One year with a Krypton and my thoughts...

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Just over a year ago, on October 17th, 2013, I broke down and ordered a Krypton from Digital Storm.  These were the specs:

Order Contents:

- Digital Storm Laptop 526978 Quantity: 1 $2,746.00

- PROMOTION: 10% Discount of $305 Applied to Digital Storm Laptop 526978, Original Price $3,051 Quantity: 1 $0.00

System Configuration:

Chassis Model: Digital Storm Krypton 17.3 Inch Laptop (Model: S:8295)

Display: 17.3 Inch (16:9) (Resolution: 1920 x 1080) (Anti-glare) LED-Backlit Display

Processor: Intel Core i7 4900MQ (Up to 3.80Ghz) (Quad Core) (8MB Cache) <b></b>

Thermal Compound: Premium CPU and GPU Thermal Compound (Reduces Thermal & Laptop Noise)

Memory: 16GB DDR3 1600MHz (2x8GB Sticks)

Primary Drive: 240GB Solid State (By: Corsair) (Model: Neutron GTX Series) (SATA 6Gbps)

Secondary Drive: 750GB 7200RPM (SATA 3Gb/s)

Optical Drive: Blu-Ray Player (Blu-Ray 6x) & DVD/CD Writer

Wireless Card: Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 + Bluetooth 4.0

Graphics Card(s): NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M 4GB with NVIDIA Optimus

Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 8 (64-Bit Edition)

Recovery Tools: Windows Recovery Toolkit (Bundled with Windows CD)

Virus Protection: - No Thanks

Office Suite: - No Thanks

Cooling Pad: - No Thanks

Extra Charger: - No Thanks

Extra Battery: - No Thanks

Carry Bag: - No Thanks

Audio: - No Thanks

Mouse: - No Thanks

T-Shirt: FREE: Digital Storm T-Shirt - Black (Large) <b></b>

Warranty Plan: Life-time Expert Care with 3 Year Limited Warranty (3 Year Labor & 1 Year Part Replacement)

Sub-Total: $2,746.00

Tax: $247.14

S&H: Ground $47.00

Grand Total: $3,040.14

***********************

I considered writing an actual review, but this is not a 100% positive, glowing review so I will not even bother.  Also, for some reason, my old username at my e-mail address got unregistered so I had to make this one.

Anyways, the shipment arrived and I was pleasantly surprised as to how well the package was packaged.  It would have taken a UPS driver to run over the box for my laptop to be damaged.  I opened it up and was thrilled with the appearance.  I set it up and first thing i notice is a glowing keyboard.  It seemed unnecessary and even annoying at first, but it certainly has grown on me.  

Second thing I noticed, and almost just as quick, is the poor keypad provided with this particular laptop.  I have owned two 17" laptops prior to this one and in both cases, the keypad stetched from nearly the edge of the left side to the right side.  Not so with the Krypton.  What the Krypton has instead is the same super compact keypad that would be put on a 15" laptop that contains a numeric keypad.  What this means is that the spacebar is about an inch less in length than my previous keypad, the left Fn key is non-existent, the width of the F keys is maybe 2/3, a few other things I am forgetting as I am not looking at my old laptop right now, but by far the most annoying thing is the numeric keypad.  The zero key is at 2/3 the length of a keypad made for a 17" laptop and butt up to it is the right arrow key.  In other words, if using proper typing technique for a numeric keypad, the thumb sits on the right arrow key instead of on the zero key.  After some time, I have learned to bend my thumb in, but it is uncomfortable and I still often hit the right arrow key instead of the zero.  I checked other companies I have not bought from and Alienware has full 17" keypads.  Origin (as of last year) is the same as Digital Storm with compact keypads.

So after my gripes about that, I did notice something that was awesome.  The sound quality is amazing.  When I listened through my Youtube playlist, it was almost like my songs were all brand new as I was hearing instruments and sounds that were not audible before.  I don't notice the difference anymore as I have now become used to it, but the sound quality is spectacular, especially for a laptop.

My reasoning for buying this laptop was for the upcoming game The Witcher 3.  That has since been delayed to next February.  I should have waited a year, but I did not so I have yet to play a superbly graphic heavy game yet.  

