Got my DS - Review

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   See bottom for order configuration.

Stage 1: Order placed 04/28/08
Stage 2: 05/07/08
Stage 3: Didn't get an e-mail (dunno what happened here)
Stage 4: 05/12/08
Stage 5: 05/12/08
Called in between here and was helped by Mark who was nice enough to go in the back and let me know how the overclock process went.
Stage 6: 05/21/08
Got in the mail last thursday (05/29/08)

I got the 850Si case so the first thing that came to mind was how huge this thing is.  Moving it onto my room I heard a rattle in the case.  I opened up the case and found the screw holding down the graphics card was not in place so I put that in.  I also saw that one of the memory sticks was also not in place so I put that in as well.

What sucks is that they didn't include the side bracket that hold the four huge fans on the side or the fan that goes on top of the machine.  Apparently those fans are only included on Stage 3 cooling.  This is fine but at least put the side bracket on so later on I could upgrade it with fans I could get myself.  I haven't found a company that would sell this item alone yet (newegg didn't carry it) and when I called DS it was priced at $120. 

Just to make sure I didn't have to go out and get AS5, I touched the heatsink and found that it was properly installed, or at least held down pretty tight.   

I started the computer no problem and installed COD4, Crysis, Bioshock, AoC, TF2 and UT3.  I ran my first test in COD4 which worked as well as I had hoped at least for an hour or so (crash).  After another crash I downloaded CoreTemp and found the temperature of the cores (Q6600) idling at an average of 60C in a 22C room.  I played again for awhile then check temperature logs which go up to 80C.  I looked around for average temperatures and found some people saying 70C was normal but most saying to keep it below this.  

Called up DSO and talked to someone (who gave me the pricing on that side bracket) and told me that the crashes are most likely due to the overclocking.  He was nice enough to walk me through the BIOS and take off the OC settings and was very patient even when I made him run around (for that pricing and whatnot) on a Friday.  He told me that one of the techs say they're running their own PC with the same CPU at 90C.  This was kind of weird.

He told me to run this at stock speed and later on bump up the overclock when I feel that it's ready.  While this is a very nice offer, I mean, who wants to hold someone's hand while they overclock, I was kind of expecting the overclock to be done already rather than me and him doing it.  Also, I'm not sure what's going on with the memory, it's the XMS Dominator 1066 but it appears to be running at 800.  I'll give these guys a call later on as I'm sure it's just a few BIOS settings that they can help me through.

But anyway, the guys at DS are very nice and very patient.  If you need to get ahold of them, just give them a call.  I tried that customer support forms but never got a reply back.  The form for configuration help worked though, as I remember the day I ordered this I got a tech calling me with some suggestions. The whole customer service department is very nice and informative.  What's more, they're in this country and probably play as much games as we do.  I feel like I could say, "I was about to own someone in the face in COD4 when...." to them and they would understand.

The personalized binder was a nice tough and all the cables and accessories was packed well.  

The wait time is rough and most people say it's the care and quality of the assembly.  But my overclocking didn't work, graphics card wasn't fastened and one of the memory sticks wasn't plugged in.  I guess the last two can be blamed on Fedex or something and wasn't that big of a deal.

Pricing is pretty good, you only beat the price by a certain margin which is made up by the lifetime support and the warranty even when you order overclocking (at least I think so).

Anyway that's my review, I tried to restrain myself from typing OMG BEAST COMPUTER IS HERE over and over so take from this what you will.

Order specs below:

