Vanquish 5 vs Coridium Models?

My 7 year old DS pc is dying, so I need to replace it. I am not a gamer, use this primarily for large photo file editing, spreadsheets and other normal pc activities. I've loaded what looks to be the same component configuration using the 'Vanquish 5' model and 'Coridium' model, and although everything I see looks the same, the price of the Vanquish 5 is almost $300 cheaper. I think there is a slight difference in cooling selected but that's only about $50 of the difference, and the psu is different, otherwise they look the same to me. I could use some advice on what I am missing in the different models, and would I be fine with the lower end model with the same components as the higher end one. Thanks in advance!!

Vanquish 5 Config:


Configuration Code: 1469954
Total Price with Instant Savings: $1,633.00

Direct Load URL: https://www.digitalstorm.com/configurator.asp?id=1469954

Specifications:
Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Digital Storm VANQUISH 5
Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Trim Accents: - Standard Factory Finish
Processor: Intel Core i7 6700 3.4GHz (Codename Skylake) (Quad Core) (Not Overclockable)
Motherboard: ASUS/GIGABYTE (Intel Z170 Chipset)
System Memory: 16GB DDR4 2666MHz Digital Storm Certified Performance Series <br><strong></strong>
Power Supply: 600W EVGA/Corsair
Expansion Bay: Internal Digital Media Card Reader (Black) <br><strong></strong>
Optical Drive: DVD-R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 24x / CD-Writer 48x) (Internal)
Storage Set 1: 1x SSD (256GB Samsung 850 PRO) <br><strong></strong>
Storage Set 2: 2x Storage (3TB Western Digital - Black Edition) <br><strong></strong>
Storage Set 3: - No Thanks
RAID Config: - No Thanks
RAID Card: - No Thanks
Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)
Graphics Card(s): 1x GeForce GTX 960 4GB <br><strong></strong>
Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio
HPC Processor: - No Thanks
Extreme Cooling: High Performance Cooler with Large Fan and Copper Pipes
HydroLux Tubing Style: - Not Applicable, I do not have a custom HydroLux liquid cooling system selected
HydroLux Fluid Color: - Not Applicable, I do not have a custom HydroLux liquid cooling system selected
Cable Management: Premium Cable Management (Strategically Routed & Organized for Airflow)
Chassis Fans: Standard Factory Chassis Fans
Internal Lighting: Remote Controlled LED Lighting System (Multiple color options and lighting effects)
Airflow Control: - No Thanks
Chassis Mods: - No Thanks
Noise Reduction: - No Thanks
LaserMark: - No Thanks
Boost Processor: Standard Intel Turbo Boost 2.0 Automatic Overclocking
Boost Graphics Card(s): - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s)
Boost OS: - No Thanks, Please do not tweak the services on the operating system
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Home (64-Bit Edition)
Recovery Tools: Windows Recovery Toolkit (Bundled with Windows CD)
Virus Protection: FREE: McAfee AntiVirus Plus (1 Year Service Activation Card) (Not Pre-installed) ($35 Value)
Office: - No Thanks
Game: - No Thanks
Display: - No Thanks
Surge Shield: - No Thanks
Speakers: - No Thanks
Keyboard: - No Thanks
Mouse: - No Thanks
Branded Gear: - No Thanks
Priority Build: - No Thanks, Ship Within 10-15 Business Days After Order Is Successfully Processed
Warranty: Life-time Expert Care with 3 Year Limited Warranty (3 Year Labor & 1 Year Part Replacement)

Coridium Config:

