Digital Storm's Core i5 System Reviewed

Name: Digital Storm's Core i5 System Reviewed - Page 3
Brand: Digital

by Joel Hruska — Thursday, December 17, 2009, 12:30 PM EDT

Build Quality

Our review system, in the, err, flesh. The assembly team at Digital Storm appears to study origami in its spare time; every system cable is routed behind the motherboard or secured in such a way as to create minimal airflow disruption. The rest of the power supply's modular connectors are included in separate packaging, as are several molex-to-SATA and molex-to-PCIe power converters.

Here's a closeup on the CPU socket and Asetek liquid cooler. The unit is entirely self-contained, but the fans are Digital Storm's choice—they don't appear to ship standard with the cooling unit+radiator. That distinction is relevant to the system's noise level, which we'll discuss at the end of the review.

Next up, the rear of the case. Both GTX 275's are visible, as are the intake/outflow water pipe ports. The EVGA P55 FTW motherboard used in the rig packs a full range of external I/O capabilities; further internal headers are available if you find yourself needing to hook up, say, a few more external hard drives. Dual eSATA ports are also a nice touch. The little red switch one expansion bay above the power supply is actually much more interesting than it looks. Ostensibly, it's a simple on/off switch for times when you might want to shut off the internal cold cathodes and dampen the flood of cerulean light that pours from the front of Digital Storm's creation. Believe it or not, however, Digital Storm's decision to put the switch where it is knocked up to 40 percent off our review system's 3D performance (we'll explain why on the next page). The switch can be moved to a different bay, but only after removing several cable zip ties and rerouting the wires—as delivered, it only fits in the port shown.

This is something of a problem.