DigitalStorm Bolt Gaming System Review: It's Little But It's Fierce
by Dustin Sklavos on October 24, 2012 1:54 AM EST- Posted in
- DigitalStorm
- Systems
- Mini ITX
- Ivy Bridge
- Kepler
Conclusion: Generally Good, With Major Caveats
It's an unusual feeling as a reviewer to look at a system and feel like many of your old pet peeves were addressed, to get the sense that maybe someone's paying attention. My pet peeves stem at least somewhat from good enthusiast sense, though: offset voltage, reasonable overclocks, don't push the daylights out of Ivy Bridge. DigitalStorm has done a fine job with the Bolt in producing a system that hits one of my major sweet points: balance. It doesn't run too hot, the parts are well suited to each other, and outside of the SSD caching the configuration at least feels somewhat sensible.
I think it's also important to note that the Bolt takes advantage of most of the technologies at hand to produce a machine that's incredibly efficient for the performance. You can argue that these are NVIDIA and Intel's achievements, but DigitalStorm still benefits, and they're careful not to rock the boat. As a result we see dynamite performance-per-watt from the Bolt. I've seen too many boutiques just shrug and effectively say "to hell with the client's power bill, to hell with longevity" not to single them out for finally doing what I've incessantly harped on boutiques to do.
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Unfortunately, the Bolt has three major issues. The chassis itself may allow them to claim the thinnest gaming desktop available, but the glossy black finish is fingerprint and dirt prone, and the single large shroud is actually remarkably aggravating to remove and replace. That issue is compounded somewhat by the fact that the interior is essentially running damage control on the cable spaghetti coming out of the PSU. That PSU in turn leads to the second problem, which is noise. I can't help but feel like the PSU is at least partly responsible for the noise, definitely responsible for the mess of cables, and probably should've been replaced by an SFX unit, even if it meant rejiggering the interior.
Those two issues can be tolerable depending on the end user, but where DigitalStorm loses the race is the price tag. The Level 1 configuration at $999 just plain isn't competitive, full stop. It's a dual core i3 and GTX 650 Ti, when $50 more gets you the vertically smaller, substantially quieter Alienware X51 with a quad-core i5-3330 and an OEM GeForce GTX 660 with 1.5GB of GDDR5. The Level 2 configuration gets a bit better at $1,249 by introducing an i5-3570K and moving up to a consumer GTX 660 with 2GB of GDDR5, but I still think the X51 is a better buy. It's only when you get to the Level 3 at $1,599 that the Bolt starts to break away and starts offering components the X51 can't really match, with the overclock on the 3570K and the GTX 660 Ti. The problem is that when you start getting into these high prices, you're really paying for the form factor. The $1,949 Level 4 configuration is a beast to be sure, but the components themselves only total about $1,200 on the free market.
Ultimately I think the chassis needs a redesign and DigitalStorm needs to be more aggressive with their pricing. I like that they're going with a custom build and trying to do something unique, and credit where credit is due, while I think it's overpriced it still beats the tar out of Falcon Northwest's grossly overpriced Tiki. The Tiki starts at a ludicrous $1,689 for a much worse configuration than our review unit and only goes up from there. This isn't a bad first draft and if the noise isn't an issue for you and you're not planning on upgrading anytime soon, I can't complain too much about it. I'm just not sure the Bolt is worth the expense when Alienware of all companies is willing to sell you a quieter, slightly less powerful system for much cheaper.
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ImSpartacus - Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - link
Are there off-the-shelf watercooled PSUs that could fit in this machine? I wonder if DigitalStorm would've been forced to make a custom PSU if they wanted to watercool it. That would've increased the price considerably.FEAST - Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - link
I would never, ever, ever buy this system because the standard versions dont have an SSD and you have to spend 2,000$ to get just a 120GB SSD. SSD's are by far the MOST IMPORTANT part.Icehawk - Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - link
First, any new PC not aimed at pure budget users should have a 120gb+ SSD as the primary HD - and for a SFF machine like this I would definitely skip mechanical. Heck, I'm mATX and have case room but I have zero mech drives, don't want the heat or sound. If I need mass storage I've got that external. Going SSD would relieve some additional thermals, give some space back potentially, and be silent.My new rig uses a fanless PSU... surely they could do better than what they are using? Heck at least go custom cabled or modular so there is the minimum clutter used.
Watercooling could open some space but then you need to find room for the radiator so I don't know if that is realistic without seeing the chassis in person.
I guess it all depends on just how much you value a tiny desktop box but I think a few tweaks to this rig would definitely make it more attractive by at changing to SSD and a better setup on the PSU.
sulu1977 - Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - link
Wouldn't it be better to use the 60GB SATA just for the C-drive, and the 1TB for data?trimspababy - Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - link
How does this ($1500 build) stack up against the Origin Chronos, another small form-factor gaming system that was reviewed back in July? Seems like the Origin Chronos was better in terms of price for what you get, or am I comparing apples to oranges?trimspababy - Wednesday, October 24, 2012 - link
How does this ($1500 build) stack up against the Origin Chronos, another small form-factor gaming system that was reviewed back in July? Seems like the Origin Chronos was better in terms of price for what you get, or am I comparing apples to oranges?creed3020 - Thursday, October 25, 2012 - link
Just wanted to say thank you Dustin for keeping so many reviews quality reviews coming out. I was very curious to see if AT would have a review of this unit after reading about it elsewhere.I totally agree that the 1U PSU needs to go. Having worked with many HP ProLiant 1U servers from their G5 generation I can comfortably say these PSU's are loud, hot, and certain models are prone to failure. I can see how Digital Storm was trying to achieve thinness, but if you aren't blowing away the competition in this minor increments battle of thinness then give up already and make the product better in other ways.
Silverstone's ST45SF-G (SFX) is only 63.5mm wide so it would have worked well in this chassis in a front mounted configuration like many of the Silverstone cases.
theNiZer - Thursday, October 25, 2012 - link
Hi Dustin,great review (meaning a good and critical assessment) of the 'Bolt' system - will we see a review of the Tiki unit from Falcon which should run much quieter and allow greater hardware?
/Casper
seylonclinton - Tuesday, December 25, 2012 - link
An amazing review of DigitalStrom Bolt gaming system! I think to complete with other major gaming devices in the market (Xbox-360, PS3 and Wii U) this gaming system is vastly capable. All the included hardware of this gaming device is perfect to play modern time games. I'm looking forward to purchase one for top quality gaming experience. Thanks.