Review: PC Nextday Zoostorm 5-7402 Edge PC

It’s not the fastest performer in this group, but the Zoostorm 5-7402 Edge PC could hardly be described as a slouch, and it also scores well on both price and features.

The Zoostorm is one of just two PCs in this group that use the top-of-the-range Core 2 Duo E6700 processor, which runs at 2.67GHz. Ordinarily, then, you might expect it to produce top-of-the-range performance results.

However, it’s pipped at the post by Evesham’s Solar Plus (which uses the same processor but has faster Ram), and by the heavily overclocked E6600 machines from Scan and Chillblast.

Even so, the Zoostorm is still a good all-round performer and its 87fps in our Far Cry test would leave most previous-generation Intel or AMD-based PCs trailing in its wake.

Its 3Dmark05 score, however, tops the pack by a large margin, courtesy of its poweful 512MB Nvidia Geforce 7900 GTX card, so it has good gaming credentials. Its Sysmark scores for general office tasks are not as impressive, though.

The Zoostorm has 2GB of Ram and its 500GB hard disk is the largest in this group, so will provide plenty of storage for digital audio or video work. And where most of its rivals just provide 2.1 speakers – or none at all, in the case of Chillblast – the Zoostorm provides a full set of 5.1 speakers.

It therefore has all the features you need for a really strong multimedia workstation, and with a spare x16 PCI Express slot available for a second graphics card and a good half a dozen spare drive bays, it also provides plenty of room for future upgrades.

The fact that the Zoostorm also comes in at £100 less than most of its rivals doesn’t hurt either. Dedicated gamers may prefer a PC with a little more raw horsepower, but the Zoostorm’s price, performance and features make it a good choice for those who want a multimedia PC for home or business use.

This article is part of a group test of £1,499 Conroe PCs.
See also
Chillblast Hardcore 6600 OC
Evesham Solar Plus
Mesh Elite E6600 PCW
Scan 3XS C2D-OC
Apple launches Xeon processor in Mac Pro
Core 2 Duo numbering system

Performance graphs and table of features can be read via our pdf downloads

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