Custom Lynx Config Discussions

Hi all,

I realize I probably should have asked this prior to the initial purchase, but better late than never!

I made the decision to purchase a customized Lynx last night. I'm currently in Phase 1 as of this afternoon. I'm a first time DS purchaser, first time gaming computer purchaser, and generally not the most tech-savvy person, but I understand some of the core concepts behind the equipment. I'm looking to keep the budget around $2,000 and to take advantage of the current $200 off offer, but if I need to go +/- I can definitely do that.

I work a lot, but I enjoy a few games when time allows. Mostly World of Warships / Tanks, Eve Online, etc. Nothing in the realm of what I believe to be very high-end graphic requirements. However I have a 6 year old who enjoys watching and I'm assuming at some point he can have some limited play time, but this will also be his school work station especially with all of the current COVID closures.

I want to make sure I have something that will be viable for a quite a few years, maybe even 10. The few games I play I would love to play on high+ settings (been on minimum settings for a long, long time now, ugh!) and have some additional power available incase my son or I get into anything higher end in the next few years. I'm not generally interested in VR nor do I think 4k is on our radar, and would be just fine with a 1080p monitor in the 27" range.

This is my current v2 build after chatting a bit with a rep this morning about SSD's, but looking for any feedback.

My main questions are:

1) Am I spending way too much or not enough for my needs?

2) the motherboard and processor? I really am not familiar with the specifics of what is best for our needs. When I started the customization it started with the i9 and this motherboard...

3) Graphics Card. These all say VR ready, and although Im not looking for VR, I want something fairly future proof? Is there something that's a "better bang for the buck?"

4) Thoughts on the overclocking process? I understand that it improves the top end performance of these parts, but I'm concerned about overall longevity.

5) We also need to have a wireless option as the wired connection in the house to where we will put the computer needs to be reconfigured. It will be upstairs from the current router, is this a decent wireless receiver?

I greatly appreciate any feedback from anyone with more experience in this realm! Thanks

Order Contents:
- Digital Storm Desktop - Config ID 3278096 Quantity: 1 $2,089.00
- -- PROMOTIONAL LIMITED TIME BONUS DISCOUNT: $200 Quantity: 1 ($200.00)

System Configuration:
Chassis Model: Digital Storm Lynx
Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Trim Accents: - Standard Factory Finish
Processor: Intel Core i9-10850K (5.2 GHz Turbo) (20-Thread) (10-Core) 3.6 GHz
Motherboard: ASUS Prime Z490-P / MSI Z490-A Pro (Intel Z490 Chipset) (Up to 2x PCI-E Devices) (No SLI Support)
System Memory: 32GB DDR4 3200MHz Digital Storm Performance Series
Power Supply: 600W Digital Storm Performance Series (Supports up to an NVIDIA RTX 2070 GPU)
Expansion Bay: - No Thanks
Optical Drive: - No Thanks
Storage Set 1: 1x SSD M.2 (500GB Seagate FireCuda 520) (NVM Express) (Gen4 PCIe)
Storage Set 2: 1x Storage (2TB Seagate / Toshiba / Hitachi)
Storage Set 3: - No Thanks
RAID Config: - No Thanks
RAID Card: - No Thanks
Internet Access: Wireless PCI-E ASUS PCE-AC56 (Supports 802.11ac)
Graphics Card(s): 1x GeForce GTX 1660 6GB (VR Ready)
Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio
Add On Card: - 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: Digital Storm Performance Series (RGB Fans)
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: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s)
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: - No Thanks
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)

Sub-Total: $1,889.00
Tax (7.25%): $136.95
S&H:
Grand Total: $2,072.16

Edited by FireCommander34 - 28 Jul 2020 at 2:54pm

Great, I appreciate the feedback!

So the general idea is that I need less processor power and a stronger graphics card? Seems to make sense. There are so many card options, its tough to figure out which one is right!

The 2060 was the super version?

I ended up with the regular 2060 at $2,080 and the Super @ $2,171 like you mentioned. Is the $100 difference notable?

Again, thanks!

Edited by FireCommander34 - 28 Jul 2020 at 4:37pm

You rock! I'll toy around with the changes on the configurator and contact customer support in the morning.


Thanks again!

Thanks for the feedback. That goes along with what the Digital Storm customer service rep told me this morning, and that this years i7 is just as powerful as last years i9. Crazy.

So I was able to make the changes as noted. Only a +$5 adjustment which was great.

The customer service rep did recommend the 2060 SUPER but I liked your idea of going more modest now and maybe upgrading down the road. And it seems like the stock 2060 is perfect for my needs.

I can't thank both of you enough!

