My complete DS experience - a review

Order History
Ordered: Sept. 18
Entered Stage 2: Oct. 1
Entered Stage 3/Shipped:  Oct. 8
Received: Oct. 12

System Specs
CPU: Liquid Cooled Core 2 Quad QX6850 OC'd to 3.67GHz
GPU: 2x nVidia 8800 Ultra (SLI)
RAM: 2GB @ 1066MHz
DisK: 10k RPM Raptor (System) / 7200 RPM (Data)
Sound: Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer

The Good

Despite being visibly mis-handled by UPS, the post-shipping condition of the rig was fantastic.  After removing it from the shipping container, I opened the case and inspected it, but it was 100% good-to-go; no dents or visible marring of the case itself, and there wasn't so much as a loose cable or anything that needed to be re-seated.  If I had taken it out of the shipping box and plugged it in, it would have booted without a hitch.
Greatly exceeded expectations.

The inside of the case is a masterpiece - the cabling, airflow, and cooling are the best I've ever seen.  It oozes expertise and care.
Greatly exceeded expectations.

The BIOS settings were great, with a solid overclock of the 3GHz CPU to 3.67GHz.
Exceeded expectations. (With liquid cooling, I was keeping my fingers crossed for a higher stable overclock!)

The OS install was clean and tidy.  Lots of the required Vista hotfixes, security patches, etc. were pre-installed and I think I had to download one update total from Microsoft by the time I received it.  Except for one config choice I didn't care for (see below), it's exactly how I'd want it to be.
Exceeded expectations.

Finally, it's not fair to talk about what's good in a DS machine (especially a relatively top-end one) without mentioning the incredible performance for the price.  Pretty much the only way to get a rig that's capable of this kind of performance any cheaper is to put it together yourself or use an integrator who would do a worse job than you would - DS did a fantastic , expert-level job making a great machine that tears through any software/games that I can throw at it, and then offers a 3-year warranty on top of it.  To do all that they do for an amazingly low price is nothing short of impressive. 
Greatly exceeded expectations.

The Questionable

I happened to call DS on the day my machine shipped (but before I had received the Stage 3/shipping notification).  I was excited, and asked, "how high were you able to overclock the CPU?" only to be told that they don't keep track of that info, and that I'd have to wait until the computer arrived in order to see what they were able to do.
Suggestion:  Put overclocking info in the DS binder that comes with the systems, and keep track of it (if only for your own good, so you can know if we've been monkeying with the settings when you're asked to do warranty work).

By default, it seems DS uses your first name from your order as the username they create for you in your OS.  I really, really did not want to use my first name as my OS username, and although Vista gives you the option of changing an existing user's name, the profile name (and therefore the directory where the desktop, etc. are stored, the registered owner of software in the registry, etc.) always keeps the original name of the account, no matter how many times you change the username itself.  My solution was to create a new administrative user with the username/profile name I wanted, and then delete the one DS created for me.  Not a big deal when the computer is first powered on, but if I had gone and customized a bunch of stuff first, it would have been a major headache.  As it was it was just a waste of my time.
Suggestion:  Let people pick their initial usernames to accomodate their preferences/privacy requirements.

Although I've seen plenty of other rigs with liquid cooling (albeit never as neatly installed as DS' setup), I've never personally had liquid cooling in a computer before.  I had always thought that since it was a closed system I wouldn't have to worry about doing any liquid refilling (i.e. any evaporation would re-condense at some point within the system since it's closed).  However, only from reading these forums (good thing I did!) I found out that actually you have to refill the liquid periodically.  I have no idea how frequently (or even how) to perform the required maintenance on my liquid cooling system, and nothing came with my system to explain this. 
Suggestion:  Provide liquid cooling maintenance instructions in the DS binder that comes with the system, especially given the 3-year warranty (I'm guessing DS doesn't want to deal with a bunch of burnt-out CPUs under warranty because people didn't know how to take care of their cooling systems).

Maybe it's because I ordered my system without calling DS and asking them explicitly for advice, but I never really got any advice from DS on my config.  (Stories from this forum seem to indicate that DS has called up other customers and talked to them about their configs, but obviously I don't know other people's circumstances that led to those calls.)  Then, after my machine entered Stage 2 (i.e. too late to change anything) I read on these forums that the Fatal1ty sound card actually provides a noticeable performance increase over the X-Fi XtremeGamer.  Given my budget, I probably would have chosen this card had I had that advice prior to stage 2.
Suggestion:  I understand that DS wants to push through configs as quickly as possible, and also that they don't want to insult people who seem to know exactly what they want.  But, it would be great if on the order form you gave a checkbox option to have a DS customer service person call you and talk to you about your config before putting your machine into Stage 1.  You have the best and most knowledgeable customer service people in the business, why not use them to drive more revenue and/or customer satisfaction?

