My Bolt II Review

Hello everyone.

I'll get straight to the nitty gritty. This is not really a review, just an overview of my experience.

I received my Bolt II yesterday via UPS next day air. I thought the less time it was in transit the more chances of it working when I got it. More on that later.

I'm not going to post any pics because you all know how the Bolt II looks like by now. On top of that I didn't add any lights in the configurator so even less reason to post pics. I prefer low profile, non-blingy systems but of course that is heavily up to preference.

Upon opening the box and taking the machine out I quickly realized that it weighed pretty much the same as my previous mid-tower system. It is compact but not lacking in the weight department. A midgit on roids, so to say. Construction felt solid and to me it definitely looked like a 2500 dollar item.

I quickly glanced through the window to check out the components and RAM since that is what mostly gets jolted around during shipment. Everything at first glance looked OK so I hooked up my TV via HDMI, plugged her in and fired her up.

It made a loud whinning noise as the fans started spinning. A few seconds later I realized something else. This tower is anything but quiet. It sounded like a blow dryer on low just to give you an idea. I corrected this by connecting the radiator fans to the motherboard instead of to the H100i and manually adjusting fan speeds via BIOS. My 4790k was only overclocked to 4.5GHz which I found to be a bit low. If I would have known DS was only going to OC to 4.5 I would have not payed the extra OC fee and just done it myself. Very low fan speeds where adequate enough to keep that chip cool even under load, especially with the light OC.

Upon turning the system on I encounter the horrid no video issue. I checked all connections even tried another HDMI cable. Still nothing. I proceeded to then open the case and see what was going on.

Upon opening the side cover I took a moment to inspect the wiring. Everything was nicely tied and tucked away albeit a bit cramped, but that was to be expected with all the high end things stuffed inside. I noticed the special PCIE adapter used to connect the video card was dislodged and halfway pressed in. I had found the culprit of my issue. So much for getting it to me quicker.

Windows booted up in seconds and I was relieved to see no bloatware installed but cringed to find Cosair Link installed.

I had also payed extra for my GTX 980 to be overclocked. I did see Precision X installed and upon opening it I saw a mere +20 core clock OC. I was able to easily get this card to 1440MHz stable. Again, if I would have known they were barely going to put time in overclocking the card, I would have opted out the option in the configurator and put the money towards something else.

One more thing I wanted to mention. This case gets HOT. I'm not talking warm, I'm talking hot to the touch. The venting area on top of the video card is the area mostly affected by this.

Overall I really like my new Bolt II. Didn't want to bore everyone with too many details. It's a pleasure to look at and most importantly it is fast. With some tweeks I have a very quiet, heavy performing machine in my desk and enjoying games like they were meant to be played. Dealing with DS was always a pleasure. Every time I called to ask a question or revise something with my order I was treated by very kind and professional individuals. I had to give them one quick call today because I didn't get my free game voucher but within minutes of talking to them I received it in my email.

Would I recommend DS to someone else? So far I believe I would.

Good review, but they probably overclocked it to 4.5 cause it was stable and anymore it wouldn't have been stable

Mine is the ACX cooler version. I have no complaints with it as most of the time the fans aren't even on which is great. All the noise comes from the two SP120 fans. With those off I can't hear the computer at all. I would tick the turn off option in the BIOS but I don't like the off then on noise they make. I prefer the always on hum.

Having had a previous case with about 6 Corsair AF140s I did not think these SP120s were going to be that much louder but apparently they are. The AF140s I could barely hear with the only audible noise being the sound of moving air. These fans however produce a slightly annoying whining noise when spinning.

Edited by slickrick211 - 01 Jan 2015 at 6:50am