ZT Affinity 7221Xa review

The $600 ZT Affinity 7221Xa is the cheaper sibling of the recently reviewed ZT Affinity 7225Xi-35. Its fixed configuration includes most of what we expect to find in a system in this price range. Like the 7225Xi-35, the 7221Xa is geared toward those who need a simple desktop with basic functionality, and we recommend this setup for light to moderate users that need a desktop in the home.

The exterior of the 7221Xa is identical to the ZT Affinity 7225Xi-35. The top drive slot contains the dual-layer burner for copying DVDs and the bottom slot is ready to accept another optical drive, should you choose to expand in the future. Below the two drive slots, you'll find a media bay with ports for Memory Stick, CompactFlash/Microdrive, SmartMedia, and SD/MMC cards.

The inside of the tower is very minimalist, with a few extra hard drive bays, a video card slot, and an extra PCI expansion card slot. You get a total of four slots for RAM, two of which are taken by two 2GB dual in-line memory modules. We were surprised to see four memory slots inside the 7221Xa, since the 7225Xi-35, a more expensive and supposedly more robust system, only has two, but we're happy that this desktop gives you more expansion flexibility.

Compared with the Gateway GT5674, the 7221Xa is a fair deal. The extra gigabyte of memory in the ZT is offset by the Gateway's higher-end processor, but the difference in speed is negligible, so the $50 price difference makes the ZT a better overall deal. Gateway has newer desktops on the market as well, and we'll be reviewing those shortly, so you may want to hold back on a purchase until then.

Cinebench
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Rendering Multiple CPUs

Rendering Single CPU

ZT Affinity 7225Xi-35

8,696 

2,449 

Acer Aspire M5100

6,364 

1,713 

Gateway GT5674

6,265 

1,783 

ZT Affinity 7221Xa

5,110 

1,812 

Dell Inspiron 530

2,772 

1,428