Dreadnought: MADMAX'S RIG HAS ARRIVED!

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   From California to New York City in a cardboard box! Was I a little anxious you may ask...just a leetle.
From the time DS received my payment till today was 32 days...about as long as expected with all the work DS has on their hands. IT WAS WORTH THE WAIT!
Fed-Ex announced their arrival with a loud thump on the other side of my front door. After giving the Fed-Ex guy the hairy eyeball and few choice adjectives...I proceeded to carry this huge cardboard box into the living room. Luckily this box had a couple of sturdy handles which made the move fairly easy...except for the almost 55 pounds that it weighed.

And so without further adieu we start our adventure into the realm of a new computer and all that entails...I think I will tell this tale with a few photos....

OF COURSE...WE START WITH THE OBLIGATORY PHOTO OF THE SHIPPING CONTAINER...IN THIS CASE A HEAVY DUTY CARDBOARD BOX

This is the most sturdy and solid cardboard box I have ever seen,,,I found that out while trying to wrestle it up into the attic. Regardless of Fed-Ex's handling the box was pristine in its condition with no tears or dents or any damage to it at all.

NEXT I OPEN THE BOX TO REVEAL...MORE BOXES....

It's like Christmas right about now..
In those two boxes were the DS binder with software and documents and wires and computer parts.

NEXT I SEE SOME HEAVY DUTY FOAM PADDING ON TOP OF THE COMPUTER...

The box was heavily padded both on top and the bottom of the tower with the same padding providing protection on the sides also. And the padding was tucked in there pretty tight.

THE TOWER IS REMOVED....AND DISPLAYED IN ALL IT'S NAKED GLORY...

This thing is huge....weighs a ton and is a solid as a Mack truck. I checked all around for any signs of damage or dents and again the tower on the outside was absolutely perfect.
I then proceeded to slowly unfasten the side cover to inspect the interior. The first thing you see is the custom padding as soon as the cover comes off...

It was in there snug but not so tight as to be difficult in removing it.

The next thing that I noticed was the side fan wire was disconnected from the power source...

...easily remedied by connecting the wires..took about 2 seconds...

Now up until this point everything was going fairly smooth...and it was here that I now got a little apprehensive because of the discussions I had with some of you in the forums concerning shipping the graphics cards installed along with the water blocks and the liquid cooling plumbing etc.
Well I'd needn't have given it a second thought. This rig was obviously packed by a professional and the foam padding was placed exactly where it needed to be and kept everything stable as can be.

AND SO AFTER REMOVING THE PADDING WE HAVE THIS...

I took a bottle of Air Duster and gave the interior of the case a good cleaning...then I checked for any loose fittings or wires and any leaks...everything looked and felt perfect. Those video cards are in their solid and with no play at all. Those quick release valves will come in handy I'm sure and they look pretty sharp to boot.

ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CASE WE CAN SEE A MOST PROFESSIONAL JOB OF WIRE MANAGEMENT...

...although you may have to tilt your head to the right to get the correct view since I forgot to rotate the picture

While breaking down my other rig and getting ready to hook up this new one I took the opportunity to do a little comparison...

...not much of a size difference physically....but technically..this DS rig is light years ahead of my old tower.

AND SO HERE IS MY OLD SETUP...A PENTIUM 4 CHIP AT 3.0...2 GIGS OF RAM...GS 7800 GRAPHICS CARD...22 INCH CRT...

AND AS OF TODAY.......

It's like going from working on an old tug boat to commanding the Star Ship Enterprise!

Ok..now to the review of this Digital Storm Gaming Computer...well as much of a review as I can offer up to now since I haven't installed any games yet....still getting it configured to my personal tastes. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

It has been my lot in life that whenever I get involved in computers nothing ever works out right. And I expected nothing less when I decided to get this one. This rig is my 4th PC and I had no reason to figure otherwise. Happily I was wrong! 
My whole experience with Digital Storm has been been one of no muss no fuss. 
As soon as I plugged the power cord into the wall socket and sparked this baby up it has been nothing but smooth sailing. She is purring like a kitten...quieter than my old tower and much better looking too. 

The tower booted up and after some quick diagnostics went right to the desktop. It immediately recognized my monitor, keyboard and mouse. My printer which was always a pain in the rear on my old system has been tamed by this DS rig.
Everything is working flawless and I couldn't be happier...it was well worth the money and the time to save up and go with DIGITAL STORM...and I will happily and aggressively recommend DS to any and all who are looking into computers for now or in the future.

And I'd like to personally thank all the people on these forums who offered their advice...encouragement...support....humor...and expertise to help me through this maze of decision making in a very technical field of which I know so very little of next to all you guys. I hope I can call on you again as I learn more and more each day of how little I know about computers. 

And especially to DST4ME...I thank you sir for your time and patience in answering my questions and helping me decide what I needed and what I didn't need...you made a lot of tough decisions very easy for me.

And in closing I'd like to thank my good buddy who I work with...Issac Ng-Montalvo...for convincing me to go with DIGITAL STORM. And also my best friend Willie Ocasio for finally persuading me to go with a 28 inch flat screen LCD HD monitor...holy cow...I had no idea what I was missing...Thanks fellas.

AND SO I HUMBLY AND PROUDLY PROSTRATE MYSELF ON THE ALTAR OF DIGITAL STORM COMPUTERS! 
THANK YOU DS

I'll be back with more reviews as I start to put this rig through its paces.

Dreadnought: MADMAX'S RIG HAS ARRIVED!

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