Introduction and Specifications

Digital Storm sent us a complete system that features a liquid cooled and overclocked QX6850 Intel processor, two RAID arrays and of course three 8800 Ultras configured for 3-Way SLI. Sure it’s expensive, but that doesn’t make it any less impressive as a boutique system!
Introduction to Digital Storm

If the name Digital Storm name doesn’t ring a bell with you, that makes two of us.  A small player in the world of boutique computer builds, Digital Storm is growing their name by constructing quality systems and maintaining high levels of customer support while not ripping them off.  Sounds cliche, but good, right?

Their company information page doesn’t offer up a lot of history on their background, but the company came highly recommended from some of NVIDIA’s sales people because of their outlook on PC gaming.  Their ethic is summarized on the Digital Storm Online site with this:

We are obsessed with ensuring our customers receive the very best computer experience. All of our custom gaming computers come with a three year platinum parts & labor warranty plan and toll-free life-time U.S. based technical support from our actual technical engineers. Each and every system is built as if it was our own; everything we do is fueled with the obsession of quality and service. Let us prove to you that the mission we live by will show you something more than just an ordinary computer company.

Custom Build Specifications and Pricing

The specifications and components on our Digital Storm Twister Extreme sample system are simply amazing will put any enthusiast’s jaw to the floor.  Check it out:

  Digital Storm Twister Extreme Specifications
 Case Exotic Red StormPaint Finish 
 Power Supply
1000W PC Power & Cooling
 CPU Intel Core 2 Quad QX6850 @ 3.66 GHz 
 Motherboard EVGA NVIDIA 680i SLI
 Memory 2GB Corsair Dominator DDR2-1066
 Hard Drives
2 x 150GB Western Digital Raptor X 10K RPM – RAID 0
2 x 750GB Western Digital SE16 – RAID 0
 Optical Drives
16x DVD-ROM reader
20x DVD-Writer
 Video Cards
3 x EVGA GeForce 8800 Ultra 768MB
3-Way SLI support
 Sound Card
On-board 8-channel audio
 CPU Cooling
Liquid Chilled CPU (Phantom Black Liquid)
 Case Lighting
Blizzard internal lighting cold cathode 
 Operating System Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit
 Warranty 3 year Platinum care extended parts/labor
 Assembly Hand built by the industry’s most skilled technicians 

You can see our actual system build spec sheet at the Digital Storm Online site here.

There are some obvious components that stand out: the first of which is that there are THREE 8800 Ultra graphics cards.  This system was originally sent to us for testing NVIDIA’s initial offering of 3-Way SLI and so the three cards were a requirement of that.  That configuration option is available on their system build site and it doesn’t seem to be a “future” offering in any way.  Our processor is also overclocked over the 3.0 GHz stock speeds to 3.66 GHz.  On their site they will overclock the CPU for you but won’t specify what speed you’ll get: you just pay $35 and they’ll “overclock the processor as much as possible with complete stability.”  Seems fair to me.  And with the included CPU water cooling this should allow them to push the CPU further. 

Unfortunately, you also get the price for the system as well.  As of this writing, the total system price for our configuration was $6,755.00.  Yes, we know the price is HIGH compared to a lot of the types of systems we review here and I am sure that some of our readers will point out where they can find the components that make up this system and add them up for less than the price that Digital Storm is charging.  But some of the price is for the system build quality and the guarantees and support that Digital Storm offers.  We have always been proponents of companies that take care of the customer in terms of warranties and support and Digital Storm has a strong support reputation



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