I have put hours into Europa Universalis IV.  Though that game is not graphic heavy, it does contain lots of calculations that should make it hard on the processor.  On max graphic settings, it runs like a beauty.  The fan seems to have three speeds and it never runs past the second speed on that game.  

I also put many hours into Football Manager 2013.  Again, not graphically heavy, but lots of calculations.  I was able to add leagues from three to four more nations from before and still have the calculations during simulation run quite a bit faster.  Oddly enough, the recommended settings for the game for my laptop is only "high."  If I put it on the highest level for graphics, then the match simulator lags.  Since the 3d engine is nothing fancy, I chalk that up to a programming issue.

The only other game I put numerous hours into is Rome:  Total War II.  This is the only game I have played so far that gets my fan running at what I believe is the fastest speed.  It's fairly loud, but not too annoying.  I just think of all the heat the dual fans are removing from my system and I am more than content with it.  As for Rome, the game runs mostly like a charm.  I almost never have lag during battles unless they are battles with over 50 units on the map at the same time.  Even then lag is rare and seems more like a memory leak issue than this laptop not being able to handle it.

Shortly after I got it, I recalled using 3dMark as a teen on my parents PC.  I decided to use that for the first time in years.  I was disappointed in my benchmark.  I don't remember the numbers off the top of my head (I had always planned on doing a second run and posting them in a much sooner posted review).  However, in comparison to other systems, mine was only in the top 57 or 58th percentile.  I didn't worry about that too much as most who run 3dMark are probably gamers with desktops.  

In addition to all that, this laptop fired up faster than any rig I've ever had.  Part of that is probably Windows 8 (which I was originally almost going to skip) and part of that is probably the SSD drive.  But even after installing Kaspersky anti-virus, the start-up time was not slowed a bit.  To this day, 13 months after receiving this system, the start-up time has not slowed much if at all.  Super impressed with that.

Shortly after I began using my system, one of the worst things that happened to a new system did.  Within a couple weeks, I was playing Europa Univeralis IV and found I had a stuck blue pixel afterwards.  I came to these forums to ask for help and while some users did try to help, nothing from Digital Storm support.  When I finally demanded some support, the answer I got was that it took five dead/stuck pixels for maintenance to be performed on my system.  Could you imagine if you just paid $3k for a unit, got four stuck/dead pixels and they would do nothing about it?  I tried everything from those very fast flashing color screens on Youtube to using one of those while gently rubbing a cotton swab on the area.  No luck.  Fortunately, a week or two later, I took an Endust screen cleaner wipe to the screen and for some reason, that caused the pixel to unstick.  

Another issue that I reported on this forum (and asked others if they had) was the screen itself.  If you look at the screen from the side, you can see blue in many points beyond the plastic as if the adhesive is coming off that holds the plastic to the screen.  It seems to not cause any issues as of now, but I am concerned about dust and other build-up in those areas in the long term.  

My goal is to get five years out of this system and after 13 months, it seems to be holding up well.  But one major concern was a very poor warranty on these systems with no option for buying additional coverage.  In three and a half years, I may be thankful for that...  or it could be like my first laptop I ever owned and in five months, my motherboard could fry and I would be out of luck.  

Overall happiness with rig:  8.5

Adjusted overall happiness when considering the price:  6.0

Would I buy from Digital Storm again?:  4.0  = doubtful, but not out of the question.

What should be done to fix my complaints?:  Find a different supplier for the chassis.  It seems the worksmanship on this system is great and the hardware is of course good.  Everything is in great working order, but the chassis is sub-par.  The 15" keypad on a 17" system is a sign of the chassis supplier being cheap and not wanting to have to manufacture a different keypad for a different size chassis.  I could understand for a $1,000 or less rig.  For something I paid $3k for, that is pathetic.

Sorry for my long winded post, but I have been meaning to write this for nine or more months and I finally found time.

*edit*

An annoyance for me was the addition of the blu-ray player.  It was made clear to me before I bought it that though it would have a blu-ray player, there would be no playback software.  Having said that, it's still annoying to buy something and have it not be functional.  It's like buying a toy as a kid and finding it didn't come with batteries.  Even if you knew that before hand, it's still annoying.

Edited by WhiskyGlen - 14 Nov 2014 at 10:02pm

One year with a Krypton and my thoughts...

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