Configuration Code: 1464777
Total Price with Instant Savings: $1,906.00

Direct Load URL: https://www.digitalstorm.com/configurator.asp?id=1464777

Specifications:
Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Digital Storm Coridium
Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Trim Accents: - Standard Factory Finish
Processor: Intel Core i7 6700K 4.0GHz (Codename Skylake) (Unlocked CPU) (Quad Core)
Motherboard: ASUS Z170-E (Intel Z170 Chipset) (Up to 4x PCI-E Devices)
System Memory: 16GB DDR4 2666MHz Digital Storm Certified Performance Series
Power Supply: 750W EVGA SuperNOVA (750 B1)
Expansion Bay: Internal Digital Media Card Reader (Black)
Optical Drive: DVD-R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 24x / CD-Writer 48x) (Internal)
Storage Set 1: 1x SSD (250GB Samsung 850 EVO)
Storage Set 2: 1x Storage (3TB Western Digital - Black Edition) <br><strong></strong>
Storage Set 3: 1x Storage (3TB Western Digital - Black Edition) <br><strong></strong>
RAID Config: - No Thanks
RAID Card: - No Thanks
Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)
Graphics Card(s): 1x GeForce GTX 960 4GB
Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio
HPC Processor: - No Thanks
Extreme Cooling: AIR: Stage 1: High-Performance Copper Heat Pipe Cooler <br><strong></strong>
HydroLux Tubing Style: - Not Applicable, I do not have a custom HydroLux liquid cooling system selected
HydroLux Fluid Color: - Not Applicable, I do not have a custom HydroLux liquid cooling system selected
Cable Management: Premium Cable Management (Strategically Routed & Organized for Airflow)
Chassis Fans: Standard Factory Chassis Fans
Internal Lighting: - No Thanks
Airflow Control: - No Thanks
Chassis Mods: - No Thanks
Noise Reduction: - No Thanks
LaserMark: - No Thanks
Boost Processor: Standard Intel Turbo Boost 2.0 Automatic Overclocking
Boost Graphics Card(s): - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s)
Boost OS: - No Thanks, Please do not tweak the services on the operating system
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Home (64-Bit Edition)
Recovery Tools: Windows Recovery Toolkit (Bundled with Windows CD)
Virus Protection: FREE: McAfee AntiVirus Plus (1 Year Service Activation Card) (Not Pre-installed) ($35 Value)
Office: - No Thanks
Game: - No Thanks
Display: - No Thanks
Surge Shield: - No Thanks
Speakers: - No Thanks
Keyboard: - No Thanks
Mouse: - No Thanks
Branded Gear: - No Thanks
Priority Build: - No Thanks, Ship Within 10-15 Business Days After Order Is Successfully Processed
Warranty: Life-time Expert Care with 3 Year Limited Warranty (3 Year Labor & 1 Year Part Replacement)

the Vanquish line is oriented more towards gaming, general pc usage, etc.

in your case, you have a use specific build need.  where do you plan for your catalog to reside?  if you want fast rendering preview files i'd recommend, from most to least cost:  m.2 nvme drive (i.e. Samsung  950 Pro) for fastest; SATA ssd (i.e. Samsung 850 Evo or Pro); and finally a hdd (Western Digital 1TB).  the preview files have to reside on the same drive as the catalog, so you're going to want a large capacity drive i would imagine.  perhaps organize your photos by year and put older photos on a larger, slower, cheaper drive?  it really just depends how you like to organize, access, and store your catalogs.   if you're using something like Lightroom, i'd keep that on your fastest drive along with the operating system and put everything else on larger capacity/cheaper drives.   

i definitely recommend reserving budget for an IPS monitor (unless you have one already) since you're working with photos and something big so you can have space for your work. 

16GB ram is the min. amount i'd go with.  you can go with more on either Vanquish or any of the other lines.  more is better. 

Lightroom and many other apps take advantage of gpu-rendering, so a fast GTX card would be a cheaper alternative than a workstation card like a Quadro.  unless of course you have a true 10-bit panel monitor handling 30-bit workflows.  i wouldn't advise going any lower than a GTX 970 here.  

unless you plan on overclocking the I7 cpu, the Vanquish line's 6700 is perfectly fine along with its Zalman cooler.  

 

Thanks for the responses. Still not sure what to do. Since my last DS machine had a psu problem that had to be replaced, I'm sort of leaning towards the Coridium build with its better psu, and better cooling with at least the heat pipe option available. I'm overpaying for these two upgrades but I may just go with it anyway. I won't do more than the factory standard OC, that we believe was one of the issues that over time didn't do my existing PC any favors.

Thanks again. Will likely be ordering this week as my old pc is rebooting fairly frequently now and I don't want it to die completely before I get a new one.

@cohenfive if you look at my build I posted for you I did change the psu to the one bp is talking about for you.

The I'm not sure what happened with your last oc, I assume you went higher than stage 1. Please don't go by what happened to you last time. These new cpu's oc a lot easier and better unlike the older cpus. stage 1 oc is going to give you no headache, as its light but brings forth great performance.

If you are not going to oc the cpu then please don't waste money on cpu cooler, the only reason you would get a cpu cooler is to oc the cpu, if not then the base one is fine for turbo boost.

But as I mentioned judging all oc based on your last oc is like judging any pc parts based on one bad lemon part.

if your old pc is rebooting constantly, have you put the bios in default (remove oc) to see if that keeps happening?

Edited by DST4ME - 14 Aug 2016 at 2:26pm

I don't mind getting the DS standard OC if it doesn't harm anything. If all I can get out of a pc is 6-7 years, that's not really too bad anyway. I'll probably stick with Coridium build to get the better psu and cooling, and let DS do the standard OC and leave it at that..I won't go further with OC since I'm a wimp basically...My config is still under $2k which was my top end target. Wondering if DS still runs specials of any kind...

But you do raise an interesting point...how much slower will the pc run doing the sort of stuff I will be doing (normal spreadsheet/word/powerpoint, large digital image manipulation using adobe, etc) if I don't overclock the cpu? Price difference between 6700 and 6700k pays for a few other upgrades ($160 price diff)...


