5/5

posted Jul-28-2010

I placed my order with Digital Storm on 7/2/2010 an recieved my system on 7/22/2010. I have been planning my upgrade for probably about a year and a half, and their sales team was extremely helpful, and I am really happy with the PC I have chosen. Below are some of the specific points:

1) Pre Sales/Sales - As I had said, I have been shopping for about a year and a half, called them numberous times with questions. Sarah was particularly helpful. The nice thing about them is that if you want a specific item not in their list of selections, you can still request the item and they will accomodate you.

2) Price Point - I have looked at a number of system builders, including Maingear, Falcon NW, Origin, and others. DigitalStorm has the best price point I could find, and often include special offers. I could not find better.

3) Order Tracking/Build/Shipping - As the system goes thru it's build process, you get an email telling you exactly where it was at in the build process. At one point there was a few days delay in the performance testing phase, but called and found out it was in queue with a large amount of orders. When it did ship, I got an email with the tracking number, and it was on time. The system is well packaged, and and was shipped without a scratch (unlike some of systems I have ordered from other vendors). Overall, the system was built pretty quick, granted I did not order too complex a build such as custom water cooling, which probably would have made it a bit longer. My last system from VoodooPC took almost 2 months before they shipped it, and had numerous and obvious build mistakes, so this was really a delight.

4) Performance - One of my biggest concerns with this system was getting a quiet system. I have a dB reader, and I thought my previous VoodooPC was prety quiet. It typically operated around 51-55 dB during normal operation. When I tested my DigitalStorm HAF X system, it didn't even register on the dB reader, which means it's below 50 dB, most likely low to mid 40s, and is really quiet, even during gaming (and it has a nvidia 480, supposidly loud). And performance wise, playing Starcraft 2 on my Samsung 32" 6500 LED 1080p HDTV/monitor was TOTAL EYE CANDY! My jaw literally dropped during cut scenes. The USB 3.0 ports are extremely fast. I moved 100 GB in 15 minutes to my new system, using USB 2.0 it takes 50-60 minutes.

5) Tech Support / Post Sales - Honestly, I have not had any really siginficant tech support issues. I had maybe 3 minor issues. One was WesternDigital drives having a sticky power button issue, but I had this when I connected my old PC and laptop, so not related to DigitalStorm. The second was the resolution on the HDTV monitor. The nvidia driver will let you scale down the resolution, but it made the screen look odd, particularly text. Samsung advised me to change the 16:9 to Screen Fix in the TV settings, and now I am at 1080p, also not a DigitalStorm issue. And the last was issues with sound when I installed Starcraft 2. Blizzard support had me adjust settings but that didn't fix it. I had to go to Realtek to get an updated sound driver, and now it works just fine, also not a DigitalStorm issue.

Overall, it has been a really pleasant experience. DigitalStorm listened to my needs and demonstrated a real commitment to quality and service. If VoodooPC had 1/10th of DigitalStorm's commitment to quality and service, they might still be in business. I would recommend DigitalStorm in a heartbeat! I would definately recommend them for your next PC.

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1/5

posted Sep-06-2008

This order was actually placed in late 2004, it's an old order, but it will at least illustrate all the pains I have gone thru in the life of this hellish PC

Originally, I placed my order in November, but changed in mid December. When I mentioned canceling, they said it would be a 25% fee to cancel, on a $6,500 PC, that's just bullshit. Dell would have let me cancel the day before it was shipped without a "fee".

The order was not received until about March. A month after they had promised delivery. When I opened it, the sound card was sitting inside the case, not even in a slot, and no loose screws in the box. Despite that, system was wired and cabled neatly. Worked great for about 2 months, then the problems came.

I was hearing the sounds of bubbles sloshing thru the water pump, very loud and annoying. I had to contact them about it, and they instructed me how to refill the water tank. I researched this, it was a saitek water cooling system ($200 retail), and the documentation indicated that VoodooPC mounted the tank backwards, and warned NOT to install it that way. My system was running hot, and so hot that eventually I had memory problems. This is a VERY SERIOUS problem, cause one or two bad windows updates with bad RAM will cause your system to get corrupted, so badly in fact I LOST ALL MY DATA! Eventually the leak got so bad, it actually dripped off my CPU down to my power supply. At that point I called their tech support and explained I wanted them to fix the leak, correct the improperly mounted water tank, and replace the power supply as it was now a fire hazzard. To their credit, the RMA was quick and easy, but unfortunatly because of the price declaration, I had to pay additional tarrifs on the shipping, which alerted the state tax collectors in NJ. I had to pay hundreds of dollars more for this POS because VoodooPC didn't properly assess the taxes on the PC. When I did get the PC back, I still had leaks. The top of the water tank was now badly cracked and had to use boat epoxy and caulk to seal it. I still have to refill it from time to time. Memory went bad again, and had to buy new chips to replace the bad ones. It appears that they went bad a third time just recently, except this time the PC doesn't even recognize it now. When I originally bought this system, there was a platinum upgrade plan, allowing you to upgrade it in the future. I really didn't want to buy a new PC so I figured I ask VoodooPC if they could upgrade the components. Their response was, that system is no longer offered by the company. Mine was a Rage SLi, the exact same case as their current Omen system.

At every opportunity, this company and their POS system has let me down. I WILL NEVER EVER GIVE THEM A SINGLE CENT FOR ANY OF THEIR PRODUCTS. I would advise anyone considering them (or their HP equilavlent BlackBird) to look else where for a new system. It is not worth it, not by a long shot. For $6,500, you would expect pefection, and I got a big fat juicy lemon. DO NOT BUY!!!!

This review was modified by parallox on September 09 2008 01:21:33 PM

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