Slade: The quiet one

I received my Digital Storm Slade desktop computer last Friday. Below is the

System Configuration:

Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Corsair Obsidian 550D

Processor: Intel Core i7 4770K 3.50 GHz (Unlocked CPU) (Quad Core)

Motherboard: ASUS Sabertooth Z87 (Intel Z87 Chipset)

System Memory: 16GB DDR3 1600MHz Digital Storm Certified Performance Series

Power Supply: 1050W Corsair Pro Silver 1050HX (SLI Compatible)

Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: 1x (480GB Solid State (By: Corsair) (Model: Neutron GTX Series) (SATA 6Gbps)

Hard Drive Set 2: Multimedia\Data: 1x (1TB Western Digital/Seagate (7200 RPM)

Optical Drive 1: ASUS Blu-Ray Player/DVD Writer (Model: BC-12B1ST)

Internet Access: High Speed Network Port

Video Card(s): 1x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 3GB (Includes PhysX)

Sound Card: Integrated Motherboard Audio

Extreme Cooling: H20: Stage 2: Digital Storm Vortex 240mm Radiator Liquid CPU

Cooler (Extreme-Performance Edition) (What was installed was a Corsair H20i Liquid CPU Cooler. Sweet!)

Chassis Airflow: Standard Factory Chassis Fans

Noise Reduction: Noise Suppression Package Stage 1

CPU Boost: Stage 1: Overclock CPU 4.0GHz to 4.4GHz

Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-Bit Edition)

Recovery Tools: Advanced Recovery Kit (40GB Hard Drive Partition of Image With OS & Drivers)

Ship Within 10-15 Business Days After Order Is Successfully Processed

Warranty: Life-time Expert Customer Care with 3 Year Limited Warranty

 

 I had FedEx deliver it to their local “FedEx Office” so that I could pick it up when it was convenient for me. So I did not have to take a day off from work to sign for it or make sure it was not left on my front porch. I only worked in the morning so I got to the “FedEx Office” about 12. I had the computer loaded up in my truck in about 3 minutes and about 5 minutes later I was home.  Here is a picture of my boxed computer sitting on the tail gate of my truck.

 

 

After carrying this humongous 45 pound box to my 2^nd story office I opened it and found not a scratch on it. Here are some pictures of the unboxing.

 

 

 

As you can see in the picture, DS puts tape over all panels to make sure they do not spring open during shipping.

 

After I got it out of the box I removed all the tape and then removed the side panel so I could remove the foam bag from the inside. Here is a picture of the inside of my computer after I removed the foam bag.

 

 

 

Notice the neat wiring job. As I mentioned in my other post, this is my second computer from Digital Storm. I was so impressed with my first computer from DS that I didn’t even look at any other builders when I wanted to buy a new computer.  The build quality, the fact that they make sure that only the best parts are used, and the fact that they work right out of the box has made me a repeat buyer.

 

I think this Corsair 550D case is one of the nicest looking cases on the market. It looks great sitting next to my desk.

 

Now it was time to turn this bad boy on and see what he could do. Uh-Oh! Nothing happened. No lights! No bells! No whistles! I checked all the cables and it still would not power on. Was I going to have to eat my words about DS computers working right out of the box. I opened it up and made sure nothing had come loose during shipping. It still did not power on. I sat there and thought, “If DS could get it to power on, why can’t I”. It seems that power is not even getting to the motherboard (nothing was lighting up on the motherboard). I needed to check the power cable again. What is this? The power cable plug was only half way in. It could not be something so simple. I pushed the power button on the front and, VOILA! It powered on. It could not be that simple. I could not have made such a rookie mistake. I have owned and worked on PCs since ’84.  Heck I owned one of the first computers made for the retail market (IBM PCjr). I guess that goes to show you that we all need to do the basic things right.

 

It was a beautiful thing to see the BIOS screen on my monitor. Once Windows started I made sure Windows Defender was turned on and then shut Windows and my computer down so that I could attach my printer and internet cable (I know, many people don’t turn their computers off to attach peripherals but I guess I’m just old school like that). Once I had Windows up and running I made sure that my internet connection was good, then I found Windows Update and started it. I had close to 160 updates to Windows that first day. Then as I loaded other software over the next 2 days Windows decided that it needed another 24 updates. Then today after loading “Office” it needed close to 30 updates. This is just crazy.

