DS Customers: Have You Built Your Own After DS?

When I bought the Vanquish 3 in May of 2015, it absolutely blew me out of the water. I swore I'd be a repeat customer.

But since doing some lite upgrading (RAM, fans, added a capture card), becoming more confident in my technical abilities, and watching some how-to videos from YouTube techies, I'm feeling the lure of building my own rig from scratch and truly making it my own.

Let me be clear: It's either do it myself or order it here. Even after taking a much, much closer look than before, by looking at detailed BBB complaints and resolutions, as well as a few concerning impressions left on GlassDoor, I think I wouldn't get any better customer service from a competitor.

But the Vanquish line is the pre-built offering, and they're priced to move. When I did the math before pulling the trigger on the Vanquish 3 two years ago, I discovered I would have saved, at the absolute most, $300 by doing it myself.

This time it would be quite different. My considerably higher-end configuration this time would be roughly $2400 to build myself, free 2-5 day shipping on all components. On the other hand, to have Digital Storm build it would be more than $1k more. DS's configurator shows a very comparable build at $3420 before shipping. Adding the exact motherboard and GPU I want, I'm told would include a $45 special order fee because they aren't in the configurator's options. So that's $90 for both components, on top of the cheapest $101 shipping option via Ground. Then the build time. Without Priority Build, it's 15-20 days, sometimes more. Another $250 ensures it's shipped within four days after order processing is complete. I could have all components here within seven days, no shipping fees.

I get peace of mind, believe me, but for someone who's gotten a bit more confident through upgrading, and really wants to dive into DIY'ing, peace of mind can't be worth an extra $1441.

So finally, the question in the topic; has anyone bought a system from Digital Storm, then gone and built their own later? Even years later?

Just a few days ago I highly considered upgrading my Vanquish 3 with compatible components that wouldn't be restricted to a 7th gen build (Vanquish 3 mobo and cpu are 4th gen Intel Core).

But the case is mid-size, and my heart is set on a full tower. The psu has maybe a millimeter of clearance between it at the bottom of the motherboard; I can't get anything any bigger. I would have to swap out the PSU if I were to get any 10-series GTX card, and that would require re-wiring everything, and also removing the bottom intake fan I added.

I know I said I'm more confident, but not so confident as to do any heavy tinkering inside what is currently my only PC. I'll be braver when I have this baby as a working fallback.

Originally posted by bprat22 I haven't built my own rig since having DS build my last one, but I agree that if you have the ability to assemble it and more importantly have the ability to troubleshoot it down to a bad component, then go for it.   It's a question a lot of us have all the time. Whenever I've priced doing it myself versus DS the savings has about few hundred but not 30% or better like your experience is.    That's a lot of money. My only caution is if you turn it on and nothing works or constant BSOD or crashing, can you fix it ?   Which part do you send back for replacement ?    Chances are on your side all will go well, but it could also turn into a horror show. Good luck.

Potential horror shows are why I opted for a boutique builder in the first place. Now I think I'm ready to take a chance.

I bought a DS system back in 2012 and last November built my own as i wanted to experience building my own pc. Here it is May and everything is still running smoothly.

Edited by ArkansasWoman777 - 09 May 2017 at 8:16am

Originally posted by Tidgxor I still help friends build theirs from time to time, though my technical support ends as soon as the six pack runs out.

...that's why your instructions should be for a 1000-pack

Dang I need to up my game. 

I have been in this exact same predicament and let me share my story/thoughts with you. I have owned two DS systems and both were amazing/flawless without any issues. After multiple upgrades etc and watching/reading, I became fairly confident in my skills and decided to take a chance and build my own.

Almost two years ago, I decided to order and build my own system. I bought a fairly high-end gaming rig at the time and it cost me just under $1,000 (minus the video card, already had one) and with Christmas deals/discounts I bought the following:

Intel Core i5 6600k (overclocked to 4.6 myself)
16GB Corsair Vengeance Memory
Nvidia GTX 970 (already owned)
Corsair H80i GT Cooler
Gigabyte G1 Gaming Z170 MB
240 GB Samsung SSD
Corsair Obsidian 450D Case
EVGA SuperNOVA 750

I was very nervous at first because anytime you build yourself, there's always that chance of getting a new item that is DOA and your system doesn't work. I did alot of research to ensure compatability etc. (DS does this for you if you buy from them). Fortunately I built the system outside the case and fired it up just to make sure everything worked and it did. Successfully overclocked the system to 4.6 and ran multiple tests to ensure stability. The system has ran great up until now, almost two years. I've been getting random shut-downs and have gone through the normal trouble shooting checking temps/stability testing, overheating etc. Narrowed it down to a bad memory module (hopefully). System passed all tests with Aida 64, Mem Test and Unigen Heaven etc.

To make a long story short...so far replacing the memory and video card (upgraded to GTX 1070 Hybrid) seems to be ok. There's still the possibility I could have a bad PSU/MB but I'm praying thats not the case .

If I had bought another DS system, I probably would have paid a little more but saved myself the trouble of having to trouble shoot/experiment with swapping parts and spending money and hoping it has solved the problem. If I had to do it all over again, I would order a DS system.

The experience to build was great but honestly their experts do this everyday. My wiring in my system is no where near as clean as DS does it, and their experts can trouble shoot much faster and better than I could ever hope to. Not to mention the amount of lost time I spent trying to figure out what could possibly be wrong .

Bottom line, pay a little bit more and leave it up to the DS experts for peace of mind. They have great customer service and the community here is amazing and always willing to lend a hand. This is just my $0.02 and experience. I plan to order my next computer through DS again and save myself the headache; the price of convenience