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PC Nextday’s Zoostorm 65-5301 is the only PC here with one of Nvidia’s latest graphics cards, the 896MB GeForce GTX 260. It couldn’t keep up with the Radeon HD 4870-equipped Arbico Elite 8400 OCX, but it performed very well in our 3D graphics tests, coming second overall. It managed almost 60fps in our Call of Duty 4 test and a playable 30fps in Crysis. The 65-5301 is fitted with 4GB of RAM and an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 processor. It couldn’t match the Phenom II-equipped PCs in our TV & Movies benchmark, but it edged ahead in our Memories test. Overall, the Phenom II-based PCs were faster, but the Zoostorm 65-5301 is still one of the fastest PCs here. This PC and its £650 counterpart – the Zoostorm 64-4303 – are the only two in this Labs to come with surround-sound speakers. Both use the same Edifier M1550 5.1 speakers, but we’d have liked to see a better-sounding set with an £800 PC. Their bass is disappointing and you’ll have to position them carefully for the best possible sound. They’re still useful for watching movies and playing games, though. You also get the same 22in AMW monitor supplied with the cheaper Zoostorm 64-4303. This is a shame as we were unimpressed with its image quality. Backlighting is uneven and images have a green tint. Again, we’d expect a better-quality display with a PC at this price. The similarities between the Zoostorm 65-5301 and its cheaper counterpart don’t end there. Foxconn’s G31MX motherboard makes an appearance here, too. It has only two memory slots, which are already occupied, so you’ll have to throw away the existing RAM if you want to add more. However, the 65-5301 uses a different case with fewer drive bays – two empty 3?in bays and one spare 5?in bay.
PC Nextday, like Advent, provides a year of onsite warranty, which will save you a lot of hassle if the PC breaks down. The Zoostorm 65-5301 is fast, but the mediocre monitor and motherboard mean Mesh’s better-equipped Matrix II 940 CS takes the Best Buy award.
