Digital Storm Bolt 3 - Is there a place for pre-built PCs?
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2016-05-06
·
1,608 words · ~8 min read
0:00
sexy computers that weren't built by either me or luke okay that's a little
0:04
unusual but that's what's going to be happening today welcome to my video on
0:08
the digital storm bolt 3 a pre-built gaming rig with an attitude as big as
0:13
its price tag but not as big as the price tag of the machine luke will be
0:17
showing off soon massage that like
0:20
button below if you want to see him bench a computer worth nearly ten
0:23
thousand dollars
0:34
freshbooks is the online accounting service for small business owners that
0:38
gives you the tools to make you feel like the boss you are click on my face
0:42
to learn more about it let's get this out of the way a
0:46
custom-built machine would be cheaper and it's pretty easy to do these days
0:50
but by the same token changing your own oil
0:54
is just plain not that difficult and yet some folks don't want to get their hands
0:58
dirty so we'll be checking out the digital storm bolt 3 from the
1:01
perspective of someone who wants a new pc and clean hands now i've been
1:06
intrigued by the tiny yet powerful bolt series ever since i first laid eyes on
1:11
one at a party at ces 2013 but it's
1:14
taken until the third generation for me to finally get my hands on one for
1:18
review and a lot has changed for one
1:22
thing the bolt has put on weight at about the same rate as a washed up celeb
1:26
in the last three years it isn't really that small anymore at just shy of 20
1:32
liters the bolt 3 is 30 percent larger than the silverstone raven rv z01 and
1:37
nearly three times the volume of those custom steam machine prototypes that
1:42
valve was sending out during the steamos beta but maybe big can still be sexy
1:46
right let's take a tour and see what digital storm has done to justify their
1:51
tiny beauty's additional heft starting at the front is a customized face plate
1:56
that includes an RGB backlit digital storm logo configurable through software
2:00
a slimline optical drive a dvd writer for us and front jacks including audio
2:05
and two usb 3.0 ports on the right side
2:08
is the side panel i guess with a curiously positioned air intake and not
2:13
much else to see other than perhaps a better look at the black brushed
2:17
aluminum finish that's as irresistible to the eye as it is to your fingerprints
2:22
on the top is the first hint that there's a serious business pc inside
2:26
with a grill that covers most of it and two Corsair static pressure series fans
2:30
acting as intakes through a filter that combined with positive internal air
2:34
pressure should do a solid job of keeping most of the dust out of this pc
2:38
which is good because this puppy is a work of art whose beauty i would never
2:43
want to see tarnished by the effects of age and the left side panel with its
2:47
full sized acrylic window is where we see all of that magic happen perhaps now
2:54
is a good time to reveal the specs of this bad boy then there's a custom
2:58
liquid cooled and modestly overclocked core i7 4790k processor on an ASUS z97i
3:04
deluxe motherboard with 16 gigs of dual channel ddr3 memory a 250 gig samsung
3:09
850 evo SSD a one terabyte seagate hard
3:13
drive a 600 watt 80 plus gold rated modular silverstone power supply a top
3:18
of the line gtx 980 ti on a pci express riser cable that enables its showcase
3:23
style mounting at the bottom of the machine and RGB led strips running
3:28
through the interior allowing you to change not only that front logo but also
3:33
the lighting of the entire inside but aside from listing specs what can we
3:39
say about this hardware well this mix means all of the latest features 2x2 ac
3:45
wi-fi enough usb 3 ports to choke a small mammal diy grade flexibility if
3:50
you ever want to get into overclocking or throw some significant upgrades at
3:54
the system with support for standard motherboards and curiously even quadruple width graphics cards
3:59
means that i guess my summary is this if the point of buying a pre-built machine
4:04
is to have someone knowledgeable pick everything out for you so you know
4:07
you're getting the good stuff without
4:11
putting any time or thought into it then mission freaking accomplished i've seen
4:16
a lot of expensive computers with proprietary motherboards questionable
4:20
power supplies and generic memory in them digital storm has avoided all of
4:25
these pitfalls even going as far as to provide custom yellow dyed coolant for
