Conclusion
The real point of today’s review was to test the adequacy of Digital Storm’s Gaming Dominator for high-end gaming, and it did well in most tests. Comparing an “extreme performance” configuration to a more widely-accepted “high-end” build is never fair to the more expensive system, but at least it showed that the Gaming Dominator is indeed adequate. And with all due respect to Maingear, we also had good things to say about its Ephex in the conclusion of our review of that platform, which was upgraded after our story went live to indicate a three-year standard warranty at no extra cost.
Now that the Gaming Dominator has proven its gaming competence, we need only consider its value. Including shipping, Digital Storm’s build cost around $300 more than its parts would cost without shipping. Digital Storm claims its shipping voucher is worth $100, and even if it cost a home builder only $50 to ship all the separate components the cost of Digital Storm’s service drops to $250, at most.
Who else do you know who would be willing to build a system, overclock it, handle warranty replacements for any failed component for three years, and provide lifetime technical support, every day (potentially), for $250? How long would the commitment from your geeky friend or neighbor last if you regularly hammered them with questions in the middle of their workday?
With Digital Storm’s instant rebates on pre-selected configurations, buyers get the craftsmanship of a hand-built PC with the level of support expected from a high-end shop, at a price we feel is completely reasonable.
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OK I've only got as far as the spec, but already I'd have to question why they'd put the i7 950 in unless it's to simply charge more for the system or Intel offers them an incentive to use officially-clocked parts instead of going for the £200 920 and clocking it like a motherbitch.
I'm also concerned that they don't state what the CPU cooler is.
Anyway, reading on...
OK I should've waited - the cooler's detailed on the next page lol
OK, is it just me or is that system a little thin on the ground for the cost? No Blu-ray? Only 1 HDD?
Gaming performance isn't just the GPU or CPU - disk access times are important too so you don't spend forever waiting for stuff to load (I'm looking at you id Tech 4 and Source), so I'm sure the £230 you'd save using a i7 920 and overclocking it you could put in another Caviar Black and RAID 0 or a smallish SSD along with a Blu-Ray Reader/DVD writer combo (plus it'd be SATA too so the cabling's tidier).
+1 to you lephuronn. they were counting on peoples going 'ZOMG gtx 295 and i7 950'. little do they know that people who know that they arent the only things that matter in gaming performance. +1 to OC'd i7 920 too
much better value than 950 =]hehe and also WTB raid 0 as you mentioned phist of phurry
btw is it just me or could they have increased the memory speed and have better latency for the price? plus i have read the articles on here about mem speed vs latency too.
not too bad though i suppose. still components>pre built
i just went onto the digital storm website and looked at this pc. it says that it comes with '6GB DDR3 1600MHz Digital Storm Certified by Mushkin enhanced' yet the review has only 1333MHz memory....... check for yourself http://www.digitalstormonline.com/ [...] ?id=292413 i may be wrong so can other people please follow this up thank you very much apologies if i have wasted your time.
why thank you blobbybloo and yes I noticed the RAM too, although they did tighten the timings to 8-8-8-19 to compensate.
I specced the same system at Overclockers and came up a few quid shy of £1,400. I then re-specced it based on what I thought could be done.
Having dropped down to the i7 920 I could afford to add another Caviar Black for RAID 0, go 6GB OCZ Reaper 1600 MHz at 7-7-7-24, up to an LG Blu-Ray reader/DVD writer combi and even take the GTX295 up a notch to an EVGA Co-op FTW.
Came out at effectively £1,320 so I still have money to play with!
Basically, the money saved dropping to the 920 didn't actually get spent from what I can see - the RAM and GPU were only a tenner more each than the original, so it was just £65 for another Caviar and an extra £60 to do the Blu-Ray.
That £80 - dedicated sound card? Drop the RAID and get a 150GB VelociRaptor or 64GB SSD instead?
Don't get me wrong, the system is still very nice, but as blobbybloo pointed out, I think the wow factor of the 950 and GTX295 is what they're going for here. Shame, because more careful selection of components would've produced a slightly better and slightly cheaper machine.
Sounds like you should set up your own company LePhuronn
- And I totally agree with you.
cheers zsolmanz - i've thought about it actually but i'm a few generations behind on tech to be properly effective i feel.
I don't know why anyone who could build a PC would buy one pre-built.
The most fun is putting them together
IMO computers are like lego
Sure it can be frustrating and there can be problems but its fun and more rewarding.
Personally I don't like the HAF - I've put my i7 in a Raven