 

After all that I was able to play with it some over the weekend. The only game I am playing right now is SWTOR (I also play Guild Wars 2, but I haven’t tried it yet with this computer). Am I able to play it with most of the settings maxed out. Yes, and it plays very smoothly. No graphic hiccups. My older DS computer could play it at middle to high settings. With an over 2 year old computer it was having problems with running my Dell 30” monitor which has a resolution of 2560 x 1600. That is a lot of pixels to push through a 2 year old graphics card. My in game settings are at max except for “shadows” which I always turn off (I just don’t like shadows in games so I turn them off in every game I can). Another important thing with this computer is that it is so quiet. All you can hear is just a whisper from the fans. This 550D case has sound deadening material on the inside and the fans are almost undetectable. I could see that the front power light was on but I would have to bend over and put my ear a few inches from the computer to hear the faint sound of the fans running.

 

I did have a few problems with the computer. There were 2 small pieces rattling around inside (I removed them when I removed the foam bag), the bottom front fan does not work (DS is sending me a new fan), and the NVidia Control software was set with the PhysX being set to the CPU (I switched it over to the graphics card). I hate to even mention these things because they are so small that they don’t really rate as problems to me. Other than these things this computer is perfect. I have owned and helped friends and relatives buy many computers over the last 29 years and the two Digital Storm computers I have owned are the best computers I have ever seen.

Awesome review and setup.

NICE review and an awesome rig!

Thank you for posting pictures and doing the review!

Wow @fstcvc you really must have doubled your budget if that is the build you went with at the end of your post. That looks like it will be an awesome computer after DS gets done building it. Good luck. I have had mine for 2 weeks now and I am more thrilled with this bad boy now than when I first got it. There are the best and newest components inside this Corsair 550D case and it sits on the floor next to me. And I hear nothing! If I stop working, look straight at the computer, and then concentrate on listening for noise, all I can hear is a very slight hum. That is all! I have had many computers over the years and I don't remember one this quiet. It is as quiet as my laptop but I can do so much more with this. I did not know having a quiet computer would make this big of a difference with me, but it has. I don't know if I will ever go back to a non-quiet build. Again, good luck @fstcvc (and everyone else who is in the process of having a new computer built). Please post pictures and give a review after you get your new beast.

It's going to be hard to try to get a quiet system like the SLADE but with 240mm radiators as it causes us to open the big vents and have noise leak out.

Not sure how quiet you would like the rig, but even with a 240mm liquid cooler, the system is still very quiet to many users.

You're welcome. It depends on what cooler you have. If you go with the Corsair H100i option we sell, you can control the fans to a quiet setting so this would not be an issue.

Exactly. I can definitely say that no 240mm cooler will sound like a vacuum or leaf blower.

Originally posted by gopr0ne Thanks Alex. I don't think so either. I just posted my config in the discussions forum, so I'll be interested to hear what any others have to say about it. @ArkansasWoman777 - good point! It's entirely possible Dakota Red could be hard of hearing I guess? LOL!!!!

Sorry about being so late to post a reply but I just discovered that my review was switched over to the reviews section from the general section.

To let everyone know, I was being 100% truthful with the statement that I only get a whisper of fan noise from my Slade and I am not hard of hearing.  lol. 
gopr0ne, I have no idea why the DS representative got upset with your questions about the noise levels when you add the top radiator with the 2 fans and have to uncover the top vent. I will state it again that only a whisper of noise comes from my fans. How is this possible with 7 fans. (1 fan inside the power supply - 1 fan in the video card - 2 top radiator fans - 2 front case fans - 1 rear case fan) The Corsair 550D case does have sound deadening material on all sides of the interior and I was thinking the same thing as you that by uncovering the top vent and adding the 2 fans for the top mounted radiator it would be a direct opening to let the fan noise escape. Does my setup allow more fan noise to escape than  a standard 120 mm radiator on the rear of the case with 1 fan? I am sure that it does but that does not change the fact that I only have a very, very small amount of fan noise escape from my case. Let's take a step back and look at 2 issues. I went with the larger top mounted radiator because when you build a computer in a case with a lot of sound deadening material you are also trapping in the heat generated by your computer components. You have to have superior air flow through the case. That means that you need more fans and for the large heat producing Haswell cpu it is a good idea to have a radiator. This is why the base Slade comes with the smaller rear case mounted 120mm radiator. With my build I also had the Nvidia GTX 780 which produces a lot of heat when it has a high load. That could put more heat inside the case because the early versions of this card (like my card) only have 1 fan. (I have started to see more recent versions of this video card have 2 fans.) The other issue is the case. I am like you in that I love the understated look of this case and Corsair did a great job making it a quiet case with all the sound deadening material on the inside. But Corsair also put their most quiet fans inside this case also. It would defeat the purpose of a "Quiet Case" if you installed high noise fans in it. Corsair also put a low noise fan on their radiators. Whether you go with the 120mm or 240mm radiator Corsair has low noise fans attached to it. I have had this Slade now for 2 months and I have never had more than a very small amount of noise come out of this case (even with the top vent panel removed which is what you must do so that the radiator can breathe). I have even taken a nap sitting right next to my computer while it was doing a virus scan.   Again I will say I don't know why the DS person you talked to or Alex would imply that you will not have a very quiet computer if you go with the top mounted 240mm radiator in the Slade. As that New England coach is famous for saying, "I can only go by what I see." (Or in this case , what I can hear.) and tell you that my computer is SUPER QUIET.



