Vanquish, A Yoshi Story

SYSTEM ORDERED
Vanquish 7 Ultimate
i7 8700
16GB of RAM (Patriot Viper 2666)
600w Corsair PSU
Asus Z370 Prime-pII

So this whole endeavor all began back on January 2nd of 2019. I was excited to finally get my first real gaming rig, having never built one and outside of workstation desktops I wanted real quality so I ordered from here like so many of you have or most assuredly will soon. Unfortunately I had not taken into consideration the holiday issues or checked the forums prior to my purchase. I went purely on good reviews, order quoted me 10-15 days, all seemed good, payment processed that next day. 14 days in though no movement on my order... so I had reached out. Was given false dates a couple times then reached out to Alex who got my pc sent out quickly.

Once the computer I am so excited, I hook it up, download a couple games and swap over my nvme game drive. First game I boot up, BDO ran smooth, then I launch the Anthem Demo. Suddenly, you would think my computer just got told to answer the meaning of life as it ceases to display an image and hard locks. Alas, my 2070 was stricken dead... Calling tech support I go!

While on the phone with tech support to verify the whole AWR return process, $700 to hold for a replacement GPU that costs $500 is a bit of a gut punch. I notice the physical damage to the internals of the computer at this very moment as I go to remove the GPU to put it in a spare ESD bag I had for it's final resting place. THE CPU Tower was bent, and not like a slight bend but like a forceful bend and bent mounting bracket on the GPU and some slight bowing to the bracket mount slot on the case. Warranty services, then included a new tower cooler with my AWR to get that fixed too. All the while blaming UPS and doing his job protecting the company, Alex did too.
This whole ordeal has soured me a bit for DS sadly.

If anything it has given me the courage and rage to build my own PC next time lol. I did do some major overhauls to the setup since then though. Added 6 Corsair ML120 fans and a H100i RGB Platinum Because the Coolermaster they sent me blocked 2 RAM slots and was horrible at cooling. Upgraded the ram to 32GB of Corsair Vengeance Pro RGB 3200mhz. All said the build runs wonderfully, after the repairs and upgrades were done. Still not quite what my expectations were in some instances bu that is CPU limitations in regards to streaming. Once the Ryzen 3000 comes out I already have it set to build. Most likely make this one a very pretty family PC/ Media Center.

I would post photos with this but it would appear my privileges are restricted from doing that or posting in the reviews thread...

Avoiding experiences like this is why I've been a DS customer for my last two systems. I've been pleased so far. After re-reading the warranty agreement, I have to say I'm not pleased with this statement "During the warranty period, Digital Storm will repair or replace, at its sole discretion...". I definitely would not want a defective system repaired. I'd want nothing less than a total refund. Has the choice to repair or replace a bad system always been a DS decision? It seems I read this 3-4 years ago and it was different.

To draw an automotive analogy... If the starter goes out on my car before the warranty expires, I expect them to replace the starter, not give me a whole new car.

I've not seen DS deny a refund within the first 30 days if that's what the customer wants.

That said, and given your experience with the company, why would you rather shop elsewhere rather than have DS make your system right? I don't see any advantage in that.

Well going for a refund was out of question, once they have built your system they charge a fairly steep "restocking" surcharge if you do refund it. On a $2000 pc it is about $150 you wont get back. So far the pc is running great now. The new GPU has been holding strong with no limitations. Only Metro Exodus has caused it to drop below 60FPS but that was at 1440p with RTX on so yeah lol to be expected. As for my revised cooling solution it has greatly improved. The addition of fans and the AIO has brought my temps to 34.8c while playing a CPU heavy game like Anthem for hours on end. So overall definitely a fan of the airflow solution the 460x case does provide when setup right. I will say that cable management was a bit of a pain though. Would love to post pics if I could T.T

As for the experience lol yeah, I basically rebuilt the system at this point, Only thing I didn't do at this point was run the PSU cables and install the CPU/MOBO. But come July that Ryzen 3000 <3 but the MOBO may wait since DDR5 RAM just got announced by Samsung slated for late this year.

Edited by Psyoshi - 01 Mar 2019 at 1:22pm

Thanks Alex. 

Edited by hoserator - 01 Apr 2019 at 2:39am

Never used sleep, rarely turn off my computer, never had an issue. (15 months.)

Unfortunately, it isn't isolated to waking from sleep. It is any power cycle at all, on from total off or wake from sleep. Basically it is a 50/50 chance anytime I boot. Gotta go over troubleshooting with TS to verify the issue... BIOS cyclings yay! might just swap my 970 Evo to my boot and make the SSD my long load time game drive.

Edited by Psyoshi - 01 Apr 2019 at 1:23pm

Rofl a couple hundred for a hard drive Alci you are insane. I'd sooner throw it in the trash. Just shows that when you buy the prebuilts you are not getting as quality of parts.

Well considering the SSD they put into it only cost 29.99 and hard drives are easily the simplest next to ram to install that is not a factor or thought. What on Earth type of hard drive did you pay $600 for? Also shipping of a hard drive is cheap.

I have tested everything and basically only thing I can think is I had a power outage that surged that drive and caused bad blocks.