use programs that have been optimised to take advantage of a multi-core processor.

Gamers will be able to play the latest titles thanks to the 320MB Nvidia GeForce 8800GTS graphics card. This displayed smooth frame rates in our graphically demanding Prey and Call of Duty 2 tests,

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and it will also be able to play upcoming DirectX 10 games.

Keen gamers will also appreciate the Creative X-Fi sound card, which will produce more realistic sound effects in games that support EAX processing. You'll want a better-sounding set of speakers to get the most out of the X-Fi card, though. Although the included 5.1 Philips surround-sound set is loud, the treble sounds harsh and there's a lack of detail.

The 22in widescreen Asus display has an attractive black and silver finish. Its 1,680x1,050 resolution is well suited to watching movies or working on multiple documents side by side. It's not ideal for detailed image editing, though, as it displayed obvious banding in both our colour and greyscale tests.

If the roomy 500GB hard disk isn't spacious enough to hold all your files, you can add extra hard disks to the four 3in drive bays. Hard disks are held in place by simple sliding latches instead of fiddly screws. The two optical drives makes copying discs easy, but if you want to add a Blu-ray writer, for example, the Zoostorm can accommodate three more 5in drives.

Sadly, there's only enough space for adding a single PCI card, such as a TV tuner or wireless networking adaptor, unless you remove the riser for two of the rear USB2 ports to make way for another.

The Zoostorm 5-7404 is keenly priced for such a powerful PC. If you regularly use programs that can take advantage of its quad-core processor, then it's a great buy. If you don't, Mesh's Elite E6600 GTS is better value, and has faster games performance.