Review Cat Reviews the Digital Storm Assassin.

Hello there. I am review cat. Today my owner has tasked me with reviewing his shiny new Digital Storm Assassin.



So here I am testing it out.



and I'm done. I love it as much as he does. Awesome job DSO. I'm outta here.



Ok, so now that Review Cat is done, I can give you my take on it. Let's start with a score, a few words on what I think and then the pics.

All up, my entire experience with DSO is a 9.8/10. Absoloutly mind blowing. From their product selection, to me placing my order (and my sales guy not up selling me, in fact he SAVED me money) through the waiting process where they take such amazing care in building each system... all the way to the finished product. A system that is as beautiful as it is fast. A system tiers above what I could build myself, even if I could wade through all the information online and buy the parts that all work together.

Unboxing was a joy. No major issues at all. I would do my purchase a little different next time. For instance I wouldn't go with the fans/noise reduction addon. It just doesn't need it. This is the quietest thing in my computer room, infact now I can actually hear all the other tiny little distracting sounds. I probably wouldn't get the OC'd GPU.

The heatsink on this baby is amazing. It's the Noctura D14. Holy silent and cool batman. Temps are a cool 28-30c. (86f). Ambient in the room here is around 75-78. Thats pretty damn good. GPU is about 40c idle and about 65 in games. Not bad at all.

If i was to pick one small item that was a little below my expectations, it would have been the wiring on the backside of the case. I think it's also to do with the sound material. when i undid the case on the backside, it had quite a bit of tension on it and i could tell things were REALLY tight back there. Not a major issue and one I thnk I can solve myself.

only other issue I had was mounting my SSD. There wasnt a SSD type power connector easily usable near where the SSD mounts. Also the cables that come with the system don't allow you to mount the SSD there very well, but i think that is just an issue with this case paired with this mobo and me not getting a SSD from DSO. i know if I had sent it too them, it'd be mounted already and done right. Luckily I had a straight (no 90deg connected on the end) Sata cable, and a 4 pin to Sata power cable. All works great.

All in all I dont think in 35 years I have EVER been this excited to get something new nor have I been privy to this level of service and craftmanship. amazing experience. I will buy no other systems for as long as these high standards remain.

Ok, so enough talking I guess, on to the pictures.

Great review! I agree that the Assassin's black isn't that friendly for easy wiring. When we try to route the wires along the sides, usually they all come up short and must be run straight to their connections.

But, the wires are definitely out of the way in terms of good air flow for your system. Great system, we hope you enjoy it!

Gotta love review cat! Congrats

Nice rig! I'm also in agreement that wiring on past Raven series builds are pretty annoying though, my RV01 has some considerable right panel tension also. Might have wanted to wait for RV03 as opposed to the RV02 though, wiring should be easier with the smaller frame and better PSU placement (front, PSU installed so wires start pointing to the right panel already). FT02 looks awesome as usual though, the RV03 hasn't got that for sure haha. Again, great setup ya got there!

nice, just two questions

how loud is the gtx 570?
did you pick the nvidia gtx 570, and not the evga superclocked one right?

Originally posted by Vaude nice, just two questions how loud is the gtx 570? did you pick the nvidia gtx 570, and not the evga superclocked one right?

under full load, with the fan profile I have chosen (30% fan at 30c up to 100% fan @ 70c) it's the loudest thing in the room. When it's at under 80% fan, my ceiling fan is the loudest thing in the room. it's not overly loud. It is enough though to wish I had LC and to start designing a LC setup to go even quieter.

I got the EVGA 570 OC. It's running at 797/1950 @ 1.07v, I have had it as high as 850/2000 but the temps were up over 75 under full load, not something I want to do all the time (until it's LC). I went with the OC version as i was reading of an awful lot of people who's 570's were failing under as simple OC and figured that it would have already failed if it was a weak board.

Temps on the CPU are about 30-32c idle. and no core goes over 60c on Prime95 load. This cooler is amazing... and silent.

I did want to get a thermal controller for the fans, but then I realized that once the LC goes in, they will all stay on their lowest settings all the time.

I can post at 5.0 Ghz, but not prime stable. I can get prime stable on 4.8, but it's a little warm (up around 72 under full load) so i sit it on 4.5 @ 1.25v (low volts for sure, awesome CPU) and I will try for a 100% stable 5.0 OC when I get the LC installed.

Really wish I'd saved a little money and gone with the LC setup from DSO, but at least now I get to build my first one.

joseph what res you gonna be gaming at?

keep in mind the 3 year warranty is really 1 year part.

Both the CPU and the GPU are now under water and it's an external system I have built with a Mountain Mods pedestal 24. I'll post up some pics here soon enough.

Basically have a Apogee XT Rev2 CPU block and a EK Acetal/Copper 580 block inside the case. they plumb to 2 connectors at the back (yes i drilled holes in my case.. hehe) and then run across to the pedestal case and go inside via 2 of the same connectors.

inside the pedestal i have 2 RX360 rads, a MCP35X rad with res top and 18 fans. 6 on each rad (Typhoon GT15's) and 6 low speed yate loons, 3 at each end drawing air in. the 12 fans on the rads are push/pull and exhausting outside the case.

Temps went from about 35C Idle and 70's loaded @ 5.0 Ghz to 31 idle and 50 loaded on the CPU. GPU was 40 idle, 70 loaded and now it's 31 idle and 40 loaded.

all in all very happy :)

I think though I am going to get a CaseLabs M8 and sell the FT02 and the MM pedestal.

I'm looking forward to the pics.