Custom Lumos Review

Hiya, I'm a 19 yr old college student who decided to choose Digital Storm in ordering a Custom Lumos build (Configuration below). I decided to go with DS this time around because I did not want the hassle of building my own system while I transitioned back into college, and reasoned that the discount provided during the transaction process made the premium I was going to pay for worth the warranty and guaranteed quality of parts.

System Configuration:

Chassis Model: Digital Storm Lumos
Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Trim Accents: - Standard Factory Finish
Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X (8-Core) 4.4 GHz Turbo
Motherboard: ASUS PRIME X570-P (AMD X570 Chipset) (Up to 2x PCI-E Devices) (No SLI Support)
System Memory: 16GB DDR4 3000MHz Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro (RGB Light Bar)
Power Supply: 850W Corsair / EVGA / Thermaltake (Modular) (80 Plus Gold)
Expansion Bay: - No Thanks
Optical Drive: - No Thanks
Storage Set 1: 1x SSD (1TB Samsung 860 EVO)
Storage Set 2: - No Thanks
Storage Set 3: - No Thanks
RAID Config: - No Thanks
RAID Card: - No Thanks
Internet Access: Wireless PCI-E (Supports 802.11ac)
Graphics Card(s): 1x Radeon RX 5700 XT 8GB (VR Ready)
Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio
HPC Processor: - No Thanks
Extreme Cooling: H20: Stage 2: Digital Storm Vortex Liquid CPU Cooler (Dual Fan) (Fully Sealed + No Maintenance)
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: Thermaltake Riing Plus (RGB Fans) (Software Controlled Effects)
Internal Lighting: Remote Controlled Advanced LED Lighting System (Multiple RGB Color Modes)
Airflow Control: - No Thanks
Chassis Mods: - No Thanks
Noise Reduction: - No Thanks
LaserMark: Option Not Available
CPU Boost: Stock Factory Turbo Boost Advanced Automatic Overclocking
Graphics: Yes, Overclock the video card(s) as much as possible with complete stability
OS Boost: - No Thanks, Please do not tweak the services on the operating system
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home (64-Bit Edition)
Recovery Tools: USB Drive - Windows 10 Installation (Format and Clean Install)
Virus Protection: Windows Defender Antivirus (Built-in to Windows 10)
Office: - No Thanks
Mouse Pad: - No Thanks
Display: - No Thanks
Surge Shield: - No Thanks
Speakers: - No Thanks
Keyboard: Digital Storm Devastator Bundle (RGB) Keyboard & Mouse
Mouse: - No Thanks
Branded Gear: - No Thanks
Priority Build: - No Thanks, 6 Week Ship Estimate After Order Is Successfully Processed
Warranty: Life-time Expert Care with 3 Year Limited Warranty (3 Year Labor & 1 Year Part Replacement)

Build Time: About 43 days.

Ordered:6/1/2020
Stage 1:6/2/2020
Stage 2:6/11/2020
Stage 3:6/16/2020
Stage 4:6/6/2020
Stage 5:7/1/2020
Stage 6:7/9/2020
Stage 7:7/14/2020
Shipped:7/14/2020

Arrived on 7/17/2020. Shipped via FEDEX.

Some things about my part choices in case anyone had questions as to why:

I went with the Ryzen 7 3700X because it was a very well-priced 8-core chip running at a great clock speed.

I chose the 5700 XT over the 2070 SUPER because the GPUs are basically identical, with the XT being up to $100 cheaper than the SUPER. I could not justify maybe -10 frames on any average game being worth $100 just to have an NVIDIA GPU, so I went with AMD.

16GB of RAM proved to be way more than enough for any game I play (BF5, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, etc), 32 GB is still overkill.

Chose an 850W PSU since I only planned to use one GPU (SLI is currently becoming irrelevant except to top enthusiasts), plenty of headroom provided by a 850W PSU and I would need nothing more in that department.

The motherboard does not matter much so I chose the cheapest most popular non-SLI compatible option DS had to offer since I do not plan to SLI for at least the next three years.

Why you should go with Digital Storm

The system itself is phenomenal, absolutely beautiful.The cable arrangement provided by Digital Storm is outstanding, the PC looks clean, not messy at all, it almost looks like no cables are really involved in the functioning of the system. In this department, DS really went above and beyond.

I stressed my system's CPU and GPU on my own to check for stability issues (Prime95, Unigine, etc), and my hand-picked hardware from DS did great! DS did outstanding here again.

Packaging-wise, when my PC came, it had no issues, no dents, it booted up perfectly and was usable from the get-go, I did not have to do anything other than download and install my games and personalized quirks and off it went.

