To keep or not to keep? DIGITAL STORM Black Ops Syndicate

[BAD311]

My loving fiancee went a little extreme this Christmas and dropped a Digital Storm Black Ops Syndicate under the tree for Christmas. For a week I had not a clue what was in such a huge box.

After opening it, examining the equipment, running numbers through my head, I've determined Digital Storm is insanely overpriced.

For just under $1,000 I can build my own gaming system with better a better motherboard, video card, and 16gb of ram, plus many other part upgrades. I already own Windows 7 Ultimate (a huge savings there), and I can wait a month for misc. parts to go on sale to score even bigger savings. I'm adding in a additional $200 for misc. parts beyond mobo, case, fans, video cards, memory, CD/DVD player, and PSU. Now the woman is forcing me to spend the entire $2,000 on a system, so that means I now have another $800 for even better upgrades (I think I'll take some of that $$$ and upgrade her PC as well, shhh don't tell her).

Should I keep the Digital Storm PC or return it? I've been reading reviews on them and they are all great reviews, not to much on the negative end, and people love the warranty they provide. I guess if you're too stupid to buy parts with lifetime warranties then you'll buy a Digital Storm or Alienware. I've never, ever had a problem with any computer parts company when it comes to replacement of faulty equipment and turn around time is fast.

THIS IS NOT A MACHINE I'LL BE USING FOR ANY TYPE OF WORK/BUSINESS/SCHOOL. THIS IS A GAMING BOX. So if a part goes bad and takes 2 weeks to RMA, that's fine with me. Lifetime warranty on parts FTW.

Alright... Here are the specs!

System Configuration:
Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Black OPS Syndicate
Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Trim Accents: - Standard Factory Finish
Processor: Intel Core i7 950 3.06GHz (Quad Core)
Motherboard: EVGA X58 SLI 3 Edition (USB 3.0 & SATA 6Gb/s) (Model: 131-GT-E767)
System Memory: 6GB DDR3 1600MHz Digital Storm Certified Performance Series (Highly Recommended) (Hand Tested)
Power Supply: 750W Digital Storm Certified (Dual SLI Compatible) (Silent Edition Recommended)
Expansion Bay: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: 1x (1TB Western Digital Caviar (7200 RPM) (64MB Cache) (Model: Black Edition WD1002FAEX)
Set 1 Raid Options: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 2: Multimedia\Data: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 3: Backup\Misc.: - No Thanks
Optical Drive 1: DVD-R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 24x / CD-Writer 48x)
Optical Drive 2: - No Thanks
Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)
Video Card(s): 1x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 1GB (Includes PhysX Technology)
Add-on Card: - No Thanks
Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio
Extreme Cooling: Standard Factory Heat-sink and Fan (Not Recommended for CPU Overclocking)
H20 Tube Color: - Not Applicable, I do not have a FrostChill or Sub-Zero LCS Cooling System Selected
Chassis Airflow: Standard Factory Chassis Fans
Internal Lighting: - No Thanks
Enhancements: - No Thanks
Chassis Mods: - No Thanks
Noise Reduction: - No Thanks
CPU Boost: FREE: Stage 1: Overclock the processor between 3.3GHz to 3.9GHz (Cooling Upgrade Recommended)
Graphics Boost: FREE: Yes, Overclock the video card(s) as much as possible with complete stability
Memory Boost: - No Thanks, Please do not overclock my memory
OS Boost: FREE: Yes, Disable and tweak all of the non-crucial services on the operating system
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-Bit Edition)
Recovery Tools: Windows Recovery Toolkit (Bundled with Windows 7 CD)
Virus Protection: - No Thanks
Office: - No Thanks
Benchmarking: - No Thanks
Pre-Install Game: FREE: Starcraft II (Tryout Edition) with a NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250 or above graphics card
Display: - No Thanks
Surge Shield: - No Thanks
Speakers: - No Thanks
Keyboard: - No Thanks
Mouse: - No Thanks
External Storage: - No Thanks
Exclusive T-Shirt: FREE: Digital Storm T-Shirt - Black (Xtra Large)
Priority Build: - No Thanks, Ship Within 5-15 Business Days After Order Is Successfully Processed
Warranty: FREE PROMO: Life-time Expert Customer Care with 4 Year Limited Warranty

Sub-Total: $2,028.00


Moved to General Hardware.

Super Moderator BFG10K.

 

[Blain]

My loving fiancee went a little extreme this Christmas and dropped a Digital Storm Black Ops Syndicate under the tree for Christmas.

Should I keep the Digital Storm PC or return it?

What's wrong with you?
Don't worry about what coulda, woulda, shoulda...
Keep it, enjoy it and only let her know that you like it and appreciate it.

I would even delete this post, in case she stumbles across it.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Rebuild your own and either give the rest of it back or ask her what she wants in-place of the money, like a gift er something..

What would you build? And for me, if I was building a game rig, i'd opt for the GTX 580 no matter what resolution.. get the ram next and do the waiting game for Sandybridge.. build around the core platform parts first.. Seasonic PSUs are great. The Seasonic X 650 model is fantastic, The XFX Black Edition 750 is utterly amazing in ripple suppression but a little bit behind in efficiency over the X 650.

 

[mfenn]

$2K for a 950 and a GTX 460? Ouch! Normally I would say to send it back, but since it is a gift from your fiance, that may not be wise (if you want to get married at least! ).

 

[SaberOne]

I agree the DS systems are expensive and the hardware configurations they offer is at least one generation old.

 

[BoomerD]

COULD you build better for the price? Of course...SHOULD you return it and do so? Hell NO!!

Enjoy the fact that your fiancee likes you enough to try to buy you a top-of-the-line gaming computer.
That one should do you very nicely for a couple of years minimum.

As an OLD married man, (over 35 years) you do NOT want to start the "This is nice but not my style...I want to return it" routine. You may very well cause some hurt feelings...and with a purchase of that size...maybe some badly hurt feelings.

Just smile, say "Thank you, I love it," and enjoy it.

 

[Anomaly1964]

COULD you build better for the price? Of course...SHOULD you return it and do so? Hell NO!!

Enjoy the fact that your fiancee likes you enough to try to buy you a top-of-the-line gaming computer.
That one should do you very nicely for a couple of years minimum.

As an OLD married man, (over 35 years) you do NOT want to start the "This is nice but not my style...I want to return it" routine. You may very well cause some hurt feelings...and with a purchase of that size...maybe some badly hurt feelings.

Just smile, say "Thank you, I love it," and enjoy it.

Plus 1 based on twenty years of marriage!

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Sneak in another gtx 460 for some sli and you've got a very capable gamer and a happy wife.

 

[tweaker123]

i would return it, get a much better rig, and not end up upgrading it later on , and spending much more money.

 

[mnewsham]

i would return it, get a much better rig, and not end up upgrading it later on , and spending much more money.

and your fiancé gives you the death stare and you have no sex for a month.

 

[BoomerD]

and your fiancé gives you the death stare and you have no sex for a month.

No kidding. You can tell the single youngsters by the stuff they post...

 

[jterrell]

please for the love of all that is holy stop bumping this post
this post was regarding a christmas present and is certainly either returned long ago or no longer returnable.

saberone joined in february so this post was 2 months old we signed up and he still bumped it