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Zoostorm supply the PC within a plain brown cardboard box which features some basic company branding. Inside the box, the PC is sandwiched between two slabs of polystyrene for protection.
The included bundle is very limited but this isn't surprising considering the price point. In fact, the only items supplied with the PC are the software CD, user manual for the motherboard and a power cable. It's reassuring to see that Zoostorm have used an Asus motherboard in the PC, though, rather than some questionable OEM brand.
Our initial impressions of the system are very positive. The front of the chassis is made from plastic but has a brushed aluminium effect which gives it a sleek appearance. The backbone of the chassis is constructed exclusively from thin SECC steel.
Behind a flap on the front panel we find a limited selection of connections which include two USB 2.0 ports and headphone and microphone jacks. There are also two 5.25″ bays in the front panel of the case, one of which is populated by a DVD Writer. The chassis also features an external 3.5″ bay behind the flap in the front panel in which you could install a card reader if required.
Moving round to the back of the system we can see a power supply located at the top, above the motherboard connections. The selection of output and inputs is very limited and we are sad to say that there isn't even an HDMI output, let alone USB3.0 connectivity.
There is a reasonably large fan vent in the back of the case but this isn't populated by Zoostorm. In fact, there are no fans installed in the chassis to generate airflow which is quite surprising. We will see how this affects temperatures later on in the review.
The rear I/O panel features the following connections:
- 2x PS/2 ports.
- 1x VGA output.
- 1x DVI output.
- 6x USB 2.0 ports.
- 1x RJ-45 Ethernet port.
- Headphone, Microphone and Digital 3.5mm jacks.
Quite a let down, not on a performance level, but why use a loud PSU in such an ideal media center system?
wow what a terrible system, why such a high score if the PSU is ultra loud? its ideal for a media center until this is factored in.
its not the psu its the heatsink and fan that runs at 4000rpm to fix that all you have to do is replace the cooler with a silent low profile cooler as some coolers can be very large just dont reuse the thermal compound and be sure to clean all the old off
Hi blaze dragon, it’s definitely the PSU in my review unit that makes the noise as I turned the CPU fan off for a moment and the noise was still present.
I bought one of this zoostorm pc from http://www.rossdigital.co.uk and i found it really good performance. I think they are better than HP and cheaper.
CPU’s don’t make any sound as it is attached to the motherboard what you all be hearing is the fan on the CPU but all these very rarely make a noise. What you will be hearing is the noise from the fan from the PSU (POWER SUPPLY UNIT) So if you want and clever enough you can change the fan on the PSU or get a new PSU FROM any computer shop. Good luck all
I bought a Zoostorm from Argos . I sent it back the next day ,I could not put up with the noise it was like having a leaf blowing machine in the room. worst pc on the market