Case: Digital Storm 850Si (Black Anodized Aluminum Finish)
Power Supply: 750W Corsair HX (Dual SLI Compatible) (Silent Edition)
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz (1066MHz FSB) (8MB Cache)
Motherboard: nVidia 680i LT Core 2 Quad (nForce 680i LT SLI)
Memory: 2GB DDR2 Corsair at 1066MHz Dominator DHX (Extreme-Performance)
Floppy / Card: - No Thanks
Hard Drive 1: 320GB Western Digital (16MB Cache) (7200 RPM) (SATA)
Hard Drive 2: - No Thanks
Raid Option: - No Thanks
Hard Drive 3: - No Thanks
Optical Drive 1: DVD±R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 20x / CD-Writer 48x)
Optical Drive 2: - No Thanks
Network Card: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)
Video Card: nVidia GeForce 8800GTX 768MB
TV Tuner: - No Thanks
Sound Card: Motherboard Multi-Channel High Definition Audio
Physics Card: - No Thanks
Cooling: Air Cooled Stage 2 (Silent Artic Cooling Heat-sink Upgrade (Copper Heatpipes)
Case Lighting: Blizzard Internal Lighting (Blue Edition) (Cold Cathode Tubes)
Round Cables: - No Thanks
User Manual: Personalized Platinum Digital Storm Binder (Includes Paperwork/Benchmarks/CDs/Manuals)
Overclock Processor: Yes, Overclock the processor as much as possible with complete stability
Overclock Video Card: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s)
Overclock Memory: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my memory
Tweak Windows: - No Thanks, Please do not tweak the services on the operating system
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium
Restore Kit: Digital Storm Specialized Recovery System (DVD Image Based)
Protection: - No Thanks
Office: - No Thanks
Benchmarking: - No Thanks
Pre-Install Game: - No Thanks
LCD Display: Acer 19 inch (Widescreen) (Black Edition) (High-Value Display)
Surge Shield: - No Thanks
Speakers: - No Thanks
Keyboard: Microsoft Multimedia Desktop 2.0 (Multimedia Keyboard + Optical Wheel Mouse)
Mouse: - No Thanks my keyboard comes with a mouse
Warranty: 3 Year Platinum Care Extended Parts & Labor Warranty
Support: Lifetime Toll-Free Platinum Care Technical Support

