My Digital Storm Experience with Pics

I'll do a quick write up here on my experience with Digital Storm. Right from the gate I'd like to say I am pleased with the overall experience, am very happy with the product, but there are a few quirks i will address later.

I placed my order on Friday Sept. 21. It was put into Stage 3 on Friday October 5th and shipped Monday Oct. 8th. I received it Monday Oct. 15th. So from time of order until it was at my house was just about 3 weeks, not bad at all.

The order process went smooth except for a bank issue which was corrected over the weekend. I was kept updated throughout the process and Alex called Monday to let me know the order went through. I ordered a pretty basic setup and at first didn't order the Twister Boost Enhancement. When I later discovered this was their overclocking service I figured I would pay the 25 bucks and not have to worry about voiding my warranty. I picked all the parts recommended for overclocking as best I could. To my dismay the machine arrived with a 2.4Ghz Q6600 G0 OC'ed to 2.7Ghz. I blame myself for not calling and discussing this further as I thought attaining a 3Ghz OC was fairly simple. I don't mind too much its just that I had to go into the BIOS anyway so it was a waste of $25 in my eyes. Its a little misleading to say DS will push the system to its most stable point when thats simply not the case. I'm not sure what standard procedure is but there was not 1 blue screen from first system boot, so the system was never pushed. As stated, not a big deal, I just wanted to avoid any warranty issues by not selecting the TwisterBoost option. I got the system stable at just above 3Ghz so im happy. Its just something I wanted to avoid doing to avoid warranty issues, and paid for that luxury unnecessarily.

The only part I ordered that was out of stock was the red round cables. I received a phone call and was notified they only had black in stock. Since I didn't want to delay my order I switched to black cables and all was well. I was actually contacted 3 times about this issue which I appreciate. I like the fact DS keeps their customers informed.

So now its Monday, I know UPS is coming, so I set up a stake out in front of my house. I'm taking no prisoners and hes not getting away! On a side note, I live on a corner street and the front of my house does not face my address. Numerous times I missed packages and they were actually sent back to sender because UPS cant find my house despite a HUGE sign on the corner. I see him drive past my house and up the street without stopping, so when he was coming back I spider rolled into the middle of the street and had him in a death lock in seconds. The package was delivered-mission complete.

I bring the behemoth box upstairs and cut 'er open. I read somewhere that a crate option was going to become available where I would send it back prepaid but it came in a regular cardboard box. I later read that a crate is available for almost $300 at the customers expense. This seems a bit steep and like the idea of being able to return it much better. When I picked up the box you could feel it had some shift to it, but there were no visible signs of damage to the outside of the box.

Upon opening the box everything looked good. The binder and accessory box was lying on top of the computer itself. I took everything out to give er a once over. As I lifted the computer out of the box I heard a loose screw or something rattling in the case. Once I put the wheels on I took off the side panel to find the culprit. With my detective skills I quickly located the tiny BB looking thing in mere seconds! Unfortunetly I have no idea what it is. It looks like a rivet or something-it has a round BB head that narrows to a cylinder shape, then it gets jagged like it snapped off something. I looked for any missing screws to no avail. It didn't look major but this experience got me extremely nervous that the package was roughed up in transit, good thing that was the only issue, everything else was in tact and seated properly.

I decide the moment had arrived and its time to fire her up so I slowwwly caress the oh so smooth power button. I gently push it in and out, in and out...wait, wrong book. Ok, I turn it on and it boots right into windows. DS disabled the annoying splash screen which I appreciate. Windows was activated it just had to phone home. The only perephials I connected were my monitor and speakers which went without a hitch. When I went to go into the audio control panel I was greeted with an error message that my Xtreme Gamer card drivers were not compatible with Vista so I went to Creatives site and got the Vista drivers. Once installed everything was golden. I thought I read that DS has the most up to date drivers on a server so I was a little worried all my drivers would be dated. I later learned this wasn't the case, although there were new graphics drivers available, and also a BIOS update, neither were beta drivers. These are all things I have no problem doing myself but I did take notice.

