Apollo Review

Here is a review to relate my experience with a recent purchase of a Digital Storm Apollo system.
 
I am a 45 year old who has worked professionally as a software designer/coder for the last 15 years. I have built several computers in the past. There is satisfaction of building my own rig from parts. However, this also includes a bit of stress of possibly having to deal with defective parts or flipping the switch and not having everything work perfectly. This time around I wanted to let someone else with more experience build the computer.
 
I purchased a system from Digital Storm back in 2009. I think back then the latest and greatest GPU was the ATI Radeon 4870/4890. That system arrived to me with a couple issues, a leg on the case was broken and the video card was non-functional. I contacted Digital Storm and was told that the video card was on back order so they ended up upselling me from the 4870 to the 4890 so that I would not have to wait longer to use my new computer. The case leg I just fixed myself. So it was not a 100% positive experience but damage during shipping will happen and I was not exactly upset about having an excuse to get the better video card.
 
I am still using the case but everything else with the exception of the PSU has gotten replaced over the years. This computer runs an i7 2.4 GHz chip with a Radeon HD 6950. It plays older games just fine but games like the new Doom are completely unplayable on it. With the new CPUs being twice as fast and the new GTX 1080 catching my eye, I figured it was time to spoil myself again.
 
Here is the new computer's specs:
Case: Corsair 760T Apollo Black
Processor: i7-5930K
Graphics Card NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Founders Edition
Motherboard: ASUS X99-A USB 3.1
System Memory: 32 GB DDR 4 2666 MHz
Power Supply: 1000W Corsair HX1000i
OS: Windows 10 Professional
Blu-Ray Drive
 
Parts I ordered from elsewhere while impatiently waiting for my computer to ship:
Razer DeathAdder Chroma Mouse
Razer BlackWidow Ultimate Stealth 2016 Keyboard
BENQ XL2730Z 27" 2560x1440 Monitor
 
If I had done a bit more research, since the system is primarily for gaming, I would have gone with a newer 4 core CPU, cut the memory to 16 GB, and cut the power supply to 750W.
 
I ordered the system on 5/31 and received the system on 7/5, here are the dates for the stages:
05/31 Stage 1
06/03 Stage 2
06/03 Stage 3
06/09 Stage 4
06/09 Stage 5
06/26 Stage 6
06/27 Stage 7
06/28 Shipped
 
After 10 business days at Stage 5, I attempted to contact DS and was annoyed that emails kept coming back as undeliverable. Alex (DS employee, frequent poster on the board) needs to update the email address in his banner because it is incorrect. The correct address is [email protected]. I ended up using the web interface to submit a message. The first reply I got simply quoted the definition of the stages to me... I know what the stages are, tell me why stage 5 is taking so long! Thankfully, another reply arrived that was more sympathetic and promised some action on my request for information. The status of my order moved on to stage 6 even though it was a Sunday and I got a stage 7 notice on Monday. Overall the stages took 19 business days. For custom builds and stringent testing, I am okay with this. However, I do think that when a stage is taking longer than the maximum estimated number of days then DS should contact the customer with an updated estimate. To rub salt in the wound, it did not get shipped until Tuesday and therefore was not received until after the holiday weekend.
 
Packaging
The package arrived in good shape. I did not order a keyboard or mouse so there was extra space in the box but this did not matter since what was loose in the box was boxed or bagged.
 
Computer
The computer made it through the journey without too much wear and tear. A few things have caught my attention:
1) Front filter mesh had a corner sticking out. This was easily fixed by removing mesh and fixing corners to both be in slots.
2) Drive bay with non-SSD is really loose like there is only a single screw holding it in place. I will have to investigate further to see what is supposed to be keeping it in place.
3) The computer was supposed to have Stage 1 overclock CPU up to 4.4 GHz. The stage 7 email did not provide any of the overclock settings and simply stated "Processor Speed GHz: 44". However, I see nothing indicating that the CPU is overclocked. Where do I look and what do I do to see the overclocking in effect?
4) Few things I googled because I did not know if they were issues or not a) flashing light on PSU, annoying but normal operation, b) "AA" lit up on motherboard, annoying but normal operation, c) flashing light on reset button annoying but it is hooked up to indicate hard drive activity.
 
Noise
The computer is not as quiet as I had hoped for. It does not sound like anything is broken or out of place but something sounds a little louder than I like. I will have to investigate further to see what the source is.
 
Gaming Performance
Jaw dropping, phenomenal performance.  Doom 2016 on ultra settings really shows off what the computer is capable of.

Conclusion
If someone can tell me how to confirm that the CPU is overclocked then I will be a 100% satisfied customer.  I will likely be here in another 7 years looking to purchase another Digital Storm system.

Pictures:

http://imgur.com/1e4nqVQ

http://imgur.com/nksnF4Q

http://imgur.com/hwZRUdN

http://imgur.com/TAmqtes

Just an FYI... For a little better airflow, remove the top HDD cage .   Just a thumbscrew or two and it lifts out.   

Strange. The oc they report is usually accurate, but the 4.1 is still better than your 3.7 Turbo.     4.4 should be doable but every chip is different and DS does oc conservatively.   

Enjoy.

I think he used the bench tab in CPU-Z to test, but not sure. 
I never used that but it does kick the oc in to see what it is.

Have a look here and get linx, set mem to max(all) and let it run and tell me if anything changes, keep an eye out for temps also.

Edited by DST4ME - 08 Jul 2016 at 7:53am

Very nice hope you enjoy it welcome to the apollo family