Zoostorm Stormforce 340 Gaming PC Review

Introduction Zoostorm is currently the fourth largest system integrator in the UK and produces an impressive range of professional looking PCs to suit various price points. This includes compact HTPCs, touchscreen all-in-ones and extremely capable gaming rigs. Not only that, the company has a history in this sector spanning over 20 years which showcases their high level of expertise. It's even possible to compile a custom machine and choose from a large inventory of components. In my experience, Zoostorm excels in providing affordable solutions for users on a relatively restricted budget. This makes it a superb option if you're unsure about the building process and want a highly reputable company to construct something within a price range most mainstream users can afford. The Zoostorm Stormforce 340 opts for a very competitive price point and potent specification which widens its appeal to a large audience. More specifically, the system utilizes an Intel Core i5-6500 processor, 8GB DDR4 2133MHz memory and GTX 970 4GB. There's also an M.2 boot SSD to make Windows behave in a quick manner and the 1TB mechanical drive is deployed for mass storage purposes. The FSP 500W 85+ rated power supply should allow for quiet operation although the non-modular design might hinder cable management opportunities somewhat. This entire build is housed in the highly revered NXZT S340 chassis and leaves a positive first impression. Given the balanced specification and low price point, could this be the perfect choice for console players moving into the PC gaming market? Let's find out! Specifications Name: Zoostorm Stormforce 340 Case: NZXT S340 Red and Black Mid Tower Motherboard: MSI B150 PC Mate Processor: Intel Core i5-6500 Processor Cooler: Intel LGA 1151 Stock Cooler System Memory: 8GB Crucial DDR4 2133MHz CL15 Main Boot Drive: 128GB Sandisk M.2 Z400s SSD Additional Storage Drive(s): 1TB Western Digital Blue 7200RPM Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 4GB Power Supply: FSP 500w 85+ PSU FSP500-60HHN Peripherals: N/A Monitor: N/A Optical Drive: N/A Wireless: N/A OS: Windows 10 Home Warranty: 12 Months Price: £799.97 Packing and Accessories The system is neatly packaged in a relatively compact box which makes it easy to carry around and ensures the courier adopts a gentle approach. Despite this, I'd prefer to see the chassis box protected by another layer to offer better protection against any large impact. Saying that, it's not a huge problem and damage is usually the result of bad luck. Any concerns about the packaging quickly subside when you realise that the top and bottom sections are cushioned by custom inserts. The top section covers the PC and reduces the likelihood of cosmetic damage occurring. Not only that, it adds rigidity to the box's structural integrity. The bottom insert holds the system perfectly in place and prevents it from moving around during transit. Zoostorm include a warning message reminding customers to remove the packaging material from the system before powering on. This emphasizes the company's attentive approach and focus on user satisfaction. The graphics card is protected with a durable foam insert although I'm not entirely convinced how much of a difference this will make. Instead of a single foam piece, Zoostorm should be employing a foam pack which covers various components including the CPU cooler, graphics card and memory. Thankfully, this can easily be changed and won't impact on the unit's retail price. In terms of accessories, the system is bundled with a thank you note, component documentation, driver disk, AC adapter, molex adapter, case accessories and DVI to D-Sub adapter. CPU-Z GPU-Z A Closer Look The NZXT S340 chassis evokes a premium feel due to the attractive colour scheme and stellar power supply cover. As a result, the build looks remarkably clean and obscures any trailing cables in a proficient manner. On another note, the colours contrast rather nicely even though the motherboard's PCB has a brown hue. Once the tinted side panel window is closed, you're not going to notice these slight differences. On the other hand, I'd recommending adding a magnetic LED strip to create a more ostentatious aesthetic design. Here we can see the front panel which includes a large power button, two USB 3.0 ports, headphone jack, microphone jack and hard drive LED indicator. Rather surprisingly, the system comes with a reference model GTX 970 which is fairly unusual given NVIDIA's focus on custom cooled solutions from various vendors. Some of you might remember the aftermarket GTX 970 cards launched immediately and reference products didn't enter the retail market in large numbers. Nevertheless, it's interesting to see a reference model and I'm quite fond of the uniform black colour. Please note the GeForce logo does not illuminate. The 8GB DDR4 2133MHz looks peculiar in a single channel configuration and I would have preferred to see two 4GB modules instead. This is because the B150 chipset supports dual channel configurations and has the potential to leverage extra memory bandwidth. The lack of stylish heatspreaders creates a negative perception especially when you consider that memory kits like the Kingston HyperX Fury or