Digital Storm x17E Level 4 - My Review

I have been a high-end desktop enthusiast for the last 15 years and I have own several 5-6K boxes. These last years though, my lifestyle changed considerably (me being a new father, and now often working on the road) and I began to toy with the idea of going for a "top of the line" laptop instead of a desktop.

And, several weeks later, this BEAST enter my life :

Digital Storm x17E Level 4

Processor     
Intel® Core™ i7-990X (3.47GHz) Processor Extreme Edition, 12MB L3 Cache, 6.4 GT/sec QPI, LGA 1366

Core Logic     
Intel® X58 Express Chipset

Memory     
12GB DDR3 1333MHz Dual Channel

Display     
17.3 (16:9) Full HD (1920x1080) LED-Backlit Display with Super Clear Glare Type Screen

Graphics Processor     
2x SLI Dual nVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 485M with 2GB GDDR5 Video Memory

Storage     
600GB SSD Intel 320 Series SATA Hard Drive

Optical Drive     
8x DVD-RW/CD-RW Multi-Drive

Audio System     
Built-in High Definition Sound System
S/PDIF Digital output
1 Built-in Microphone
5 Built-in Speakers
1 Built-in Sub Woofer
Dolby Home Theater
External 7.1CH audio output supported by headphone, microphone and Line-in jacks

Pointing Device     
Integrated Touchpad with multi-gesture and scrolling function

Keyboard     
Full Sized Keyboard with Numeric Key Pad
Windows Hot keys
6 instant buttons for Volume up, Volume down, Mute, Wi-Fi On/Off, Bluetooth On/Off, and Camera On/Off

I/O Ports     
1 HDMI output Port
1 DVI output Port
2 USB 3.0 Ports
3 USB 2.0 Ports
1 eSATA Port
1 IEEE-1394b Fire Wire
1 RJ-45 LAN (10/100/1000Mbps)
1 Headphone Jack
1 Microphone Jack
1 Line-in Jack
1 S/PDIF output Jack

Slots     
3-in-1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/MS/MS Pro/MS Duo/SD/Mini-SD/SDHC/SDXC)

Communication     
Bigfoot networks Killer™ Wireless-N 1102
Built-in Gigabit Ethernet LAN

Security     
Kensington® Lock
Fingerprint Reader

Power System     
1 Removable Smart Lithium-Ion battery pack (8 cell) 78.44WH
Full Range AC Adapter 300W, AC-in 100~240V, 50~60Hz, DC output 20V, 15A

Power Management     
System Management Mode (SMM)
Suspend to HDD / DRAM
Full features of SMI Power Management, Doze, Sleep,
Suspend/Resume Mode

Windows OS     
Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-Bit

Physical Characteristic     
12.13 LBs with Battery Pack
16.5 (w) x 11.3 (d) x 2.2~2.4 (h)

Warranty     
3 Year Platinum Care Labor & 1 Year Parts Warranty

Support     
Life-time U.S. based technical support and customer service by our own in-house technicians

Other Features     
Built-in 3.0M High-Resolution Digital Video Camera
Thermal paste for better heat management

NOTE : The italic specs are upgraded from the basic X17e (lvl4) config.

Some pictures :
(pictures provided to Alex, please add them upon transferring this to the user review section...)


My first impressions :
After a week and a half of rather intense gaming, I can sincerely say that all my expectations have been BLOWN AWAY !

I was a tad reluctant to go for a laptop and never though gaming on-the-go could look this good. There are probably a few exceptions, but so far I can play all recent games at maxed out settings (including Witcher 2 which is out-of-this-world gorgeous) and the laptop does not even break a sweat. For all its blazing performances, the laptop runs pretty quiet and has the stability of rocks.

I should also thank Alex, for its infinite patience. I can be one royal pain in the ass as a customer, but there is not a single of my inane questions that Alex did not answer with courtesy, celerity and accuracy. Your customer support is really outstanding.

For all the pricy rigs I have bought in my life, I have never been this satisfied with my previous computer purchases. Not even close, this laptop is in a league of its own.

You just gained a customer for life DS. Keep up this level of awesome work and the DS name will lives in legends.

Great review! I uploaded the photos that you emailed me below:

omg what a sweet laptop!  I don't even want to know how much that may have cost you with that 990X processor and 600GB SSD.  but congrats!

Holy sh*t

How is the quality of the speakers and sub woofer sound.

Congrats..

Alex, any chance of a matte screen option in the future for this screen size?

WoW! Congratz on this!
TBH, I've been looking at desktop replacement for quite sometime. I finally found someone who bought one. It put my heart at ease to see one running fine.

The problem is, I've seen the laptop chassis from every company. IBP, CyberPower, Sager also has a similar one.
The only fault is I heard the laptop may have some overheat issue despite its large size.

I do have a question though. This laptop has the option of SSD 510. Does this laptop has SATA 3? I want to have 2 run in Raid 0.