PC is here! - my review

Here is my review of Digital Storm Online. I ordered my computer on December 14, 2007 and received it on January 18, 2008. I’ve been a PC gamer for over 15 years now (I am 22 years old) and have built many of my own computers during that time. I have also ordered from other integration companies in the past. A thousand pardons for what I admit is a long-winded review - I have always enjoyed reading review sites, and I guess the detailed approach has rubbed off.

The Good:

-Communication. What seemed to be the main complaint of other customers at the time of my order was one of DS's strong points with me. I was updated on every stage of my build. I even tested to see if DS would call my backup telephone number if they couldn't reach me on my primary cell phone. They did. Every time. They left voicemails, emailed me via their automated system email, as well as sent personal emails from their customer support staff. The level of communication that I experienced was top notch. I never felt like I was "in the dark" on what was going on.

-Customer service representatives. A big “thank you” to Josh, Dave, Alex, and Duke. I dealt mostly with you four, and you all did a fine job every time I called. Ask for a raise. I was never on hold for more than 4 minutes, and nobody ever hesitated in offering to go and look directly at my computer to answer any question I had. There were never any problems with a few of the individual customizations I made to my system. The simple (or not so simple) fact that you handle all customer service calls in-house is extraordinary. Excellent service, I've never experienced better. Which leads to…

-Honesty. Every customer support representative I talked to gave me a very down-to-Earth analysis of what I had configured. Even though the DS website promotes the Bigfoot Killer NIC card, the people I talked to over the phone told me just what they thought about them. I recall Alex calling the liquid-cooling pump “a little bastard” in regards to perhaps upgrading the power supply if I were to get liquid-cooling. But no, he also informed me that liquid cooling was a “$600 waste of money” in my configuration. This is the kind of blunt honesty I appreciate in a company, and shows that they know their customer base. I have built quite a few computers in my life, and I know what is needed and not needed. The DS staff also seems to know this. Instead of trying to sell me every possible profitable add-on and upgrade, they gave me a very realistic assessment of what was truly a good idea, and what was not needed. (This is not to say that the Killer NIC card is a bad investment. It has some really neat features. It simply did not suit my needs, and the DS customer support staff made me aware of that. Same goes for liquid cooling.) In testing my computer DS had no luck in overclocking the RAM (I didn’t expect they would be able to do much, if anything, since it is already overclocked RAM). I was informed instantly and offered a full refund of the overclocking fee. I have experienced other companies that have charged for the “attempt” to overclock a component since it costs them time, which we all know is money. Whether or not they could (or even tried to) was irrelevant... the fee remained.

-The forums and the website. The clean website is great. No Flash BS to wade through and minimal superfluous marketing crap compared to other integrator’s sites. Thanks for the links to magazine reviews, etc... The forums are also EXTREMELY helpful and provide a great insight to just what this company is all about. The (once again toll free) customer support phone number is always prominently displayed, which is a huge plus. The photographed “tour” of the old facility is great. Make a new one for your new place! Make it a video tour! Don’t do it after you are closed either! Do it during a busy time! This is truly one of the biggest reasons I ordered from DS. Being able to see where my computer was being built meant a lot to me, and I’m not sure that DS entirely realizes how cool that really is as a customer. The more transparent you can make your operations, the better. It’s like walking into a fine dining restaurant and ordering a meal. The food may taste good when you get it, but if you get to see the immaculate kitchen that it was prepared in (hopefully), it makes the experience even better!

-Prices and warranty. A standard 3 year warranty, free ground shipping, and extremely reasonable component prices can’t be beat. I compared the individual prices on some of the components that DS uses to those sold on Newegg. The markup from DS is very reasonable. DS also uses the best components available (eVGA, SilverStone, Western Digital, etc.).

-The computer itself. Yes, I’m just using this as an opportunity to show off my new computer.  Basically, it's amazing.  UPS did a number on my box apparently, and the case does have a little scratch/dent on the side panel:

PS: The things that look like rain droplets are not water.  Just cardboard flakes.

Aside from this, everything is flawless.  The computer booted on the first try, and I did not reseat anything.  This is fairly amazing since the UPS man handed me the box upside down, and seemed to have no regard for it's contents.  Sigh... I will go with DHL or Fed-Ex next time for sure.