Corsair LPX are relatively cheap. Although, some of these opt for faster speeds which cannot be utilized beyond 2133MHz on the B150 chipset. Of course, the Intel stock cooler is always going to be snarled at by enthusiasts but it's functional and able to keep thermals low due to Skylake's efficient thermal performance. The graphics card's dual 6-pin PCI connectors are located in a more central position compared to custom variants which make tidy cable management fairly challenging. Nevertheless, Zoostorm has managed to achieve a clean cable run using a tight zip-tie. The 24-pin ATX connector is held in place perfectly using the tightest possible cable run. As a result, any excess cabling is hidden behind the chassis' plastic cover or around the rear portion. Here we can see the M.2 boot SSD which is installed just next to the first PCI-E x1 expansion slot. I'm a huge fan of using M.2 drives because they cut down on clutter and help to form a more professional appearance. The case's lack of rubber grommets and fairly limited cable management poses a problem when attempting to achieve an organised finish. As a result, the cabling isn't brilliant but it's relatively good when you consider both the chassis design and non-modular power supply. Zoostorm have utilised tight zip-ties and coupled cables together in a logical arrangement. Furthermore, there's enough space left around the CPU cut-out to easily re-fit the cooler without feeling restricted by a large number of cables concealing the mount point. Another highlight is the fan cable positioning which feeds around the back to a motherboard header. This means there's no awkward trailing cables in the front section and maintains a cleaner construction which you're proud to look at. The power supply's excess cables have been hidden rather well and held down around the PSU chamber. Also, notice the use of very strong zip-ties to ensure the large cluster of cables doesn't come undone over time. Unfortunately, the SATA cable which runs from the mechanical hard disk protrudes outwards more than I'd like and needs to be flush with the chassis' frame. Testing & Methodology To test each system or notebook, we want to stress every component of the system to check stability and performance, giving us an idea as to why those particular components were picked for this particular system. We use a wide variety of applications to gain a broad spectrum of results for comparing diverse aspects of system performance. Unless specifically stated, all games are running at maximum settings but any vendor-exclusive features such as TressFX or PhsyX have been disabled to make the results fair. There are some titles where the maximum preset can be altered further in regards to AA, AF, Tessellation, and Draw Distance. To allow our readers to make the most informed decision, any additional options will be clearly labelled in this section. Hardware Acoustic dBA meter AC "Killawatt" power meter Software 3DMark AIDA64 Engineer Cinebench R15 CrystalDiskMark CPU-Z GPU-Z HW-Monitor MSI Afterburner OCCT Passmark PerformanceTest 8.0 PCMark 8 Prime95 Super PI Unigine Heaven 4.0 Grand Theft Auto 5 Metro Last Light Tomb Raider Bioshock Infinite PC Mark 8 The PCMark 8 Home benchmark includes workloads that reflect common tasks for a typical home user. These workloads have low computational requirements making PCMark 8 Home suitable for testing the performance of low-cost tablets, notebooks, and desktops. Home includes workloads for web browsing, writing, gaming, photo editing, and video chat. The results are combined to give a PCMark 8 Home score for your system. Download here. 3D Mark The new 3DMark includes everything you need to benchmark your hardware. With three all new tests you can bench everything from smartphones and tablets, to notebooks and home PCs, to the latest high-end, multi-GPU gaming desktops. Download here. Unigine Heaven Heaven Benchmark with its current version 4.0 is a GPU-intensive benchmark that hammers graphics cards to the limits. This powerful tool can be effectively used to determine the stability of a GPU under extremely stressful conditions, as well as check the cooling system’s potential under maximum heat output. It provides completely unbiased results and generates true in-game rendering workloads across all platforms, such as Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. Download here. Grand Theft Auto V Our GTA5 Benchmark is run on the standard benchmark with MSAA=Off, FXAA=On, Very High Preset, Advanced Graphics Disabled and the settings detailed below: Metro Last Light Metro: Last Light (formerly Metro 2034) is a first-person shooter and horror video game developed by Ukrainian studio 4A Games and published by Deep Silver for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It was released in May 2013. The game is set in a post-apocalyptic world and features a mixture of action-oriented and stealth gameplay. Metro: Last Light features technology which boasts new lighting effects and improved physics claimed to set a new graphical benchmark on the PC and consoles. Very High Preset, AF=16x, Tessellation=Very High, SSAA=Off, PhysX=Off Tomb Raider In Tomb Raider, the player is confronted with a much younger Lara Croft who is shipwrecked and finds