The wiring job was OK but I would have gladly paid more to have them hidden and tied a bit better. The Ultra case is very large so I understand its not easy to hide them completely, but I certainly think it could have been better. The hanging audio cable from the Xtreme Gamer and the wiring stuffed inside the empty hard drive bay is what kind of upset me. It just throws the clean look off, and when I add another HD I will have to reroute the cables that are stuffed in there. I initially thought adding the upgraded cables would provide a better wire job but its nothing major. I was also under the impression that adding Stage 3 Cooling included more fans than the 2 stock fans. When I read the stage 3 description it said: "We also determine various fan placements of your computer systems chassis. Our technicians are trained to cool the entire system without adding useless fans to produce unnecessary noise. We feel there is a balance of cooling over noise."

Now while I completely agree that some fans are useless, by reading that description I was led to believe that out of the 9 available fan slots more than the 2 stock fans would be used, especially when overclocking. Again, this is not a huge problem but I do think an option should be placed on the site for additional cooling fans, upgraded thermal paste, etc. I myself only plan on putting an additional exhaust fan at the top of the case to pull out the hot air, but I was also surprised to see that the CoolerMaster 830 did not come with the plastic side panel that can hold an additional 4 fans. When I looked at other retailers selling the case this was included. Then again, I requested wheels, was told thats not included and would have to pay shipping. I declined but when the system arrived wheels were included, so I do at least appreciate that!

So other than a few minor quirks, which honestly most likely could have been addressed had I called, I love the computer. The few minor setbacks  are certainly not a deal breaker and did not come in the way of my overall satisfaction with the build. In fact, I have already recommended DS to 2 friends, and mentioned them in 2 threads on ResellerRatings. I will also write a review there within a few days, or I may just copy paste this if I get lazy!(Update:Review written) And now for the pics! i tried taking a pic of the loose BB thing but I couldn't get my camera to focus on it. I think its because its too small, thats what all the girls tell me anyway. With that I thank DS for delivering a system thats works great, and I thank the board members who answered some of my questions on here. Thank you, please come again..and thanks for all the fish!































System Configuration:
Case: Digital Storm Twister ULTRA (Black Anodized Aluminum Finish)
Power Supply: 750W Thermaltake (SLI Compatible) (Silent Toughpower Edition)
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz (1066MHz FSB) (8MB Cache)
Motherboard: nVidia 680i Core 2 Quad (By: eVGA) (nForce 680i SLI) (A1 Revision)
Memory: 2GB DDR2 Corsair at 800MHz XMS2 (Dual Channel) (Extreme-Performance)
Floppy / Media: Sony 1.44MB Floppy (Black Edition)
Hard Drive 1: 150GB Western Digital Raptor (10K RPM) (16MB Cache) (SATA) (Extreme Speed)
Hard Drive 2: 500GB (Western Digital / Seagate) (16MB Cache) (7200 RPM) (SATA)
Raid Option: - No Thanks
Optical Drive 1: DVD±R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 20x / CD-Writer 48x)
Optical Drive 2: DVD±R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 20x / CD-Writer 48x) (LightScribe Edition)
Network Card: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)
Modem: - No Thanks
Video Card: nVidia GeForce 8800GTX 768MB (By: eVGA / Asus) (PCI-Express)
TV Tuner: - No Thanks
Sound Card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer (Up to 7.1 Channel) (Recommended)
Physics Card: - No Thanks
Cooling: Air Cooled Stage 3 (Silent Artic Cooling (TwisterBoost Overclocked)
Case Lighting: Blizzard Internal Lighting (Blue Edition) (Cold Cathode Tubes)
Round Cables: Enhanced Interior Air Flow (Optical Drive & Floppy Cables (Red Edition)
User Manual: Personalized Platinum Digital Storm Binder (Includes Paperwork/Benchmarks/CDs/Manuals)
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium

























Edited by donkeypunch - 21 Oct 2007 at 4:51pm

24" 

24"  I have the 22" Sammy and it's just amazing for game play. I haven't quite gotten used to it for reading and web surfing, but when I plug a game in my DS system, I just sigh. Sweet! I feel I could almost fall into the game. BTW, do you know why folks are refering to Digital Storm as DSO instead of DS? Does the 'O' stand for organization?

