Zoostorm PC Review (with AMD Vision A6-3500 APU)

It is clear that Zoostorm are targeting this particular computer towards the budget sector, after all the specifications are basic and the system ships with a very limited bundle. When we look at the very modest £230 asking price however we do feel that Zoostorm will sell many of these units to students and people with restricted income.

The build quality is quite impressive considering the low price of the system. The chassis the company have adopted is a customised OEM design which looks attractive and will handle reasonable abuse over the years.

There are a few quality branded components within, such as the Asus F1A55-M LE motherboard and Western Digital hard drive. Sadly these are accompanied by low quality components such as the ‘Goldkey' branded, naked memory.

The Zoostorm PC would have scored higher however if it wasn't for the dire OEM power supply built into the system. It is the loudest unit we have heard in our labs and the fan doesn't seem to deviate from maximum RPM regardless of load. We would need to replace this before considering the Zoostorm PC for media center duties. Such a shame really.

We don't expect amazing benchmark results from a budget oriented system and the performance will be perfectly suited for surfing the web, office work and viewing online content.  It is not ideal for gaming as the integrated graphics processing isn't up to the task. That said, if you want to play games you could consider adding in an AMD discrete graphics card in dual graphics mode for extra power.

We have no faith in this power supply however, so long term we would recommend swapping it out if you were to add a discrete graphics card into the mix.

At a price of around £230 inc. VAT from Ebuyer, we think this Zoostorm Desktop is ideal for people who need a budget computer for basic tasks.  The specification is solid for the price and the lack of an operating system is sure to entice a number of budget-focused users.

Critically we don't recommend this system as a budget multimedia PC, due to the high noise emissions and lack of HDMI port. Two major weaknesses we can't overlook.

Pros

• Excellent Value.
• Attractive case.
• Generous specification.
• Good performance.

Cons

• Painfully loud power supply.
• Poor airflow.
• No HDMI or USB3.0 connections.

KitGuru says: An impressive budget offering from Zoostorm, let down by the high level of noise emitted by the power supply.

Become a Patron!