Time it takes for Digital Storm PC's to be created

It depends on stock availability and how complicated your build is.

Usually takes 11 days if you think about it...

Day 1: You place your order and wait for it to be processed.
Day 2: Components are checked for stock availability and compatibility issues.
Day 3: Components are gathered up and begin stress test.
Day 4: Each component is tested separately to see if they are functional.
Day 5: Putting together the computer.
Day 6: Installing the operating system, drivers, etc. Doing the overclock.
Day 7: Stress testing.
Day 8: Stress testing.
Day 9: Quality control check, double checking, etcetc.
Day 10: Packaging.
Day 11: Wait for Fedex.

It takes longer than usual if:

• Your credit card was rejected.
  
• Newer components such as the HD4800 and GTX200 series not in stock.
• Component failing during stress testing.

And these are the different stages:

Stage 1: Payment has been processed and order is pending to be put into queue for pre-assembly stress-testing

Stage 2: Order is now in queue for pre-assembly stress testing
Stage 3: System is currently in pre-assembly stress testing

Stage 4: System is in final assembly
Stage 5: System is in final stress testing
Stage 6: System has been sent to QA


Edited by skyR - 28 Jun 2008 at 8:55am

The timeline was just an example of how things might go. I don't know exactly how the assembly or testing phase goes =p

Assembling it with your parts to see if it's functional might be faster if things were made perfect in this world. But if the computer did not boot or post successfully, there would be a million possibilities to as where the problem might be. It could be the PSU, mobo, CPU, GPU, RAM, etc. You'll have to keep replacing components making it very inefficient.

For example... I just put together a new PC consisting of a Q9450, asus x48, 2x hd4850, 600w psu, etcetc.

It doesn't turn on... so this means a dead PSU or mobo. I have to replace one of them to find out which one doesn't work. I pick the PSU since it's the easier of the two to replace. I put in a new PSU and it still doesn't work, could it be that the mobo is dead or another bad PSU? So I replace the mobo AND IT STILL DOESN'T WORK. Now you start from step 1 all over again.

Anyways, let's say I got it to boot and I begin installing my operating system. 10 minutes into installation, I get a BSOD or my computer reboots. UHH bad CPU, GPU, RAM, mobo PSU, overheating, etc? Again, you start playing the swapping game...

And yes this does happen to a lot of people, believe it or not.

Testing each component seperately with computers known to work would save you DAYS of troubleshooting. It takes less than 10 minutes to install/remove the majority of computer components and another 10 minutes to see if it was functional.

Mine showed Stage 2 for a very long time as well. I don't think I've seen one case of anyone going into Stage 3 yet, they always seem to forget to update it and skip from 2 to 4 or 5, so you might be there.

If you were to order a system today, the configuarator would tell you that the estimated ship date of your rig would be 7/08/08.  Now, the caveat is that everything would have to smoothly for DS to meet that build time.  But we all realize there are a number of things that could occur to prevent DS from meeting that 10 day build time. 

The problem is that even if you warn the customer that a 10 day build time may be optimistic, their expectations have already been set.  All the customer will remember is the estimated shipping date that was posted when they ordered.  Because of this, I have often wondered if DS should should advertise a more conservative build time for their systems.  Again, it's all about managing your customer's expecations.  If you were to consider ordering a system from a company like Falcon Northwest, they tell the customer up front to expect a 3-4 lead time.  Now if Falcon winds up delivering a system in 2 weeks, they come across like a hero to the customer.  The same thing could hold true for DS, if they advertised a more realistic build time.

3-4 days as in:

Day 1: Built
Day 2-4: Testing
End of Day 4: QA and Shipped

Edited by Alex - 28 Jun 2008 at 5:14pm