herself stranded on a mysterious island rife with danger, both natural and human. Tomb Raider is a demanding game offering up ultra quality textures, full DirectX 11 support, SSAA, FXAA, MSAA and AMD TressFX technology. The benchmark is set to the Ultra preset without any modifications being made. Bioshock BioShock Infinite is the third and last game in the BioShock series. It is a first-person shooter video game developed by Irrational Games and published by 2K Games. BioShock Infinite supports dynamic shadows, post-processing, light shafts, ambient occlusion, object level of detail, Diffusion Depth of Detail, FOV adjustment controls and other advanced DirectX 11 features. Here we set everything on the maximum preset and use Bioshock's integrated benchmarking utility. Cinebench R15 Cinebench is a widely respected benchmark for testing the performance of x86 CPUs. The program allows you to test single and multi-threaded performance as well as GPU performance by rendering with Open GL. Download here. Super Pi Super PI is a single threaded benchmark that calculates pi to a specific number of digits. Super PI is a single threaded benchmark ideal for testing pure, single threaded x87 floating point performance and while most of the computing market has shifted towards multithreaded applications and more modern instruction sets, Super PI still remains quite indicative of CPU capability in specific applications such as computer gaming. Download here. AIDA64 Engineer Edition AIDA64 Engineer is a streamlined Windows diagnostic and benchmarking software for engineers. It has unique capabilities to assess the performance of the processor, system memory, and disk drives. AIDA64 is compatible with all current 32-bit and 64-bit Microsoft Windows operating systems, including Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012. Memory and cache benchmarks are available to analyze system RAM bandwidth and latency. Download here. CrystalDiskMark CrystalDiskMark is a portable storage drive benchmark utility that enables you to measure sequential and random read/write speeds on different block size data. CrystalDiskMark will work with any storage drives including hard drives, SSDs and USB flash drives. Download here. Passmark The PassMark Advanced Network Test (which is part of PerformanceTest) is designed to test the data transfer rate between two computers both of which must be running PerformanceTest. One of the computers must act as the server and will sit waiting for a connection. The other computer acts as a client. It connects to the server machine and sends data to it for the duration of the test. You can download a trial version of PerformanceTest from here. Acoustic Performance The amount of noise produced by any computer is a vital consideration for most buyers, even gamers don't really want a noisy PC because less noise is always better. We use an acoustic dBA meter held 2 feet behind our test system at idle and under load to get the idle and load noise levels for the system. For idle we allow the system to sit at the Windows desktop, for load we let Unigine Heaven 4.0 and Prime95 to loop together - we take the acoustic measurements 5 minutes into both of these scenarios. Power Consumption To test power consumption we measure the total system power draw during idle and load scenarios. For idle we allow the system to sit at the Windows desktop, for load we let Unigine Heaven 4.0 and Prime95 to loop together – we take the power measurements from the “Killawatt” AC power meter 5 minutes into both of these scenarios at the same point. Temperatures To test thermal performance we measure average CPU and GPU core temperatures during idle and load scenarios. For idle we allow the system to sit at the Windows desktop, for load we let Unigine Heaven 4.0 and Prime95 to loop together - we take the temperature measurements from within CPUID HWMonitor 5 minutes into both of these scenarios at the same point. For load we take the average of the maximum temperatures, for idle we take the average of the minimum temperatures. Synthetic Benchmarks PC Mark 8 The Zoostorm Stormforce 340 attains a very respectable score in PCMark 8 and beats its nearest rival sporting a very similar specification. It's evidently clear that the machine can easily cope with commonly used desktop tasks including web browsing, photo editing and much more. 3DMark The 3DMark results are excellent for a product in this price range and there's very little to choose between various systems opting for the popular GTX 970. As expected, the reference model's lower clock speed makes it perform worse than custom alternatives but it's not going to adversely affect the user-experience. Unigine Heaven Here we can see a very similar picture in Heaven 4.0 which showcases the system's marvellous performance numbers during strenuous 3D tasks. Gaming Performance Grand Theft Auto 5 Grand Theft Auto V's visually diverse landscape and stunning vistas can pose a problem for systems trying to attain a smooth frame-rate at higher resolutions. The Zoostorm Stormforce 340 created a fluid user experience even when the resolution was increased to 2560x1440. Furthermore, I didn't encounter any jarring moments where the frame-rate dropped substantially. Metro Last Light Once