Review-- with lots of pictures!

Skip to the bottom for pictures if you don't want to read all this business.

It all began with an HP laptop, and me getting fed up with its crap.  I was playing WoW one day, and in my frustration, I started seriously considering getting a desktop.  I asked a few people I know if they had any suggestions for companies, and a buddy of mine mentioned, "Oh yeah, I got my computer from Digital Storm." He hooked me up with the website on a Friday evening.

So, that's how I heard about DS.  I immediately configured the coolest and most elite computer I thought I could afford.. posted it in the Configurations Forum and was nearly immediately enlightened by a few of the wonderful members of the community.  They really piqued my interest and got me wanting to learn what I could before making my purchase.

I went through at least ten configurations, getting useful input for each one of them from the forum members.  I was stressing out trying to get the absolute best performance for my money, and incorporating the Black Friday (which then chnaged to Cyber Monday) deal. On the 1st of December, just about a week and a half after my first visit, I placed my order.  This happened to be the first day after a four (or was it five?) day weekend over at Digital Storm, and I had put in a request to have someone call me back when they had the chance. Onward to customer service!

James called me 10 minutes before closing time to see if I had any additional questions to one I'd asked earlier.  I let him know that I'd already placed an order, but I figured I'd ask him the questions I'd prepared earlier and let him go over my configuration.  He immediately gave me a few suggestions, and saved me enough money to get a lot more hard drive space and a 2nd GTX 260! So the final, FINAL order was completed, and the wait began.

Order placed on the First of December.  Completed and shipped on the 16th. Due to some circumstances, I had to give up the Free Ground Shipping and pay $130 for 3-day Air, but to my surprise, it ended up on my doorstep a day early! The FedEx guy wasn't too happy to be dragging that 52 pound package up the stairs.

The Rig
Chassis Model: Cooler Master HAF 932
Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Interior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Trim Accents: - Standard Factory Finish
Processor: Intel Core i7 940 2.93GHz (Quad Core) @ 3.65GHz (or 3.81GHz ??)
Motherboard: EVGA X58 3X SLI (Intel X58 Chipset) (Supports Triple SLI or CrossFire)
System Memory: 6GB DDR3 1333MHz OCZ
Power Supply: 750W Corsair TX (Dual SLI Compatible) (Silent Edition)
Card Reader: Internal Digital Media Card Reader (Black)
Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: 2x Two (320GB Western Digital (16MB Cache) (7200 RPM) (SATA)
Set 1 Raid Options: Configure Hard Drive Set 1 in a Raid 0 Stripe (Requires Two Hard Drives)
Hard Drive Set 2: Multimedia\Data: 500GB Western Digital (16MB Cache) (7200 RPM) (SATA)
Hard Drive Set 3: Backup\Misc.: - No Thanks
Optical Drive 1: DVD±R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 20x / CD-Writer 48x) (LightScribe Edition)
Optical Drive 2: - No Thanks
Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)
Video Card(s): 2x SLI Dual (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260+ 896MB (Includes PhysX Technology)
Add-on Card: - No Thanks
Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio
Extreme Cooling: AIR: Stage 2: Premium High-Performance Heat-sink with 12 Heat-pipes
Liquid Color: No Thanks, I ended up changing from Liquid Cooling to AIR.
Chassis Airflow: Upgrade Chassis With LED Performance Fans (Green)
Internal Lighting: Internal Chassis Lighting System (Green)
Enhancements: - No Thanks
Chassis Mods: - No Thanks
CPU Boost: Yes, Overclock the processor as much as possible with complete stability
Graphics Boost: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my video card(s)
Memory Boost: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my memory
Windows Boost: - No Thanks, Please do not tweak the services on the operating system
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium (64-Bit Edition) (For Enthusiasts)
Restore Kit: Digital Storm Specialized Recovery System (DVD Image Based)
Warranty: 3 Year Platinum Care Extended Parts & Labor Warranty

The computer's great! Upon opening the box, I discovered the FedEx had mistreated it just a bit, and 2 of the 4 pegs that hold the large front grill in had been broken.  Super Glue fixed it up nicely.  I opened up the case and took out the 2 Storm Shields, snugged up some cables and one of the clips holding in my top GPU, and then started everything up. I was extremely impressed with the interior.  I've only ever had Gateway Desktops, and never knew this kind of computer craftsmanship was possible. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, 'cause I've written way too much.







Samsung SyncMaster T240 5ms response time, 20,000:1 Dynamic Contrast. 24"




Thanks for looking at the pictures! reading this whole thing!





 


 

OK! That's it.


Edited by graavin - 25 Dec 2008 at 11:22pm

your bus is 165.7 multiplied by your multiplier of 23 = 3811.1

so you are at 3.81GHz

your temps are great but temps that are from an idle PC don't mean much.

leave hwmonitor on and play one of your games for an hour and lets see what it says then and what your maximum was.

as your temps are now, you don't need to lower anything if you want to oc the gpu

Edited by DST4ME - 24 Dec 2008 at 12:33am

your multiplyer is 22 + 1 because of turbo boost your oced to 3.645 The turbo boost pushes it to 3.81 

Edited by XpubuX - 24 Dec 2008 at 1:00am

That looks bad@ss, I think that is the first HAF rig on here that someone got led performance fans.

Hey. SWEET . love the green. looks sick . and ya , those GTX fans are LOUD at 100 percent .lol

just one thing. your SLI bridge is upside down


Edited by jtspectra2 - 24 Dec 2008 at 4:37am

Thanks for noticing jtspectra.  I'm sure I did that sometime when I was playing around inside (not knowing what I was doing) and switching back and forth between the 2-way bridge and 3-way bridge.

YES I did Thanh =) I noticed it when I was back home going through the DS Binder. Thanks for contributing to the construction of a great system


Edited by graavin - 24 Dec 2008 at 10:53pm

Originally posted by graavin I discovered the FedEx had mistreated it just a bit, and 2 of the 4 pegs that hold the large front grill in had been broken.  Super Glue fixed it up nicely.

Im sure DS has plenty of front grills lyin around .Give them a call, see if they can send you one

Schweet PC dude....that's the first HAF I've seen w/the LED fan performance upgrade.  I wish I would have gotten that....enjoy looks awesome.

How did you get the red fan on the bottom to be green?

correct the 230mm red led front fan has been replaced with a 140mm green led fan.

Wow! I was really surprised to see this thread dug up.

Yes, I have a bunch of 140mm fans in this thing, including the front fan. Everything's running great after almost 6 months, and it looks like things'll continue down this course for quite a while.

The great comments are much appreciated, and Thank you to Digital Storm for a great PC. You have a lifelong customer here. :)

B@d//j0ke i second that question.

Thanx Sarah, I was waiting for someone to stumble across this post lol.