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The $750 ZT Affinity 7225Xi-35 is a fairly ambitious lower-midrange PC. This fixed configuration includes a lower-end quad-core chip, 4GB of memory, and a discrete graphics card. The result is solid everyday performance, and if you need a basic, capable desktop, this system will serve. Its lack of 64-bit Windows Vista prevents us from getting too excited, but in general, the Affinity Xi-35 is a fair deal.
You'll find the Affinity 7225Xi-35 directly from the vendor's Web site. Like other staid desktops, this one is mostly geared toward basic productivity. The simple, nongarish matte black case will fit anywhere and likely disappear into the environment.
It's always been hard for sub-$1,000 midtower PCs to distinguish themselves as anything other than basic desktops, and the 7225Xi-35 is no exception. Even six months ago we might have a found a $750 PC with 4GB of RAM, a quad-core CPU, and a discrete 3D card unique, but thanks to falling memory prices and a recent influx of new processors, those features have become much more commonplace. Compared with the Velocity Micro Vector Campus Edition the ZT Affinity 7225Xi-35 at least shows itself to be a good deal, although competition in this price range will heat up soon by way of new Gateway desktops.
| ZT Affinity 7225Xi-35 | Velocity Micro Vector Campus Edition | |
| Price | $749 | $999 |
| CPU | 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 | 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 |
| Memory | 4GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM | 2GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM |
| Graphics | 512MB ATI Radeon HD 3450 | 384MB Nvidia GeForce 8800 GS |
| Hard drives | 500GB, 7,200rpm | 500GB, 7,200rpm |
| Optical drive | dual-layer DVD burner | dual-layer DVD burner |
| Networking | Gigabit Ethernet | Gigabit Ethernet, 802/11g |
| Operating system | Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (32-bit) | Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (32-bit) |
| TV Tuner | No | Yes |
The ZT Affinity 7225Xi-35 compares very well with the more expensive Velocity Micro system. The slower graphics card is the ZT's only major weakness, but a $200 after-market upgrade would easily bring it inline, plus you'd get the benefit of more RAM. As you'll see from our performance charts below, the ZT's quad-core CPU and extra system memory serve it very well.
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
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Rendering Multiple CPUs | |
Rendering Single CPU |
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
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1,280x1,024 |
The only test on which the Affinity 7225Xi-35 is significantly slower than the Velocity Micro system is iTunes encoding, which is largely reliant on raw processor speed. But the ZT's 2.4GHz quad-core chip is awfully close to the Velocity's 2.53GHz dual-core CPU, and because the ZT system has twice the cores and twice the system memory, it's able to outpace the Velocity Micro PC on all of our other benchmarks that benefit from a more well rounded PC. Gaming is the other exception here, and while we'd much rather have the ZT's discrete 3D card than not, the Velocity Micro's higher-end Nvidia card is much more robust.