Edited by Dakota Red - 15 Aug 2013 at 1:17pm

i would like to appreciate you for sharing such a great info with us

Great to hear.    Thanks for the update and Enjoy.

Interesting discussion. My new Slade is being built right now. I kept the standard 120mm CPU water cooling setup but upgraded the fans. I live in a hot, dusty climate so I wanted to ask you two things:

- Do you run your Slade with all the covers on to keep dust out but, if so, are you seeing higher temps?

- How do you clean out the interior? I am a little reluctant to use high-pressure air or even the micro-vacuum cleaner I bought a while back.

Thanks!

You might want to try looking into this http://www.amazon.com/Metro-Vacuum-ED500-500-Watt-Electric/dp/B001J4ZOAW/ref=cm_cr_pr_pb_t if you aren't interested in buying compressed air.

Now i don't have it but from reading the reviews it works great. I plan on getting one soon.

Edited by ArkansasWoman777 - 05 Mar 2014 at 4:19am

Just to clear up a misconception...  The fans will operate with the covers on, no switch to tell them otherwise.  I believe Dakota  meant, the covers need to remain off for the fans to operate correctly.    If you put the covers on over the fans, the fans stay on and could get damaged. 

Unless you specified for DS to install the 2 side fans, the fan upgrade doesn't do that.  Most want the Slade for quiet, and adding the fans, removing the side and top cover, can defeat that for some.






Edited by bprat22 - 05 Mar 2014 at 7:56am

The two front fans do work with the front panel on.    I meant the side panel(left side cover) or top panel..  Those panels need to be off if fans were mounted there.  Without the added fans, the side and top panels can be off or on if you wanted to test it both ways.

But, your right...  The front panel and its filter stays put.   The front panel has sound material behind it.  Air enters the front through the side/front grates along the edge, allowing the front cover to act as a noise barrier. 




Edited by bprat22 - 05 Mar 2014 at 9:32am

Always a pleasure.  

Thanks bpratt22 for explaining the front panel better than I did for bahger. The front of the 550D case has a door/cover, with sound deadening material on the back of it, that can swing open to either the left or the right. The door/cover does not fit snugly against the case side panels. This small opening on both sides of the door/cover allows air to be pulled through the front fans into the computer. When the computer is turned on and the front door/cover is closed the front fans can still pull air in around the left and right sides of the door/cover. The sound deadening material on the back side of the door/cover can then help baffle any noise coming from the front fans. Behind the front door/cover is where the front panel is located. The very top of the front panel is where the power and reset button are located along with the usb ports. The rest of the top half of the front panel has the drive bays. The lower half of the front panel has a removable vent panel that covers the 2 front fans. This vent panel can remain in place while the computer is running because there are air vents along the left and right sides to allow air to get to the fans. The only vent panels that need to be removed (if fans are installed behind them) are the top and side vent panels. If no fans are installed at these 2 locations it is your option to leave them on or take them off. Hope this clarifies the vent covers for you.

Totally clear now. My Slade is in Stage 6 so I might get it by the end of next week! That would be just under two weeks from time of ordering, compared with the six weeks it took to assemble and ship my first DS PC in the early days of DS.

Edited by Bahger - 05 Mar 2014 at 6:35pm