Thanks for that info Tyler. Everything seems to be seated properly but I couldn't find where it broke off from. Sorry about the pics, I couldn't get the camera to focus on it, and if I got too close the flash blurred out the pic completely(amature picture taker raises hand). :P What you described almost sounds like it, you can see that the head was mushroomed into a ball. It's also extremely light so guessing aluminum. The wiring job isnt bad, just not what I was expecting. I would certainly buy another DS, as a matter of fact I'll be buying a laptop around Christmas. 

For testing the overclock I used Orthos and Everest-core temps, BIOS, and ntune for reference readings. I ran each for 12-24 hours. I know it's not 3 days but I would run them overnight and check on them the next morning or after work. I blue screened trying to get 3.2 Ghz, bumped the memory up to 900mhz, and upped the voltages a bit. It posted and got into Windows but blue screened when I ran Orthos. Dropped it back to 3.1 and it was fine. I then dropped it again to just under 3Ghz to be on the safe side, passed all tests, and CPU temps are between 37-45C when doing everyday stuff.

The overclocking thing wasn't a big issue for me, and like I said if I would have called I think they would have pushed it to 3Ghz, or let me know what to change(memory?) to get there. I noticed on other sites they will overclock say %10-20. Maybe that would be better than saying they will push your system to the most stable point? Again, just a thought.

I love the Samsung as well srl50. Some reviews said because of the panel type it makes it hard to edit pictures because of the color shift but I think it looks great. I've seen SPVA panels which were nice but the only improvement I saw is when looking from straight underneath the monitor. It took me awhile to get used to surfing the web as well, but I had my monitor too close at first. I need to get a bigger desk but I had the monitor sat down on the lower part of the desk and got a stiff neck looking back and forth on the screen!

OK, back to football! I'm making a killing this year!




Edited by donkeypunch - 21 Oct 2007 at 3:27pm

Yeah, that wiring job doesn't look like what I got.  Mine was much nicer and everything was out of the way.  All my wiring was neatly wrapped in mesh conduit and blue cathode tubing.


Edited by EdH63 - 21 Oct 2007 at 4:23pm

Dear DSO:

From the post quoted below, this action voids the DS warranty doesn't it?

If so which one?

To my dismay the machine arrived with a 2.4Ghz Q6600 G0 OC'ed to 2.7Ghz. I blame myself for not calling and discussing this further as I thought attaining a 3Ghz OC was fairly simple. I don't mind too much its just that I had to go into the BIOS anyway so it was a waste of $25 in my eyes. Its a little misleading to say DS will push the system to its most stable point when thats simply not the case. I'm not sure what standard procedure is but there was not 1 blue screen from first system boot, so the system was never pushed. As stated, not a big deal, I just wanted to avoid any warranty issues by not selecting the TwisterBoost option. I got the system stable at just above 3Ghz so im happy. Its just something I wanted to avoid doing to avoid warranty issues, and paid for that luxury unnecessarily.

