Initial Review

Long Story Short... I did a VERY extensive review complete with Email Chain back and forth with DSO from Ordering until Shipping, went into a big breakdown about all the events that happened.. but in the end I have a very simple review here for you to enjoy ::
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Delivery Day

So January 29th - one week after it hit UPS, it arrives. How bowled over would I be? Would the liquid in the cooling system be frozen after a week of travelling cross-country mid-winter?

The box showed up in great shape - albeit very dirty (UPS hasn't cleaned a truck since they started deliveries I'm sure). Opening it up, the binder and box of bits was sitting nicely on top. Mouse and keyboard were tucked in snug in the foam and there was the computer - cold and held in place well by the packing.

First thing I noticed was a small scratch on the top of the case - nothing you wouldn't do yourself putting it into place the first time.. so make a note, the surface of these cases is very sensitive!

The plexiglass side panel was surprisingly dusty - perhaps from the travel or perhaps that cleaning off the inside was a step they overlooked. There was some loose strands of glue from the silicone-based gel they used to secure the cards to prevent them from getting bumped loose during shipping.. so I was looking forward to getting in there and cleaning things up a bit.. but it had to wait - I wanted to get it running!

Now.. my girlfriend saw I was getting a new keyboard - and she liked the looks of it. Needless to say that resulted in a "I want one!" from her. Yep, even before the machine had arrived her dibs were in.. it's a good thing I'd forgotten I was getting a G7 (I thought I was getting a G5) or she would've snarked that as well (but I still have to get her one now) =)

Anyways, a quick trip to Best Buy for her to play with the Tarantula before it arrived - she liked it and I picked up a G15. Figured whichever way she wanted - I'd be good with whatever was leftover.   When the box arrived, the Tarantula was hooked in for her and I setup the G15/G7 combo on the DSO rig.

Wired everything up.. pressed the power.. and up the system came - right into Windows XP Home... complete with a 150GB C: and a 500GB D: Of course, if you read back in the Email chain.. that was supposed to be a split partition with 75GB uninstalled so I could put Vista64 on it.

A few seconds of tinkering with XP Home and enjoying how quick the computer was - I checked to see if they'd installed any tuning/monitoring tools on the system... nothing. So... popped in the Vista DVD and punched the reset, wiped out the partition and setup the partition properly and did the install of Vista64.

It handled everything damn near flawlessly on its own.. seriously the cleanest and fastest Vista install I've seen. I pre-downloaded the 64-bit drivers for as many components as possible and was up and running QUICK.

I downloaded and ran 3DMark06... now I can't remember if it was 13,600 or 14,600 I scored.. either way.. the CPU was running @ 3.7GHZ (3.0ghz originally) and the Ram is OC'd at 1700mhz (1250mhz originally) and there's no signs of artifacts, lags, reboots or anything - the system is running stable.

That being said, this system immediately has made me a fan of Liquid Cooling. Despite all the Overclocking, the heat-monster Ultra and GT cards in there... this system's output is about 20F cooler than my Dell XPS 600. It's really quite remarkable just how cool this system runs - and despite all the fans and water system it's also fairly quiet.

I've yet to load up the Free copy of Crysis they gave me, but I did get WoW installed and running quickly. 2560x1600 with all graphics settings maxed.. I was enjoying 30-40FPS through Black Temple all night long which was a major improvement over the 10FPS I was used to with the previous system.

There's still more to test.. but honestly, seeing the drive go unpartitioned, not seeing reports about the results of various tests they said they would provide (perhaps it's in the binder and I've overlooked it) and the lack of cleaning the glass has left me a little disappointed.. but so far the machine seems to perform great. I'll continue to update this thread as I test it further.

That being said.. here's a few screenshots of the system ::

http://www.iamakkim.com/dso/opposite_view.jpg
-- Image of what my little gaming corner looks like

http://www.iamakkim.com/dso/console_view.jpg
-- Sitting in the comfy chair...

http://www.iamakkim.com/dso/case_front.jpg
-- View of the case up on the desk behind the 30"

http://www.iamakkim.com/dso/case_side.jpg
-- Shot of the back of my area and the side of the case.   Note - that's the Dell 3007 there to give a rough feel of the size of the case.   It's biiig!

http://www.iamakkim.com/dso/component_top.jpg
-- Inside the side door view of the upper part of the case

http://www.iamakkim.com/dso/component_bottom.jpg
-- Inside the side door view of the lower part of the case

http://www.iamakkim.com/dso/optiical_back.jpg
-- Inside the side door view of backside of the optical drive area.

So far....

Ordering Process :: 9/10 (would have been nice to select cards individually)
Building Process :: 5/10 (between the time it took, the lack of proactive updates and the lack of pre-planning keyboard allotment during kitting up the box...)
Customer Support :: 9/10 (They can't make things work that're broken, they can't give you components they don't have.. but they are good at getting back to you, getting you answers and working to keep you happy
First Impressions :: 4/10 (Dirty Glass, Improper hard drive setup - it just didn't sit well with me.. despite being small things, attention to detail and delivery on what they've assured is crucial)
Performance :: TBD (I'll need more time to really drill into the performance of this accurately... but really, the system screams in the limited testing I've done.. I can't imagine this falling short of stellar.

Assuming a 10/10 in performance that's a 37/50 - or a 74% based on simple math. Not a great score for the overall opinion, but let's weight the end results a little more and if we factor in the performance results to be what REALLY matters in the end, 74% would be the WORST case scenario in evaluating this review.

--Akkim
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The full thread I have written up with all Emails is available here ::
-- http://www.iamakkim.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=27

Damn, I thought MY review was in-depth!

Sounds like you got the same keyboard snafu that I did, but with a different keyboard.

The plexi-glass in my case was also really dusty when I got it.  I think that's probably a shipping issue, as most of the "dust" looked like cardboard specs on mine.

Good, honest review!  That's a helluva system too... and I'm envious of your "gaming corner."

Your system looks awesome!

1/7/2008- Viewed By Dave at 4:02:08 PM
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Conversation With Customer:

Topic: Customer Service -> Modification to Configuration

Comments: Received email from customer. Customer would like us to leave half of his 150 HDD unpartitioned so that he can add a Vista boot on his own.

Date Time: 1/7/2008 4:03:01 PM