Edited by cohenfive - 15 Aug 2016 at 8:07am

For oc on 6700k have a look here

Oc makes biggest difference, if its mild like stage 1 oc then it will outlast the system with a good cooler, I like the noctua here since it give you better/same performance as the closed looped lc but you dont need to worry about pump failuir and leaks.

My final order, just placed with DS. Was on the phone with adobe tech support last night in a last ditch effort to see if we could find something wrong with my old setup that wasn't hardware as the pc kept crashing in lightroom...but we both concluded it was indeed a hardware issue...So out with the old, in with the new! Here is config, you guys/gals were very helpful, much appreciated. No big changes, went with better psu and copper cooling instead of liquid, stuck with better cpu. Looking forward to picking up the beast! Thanks again.

Order Contents:
- Digital Storm Desktop - Config ID 1471978 (Config # 1471978) - Quantity: 1 - Price: $1,866.00

System Configuration:

Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Digital Storm Coridium
Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Trim Accents: - Standard Factory Finish
Processor: Intel Core i7 6700K 4.0GHz (Codename Skylake) (Unlocked CPU) (Quad Core)
Motherboard: ASUS Z170-E (Intel Z170 Chipset) (Up to 4x PCI-E Devices)
System Memory: 16GB DDR4 2666MHz Digital Storm Certified Performance Series
Power Supply: 750W EVGA SuperNOVA
Expansion Bay: Internal Digital Media Card Reader (Black)
Optical Drive: DVD-R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 24x / CD-Writer 48x) (Internal)
Storage Set 1: 1x SSD (250GB Samsung 850 EVO)
Storage Set 2: 2x Storage (2TB Western Digital - Black Edition)
Storage Set 3: - No Thanks
RAID Config: - No Thanks
RAID Card: - No Thanks
Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)
Graphics Card(s): 1x GeForce GTX 960 4GB
Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio
HPC Processor: - No Thanks
Extreme Cooling: AIR: Stage 1: High-Performance Copper Heat Pipe Cooler
HydroLux Tubing Style: - Not Applicable, I do not have a custom HydroLux liquid cooling system selected
HydroLux Fluid Color: - Not Applicable, I do not have a custom HydroLux liquid cooling system selected
Cable Management: Premium Cable Management (Strategically Routed & Organized for Airflow)
Chassis Fans: Standard Factory Chassis Fans
Internal Lighting: - No Thanks
Airflow Control: - No Thanks
Chassis Mods: - No Thanks
Noise Reduction: - No Thanks
LaserMark: - No Thanks
CPU Boost: Standard Intel Turbo Boost 2.0 Automatic Overclocking
Graphics Boost: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s)
OS Boost: - No Thanks, Please do not tweak the services on the operating system
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Home (64-Bit Edition)
Recovery Tools: Windows Recovery Toolkit (Bundled with Windows CD)
Virus Protection: FREE: McAfee AntiVirus Plus (1 Year Service Activation Card) (Not Pre-installed) ($35 Value)
Office: - No Thanks
Game: - No Thanks
Display: - No Thanks
Surge Shield: - No Thanks
Speakers: - No Thanks
Keyboard: - No Thanks
Mouse: - No Thanks
Branded Gear: - No Thanks
Priority Build: - No Thanks, Ship Within 10-15 Business Days After Order Is Successfully Processed
Warranty: Life-time Expert Care with 3 Year Limited Warranty (3 Year Labor & 1 Year Part Replacement)

What Coridium model? It doesn't exist. Or at least I can't see it.

I'm somewhat in the same boat as the original poster. I bought a pre-configured system in 2012. DSO-413030. Overall the system has been great but the Corsair 600W caused numerous crashes and a lot of wasted time and frustration at the beginning.Once the PS was replaced the system has been very stable. DS also replaced a video card that failed without any hassle.

The Vanquish 5 line seems to fit the bill for me, but given my problems with the power supply, I would really like to get a gold rated supply, with a detachable harness. If anything fails I just replace the PS module and don't have to worry about the cables. Sadly , that power supply is not available in the Vanguish line.

If I move up to a custom config, I pay for the more expensive supply which is fine, but then an additional premium of several hundred bucks for the "custom" system.

So what is the cheapest way to to this with which line. I want a system for basic gaming (esp Star Citizen), lightly overclocked, air cooled, and general purpose tasks that will have a useful life of 4-6 years. 16GB ram, single graphics card, SSD, etc.  A Vanquish Level 3 would do the trick except for the PS.

Suggestions

Picked up my pc this week, Apollo model with downgraded Coridium case. Downgrading the case was a mistake, it is very much a plain vanilla case, and doesn't seem up to the quality of the rest of the build. Spent most of the last day and a half migrating everything which ended up totally painless. The new pc is noticeably faster which is expected. Other than the case which was an unforced error on my part, so far so good. 

The Coridium is a great mid-size case. The thermal performance is excellent. You made a great choice.

Frank

I think you are being a little hard on the case, its a good case, it has good airflow if you add the top fans to it.

I personally like it for a mid size tower.