Originally posted by donkeypunch I'll do a quick write up here on my experience with Digital Storm. Right from the gate I'd like to say I am pleased with the overall experience, am very happy with the product, but there are a few quirks i will address later. I placed my order on Friday Sept. 21. It was put into Stage 3 on Friday October 5th and shipped Monday Oct. 8th. I received it Monday Oct. 15th. So from time of order until it was at my house was just about 3 weeks, not bad at all. The order process went smooth except for a bank issue which was corrected over the weekend. I was kept updated throughout the process and Alex called Monday to let me know the order went through. I ordered a pretty basic setup and at first didn't order the Twister Boost Enhancement. When I later discovered this was their overclocking service I figured I would pay the 25 bucks and not have to worry about voiding my warranty. I picked all the parts recommended for overclocking as best I could. To my dismay the machine arrived with a 2.4Ghz Q6600 G0 OC'ed to 2.7Ghz. I blame myself for not calling and discussing this further as I thought attaining a 3Ghz OC was fairly simple. I don't mind too much its just that I had to go into the BIOS anyway so it was a waste of $25 in my eyes. Its a little misleading to say DS will push the system to its most stable point when thats simply not the case. I'm not sure what standard procedure is but there was not 1 blue screen from first system boot, so the system was never pushed. As stated, not a big deal, I just wanted to avoid any warranty issues by not selecting the TwisterBoost option. I got the system stable at just above 3Ghz so im happy. Its just something I wanted to avoid doing to avoid warranty issues, and paid for that luxury unnecessarily. The only part I ordered that was out of stock was the red round cables. I received a phone call and was notified they only had black in stock. Since I didn't want to delay my order I switched to black cables and all was well. I was actually contacted 3 times about this issue which I appreciate. I like the fact DS keeps their customers informed. So now its Monday, I know UPS is coming, so I set up a stake out in front of my house. I'm taking no prisoners and hes not getting away! On a side note, I live on a corner street and the front of my house does not face my address. Numerous times I missed packages and they were actually sent back to sender because UPS cant find my house despite a HUGE sign on the corner. I see him drive past my house and up the street without stopping, so when he was coming back I spider rolled into the middle of the street and had him in a death lock in seconds. The package was delivered-mission complete. I bring the behemoth box upstairs and cut 'er open. I read somewhere that a crate option was going to become available where I would send it back prepaid but it came in a regular cardboard box. I later read that a crate is available for almost $300 at the customers expense. This seems a bit steep and like the idea of being able to return it much better. When I picked up the box you could feel it had some shift to it, but there were no visible signs of damage to the outside of the box. Upon opening the box everything looked good. The binder and accessory box was lying on top of the computer itself. I took everything out to give er a once over. As I lifted the computer out of the box I heard a loose screw or something rattling in the case. Once I put the wheels on I took off the side panel to find the culprit. With my detective skills I quickly located the tiny BB looking thing in mere seconds! Unfortunetly I have no idea what it is. It looks like a rivet or something-it has a round BB head that narrows to a cylinder shape, then it gets jagged like it snapped off something. I looked for any missing screws to no avail. It didn't look major but this experience got me extremely nervous that the package was roughed up in transit, good thing that was the only issue, everything else was in tact and seated properly. I decide the moment had arrived and its time to fire her up so I slowwwly caress the oh so smooth power button. I gently push it in and out, in and out...wait, wrong book. Ok, I turn it on and it boots right into windows. DS disabled the annoying splash screen which I appreciate. Windows was activated it just had to phone home. The only perephials I connected were my monitor and speakers which went without a hitch. When I went to go into the audio control panel I was greeted with an error message that my Xtreme Gamer card drivers were not compatible with Vista so I went to Creatives site and got the Vista drivers. Once installed everything was golden. I thought I