Performance is outstanding. Digital Storm squeezed out every bit of performance out of my parts, they either perform as well as the hardware I picked out normally does and often go a step further. DS delivers on their word in this department, this section is top-notch.

And now, the not so great,

Customer Service: The Customer Service experienced I received with Digital Storm was acceptable at BEST. My system took a whopping 43 DAYS to build, when I could build a similar system in three days at most. My system was not an Aventum, it was a generic Lumos build that took them six full weeks to complete. I understand that was the estimate they gave me at first, but does it really take that long? It should not take more than three or more days to put a customer's components into a "specialized bin", so it was either an inefficient system, or their backlog was INSANE. I'm betting that it was supply shortages (which there were, but that only became an issue around day 35 if I recall correctly) and the immensity of their backlog. Regardless, the wait was brutal.

On top of that, I was given two estimated ship dates more specific than the one given on the website. I was told it was to ship on the 5th week on a Monday, that DID NOT happen. I called them again, they told me that it would ship next Monday instead. They missed that, but not by much, it shipped out that Tuesday after I contacted DS and asked what was going on. I received it that week. If I built it myself, I would have had my computer ready WEEKS before DS shipped it out to me. Still, the wait was worth it, more or less, but over a month of waiting for a computer that is not even custom water-cooled was brutal. I sent a couple emails to their status email and those were completely ignored, I had to press on DS through the phone to see any progress when it was long overdue. I was being pushy on my part, but this type of wait was unusual. It would have been MUCH better to see them be more detailed on the length of the wait instead of leaving me in the dark.

I attend a U.S. Service Academy, due dates are strict and must be followed through with. I may be biased with my approach, but the wait was still substantial, especially with one majorly missed estimated completion date. To pay $200+ in labor and to get that in return was not pleasurable on my part, but I made do.

Other minor things

1. My wifi adapter was placed on top of my GPU with the Heat-Sink making direct contact with the GPU. I moved my Wifi Adapter down a couple slots because I worried about heat, doing this allowed my GPU to go from 83 degrees Celsius under load to about 77-79, not a bad thing, just thought it was an interesting choice.

2. The Thermaltake Riing Fans are beautiful, but the fan at the back of the case is not a Thermaltake Riing fan, I've seen on other builds on youtube that have the fans also include the back fan being a riing fan too, but my system did not have that. It draws away from the aesthetics, but I think the fan pack only brings five fans, I'll just install my own after a bit.

3. I wished DS set the RAM speed in the BIOS to 3000 MHz like the RAM I bought was advertised to run at. It came running 2133 MHz, not a big thing and easy to change, but just a thought.

4. BE CAREFUL WITH THE CASE. It is tempered glass, it is easy to shatter when dropped and can scratch easily. While I did my work on my system when I received it, I accidentally scratched my glass a bit by misplacing it on the floor. It is a beautiful case, just something to point out.










Do I recommend Digital Storm?

YES, if you do not mind the wait. Before COVID, I would have definitely recommended Digital Storm, even with the price premium. You are guaranteed a beautiful high-end system that works right out of the box in accordance to the hardware you ordered and more.

I still recommend them now, this deal is insane, but if you wish to order at this very moment, be prepared to deal with the wait.

It is brutal.

If you do not wish to build your own PC and do not mind waiting the time necessary to get your system, and don't mind paying a couple hundred dollars more for labor, then this company works well for you. Trust in them, they will get it done right.

I can answer any questions if they arise, thanks for reading!





Edited by droddyy - 23 Jul 2020 at 5:35pm

congrats! weird that RAM was not tweaked. also I wonder if corsair ll fans I ordered also will come short. it would be a bummer to have one fan being the odd one.

Originally posted by andrewkim congrats! weird that RAM was not tweaked. also I wonder if corsair ll fans I ordered also will come short. it would be a bummer to have one fan being the odd one.

ty! I think you could phone in and ask them about that, which is what I should have done. I'm probably gonna call in later and ask if they could point me to the exact fan to replace the one in the back and whatever else I need to get in order to complete the installation.

Originally posted by droddyy Originally posted by Warmocker I'm pretty shocked that your xmp wasn't set. I'm truly surprised at that. Did you happen to double check driver ver. on your hardware to see if anything was out of date? Everything was up-to-date AFAIK, the RAM simply was not clocked at the right speed. Fixing it to the right setting only took a couple minutes, so it was not a big deal at all, just something to point out.

I only mention it because they kinda make a big deal about their Step 6 quality assurance stage and double checking things and having that eye for detail and "...every system leaves our facility with the art of perfection" lol. I know I'm being a stickler but they said it not me :)