Dreadnought: A Digital Storm Undertaking My Review

1/2 Year Update Here

1 Year Update Here

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Hello all,
Its time to do my service to the Digital Storm community by posting  the review of not only the computer itself, but the experience as a whole. This is my first time doing such a thing, so bear with me, and hopefully all you prospective buyers out there can learn of few things, or at the very least, have a few concerns calmed.

If anyone remembers my first few posts here, I originally was looking for a ~$5,000 (didn't end up spending that much!) computer that my company was going to be paying for. Well, things changed, and I ended up getting a new work computer, which left me still using my laptop for everything home-based. But, at that point, I had the Digital Storm “disease” and decided to just pay for it myself, because I was thoroughly addicted to the idea of getting a new computer at that point. I received the rig on December 7th, 2010.  The configuration is as follows (minus a few irrelevant things, such as options I left blank):

System Configuration:
Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Cooler Master 942 HAF X
Processor: Intel Core i7 950 3.06GHz (Quad Core)
Motherboard: ASUS Rampage III Extreme (Intel X58 Chipset) (Features USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s)
System Memory: 6GB DDR3 2000MHz Corsair Dominator GT with DHX Extreme Edition (CMT6GX3M3A2000C8)
Power Supply: 1200W Corsair Pro Gold Series (CMPSU-1200AX) (Dual/Triple/Quad SLI Compatible)
Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: 2x (80GB Solid State (By: Intel) (Model: X25-M MLC Edition) (Extreme Performance)
Set 1 Raid Options: Configure HDD Set 1 to a Raid 0 Config - Stripe Performance (Requires Two HDDs)
Hard Drive Set 2: Multimedia\Data: 1x (1TB Western Digital Caviar (7200 RPM) (64MB Cache) (Model: Black Edition WD1002FAEX)
Optical Drive 1: DVD-R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 24x / CD-Writer 48x) (LightScribe Edition)
Optical Drive 2: Blu-Ray Player/DVD Player (Play Blu-Ray and Play DVDs)
Internet Access: Killer 2100 (Maximum Optimized for Online Gaming) Lag and Latency Reduction
Video Card(s): 2x SLI Dual (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 1.5GB (PhysX) (EVGA Black Ops 015-P3-1583-AR)
Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio
Extreme Cooling: AIR: Stage 2: Noctua NH-D14 Extreme Performance (Does NOT fit on the regular EVGA X58 3X SLI)
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (64-Bit Edition)
Recovery Tools: Windows Recovery Toolkit (Bundled with Windows 7 CD)
Exclusive T-Shirt: FREE: Digital Storm T-Shirt - Grey (Large)
Warranty: FREE PROMO: Life-time Expert Customer Care with 5 Year Limited Warranty
 
A few things about the configuration itself. Digital Storm overclocked the processor
to 3.973Ghz themselves and so far I haven't had a single hitch. I also chose the Killer 2100, primarily because I wanted to test it. I know, generally speaking, its considered a total waste, but, one must make a few indulgences here and there! So far, I’ve noticed a marginal improvement with it (In down/up speed and ping), but I have yet to actually do any orderly testing. Several of the things, like 2 drives, were things that I just wanted for work/reasons, but mainly because I just wanted them, nothing more.

I know the most anticipated part of most reviews is the pictures, so I’ll get to those, then proceed to break down a few things about my experience as I whole.

The box, believe everyone who says it is big, because it is. The FedEx worker didn’t believe me it was actually a computer, lol.

The box is opened, revealing baby boxes.

I finally get to view the rig itself, not so much as a single scratch or smudge

The rig comes out of the box, it was cold due to the weather, but it warmed up quick.

The guts, as they came from Digital Storm. I’ve changed a couple of things, but this is how it was at birth.

Box 1: Goodies. The binder had all my disks, and the shirt was just as pictured on the site.

Box 2: Computer intestines, for those of you who doubt that DS sends you EVERYTHING

The rig in its new spot, under my desk

A more wide-angle view of where it now lives

A few things about the pictures, I know it might not seem like the case gets much airflow where it is. Normally, that might be correct. But, I am an *extremely* hot-natured person, so the windows are constantly open in that little room. Additionally, the location of this old building, is right across from a huge field. So, wind whips through this room like a bat out of hades, year round, as I am in a very windy location to start with. In the summer, the window a/c is only 5ft from the spot. So far, temps are looking good, though I’ll move it, come Summer, if needed. Also, for anyone who noticed, yes, that is a Piggy calendar, my wife got it for me. I have a love of tiny Pigglets, lol. Also, for me at least, the shirt was larger than expected. I normally wear Mediums or Larges, so I ordered a Large. Well, even after washing, its still more of what I would  consider an “XL”, I ordered the Gray color, just as an FYI. Your results may vary.