again, the system maintained its strong showing across two frequently used resolutions and didn't falter under heavy stress. Tomb Raider Here we can see the Zoostorm Stormforce 340 surpasses other GTX 970 based alternatives and never dipped below 60 frames-per-second. Of course, this is partly due to driver improvements, but it shouldn't detract from another superb set of results. Bioshock Infinite The frame-rate was a little bit lower than I initially envisioned and a noticeable gap from other GTX 970 systems. This is an unusual situation and I'd theorise it's to do with some inconsistencies caused by the game's integrated benchmark. Nevertheless, Bioshock Infinite remains perfectly smooth even when paired with a high-resolution display. CPU & Memory Performance Cinebench R15 Rather surprisingly, the Zoostorm Stormforce 340 manages to outperform its nearest competitor by a decent margin despite utilising the same CPU frequency. This is a superb result and illustrates the i5 6500's power in CPU dominated workloads. Of course, the lower frequency and lack of hyperthreading inhibits it in synthetic benchmarks compared to high-end options but I highly doubt this will be a concern for budget users. Super Pi In terms of compute time, the system recorded a very good figure and the deficit to an overclocked i7-6700K was less than I anticipated. AIDA64 Engineer The system's single channel DDR4 memory operating at the basic 2133MHz speed cannot compete with higher end alternatives. I still find it perplexing that a dual channel kit wasn't used but perhaps it's to leave further headroom to upgrade in the future. Putting these criticisms aside, the memory isn't going to be a limiting factor outside of synthetic testing. Storage and USB Performance CrystalDiskMark - Sequential Read The boot M.2 drive is capable of wonderful sequential read numbers and outclassed many other systems using the SATA interface. On another note, the mechanical disk fared quite well and wasn't too far off reaching 200MB/s. Sadly, the USB 3.0 score is fairly average but it's within an acceptable margin of error which could explain the final result. CrystalDiskMark - Sequential Write Unfortunately, the Z400S boot device really struggles in the sequential write department and couldn't even exceed 200MB/s. Technically, the drive is rated to a maximum speed of 182 MB/s so this isn't a major surprise. It's designed for lower end scenarios and struggles to come close to premium solutions like the Samsung Evo 850. On a more positive note, the statistics for the mechanical HDD and USB 3.0 are much more competitive. Networking Performance Passmark PerformanceTest 8.0 Ethernet (LAN) The system's Realtek RTL8111H network interface is absolutely fantastic due to the narrow range between minimum and maximum figures which allow for a very consistent connection. Acoustic, Power & Thermal Performance Acoustic Performance Given the system's Intel stock cooler, I was expecting the small fan to ramp up quite significantly during CPU stress testing and run obnoxiously loud. This simply wasn't the case and I was astounded to see the noise levels remain under 42 decibels. Perhaps the stock frequency helped because there wasn't as much strain on the CPU. Power Consumption The highly efficient i5-6500 and Maxwell-based graphics card hardly use any power under load which reached an average value of 224.7 watts. Thermal Performance The CPU's stock frequency and Skylake's improved thermal dissipation means it's relatively straightforward to attain good temperatures. Despite the basic cooling solution, the system never exceeded 60 degrees and remained well within thermal limitations. This exemplifies the notion that the stock cooler is more than adequate to cool a Skylake processor at default values. The reference GTX 970's blower design cooler works rather well and kept the GPU core running under 80C. Final Thoughts Pricing The Zoostorm Stormforce 340 is currently available from respected online store laptopsdirect.co.uk for £799.97. To determine a system's value proposition, we endeavour to compile an identical self-build and compare the price. This allows us to analyse the fee (if any) that a system integrator is choosing is charge customers for its services. Case: NZXT S340 Red and Black Mid Tower = £59.94 Motherboard: MSI B150 PC Mate = £66.99 Processor: Intel Core i5-6500 = £172.99 Processor Cooler: Intel LGA1151 Stock Cooler = £0 (Included with CPU) System Memory: 8GB Crucial DDR4 2133MHz CL15 = £25.92 Main Boot Drive: 128GB Sandisk M.2 Z400s SSD = £40.09 Additional Storage Drive(s): 1TB Western Digital Blue 7200RPM = £44.92 Graphics Card: NVIDIA GTX 970 4GB = £234.99* Power Supply: FSP 500w 85+ PSU FSP500-60HHN = £59.80 OS: Windows 10 Home = £73.98 Once totalled up, this equates to £779.62 which is a saving of £20.35 compared to the pre-configured Zoostorm model. As you can see, the difference is minimal which demonstrates how reasonable the system's price point really is. Overview The system's NZXT S340 chassis evokes a professional feel due to the study construction and aesthetically pleasing colour scheme. While a cheaper option could have been deployed, it wouldn't enthuse as much confidence in the product and I strongly believe the S340 is a fantastic