Pro review

Recieved my DS Twister Pro about a few days ago and wanted to post a review. I tried posting in the Review section but my permissions aren't set right error message popped up.

my system

Twister Pro
620 Corsair
AMD x2 6000 3.0GHz
2gig dominator
500GB HD
DVD\CD burner with light scribe
8800GTS 320MB
Stage 2 Air cooling
blue cathodes
Round Cables
Vista home premium

The Pros.

Good customer service before and after buying so far. Had a few questions that were answered well by english speaking Americans. That is a big plus after my ordeal with Dell that caused me to cancell my order with them. I'm glad I did. I got a much better PC for the price and didn't have to learn how to speak Farsi to do it.

Good components used. I've been doing a lot of research online and the parts used are the only highest rated.

The 3 ring binder with all the documents and disks is a real big plus. A very classy touch.

System is smoking fast. Does everything I need it to do and does it well.

Inside of the case is very clean looking. The wiring job is excellent. I recently built a PC as an experiment more than anything, and I tried to run the wiring as neatly as possible. I wasn't even close.

Case was extremely clean as well. Not even a singel fingerprint on the case or window.

Accesory box with all the small part in case I decide to add stuff.

I ran a benchmark on the PC after I got all my games and programs loaded. It matched the check list results.

The Cons:

The motherboard Audio wasn't working upon arrival. Customer support (Duke) did a good job walking me through getting the driver reinstalled.

Building time and shipment took longer than the 6-8 business days quoted. I don't think quoting that time frame is realistic unless everything goes perfectly and business is slow.

I got a Lightscribe DVD\CD burner but I had no labelling driver or software included. I found it online and downloaded it.

The case seems to be holding in heat. This case needs more fans. I checked the temps but the top of the case and rear exhaust is warm. I don't think it's at a dangerous level for my system config, but I wouldn't want to SLI or add anything else that generates heat. One concern to me though is that the intake fan in the hard drive cage is blocked to outside airflow by the case. It only helps push air towards the exhaust. Not a fault of DS, this is more of a Silverthrone issue.

Only two PCI slots and they are pretty close together and wiring makes it difficult to use them. Adding other stuff could be difficult. Again not a DS issue but the MoBo manufacturer Asus Issue. Also if I did decide to SLI the fan on the second vid card would likely block one of the PCI's.

My first two slots for RAM is blocked by the Stage 2 CPU fan. Not sure if I could fit RAM without the heat spreader fans or not but I doubt it. Also no big deal now as I only plan on running 2gig. But it could be a future problem.

Other thoughts:

I would like to see more pics and info on the web site about the different components. Basically a guide of what and how much will fit in a case with out issues. The case and Mobo issues could be determined beforehand. Luckily for my intended uses everything works well and I don't intend to upgrade much. Knowing what I know now by seeing this MoBo and a 650i intel chip MoBo I would have spent more to get the 650i. More room, more versatility.

Cabling? I'm not sure exactly what this $25 "upgrade" is. My PC has one blue cable running to my DVD drive. Is this instead of wide ribbon strips? I'm not sure if this is worth the money, but I don't know what the alternative is. Honestly I probably would have been just as happy with Sata cables. Not sure if transfer speeds are better or if it's even an issue. This isn't a con in my mind as I don't know the differences.

Offer an Antec 900 case. This case is awesome. This was the case I used for my learning experiment. Plenty of room, fans, and great rating on Newegg.

Overall, I'm very pleased with my DS and will recommend them to others.