Bolt II: Review

I just recently received my Bolt II, and I figured I'd share my thoughts with you all.

I came across the Bolt II sometime in 2013, in an article about steam machines. I found the steam machine concept interesting but a little too restrictive for my tastes. The Bolt II really stood out from the crowd, with the very attractive case design and the fact that it wouldn't be limited to SteamOS. I hadn't heard of Digital Storm before, but after perusing the website and forums it seemed like a very passionate and customer friendly company. After eating up every little tidbit of info about the Bolt II, I eventually pulled the trigger a week or two after release.

I'll just breakdown my main points I want to convey about this machine:

Case design: Wow, I love the case. It's gorgeous, it shows some seriously talented craftsmanship. I'm not one to heap praise upon anything undeservedly, but the Bolt II has earned it. I've seen several people on the forum asking if they could just buy the case itself (you can't at the moment) and I can see why.

Size: Small size is something I like in a gaming desktop, and the Bolt II pulls it off without a hitch. I don't think the small size really sacrifices anything, the inside is somewhat tightly packed but all the components are easily accessible. I've also had no issues with cooling, and you can adjust the fan speed with Hydrolux.

Noise: Very quiet, not even noticeable if you have a headset on or speakers going. It CAN get loud if you crank up the fan speed, but none of my games have pushed the system that far.

Performance: Great, I've maxed the graphics of every game I played. I even fired up the graphically intensive Star Citizen hanger module and it still maxed out easily. I haven't tried the likes of Crysis 3, but I imagine it would still perform like a champ. Games I've tried out so far: StarCraft II, Diablo III, DayZ, Rust, Elder Scrolls Online, Titanfall.

Issues: My experience with the Bolt II has been highly positive, however I did have a few problems. The first was the delay in shipping. My system shipped out a month after I ordered it, despite the initial estimate being much sooner. I was told this was due to a shortage of Bolt II cases, while I was not pleased I understand (and like I said, it's a beautiful case.) Another small issue I've had is with the internal lighting. I'm not sure if it's HydroLux or the LEDs themselves, but some colors either display incorrectly or do not work at all, I have emailed DS about this problem.

In conclusion: It's a very sexy system with great performance and portability (for a desktop.) Up till now, I've never owned a dedicated gaming pc, just PCs that I happened to play games on. This was a great first gaming rig, it was worth the money. Highly recommended!

I apologize for the pictures not being amazing, but here they are:

[/IMG]

[/IMG]

Edited by Bolt II - 01 Apr 2014 at 10:12am

Congrats on your new sweet rig!!

What are your temps like on idle and on load for the card and cpu?

wow great review, can't wait for my bolt 2 arrive, but since I live outside US, during config I had to replace 760 to 750, and no second harddrive but manage to add asus maximus impact with i5 and watercooling.

really want to go just by default with 760 but custom and shipping to my country will be expensive

I'm guessing mini itx casing are in trend now,some peeps want pc fit in their living room next to their big screen led tv. and bolt 2 has great design