2.5GHz Core 2 Quad Q9300
4GB DDR2
500GB hard drive
DVD±RW
None
Nvidia integrated graphics
Windows Vista Home Premium
If you're more interested in breadth than depth of performance, then get to a Costco right away. That's the only place you can pick up a ZT Affinity 7238Xi desktop, a machine that in almost every way redefines the kind of bang you can get for your budget-minded buck.
The 7238Xi's base price is $749.99, and a mail-in rebate shaves an additional $100 off that price. If you buy the PC by the end of 2008, you can contact ZT to obtain a bonus pack that contains a Maxtor OneTouch Mini 80GB portable hard drive, a D-Link DGL-4300 GameLounge Wireless 108G gaming router, and a PC Mover migration utility. If that's not enough, every system comes preloaded with Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007. Not a 60-day free trial—the full version.
We're used to ZT pulling out all the stops with the freebies, but this exceeds anything we've seen from them before. So impressive is everything that comes with the 7238Xi that the computer itself is almost beside the point; no computer being sold at this price can live up to extras this good. It's fortunate, then, that the 7238Xi is practically as good as a $749.99 desktop can be, so you'll have little chance of being disappointed by its capabilities as long as you keep a firm rein on your expectations.
That's not to say there's anything wrong with the 2.5GHz Intel Core 2 Quad processor, 4GB DDR2 RAM, 500GB hard drive, DVD±RW optical drive, or 64-bit Windows Vista Home Premium operating system. They're all fine elements that add up to acceptable—if not exceptional—performance that's good enough to propel the X238Xi to the top of our current under-$750 desktop performance rankings.
In our 64-bit Cinebench 10, Windows Media Encoder, and iTunes conversion tests, the ZT outperformed both the iBuypower Gamer Paladin Q600-SB and the Gateway DX4710-05, earning scores of 10,494, 4 minutes and 2 seconds, and 3 minutes and 33 minutes respectively. (The iBuypower's scores were 9,607, 4 minutes and 17 seconds, and 3 minutes and 50 seconds; the Gateway system managed 9,478, 4 minutes and 8 seconds, and 4 minutes and 11 seconds.) The Gateway wouldn't run our Futuremark PCMark Vantage full-system benchmark, but the ZT edged out the iBuypower there, too: 4,407 to 4,030.
It was only in the gaming department that the X238Xi completely disappointed. The integrated Nvidia GeForce 7050 graphics couldn't handle even our low-level DirectX 9 Company of Heroes gaming test. It pulled out an unmanageable average frame rate of 3.3fps, almost identical to the Gateway (3.2fps) but below the iBuypower (16.2fps, if still slow to be of much use).
If you're even somewhat interested in 3D, adding a graphics card to the X238Xi would be a good way to go, and since it has a free PCI Express (PCIe) x16 slot on the motherboard (along with one PCIe x1 slot and two regular PCI slots), that's a possibility. There are no more RAM slots, but there is one empty 5.25-inch external drive bay and one free 3.5-inch external bay (the other 3.5-inch bay contains a 19-in-1 card reader), as well as three free internal 3.5-inch bays for additional hard drives.
And why not do it? With all the money ZT saves you via rebates, accessories, and software, tricking out the X238Xi further is a workable, even attractive, proposition. If you don't need the fastest processor on the market, this package offers a value that is practically unparalleled in the budget-desktop world—or anywhere else.
Price (at time of review): $649.99 (after $100 rebate)author : Matthew Murray
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