read that DS has the most up to date drivers on a server so I was a little worried all my drivers would be dated. I later learned this wasn't the case, although there were new graphics drivers available, and also a BIOS update, neither were beta drivers. These are all things I have no problem doing myself but I did take notice. The wiring job was OK but I would have gladly paid more to have them hidden and tied a bit better. The Ultra case is very large so I understand its not easy to hide them completely, but I certainly think it could have been better. The hanging audio cable from the Xtreme Gamer and the wiring stuffed inside the empty hard drive bay is what kind of upset me. It just throws the clean look off, and when I add another HD I will have to reroute the cables that are stuffed in there. I initially thought adding the upgraded cables would provide a better wire job but its nothing major. I was also under the impression that adding Stage 3 Cooling included more fans than the 2 stock fans. When I read the stage 3 description it said: "We also determine various fan                                   placements of your computer systems chassis.                                   Our technicians are trained to cool the entire                                   system without adding useless fans to produce                                   unnecessary noise. We feel there is a balance                                   of cooling over noise." Now while I completely agree that some fans are useless, by reading that description I was led to believe that out of the 9 available fan slots more than the 2 stock fans would be used, especially when overclocking. Again, this is not a huge problem but I do think an option should be placed on the site for additional cooling fans, upgraded thermal paste, etc. I myself only plan on putting an additional exhaust fan at the top of the case to pull out the hot air, but I was also surprised to see that the CoolerMaster 830 did not come with the plastic side panel that can hold an additional 4 fans. When I looked at other retailers selling the case this was included. Then again, I requested wheels, was told thats not included and would have to pay shipping. I declined but when the system arrived wheels were included, so I do at least appreciate that! So other than a few minor quirks, which honestly most likely could have been addressed had I called, I love the computer. The few minor setbacks  are certainly not a deal breaker and did not come in the way of my overall satisfaction with the build. In fact, I have already recommended DS to 2 friends, and mentioned them in 2 threads on ResellerRatings. I will also write a review there within a few days, or I may just copy paste this if I get lazy!(Update:Review written) And now for the pics! i tried taking a pic of the loose BB thing but I couldn't get my camera to focus on it. I think its because its too small, thats what all the girls tell me anyway. With that I thank DS for delivering a system thats works great, and I thank the board members who answered some of my questions on here. Thank you, please come again..and thanks for all the fish!System Configuration:Case: Digital Storm Twister ULTRA (Black Anodized Aluminum Finish)Power Supply: 750W Thermaltake (SLI Compatible) (Silent Toughpower Edition)Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz (1066MHz FSB) (8MB Cache)Motherboard: nVidia 680i Core 2 Quad (By: eVGA) (nForce 680i SLI) (A1 Revision)Memory: 2GB DDR2 Corsair at 800MHz XMS2 (Dual Channel) (Extreme-Performance)Floppy / Media: Sony 1.44MB Floppy (Black Edition)Hard Drive 1: 150GB Western Digital Raptor (10K RPM) (16MB Cache) (SATA) (Extreme Speed)Hard Drive 2: 500GB (Western Digital / Seagate) (16MB Cache) (7200 RPM) (SATA)Raid Option: - No ThanksOptical Drive 1: DVD±R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 20x / CD-Writer 48x)Optical Drive 2: DVD±R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 20x / CD-Writer 48x) (LightScribe Edition)Network Card: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)Modem: - No ThanksVideo Card: nVidia GeForce 8800GTX 768MB (By: eVGA / Asus) (PCI-Express)TV Tuner: - No ThanksSound Card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer (Up to 7.1 Channel) (Recommended)Physics Card: - No ThanksCooling: Air Cooled Stage 3 (Silent Artic Cooling (TwisterBoost Overclocked) Case Lighting: Blizzard Internal Lighting (Blue Edition) (Cold Cathode Tubes)Round Cables: Enhanced Interior Air Flow (Optical Drive & Floppy Cables (Red Edition)User Manual: Personalized Platinum Digital Storm Binder (Includes Paperwork/Benchmarks/CDs/Manuals)Windows OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium

donkeypunch,

I think you need to talk to DS about this. It really sounds like a violation. However, if you just talk to them privately I am sure they would work it out with you. They really pay attention to postings on this forum and others. Also, you don't want other people to do things that might void their warranties.

But, I would expect people just like you did to do their own system tweaks, and if so does that only risk the processor warranty, then you at least be protected on the other parts.

I believe OC'ing is dependent on individual system performance. Easy for me to say because DS got mine to 3.0.

Comparing our builds is mine more likely to reach 3.0 instead of 2.7 by DS in their stabiliy tests?

Twister PRO Case (Black Anodized Aluminum Finish)
850W Thermaltake (8800 GTX SLI Compatible) (Silent Toughpower Edition)
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz (1066MHz FSB) (8MB Cache)
nVidia 680i Core 2 Quad (By: eVGA) (nForce 680i SLI) (A1 Revision)
4GB DDR2 Corsair at 1066MHz Dominator (Dual Channel) (Extreme-Performance)
74GB Western Digital Raptor (10K RPM) (8MB Cache) (SATA) (Extreme Speed)
250GB (Western Digital / Seagate) (16MB Cache) (7200 RPM) (SATA)
DVD-ROM/CD-ROM (DVD Reader 16x / CD Reader 40x)
DVD±R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 16x / CD-Writer 48x) (Includes Nero)
nVidia GeForce 8800ULTRA 768MB (By: eVGA / Asus) (PCI-Express)
Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS (Up to 7.1 Channel) (Includes I/0)
Air Cooled Stage 3 (Silent Artic Cooling (TwisterBoost Overclocked)
Blizzard Internal Lighting (Green Edition) (Cold Cathode Tubes)
Enhanced Interior Air Flow (Optical Drive & Floppy Cables (Black Edition)
Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate (64-Bit Edition) (For Enthusiasts)
Samsung 22 inch (Widescreen) (Black) (High-Performance Gaming Display)

Originally posted by donkeypunch I ...  think having my processor at slightly under 3Ghz is within reason. If its not I would like to know as I have all the original settings written down and would certainly reapply them if its going to be a problem.

After first looking at this issue over the weekend, I have brought this matter to the attention of my peers.
We're not happy with your wiring job.  We feel that this is far from our standards and want to make it right for you.  Also concerning your overclock, we will overclock your system to a higher clock and guarantee that we will make the 3.00GHz,but will try for something higher.
Also we want to inspect your system and find out where that broken rivet came from and fix that for you since we have a trusty rivetgun to resolve these kind of case manufacturing defects. 

Again, I want to take this time to apologize on behalf of the company and express that instances like this are far from our standards and we will do whatever it takes to make this right.

We will take care of everything for you.  We will schedule a ups pickup and cover all charges incurred.  We will then rewire your system with a job that is up to our standards, focus on a better overclock, repair the rivet, and even throw in a free game and t-shirt.

Please accept our apology and allow us to fix this matter for you.

You keep up with support/service like that and you folks are gonna continue to be swamped with business...

Awsome!

Hey Bill! Thank's!

Originally posted by donkeypunch Wow Kelly, thats awesome! I will put the broken rivet in a ziplock bag so you guys have an idea of what it is or what to look for. It didnt seem to be causing any problems but if you guys can find where it came from that would be great!  I really am at a loss for words, I never had a company respond like you guys did over a few minor annoyances. The machine itself ran great and without a doubt you guys have the best customer service I ever encountered. If I need to upgrade my memory or anything I would be happy to pay for it if that would help make it easier to reach a stable 3Ghz OC. I'll put in the restore disc and return everything to its factory state and pack her up whenever its convenient for you. Thank you so much for the response and going way beyond what you had to.

After you receive your system again, you will very happy and love it with our wiring job. At this time, you should up-grade your memory to 1066MHz Dominator for your high Overcloking Performance.

Now I know I picked the right people to build my "dream machine"!!!

Originally posted by donkeypunch Now while I completely agree that some fans are useless, by reading that description I was led to believe that out of the 9 available fan slots more than the 2 stock fans would be used, especially when overclocking. Again, this is not a huge problem but I do think an option should be placed on the site for additional cooling fans, upgraded thermal paste, etc. I myself only plan on putting an additional exhaust fan at the top of the case to pull out the hot air, but I was also surprised to see that the CoolerMaster 830 did not come with the plastic side panel that can hold an additional 4 fans. When I looked at other retailers selling the case this was included. Then again, I requested wheels, was told thats not included and would have to pay shipping. I declined but when the system arrived wheels were included, so I do at least appreciate that!

Glad to see you're going to wind up with everything you wanted from this system DP. I'll be looking forward to seeing pics of the new and improved beast .

sweet!

My OS is XP, but.... I've had two different sets of Restore/Image CDs. Neither of them worked. It's possible you did something incorrectly, but it is far from a sure thing.