Originally posted by John18 The 10700K will be future-proof. If you have any thought whatsoever about 1440p graphics in the future than the 2070 Super makes sense. If you plan at staying at 1080p the 2060 will be fine. There are new cards coming out in a few months. You can wait and see what the price difference of the GPU or go with a 2000-series. A 2060 will get you pretty high FPS on a 1080p monitor. The card can also do 1440p at 60 FPS. If you play competitive games FPS is more important than 1080p vs. 1440p. So you can decide your degree of future-proofing.

John, not to argue but "future proof" is really a myth.  you buy what you can afford that will last you a good 5-6 years and by that time you're on to an entirely new platform and new build. 

Hi DB, thanks for the feedback. Out of curiosity what changes would you have recommended? I do enjoy hearing peoples opinions and experiences on something I'm not an expert on for sure.

I definitely could have gotten something cheaper and slimmed down. When I originally decided to get a new computer, I was thinking about $1k range. So I started looking after my previous laptop died a few weeks ago after it fell and we needed something before my sons school year got into full swing.

For the Lynx, I bet one of those $999 or $1200 ones would have been just fine, especially for current planned uses. I actually had pulled the trigger on an MSI off amazon that for around $1500 had pretty similar specs as to what I'm buying here, just air cooled.

But I suppose part of me thought if I'm going to spend about 75% of what I would have spent on a fully customized and probably overpowered digital storm computer on another brand that was upgraded by some Amazon company, I might as well just go for it, and I cancelled the MSI. Truth be told the money is less of an overall issue as just wanting to get something well built by a trustworthy company that fully supports the product. If I went a bit overkill for my kid to play minecraft, I guess I can live with that, haha!

I have a good feeling that we are going to love it as well. So far it seems like a great product based on the community feedback!

It's interesting to learn how important the graphics card selection is over the processor (at least in terms of gaming). I suppose I always thought that the processor was the most key component and certainly that an i9 must blow away an i5 and even an i7. And my assumption that you can't have a good graphics card without having a good processor, but it seems the two are not hand in hand. So I could do an i5 with a 2000 series graphics card?

I did find some references out there that showed the performance of each individual processor, and then your comment that its 6% better puts it into perspective, but its still hard to put it in terms of how does that affect the overall gameplay and performance of what I'm going to use it for.

Spending $700 less and still meeting the objective is something to consider, but the budget is a lesser of my priorities. I do like the look of that Velox case better so maybe I could save and get that. I'm torn. I'm generally a pretty conservative spender, and don't buy myself anything overly fancy or unnecessary. I guess I was partly excited to get something fully tricked out for a change.

Cretae, I've read a few of your comments about the NVMe and how great it is, and I feel like that is a must have if it improves boot up times / etc. So I'm perfectly happy to just have it built with it installed already, and I'd much rather have the 500GB. In fact my v1 build was a 1TB SSD but then your comments encouraged me to change it up.

I'll play around with a few config's based on these recommendations and see what numbers I come up with.

Edited by FireCommander34 - 31 Jul 2020 at 8:02am

Originally posted by Cretae @db188: no disrespect, I recognize the breadth of your expertise, and value your presence. Thanks for rejoining us here. DS stopped offering the 400 series chipsets when AMD announced only the 500 series would support future gen procs. Seemed like a good decision on their part on behalf of all AMD customers. I don't think it's helpful to recommend parts that are not available.

thanks for the update on the WHY of it.  but that's faulty info they're putting out for a reason not to carry the product.  AMD pivoted on that decision right after they made it, according to this article>https://www.pcworld.com/article/3543777/amd-b450-x470-motherboards-will-support-ryzen-4000-chips.html.  why did they do that, because of the outrage and the fact that the much more expensive X570 isn't a technological necessity. 

Originally posted by Cretae @db188: Wow, that's great on AMD's part, I totally missed that announcement. I'm actually impressed. To be clear, DS never said anything when they dropped the 400 chipsets, but it happened right after the 500s were announced as the future for AMD procs, so we assumed. Supply could be the story since the change, or they just decided to stick with the decision they made. To be fair, the base Asus 570 is priced about the same as the Base Asus Intel board, so they don't compete with each other. I think that might be key. You raise some very interesting points, but here's what I think I know from 3 years of daily presence on the Forums. Most customers do not appear to be on a tight budget. I really wish they were because they always try for so much more than they need! It's a damn shame so many are stuck waiting for the 10900K they don't need! The majority are uninformed, and they tend pretty hard not to trust AMD because they just can't believe they have roared back so strongly. I think keeping the two brands competitive on the site is perhaps the thing. As you mentioned, it could be a balancing act they have tried to perfect to hit certain production numbers to get the pricing that works.

Originally posted by Cretae That would be the Vanquish? They sold them side by side with Lynx until they used up all the Vanquish cases. IMHO, the Lynx 3 is killer for $1299. All you could need for 1080p for a very long time. So easy to use that one M.2 slot for an NVMe SSD that would bring that rig to a very high level. The Level 4 does the same for 1440p. They sell a ton of those judging from the "waiting" threads.

yeah the Vanquish line.