4:30
the top of the line swiftek dual 120 millimeter all-in-one water cooler and
4:34
matching yellow paracord style power cable extensions that give the computer
4:38
a surprisingly not off-the-shelf look
4:42
for something that wasn't built by the owner which doesn't
4:46
mean it wasn't hand built by someone i actually used to work at a retailer
4:50
where i was in charge of the custom-built computer department and i
4:53
think you guys would probably be surprised how much work and care goes
4:57
into building something like this when it's not being done on an assembly line
5:00
in china somewhere and it really shows in the back you can see the custom
5:05
controller that digital storm uses for led management temperature monitoring
5:09
and fan control and you can also see that they've got tidy cabling down to a
5:13
freaking science here in spite of the fact that behind the motherboard tray it
5:17
will have literally no impact on performance it's just taking pride in
5:21
your work which i guess leads us pretty well into performance doesn't it
5:25
the big drawback of compact gaming machines in the past has been their
5:30
disappointing thermal with throttling being a major issue and or acoustic
5:35
performance with even the bolt one with its 1u power supply getting a little bit
5:40
on the louder side when under load and i guess that's where the bolt 3 put on
5:45
some well-deserved extra pounds almost all the cooling in this machine with the
5:50
exception of the power supply and graphics card is handled by 120
5:54
millimeter fans and thanks to the very spacious bottom graphics card mounting
5:59
area our gtx 980 ti not only avoided
6:02
thermal throttling but turboed up nicely and stayed quiet even under load which
6:08
leads us to the conclusion i can do math just as well as you spreadsheet warriors
6:13
who are crunching the costs of the components of this system in excel right
6:16
now so i'll save you the trouble with some promos they have running the
6:20
bolt 3 costs a little over 500 more than
6:24
buying all of the exact same components down to you know the included but
6:29
thankfully not installed mcafee software the os was actually very clean wire
6:34
extensions and water dye and all that stuff and then putting them together
6:38
yourself and the performance wouldn't be different so then what do you get for
6:43
your money the machine is extraordinarily well packaged which
6:47
combined with digital storms qa means that the likelihood of dealing with an
6:51
rma or an incompatible component is minuscule you get more than just a
6:56
pretty face with the components they picked out for me being pretty much
7:00
impossible to criticize from a quality or reliability perspective and you get
7:05
to just click buy instead of tinkering with it yourself for the
7:09
let's be honest eight would be conservative probably closer to 15 to 20
7:14
hours that it would take for a relatively inexperienced builder to
7:18
piece together all the parts themselves online and then put it together
7:23
considering how pcmr showpiece worthy it
7:26
looks and while as a hot rodder myself reviewing a stock car off the lot isn't
7:31
exactly my wheelhouse if i try to think of it
7:35
less in terms of what i could build for the same amount and more in terms of the
7:40
other things in my life that i know how to do but pay more to have someone else
7:44
do for me like eating out at a restaurant or the things that i just
7:47
don't feel like learning how to do like car maintenance
7:51
it just doesn't seem nearly as outlandish anymore and i'd feel a heck
7:55
of a lot better recommending this to a non-diy oriented friend than most of the
8:00
pre-built pcs i've ever seen so thanks for watching guys if this video sucked
8:05
you know where that button is but if it was awesome get subscribed hit the like
8:10
button and even consider supporting us directly by using our affiliate code to
8:13
shop at amazon the directions for which you can find up there in the top right
8:17
corner buying a cool t-shirt like this one or even with a direct monthly
8:20
contribution through our community forum now that you're done doing all of that
8:24
stuff you're probably wondering what to watch next so click that little button
8:27
in the top right corner to check out my apple watch video where i tried really
8:31
really really really really hard not to let it turn into a rant this is not an
8:35
apple watch that should tell you all you need to know about the apple watch
8:40
watch the video anyway there's more to say