Here it is straight out of the box:

You can see that the wiring job is incredible.  Here you can see the internal lighting placement:

Just some more shots of the inside:

Here is the little accessory box they send with all the manuals and cables.  This thing was a mess.  Surely there must be a better way to package this stuff than just throwing it all in here.

The whole thing:

And turned on for the first time:

It's apparent that this computer was tested inside and out before it left DS.  Everything was super secure, and if UPS hadn't speared the side of the box, I daresay it would look like no human had touched this thing before.  DS does, and should, take pride in the machines they build.

The Bad:

-Security. Whenever I called to change something with my order, all I had to do was give my order number. Nothing else. Nothing. I could then make any changes I wanted. It worried me that there was little effort made to verify that I was actually the owner of that order. Some of the customer service reps asked if my name was Dave, which it is. All I had to do was say yes. This is the #1 concern I have with Digital Storm. There REALLY needs to be a system in place to make sure that the people calling you are the people that you THINK are calling you. The one saving grace here is that you do send out an email summary of every phone call placed. I watched my email like a hawk to make sure that I was the only one calling about my order. But what if somebody called and changed the email address under my order number? This is a huge concern… set up a password, make the customer read the last 4 digits of the credit card that the order was placed with, confirm the street address that the order is being shipped to… SOMETHING. I’ve seen many customers post their order number openly on the forums. If somebody were to call and provide another customer’s order number, change a $1000 system into a $5000+ system... wow. This could be a tremendous headache for both you and the customer that would take a while to sort out. Maybe the number I was calling from was verified to match the order with caller ID… but who knows? I realize that it’s a hassle to ask the customer to verify credit card numbers and whatnot, but I’d rather take the time to do that every time I call than to get a computer that got screwed up by someone else stealing my order number. Call me paranoid, but this will happen sooner or later if something isn’t changed.

-Thanksforcallingdigitalstormhowmayiassistyouwithexcellentcustomerservice? … Huh? Hello? I felt that some of the customer service staff could have been a bit more cordial on the phone. Most of the time they were very friendly (don't get me wrong), and I NEVER had any trouble with the actual service. However, twice out of the numerous times I called I felt like I had interrupted something important, and had called at a bad time. Making the effort to *sound* happy and not rushed (even if you AREN’T happy and ARE rushed) goes a long, long way. This is only a minor complaint, and I am only mentioning it because it is very easy to address.

-Build time. It took a LONG time to build my computer. This was only magnified by the 5-10 day shipping date estimate that taunted me when I first placed my order. I chalk this one up to the facility move and the holidays. Nonetheless, it falls under "The Bad." This will hopefully go straight from the "bad" category to the "good" category for others now that DS is in a new facility. Good things come to those who wait, so this is only a minor complaint for me.

-Inventory. This is my second biggest complaint. DS was out of the Razer Lycosa keyboards which I had ordered with my computer, and only informed me of this on the day my computer was shipping. They say that they will send me one as soon as they get some in, which is about all they can do, I guess. (Hint: you COULD bundle a game with it when you send it. Like, oh, Crysis looks fun! I mean… I wouldn’t argue or anything. haha). What baffles me is that there is no market shortage on this keyboard. Given the amount of time my order has been in place, I would have thought that DS could make sure they had a keyboard for me. Apparently not!

The Ugly:

-Rounded cables on the configuration page. I read a 3rd party review on Digital Storm that mentioned this very same thing. Shouldn't a company like DS be putting their absolute best into the cabling and airflow in EVERY system? The extra money that people pay to a "technology integrator" company, such as DS, to build their computers is precisely BECAUSE they want professional quality building/wiring. It seems like rounded cables should be standard fare in this setting, not an extra. Here's the kicker though: I didn't even ask for rounded cables in my system, but I got a rounded cable for my DVD drive. What would I have gotten if I had selected rounded cables? This is a very confusing option, and one I wouldn't mind seeing taken away.