Now, for the details, I’ve rated everything on a 1-10 scale, pretty straightforward.

Digital Storm – Customer Service/Sales/Management: 8/10

The reason Digital Storm doesn’t get a 10/10 from me, actually has to do with the very beginning stages of my ordering process. It actually took me over two weeks to get a response from the company, this includes calling, direct email, and web-forms. I attempted contact every other day, for around 17 days, before finally getting a response, albeit a short-one. Now, I understand that Digital Storm was *EXTREMELY* busy at the time, and likely still is. However, in my opinion, to not even return a customer’s calls/emails, is unacceptable, without exception. NOW, having said that, once I DID, get in contact with them, they were EXCELLENT to deal with. It was like, I had to get through this initial contact dilemma, then after that, everything was responded to within less than an hour, or no more than 20 hours. So, based on the initial problems, which actually almost broke the deal, I have to subtract 2 points. But after that, EVERYTHING, was superb.

Digital Storm – Technical Support 9/10

I’ve only had to contact them a couple of times, over a couple of minor things, nothing major. So far, they have contacted me back, the same day, every time. Normally within a couple of hours, easily, even if it was later in the day. The reason I took off one point, was because during one phone-call, I was told flat out, that the way my SSDs was hooked up, was better than what I wanted to try. When in fact, what I wanted to try was vastly superior. So, he was wrong, however, he was very courteous and professional and quick to respond. Despite that one incident, I still have a very high-respect for Digital Storm’s technical support thus far, far more than any other company I’ve dealt with to date.

The Rig Itself – 10/10

This is what really counts, eh? To be brief, the machine is excellent. Though the argument could be made, that after using a laptop for 3 years, anything would seem better, I can just tell this is a quality build. The machine boots in about 10 seconds, give or take and I’ve yet to see a single hiccup in any game. CS5, any program, loads in about 2 seconds, which is absoltabously amazing for me. The wiring was exceptionally well done, and everything was securely in place. Not even a single loose part after transit, and trust me, I thoroughly checked! I have had no issues that hindered usage of the machine, at all. Also, have NO DOUBT, that Digital Storm goes out of their way to provide excellent packaging for the machine, as mentioned, mine was in mint condition.

The Digital Storm Community – 11/10

If I were to tell someone, why they should buy from Digital Storm, it would be because of the community. The forums are very active and it’s a good active, not 100s of pointless posts about nothing. Sales, Management, and consumer-experts are all active in the forums. They are willing to answer questions, ranging from something simple, like how to plug in your speakers, to more advanced things, such as complex BIOS tweaking in regards to overclocking, etc. The forums are not condescending at all, at least I have never seen them as such. As far as being helpful, and accessible, I’ve NEVER found another vendor who boasted forums that even remotely resembled the caliber of Digital Storm’s. If you’re a potential customer, I highly recommend you just browse around for a bit, I almost guarantee you will learn something.

Overall – 9/10

I had trouble getting started with Digital Storm, that is the ONLY reason this is not a 10/10. I know they are working on improving that, so it might be much better at this point. In Digital Storm’s defense, I did order around one of the busiest times of the year. However, as I said before, after that, every-single-thing, has been excellent, and this is coming from a lifelong member of the International Pessimists society.

Miscellaneous stuff:

A BIG thanks to the Digital Storm employees, forum members, and all around "more smarter" people than I: Alex, Sarah, DST4ME, !ender_, justin.kerr, Dragoonseal, and MagiK. Though others have helped, these few are the ones who really inspired me to stick with Digital Storm.

In conclusion…

 If you are looking for a specialty company, devoted to building you a hardcore gaming rig, because you don’t know how, don’t have the time, or just don’t want to, whichever, Digital Storm is the way to go. I’ve used other “Boutique” builders in the past, and none even come close.

Also, I've decided to name my rig: Mr. Bojangles.