Vanquish 4 Review

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   Greetings,

I received a new Vanquish Lev 4 pc yesterday and the following is my very detailed review.

First, let me start off by saying that my previous PC was a 5+ year old Alienware Area 51 that I pushed to the limit.  It served me very well, but since it is now showing its age (it was struggling to keep up with Fallout 4 somewhat) I figured it was time to upgrade. 

That system's specs were:

I7 2.67Ghz

GTX 660Ti

9 GB Ram

Win 7 Pro

The Vanquish's specs as ordered from the factory are the default Level 4 as listed on the Digital Storm site:

Vanquish Lev 4 

i5 6600K 3.5GHz (OC to 4.4GHz)

16GB DDR4 Ram

GTX 980 4GB 

Win 10 Home 

Now, on to the review...

Delivery Time:

Part of the reason why I chose the Vanquish (aside from the price) was that it guaranteed to ship in 5-10 days.  Considering I ordered on Black Friday (the busiest shopping day of the year, and at the end of the day, no less) it shipped within the offered time frame.  The Digital Storm website also was excellent about posting updates on the case (they were out of stock at the time), testing, and finally shipping.  (10/10).

Packaging:

The box that the tower came in was larger (and heavier) than I expected, and it apparently gave the UPS delivery man a hard time as he was about to body slam it into my concrete front porch until he realized I was standing at the door and he "saved" it from potential disaster at the last second.  I'm glad we didn't have to test the packaging limits there!

The Digital Storm tape was coming off of the box (as other reviewers have reported) but the clear tape under it was fine.  The internal packaging was extremely simple but effective - I can only assume the box was specifically designed for this model as it was a perfect fit...and made of cardboard vs the usual crumbling foam that is used for everything else nowadays.  The tower itself contained a custom foam mold to keep the internal components safe.  The tower was also put into a clear plastic bag.  Though there were no issues with the tower, I did not see any silica gel packets which usually ship with most electronic items.  (9/10).

Included Materials:

Besides the tower, there was a simple cardboard box containing the Digital Storm 3-ring binder with software discs, power cable, extra internal cables, etc.  I was surprised that this was not taped closed with even a simple piece of Scotch tape, as it was practically open and spilling its contents upon delivery.  Fortunately, everything was safe inside.  (9/10).

Tower Construction:

This is where Digital Storm really shines as a superior PC maker in my opinion.  The case itself perfectly defines the "simple but effective" concept (see photo below) - it gives you everything you need with the absolute bare minimum of connections.  The outside of the case is also without any gaudy graphics.  Inside the case, the wiring is again very simple but effective.  Every cable is clearly labeled as to what it is connected to, and none of the components are buried under each other.  The spacing inside allows for excellent airflow, and even after hours of high usage, gaming, etc, the unit still feels cool to the touch and the air coming out of the vents is practically cold save for the rear one, which was only slightly (but expectedly) warm.  The unit is also much lighter weight than I expected and very easy to maneuver around.  (10/10).

Installation and Software:

Minimal connections were required to the PC.  In fact, I had everything connected in probably 2 minutes or less and was pressing the Power button almost immediately.  

Win 10 Home edition came with the unit, and it works better on this PC than my Surface Pro 3.  I didn't time it, but this is the fastest booting PC I have ever seen and it beats Win 7 by a mile.  

The PC was loaded with minimal software as advertised, but two super minor nitpicks were immediately noticeable to me:

1.  There was a "Candy Crush" game installed on the system.  I don't know if that is standard with Win 10 Home when first installed, but I consider this bloatware and was surprised to see it there.  This became my first uninstall of the system.

2.  The clock was set for the Western time zone.  I know that setting the clock takes mere seconds, but since someone had already booted and tested the PC extensively, I would have expected it to have been set to the customer's time zone as a courtesy at the very least. (9/10).

Performance:

This is one smooth running PC.  It's very quiet and the Blue light fans on the front of the unit are a nice touch.  There is otherwise minimal lighting inside the case, but I am fine with that because the Alienware I had previously had lighting all along the sides of it and I found it somewhat distracting.  

In terms of gaming performance, the system plays Fallout 4 on Ultra settings without so much as a single hitch or stutter, and the game simply looks beautiful.  I also did a 3dMark test and the PC scored in the top 87% of all tests done in the category just below the 4k results.  Not bad! (10/10).

Summary:

All in all and despite my very minor criticisms, this is one great PC for the money.  I was considering building my own, but for the money it would have been the same cost (if not more so) and the work was done for me.  

Thanks to Digital Storm for making a great PC!

Edited by fjk1138 - 15 Dec 2015 at 11:15am

Vanquish 4 Review

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