-The website. I listed this in the “good” section also. While most of the website IS good, there are a lot of broken links on the configuration pages as well as numerous grammatical and spelling errors on the little information pages. The “Articles” section is nice, but out of date, and littered with spelling/grammatical errors. More detailed pictures of your systems would be good too. On that note, stop worrying so much about your slogan. My first impression of Digital Storm was a very clean cut, professional, grown-up gaming system integrator. A gimmicky slogan will only hurt that image. I know you want to market to gamers, but think long and hard about a slogan. A picture is worth a thousand words, and your systems make for great photos. The Digital Storm “lightning bolt” symbol is a perfect example of the type of thing you should focus on. If I open up an issue of Maximum PC, see a badass picture of one of your machines accompanied by nothing other than the words “Digital Storm – www.digitalstormonline.com”, I would visit the site in a heartbeat. However, if I also saw “Th3 P3rf3ct St0rm” at the bottom of the page, I’d probably giggle a little bit, think to myself “WTF were they thinking?”, and turn the page. Falcon Northwest has built on a professional image using their falcon mascot and a bit of comedy (for example: http://www.falcon-nw.com/ads/120fps_hi.jpg). Unfortunately, they also have a website that is infuriating to use. I’m no expert, but I’d say that Digital Storm has a cool symbol, and I would rely on that more than a slogan for recognition.

-Phone music. Honestly, guys. The on-hold music is, in my opinion, terrible. Thank goodness it’s there though. I’d rather have really bad “music” playing than wonder if I’ve been disconnected into the infinite silence. Consider some Mozart or something. Really.

-Bribes. When I saved my first build on DS's site I got an email a few hours later informing me that if I ordered that build within the next 72 hours I could get a 5% discount!!!!! WOOO!!!! I hate being rushed, and I don't like hidden marketing bribes either. If you want to give me a 5% discount, do it up front and I will be much happier. I emailed DS about this on the night that I got the email. They assured me that they would give me the 5% discount on any build that I came up with, and that I had as much time as I needed. To my surprise, they followed through with this until the very end, even after I changed my configuration a few times. Your sales department has their act together. My advice to new customers is to always ask for the hidden 5% discount.

Overall:

90% - I'm very satisfied with Digital Storm and will recommend them to anyone wanting a new computer. I plan on ordering here again in the future. I’ll never hesitate to call them with a question either. The forum community here is like none other, and the staff’s heavy participation on the forums is indispensable. With a few changes (some of which have already taken place), Digital Storm can become the very best of the best. I hope my review will be valuable to you!

Huh... I ordered mine two days before you and also spent almost 5k on my rig and had a few issues, but did not get the hidden 5% discount...  That's not cool.    Glad you got yours though.

The bad section was, admittedly, hard to come up with stuff.  I just thought of anything and EVERYTHING that I had experienced and gave feedback :)

I hope that the ordering system is verified on caller ID.  I never called from a different number.

The accessory box wasn't like... strewn everywhere.  I'm just saying that maybe a few plastic bags to keep the cables in, maybe a bag for the manuals... would be nice.  Again, extremely small matter.  I didn't see fit to even put this in the bad section... merely a comment.

If it's true that the cabling option is purely for color, then I'm even more baffled.  $25 so I can have a red cable instead of a black one?  Mmmkay.  This and the phone music are in the "ugly" section, because they are neither bad nor good.

edit:  Oh yeah!  The falcon picture is extremely old.  I was using that as an example of how they have stuck with a symbol (that ancient falcon) over a slogan, to this very day.


Edited by Mythius101 - 19 Jan 2008 at 2:52am

If I seem harsh, I don't really mean it that way :)  It's constructive criticism, and I'm not unhappy in any way.  Quite the opposite.  I want this to be useful to them, if only for a laugh at their next meeting.  lol

the core 2 quad is much more heat intensive than a 2 core, think about the math... ESPECIALLY with an overclock

oh i misread i guess

Mythius101,

Glad to see that you're loving your new system!  It's always nice to read reviews from you guys; Good, bad, or ugly. 

I'm about 98% positive that I wired that system, just from looking at your pics.  I can't read the actual serial number, but it looks like my style of wiring, plus I remember the red case lighting.  It's true that the build team at Digital Storm takes great pride on their work, and I am thrilled that you want to show it off. 

Sorry about the delays on shipping and the 'messy' accessories box.  You are correct in assuming that the Holiday Rush and company relocation were the primary factors.  Also, modular PSU's tend to leave you with a web of unused power rails.

Now I'm worried about my power supply. The only recommendation I got was to upgrade the memory speed to match the system bus speed. I had to upgrade the case because of liquid cooling, but the power supply didn't get upgraded. Still waiting since Dec 12. If if fails testing again maybe I can upgrade the PWS and wait a few more weeks.