Author	Message Topic Search Topic Options Post Reply Create New Topic Printable Version
stubbs Members Profile Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 30 Apr 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 6	Quote Reply Topic: Got my DS - Review Posted: 31 May 2008 at 12:13pm
	See bottom for order configuration. Stage 1: Order placed 04/28/08 Stage 2: 05/07/08 Stage 3: Didn't get an e-mail (dunno what happened here) Stage 4: 05/12/08 Stage 5: 05/12/08 Called in between here and was helped by Mark who was nice enough to go in the back and let me know how the overclock process went. Stage 6: 05/21/08 Got in the mail last thursday (05/29/08) I got the 850Si case so the first thing that came to mind was how huge this thing is. Moving it onto my room I heard a rattle in the case. I opened up the case and found the screw holding down the graphics card was not in place so I put that in. I also saw that one of the memory sticks was also not in place so I put that in as well. What sucks is that they didn't include the side bracket that hold the four huge fans on the side or the fan that goes on top of the machine. Apparently those fans are only included on Stage 3 cooling. This is fine but at least put the side bracket on so later on I could upgrade it with fans I could get myself. I haven't found a company that would sell this item alone yet (newegg didn't carry it) and when I called DS it was priced at $120. Just to make sure I didn't have to go out and get AS5, I touched the heatsink and found that it was properly installed, or at least held down pretty tight. I started the computer no problem and installed COD4, Crysis, Bioshock, AoC, TF2 and UT3. I ran my first test in COD4 which worked as well as I had hoped at least for an hour or so (crash). After another crash I downloaded CoreTemp and found the temperature of the cores (Q6600) idling at an average of 60C in a 22C room. I played again for awhile then check temperature logs which go up to 80C. I looked around for average temperatures and found some people saying 70C was normal but most saying to keep it below this. Called up DSO and talked to someone (who gave me the pricing on that side bracket) and told me that the crashes are most likely due to the overclocking. He was nice enough to walk me through the BIOS and take off the OC settings and was very patient even when I made him run around (for that pricing and whatnot) on a Friday. He told me that one of the techs say they're running their own PC with the same CPU at 90C. This was kind of weird. He told me to run this at stock speed and later on bump up the overclock when I feel that it's ready. While this is a very nice offer, I mean, who wants to hold someone's hand while they overclock, I was kind of expecting the overclock to be done already rather than me and him doing it. Also, I'm not sure what's going on with the memory, it's the XMS Dominator 1066 but it appears to be running at 800. I'll give these guys a call later on as I'm sure it's just a few BIOS settings that they can help me through. But anyway, the guys at DS are very nice and very patient. If you need to get ahold of them, just give them a call. I tried that customer support forms but never got a reply back. The form for configuration help worked though, as I remember the day I ordered this I got a tech calling me with some suggestions. The whole customer service department is very nice and informative. What's more, they're in this country and probably play as much games as we do. I feel like I could say, "I was about to own someone in the face in COD4 when...." to them and they would understand. The personalized binder was a nice tough and all the cables and accessories was packed well. The wait time is rough and most people say it's the care and quality of the assembly. But my overclocking didn't work, graphics card wasn't fastened and one of the memory sticks wasn't plugged in. I guess the last two can be blamed on Fedex or something and wasn't that big of a deal. Pricing is pretty good, you only beat the price by a certain margin which is made up by the lifetime support and the warranty even when you order overclocking (at least I think so). Anyway that's my review, I tried to restrain myself from typing OMG BEAST COMPUTER IS HERE over and over so take from this what you will. Order specs below: Case: Digital Storm 850Si (Black Anodized Aluminum Finish) Power Supply: 750W Corsair HX (Dual SLI Compatible) (Silent Edition) Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz (1066MHz FSB) (8MB Cache) Motherboard: nVidia 680i LT Core 2 Quad (nForce 680i LT SLI) Memory: 2GB DDR2 Corsair at 1066MHz Dominator DHX (Extreme-Performance) Floppy / Card: - No Thanks Hard Drive 1: 320GB Western Digital (16MB Cache) (7200 RPM) (SATA) Hard Drive 2: - No Thanks Raid Option: - No Thanks Hard Drive 3: - No Thanks Optical Drive 1: DVD±R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 20x / CD-Writer 48x) Optical Drive 2: - No Thanks Network Card: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections) Video Card: nVidia GeForce 8800GTX 768MB TV Tuner: - No Thanks Sound Card: Motherboard Multi-Channel High Definition Audio Physics Card: - No Thanks Cooling: Air Cooled Stage 2 (Silent Artic Cooling Heat-sink Upgrade (Copper Heatpipes) Case Lighting: Blizzard Internal Lighting (Blue Edition) (Cold Cathode Tubes) Round Cables: - No Thanks User Manual: Personalized Platinum Digital Storm Binder (Includes Paperwork/Benchmarks/CDs/Manuals) Overclock Processor: Yes, Overclock the processor as much as possible with complete stability Overclock Video Card: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s) Overclock Memory: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my memory Tweak Windows: - No Thanks, Please do not tweak the services on the operating system Windows OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Restore Kit: Digital Storm Specialized Recovery System (DVD Image Based) Protection: - No Thanks Office: - No Thanks Benchmarking: - No Thanks Pre-Install Game: - No Thanks LCD Display: Acer 19 inch (Widescreen) (Black Edition) (High-Value Display) Surge Shield: - No Thanks Speakers: - No Thanks Keyboard: Microsoft Multimedia Desktop 2.0 (Multimedia Keyboard + Optical Wheel Mouse) Mouse: - No Thanks my keyboard comes with a mouse Warranty: 3 Year Platinum Care Extended Parts & Labor Warranty Support: Lifetime Toll-Free Platinum Care Technical Support

!ender_ Members Profile Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List DS Veteran Joined: 24 Oct 2007 Online Status: Offline Posts: 4219	Quote Reply Posted: 31 May 2008 at 1:55pm
	6600 chips are extremely resilient, as are a good amount of intel peices. the advice you see about "safe" temperatures is advice given to people who are not too thrilled about taking a gamble on overclocking. 40 idle 60 load is sort of the mainstream "ideal" but this does not include overclocking to get all you can out of your hardware i also spoke to a rep at dso who said that hitting 80 as a peak is understandable with a good overclock on the q6600 chip. personally mine will hit 68 in the harshest stress points of everest tests, i know it could go higher, but i feel im at the peak of the performance:cost ratio as far as temps and risk go grap CPUZ and take screen shots of the CPU and memory tabs if you feel something is still set incorrectly

Got my DS - Review

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