Then, of course, there was the shipping estimate.  I was given an initial shipping estimate of no later than Oct. 1, which was reconfirmed twice by DS Customer Service reps, yet my machine actually shipped a week later than that.  I understand the initial estimate being wrong, but what I found a little disappointing was that I was told - twice - that the initial estimate was valid.  Given that I was told that my machine had no problems during the Stage 2 testing, I am not sure why not only the initial estimate was wrong but the customer service reps were wrong also.  Right now it seems like everyone's told 6-8 business days from start of Stage 1 regardless of their parts list, config choices, etc. and there are never any revised estimates issued by DS.  In the lifetime of a machine a week (in my case) or a few weeks (in others' cases that have been posted on the forums) delay is not that big of a deal, but consistent bad expectation-setting/miscommunication/lack of communication at the beginning of a business relationship that needs word-of-mouth and repeat business to thrive sets a less-than-ideal tone.
Suggestion:  Rethink the entire shipping date estimation/communication process, and if it's not too cumbersome, provide an estimate that's specific to a machine instead of giving everyone the same estimate.  If there's a delay in getting all the parts together for Stage 1, or if there's a config choice that adds time to the standard estimate (like liquid cooling or dual booting), then tell people that and issue a new estimate; if there's a testing error in Stage 2, then tell people and issue a new estimate. 

The Bad

Once I booted my machine, my display started going blank and would come back on a moment later, giving me a fun Vista error:  "Display Driver Stopped Responding And Has Recovered", mentioning the nvlddmkm nVidia driver specifically.  This happened on average of once every 5 minutes, but did happen as frequently as 3 times in a 30-second period.  Now, I know from reading these forums that DS installs what they feel are the most stable drivers, and the most stable aren't necessarily the newest.  So, when I saw that the drivers on my computer weren't the latest distro from nVidia and bearing in mind the drivers that I had already are the ones my machine theoretically passed Stage 2 with, I was hesitant to update.  Eventually, I got sick of the error, bit the bullet, installed the latest drivers from the nVidia website, and the error hasn't happened since.  Since the fix was so easy, it's hard to get angry about it, but what the heck is the point of Stage 2 if not to find these kinds of problems?  And how could my rig have ever passed Stage 2 with this issue that I had immediately after firing up the computer for the first time?

Summary

Anything that's not listed above as a detractor from my experience should be assumed not only to be done right, but to be done really, really well.   I know firsthand that the questionable/bad parts of my experience with DS are minor nits compared to the problems with Alienware and others that I/my wife/my friends have dealt with in the past, so despite my handful of minor issues, DS is WAY above and beyond anyone else in terms of customer experience and price-performance.  Overall, I'd rate the whole experience as at least a 9.5/10 (and yes, Bill, I know where else I should post this review).

P.S.  If anyone at DS finds this review helpful, I'm more than willing to accept a Fatal1ty soundcard for providing such thorough feedback. 

I wasn't going to say anything....  But DSO has lost their platinum rating due to lack of reviews.

Edited by Bill the Cat - 15 Oct 2007 at 2:33pm

Great review!

Originally posted by Stonevulture Maybe it's because I ordered my system without calling DS and asking them explicitly for advice, but I never really got any advice from DS on my config.  (Stories from this forum seem to indicate that DS has called up other customers and talked to them about their configs, but obviously I don't know other people's circumstances that led to those calls.)

I agree with this. I also never received a call, which is fine as I'm happy with my config (although I had the same issue after discovering that the Fatality soundcard impacted performance), but after hearing so much about the responsiveness of DSO customer service, I was somewhat disappointed. Even after several delays and problems with my system, I never got a call or email - only found out after placing calls. Even now I don't know what's going on.

Some good suggestions, and good praise about what they are doing very right. Your rig looks absolutely insane - have fun with that monster!

Chris

Originally posted by Stonevulture Looks like our machines are very similar - trade my 2nd video card and 32-bit Vista for 2GB of additional RAM and 64-bit Vista and we practically have the same machine...

True! Except that your hydraulically-cooled quadruple core QX6850 makes my similarly-clocked duo look like its little brother..

Awesome that it breezes through "insane" settings. Can't wait to do the same with heavily-modded Oblivion, Half Life 2, and Crysis..

Chris

PS: What case did you get?


Edited by thecomplex - 15 Oct 2007 at 5:48pm

Originally posted by Stonevulture The Bad Once I booted my machine, my display started going blank and would come back on a moment later, giving me a fun Vista error:  "Display Driver Stopped Responding And Has Recovered", mentioning the nvlddmkm nVidia driver specifically.  This happened on average of once every 5 minutes, but did happen as frequently as 3 times in a 30-second period.  Now, I know from reading these forums that DS installs what they feel are the most stable drivers, and the most stable aren't necessarily the newest.  So, when I saw that the drivers on my computer weren't the latest distro from nVidia and bearing in mind the drivers that I had already are the ones my machine theoretically passed Stage 2 with, I was hesitant to update.  Eventually, I got sick of the error, bit the bullet, installed the latest drivers from the nVidia website, and the error hasn't happened since.  Since the fix was so easy, it's hard to get angry about it, but what the heck is the point of Stage 2 if not to find these kinds of problems?  And how could my rig have ever passed Stage 2 with this issue that I had immediately after firing up the computer for the first time?

Originally posted by Bill the Cat I wasn't going to say anything....  But DSO has lost their platinum rating due to lack of reviews.

does DS use NTFS when formatting hard drives and setting up the OS?

All do considering XP and Vista are NTFS filesystems, yes.  We use NTFS to format.  That is the standard when installing an OS.

Great review!