Customer Review of DS Rig

This is the first product review I've ever written, I'm writing it for all the future computer buyers who are in the same situation I was in:  After 5 years and few small upgrades, it was time to replace my old Dell.  When I started looking for a new PC, I really didn't even know where to look other than Dell and Alienware.  I can't remember how I came across Digital Storm, but they were the first of the 'Boutique Integrators' I

encountered, and it opened up a whole new area of buying options [Main Bolt, Velocity Micro, Cyber Power (see the CP horror stories at www.resellerratings.com!), etc.].

1) The Community Forums at DS were EXTREMELY helpful as I did my

research.  I'm very impressed with knowledgeable people who share their

time & expertise to post and answer questions, often questions which have

been asked many times before.

Through info on the forums I decided what kind of machine I

wanted, then after reading reviews on resellerReviews, [HD], etc, Better

Business Bureau, and comparing pricing & warranty, I decided to go with DS.

2) I placed my order on Fri Dec 28, I spoke to Josh.  He suggested I upgrade

my Video Card, which I did, but that made me worry as we went through the

order he might "sales pitch" me into upgrading my entire config.  I had a couple questions about a few upgrades, and he gave me fair advice, and actually steered me to the less expensive options, so that alleviated any high pressure sale concerns.

Over the course of the weekend I thought a lot about my config and decided to change a couple items.  I was worried DS would say something like "sorry, no changes once the order is processed", allow only changes which would increase the price, or tack on some lame configuration change fee.

On Thurs Jan 3, after not getting through on the toll free line for several days [I read DS was having trouble with their telecommunications vendor] I called the local 502 phone number.  I spoke to Duke and requested an additional optical drive, and I also changed the power supply and mother board.  Duke made the changes real quick, no hassles at all, a 5 minute phone call.  Later that day, I received emails from DS describing my call with Duke.  I also had a customer satisfaction email, refering to surverys I could fill out and customer service mgrs I could contact directly.  I don't think these emails were merely "lip service", but even if they are to an extent, it's nice as a consumer to know that quality and customer service are at least a stated priority of the company.

3) By the way, in my opinion, DS made the right business decision to have no

config change fee.  I would have understood it, but at the same time it

would have really pissed me off and I would have felt "nickled and dimed".

So with my order complete, now the waiting game begins, ...and

continues...

4) On Thurs Jan 17, 12 full business days after my order, and 9 after my

config adjustment, I'm still in stage 1.  I don't want to be impatient,

I'll wait for a quality build, but this is inconsistent with the "your

system will ship 5-8 business days from your order date" statement.  So I

sent an email to customer service inquiring about the status of my build.

Within a few hours I received an informative response from Dave at DS

stating my build is entering the testing stages, and if all goes well it

will ship Monday Jan 21.  I later read a post from DS about their order

backup during this time period (due to high volume, low supply of parts,

and relocation of facilities), so it's explained, and I get delays at my

work too, so it's understandable.

At the end of the day, Fri Jan 18, my rig shipped!!  The total wait was

longer than I'd hoped, but I'll trade a fews days of waiting for a few

years of excellent performance.

5) The computer was well packaged and assembled, the binder of info and

documentation was adequate.  After a few moments of set up I fired up my

computer, and everything is great except for 1 thing, the computer fan is constantly very very loud.  I don't have an 'extreme' system nor any overclocking, so I expected it to be very quiet.  Even when my computer is idle/sleeping, it sounds like a hairdryer.  I keep my PC in an extra bedroom upstairs, and I can hear it downstairs even when idle.  My wife and I can't sleep in the masterbedroom across the hall over the fan noise.

Back to the forums I went in search of a way to quiet my PC.  After several

hours on forums, playing with nTune, Riva Tuner, and SpeedFan, I realized

my CPU speed was a constant 4000RPM, but I could not get the fan speed

down.  I was pretty frustrated, going through all this hassle just to get

the PC to quiet down to a reasonable noise level.

I'm actually surprised the PC shipped with the fan speed 'locked' at 100%.

I called Tech Support to see if they could help.  After a few calls and emails with Tech Support, the problem was not resolved, DS couldn’t solve the problem.  But eventually I found a tutorial on SppedFan through the DS forums, and was able to satisfactorily reduce my fan speed through this 3^rd party application.

6) Misc items:  While going through the fan speed hassle, I rebooted about 6-7

times, and all but 2 of those times the PC 'hung' while starting up, not

even getting to the Vista load screen.  On 2 separate ocaissions, I also

heard a physical "clunk" noise from the PC.  I have no idea what made the

noise, the PC seemed to be okay, but it was certainly an unusual and

concerning noise.  But over the past few months, I haven’t really had many occaisions to reboot, and wait around during the reboot, so I don’t consider these as potential problems anymore.

7)  I received my credit card statement on Jan 28, and the charge from DS for

my original config was there, but there was no adjustment/credit for the

revised config, which was $64 cheaper.  After 5 months, about 4-5 calls, and 10ish emails with 4 different people, I was credited the $64.  This was a way bigger hassle than I expected.

8) SUMMARY - Thanks for reading this review, I’ve been writing/updating it over the course of the last 5 months.  I hope you find it helpful.  In the end, I’m satisfied with DS.  I can’t say they’re the best integrator out there based on my limited experience, but I’m satisfied and will consider them again next time I need a new rig.  I think they’re a company with a great vision, customer commitment, but are just going through some young company growing pains which may cause a hassle here or there.