Big review of my beastly Apollo - 11/10!

Hello guys.

I've had my PC for about 4 months now, been putting off writing this review because I honestly couldn't believe how stable this PC has been! Pretty much was just waiting for it to crash or have an issue (my past experiences with other companies were awful), but I haven't even stressed this tank of a machine at all, so about time I threw my review out there!

Note that I got most of these specs by researching around this forum, and once I had my general build I posted it and got some final advice. This forum is a great place to have people help you find reliable parts and determine what's right for you!

Right off the bat let's get some specs:

Case: Apollo (White)

Processor: Intel Core i7 6700K 4.0 GHz (Codename Skylake) (Unlocked CPU) (Quad Core)

Motherboard: ASUS Z170 Pro Gaming (Intel Z170 Chipset) (Up to 5 PCI-E Devices)

System Memory: 16GB DDR4 2666MHz Corsair Vengeance LPX (High-Performance)

Power Supply: 850W EVGA SuperNOVA

Hard Drive 1: SSD 250GB Samsung 850 EVO

Hard Drive 2: 1TB Western Digital Black Edition

Optical Drive 1: DVD-R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 24x/CD-Writer 48x)

Video Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB (ASUS Strix Edition)

Sound: Integrated Motherboard Audio

CPU Cooling: Noctua NH-D15 (Extreme Performance)

Boost Processor: Standard Intel Turbo Boost 2.0 Auto OC

Windows OS: Windows 10 Home Edition

Main Monitor: Asus VG248QE 24-inch Full HD (144Hz refresh rate)

Secondary Monitor: Acer G246HL 24-Inch Screen LED/HD

Headset - Sennheiser Game One

Keyboard - K70 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard

Mouse - Razer Chroma DeathAdder

And of course the LED lighting, a must have for any gaming PC



I chose not to overclock in order to preserve the lifespan of my parts, and because I don't have 1440p or anything at the moment that would require it.

I also chose not to include water cooling and got a Noctua instead, because if my cooling fails/breaks I just need a new fan instead of a new PC. It's personal preference really, but I've had friends with bad experiences, and I don't want to do regular maintenance.



*HUGE file size pictures incoming*

Gorgeous pictures of this beauty:

Initial setup-




More current setup-





Primary monitor (that 144Hz is amazing, highly recommended for anyone who plays FPS games)-





Inside-





Playing CSGO while watching streams-






The program I use with the Mass Effect skin on my secondary monitor is called Rainmeter, you can use it to monitor temperatures and CPU/RAM usage while gaming, very useful.


I would like to mention that I did have just one tiny issue these months - however it had nothing to do with my PC itself or DS , but Windows 10 crashing in the middle of an update, and corrupting my Windows. So I called up Digital Storm technical support, waited about 15 minutes, got a fantastic representative (gave him a great survey review!), very friendly, he knew exactly what he was doing. He helped me check disc SATA ports/go through the BIOS changing boot settings and whatnot in order to fully restore the PC, and within an hour it was all fixed up! To be honest, it runs even better now BIG thanks to DS technical support!


Seriously, if you are at all on the fence about buying from Digital Storm, don't hesitate. I literally cannot give them enough praise. From the updates while building/shipping, to the quality of the build itself, all the way to technical support - 11/10, the only company I would ever purchase another PC from.

Thanks guys

Edited by GLTheGameMaster - 02 Jun 2016 at 2:14pm

  

Awesome!

NICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! great pics.   

Originally posted by Democules    Hell Yea! CAN NOT WAIT TO GET MINE!

same here