choice given the budget constraints. Personally, I prefer the appearance once the side panel is removed because you can clearly see the red highlights. Annoyingly, the panels cover these red sections and results in a more understated theme. Whatever the case (if you'll excuse the pun), the Zoostorm Stormforce looks more expensive than it is and the tinted window manages to partially obscure any cutbacks made for aesthetic reasons. In terms of component selection, the i5-6500 processor is perfectly suited towards mainstream gaming and you're not going to experience any sort of bottlenecks compared to unlocked CPUs like the i7-6700K. As a result, the base frequency is enough to cope with a huge range of demanding scenarios and it's guaranteed to run at lower thermals compared to overclocked options. Speaking of thermals, the system opts for the default Intel cooler which initially made me quite concerned about its ability to dispel heat in an effective manner. Thankfully, this was probably pure snobbery on my behalf after being fortunate enough to use some of the best CPU coolers on the market. While the stock cooler is fairly ghastly to look at, it's functional and remains surprisingly quiet under heavy load. Ideally, I'd like to see the something similar to the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo used instead which only has a small impact on the system cost and looks much better. Of course, if you're not bothered by aesthetics then there's no need to disregard the stock cooler's perfectly fine functionality. The 8GB DDR4 memory operates at a speed of 2133MHz which makes sense given the limitations imposed by Intel on the budget B150 chipset. Despite this, I'd prefer to see two DIMMs to create a better appearance and utilise dual channel speeds. Some users might dislike the green PCB and exposed ICs especially when attractive DDR4 memory is relatively affordable. Once again it all comes down to subjective preference because the attractive designs usually sport 2400MHz and you cannot use these modules to their full potential. This seems rather wasteful if the memory speed has to be downclocked to 2133MHz. Therefore, I think Zoostorm have taken the right approach and ensured money isn't wasted during the component planning process. The M.2 boot SSD is capable of stunning read speeds and competes rather favourably against higher end devices. Unfortunately, it really falls behind in sequential write performance which is reflected in its cheaper price point. Perhaps, a better option would be to go for the 120GB Samsung Evo 850 with greatly improved write speeds. The 120GB capacity is large enough to store the operating system and a few programs. While 250GB would be ideal, it's probably not worth the extra given the sort of user considering this PC. The current setup allows them to keep all large data files on a secondary mechanical drive and find a good balance between storage capacity and cost. Next up is the GTX 970 graphics card which offers exceptional performance numbers across a wide variety of visually demanding titles. Whether you're opting for a 1920x1080 high refresh display or 2560x1440 60Hz panel, you should be able to maintain a fluid frame-rate with high settings. Alongside the R9 390, it's one of the best price to performance cards on the market and a wonderful choice for this particular PC. It's really quite surprising how much of a premium experience you can get under £800. While this is significantly more than a console, clear savings are made via heavy discounts on digital games. Furthermore, adding the cost of a basic laptop and console with a few games isn't too far off the £800 mark. Finally, the system's cable management is fairly average but a large portion of this is down to the non-modular power supply and chassis design. Sadly, the chassis' lack of rubber grommets and reliance on a plastic cable cover complicates the build process by a noticeable degree. Zoostorm has managed to make the front section looks exceptionally neat and they deserve credit for achieving this feat. They've employed tight cable runs and durable zip-ties to keep everything in position rather nicely. The opposite side can look a little disorganised upon first inspection but it should be clean enough to please most users. The only real complaint I have is the hanging SATA cable which needed to be flush with the case. Putting this aside, the cabling is decent and demonstrates a good skill level throughout. Pros Decent cable management considering chassis restrictions Exceptional value-for-money Fantastic gaming experience Good colour coordination Impressive boot SSD read speeds Low power consumption Professional build Relatively quiet Superb temperatures Cons Component protection could be better One year warranty is lacking compared to other companies "The Zoostorm Stormforce 340 might not be the most visually spectacular PC on the market but it's certainly well made and features a stunning specification for the money. This makes it a fantastic choice for budget-orientated PC gamers who aren't overly concerned with spending extra money on luxury extras such as water cooling or illuminated memory." Zoostorm Stormforce 340 Gaming PC Review Thank you Zoostorm for providing us with this sample.