The processor struggle continues between AMD and Intel as the war rages on for the top ranking of the market share table. Interestingly enough, of the four machines this month under the $2,500 price tag, Scorpion Technology's Z-Box was the only unit to feature an AMD Althon XP processor. Also interesting was the marginal gains achieved by Intel given their obvious clock speed advantages over this unit. Weighing in at 2.08GHz, this machine held its ground with the big boys by scoring only 50 fewer overall SYSmarks than the top performing GameForce Warrior system, despite nearly a gigahertz variance in speed. The Z-Box does lack slightly in the 3D performance category without the inclusion of a 9800 PRO or XT. However, at nearly half the purchase cost of the competing Intel processor, this allows for investment elsewhere, namely the inclusion of a 17in TFT display, 120GB SATA hard disk drive and a DVD burner, previously unheard of in this price bracket.
Geared towards the entertainment and casual gamers, this machine comes packed to the gills with hardware goodies. This includes a 2.1 speaker set with subwoofer; ATI RADEON 9600 PRO All in Wonder for gaming and entertainment playback and a colourfully decked out black anodised midi tower case.
Your connectivity bases are all covered with inclusion of a 6-in-1 removable media reader in the 3in bay, directly underneath the floppy disk drive, the old meeting the new with great results. Located in a hidden panel on the front of the chassis is a pair of USB ports and a pair of 3.5mm audio sockets, mirrored on the I/O shield with a further two USB ports, optical out and the five audio jack sockets for 3.5mm speakers care of the integrated mobo six-channel audio decoder.
Unfortunately, the choice of housing is rather niche, with its flashing pair of large red LED's showing hard drive activity, and the forever glowing and bright blue LED showing the unit is powered.
Granted this machine isn't the most powerful to be found in these pages, but it does represent reasonable value for anyone looking to replace their existing beige box with something a little funkier whether it be for entertainment playback or gaming.