Digital Storm Bolt

Bottom Line

Yes, you can get an impressive gaming desktop for less than $2,000. The Digital Storm Bolt costs hundreds less than other boutique brands, and will still play any modern game at good frame rates and high detail settings. Plus, it has a trendy, slim shape.

Performance

Satisfying gaming for less. The Digital Storm Bolt starts at $1,000, but that's with a paltry Intel Core i3 processor. Instead, most experts evaluate a mid-range $1,600 configuration with the same Intel Core i7-3770K processor they test on the top-rated Maingear Potenza Super Stock (*Est. $1,325 and up), but it's overclocked to 4.1 GHz, not 4.7 GHz. The tested Bolt also gets a slightly lower-grade 2 GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti graphics solution that could be stepped up to a GTX 690 or GTX Titan, but the noise "would simply be too much," Maximum PC says. A 500 GB hard drive, 120 GB solid-state drive and 8 GB of memory fill out the spec sheet of the version tested most.

And it's a satisfying package, testers say. At Wired, Anton Olsen watches movies, plays "Hawken" online, downloads "Skyrim" and cranks up the graphics to maximum. "Not once did [I] wish for a higher framerate," he says. "Performance, even with HD graphics (which looked awesome) was significantly better than what I was accustomed to on the Xbox."

Other experts agree. It can't quite match the better-specced Potenza, but the $1,600 Bolt "is strong enough to handle any modern title at 1,080p and high detail," DigitalTrends.com says.

Design

Sharp style, but the slim body can be hard to work on. Most critics like the Bolt's sharp-angled metal case. "Beautiful," says HotHardware.com's Seth Colaner, who gets a glossy black version with glossy gray vent grilles, a "sexy-looking" fire-engine-red base for stability and rear fins "reminiscent of early-model Corvettes." PC World's Alex Cocilova gets it in white and finds it "fetchingly minimalist."

The white Bolt looks like a "Star Wars" storm trooper, says DigitalTrends.com's Matt Smith, but he complains of flimsy panels and exposed screws on his test unit. "There's a whiff of high-school shop class project to the design," he adds. But the Bolt doesn't strike other critics as flimsy or amateurish at all. "The all-metal construction is solid as a rock, and the excellent paint job is a sight to see," Colaner says.

At just 3.6 inches wide, 14 inches tall and 15 inches deep, the Digital Storm Bolt is the slimmest high-end gaming PC you'll find. It has to stand upright, though; it can't lie horizontally in a TV cabinet. It's too loud to use as a home-theater PC, anyway, most testers say. There's no liquid cooling system and the fans generate a terrible racket in some tests. "Like a tiny airplane is about to take off from your desk," describes HotHardware.com. Digital Storm reps told testers in November 2012 that noise is "drastically" reduced in newer units, but the problem pops up again in a February 2013 review at DigitalTrends.com. "When our office is quiet, we can hear it from a room away!" Smith says, measuring it at 50.1 decibels while playing a 3D game.

Other sources don't complain, however, and Cocilova proclaims the Bolt quiet: "I had it running right next to me, at ear level, for an entire day and barely noticed its noise signature." Wired's Olsen finds the fan a little loud, but "for a living room gaming machine, it rocked."

As befitting a boutique PC, there's no bloatware and ports abound. Cocilova counts four USB 3.0 and six USB 2.0 jacks, microphone and speaker ports, two Ethernet ports, two antenna connections, and "all the audio ports and more video outputs than you'll ever need," including DVI, HDMI and DisplayPort options. There's also a DVD/CD 8x multi-drive; Blu-ray is optional.

Testers wish for an eSATA port, though, especially considering the lack of extra storage inside the case. Once you crack it open -- which isn't easy because it tends to snag -- you'll find the Bolt absolutely crammed with components and tightly wrapped cables. If you upgrade anything, you'd better wrap them just as tight, or "you're going to have a terribly difficult time wrestling the case back together and will likely have to deal with bulging side panels," HotHardware.com says.

Support & reliability

Better warranty than most. Digital Storm backs the Bolt with a warranty that's better than most mainstream brands: one year parts, three years labor and lifetime customer support. That's not as generous as some other boutique brands, however, especially Maingear's three years parts, lifetime labor and support.

Value

Best gaming PC you can buy at this price. If you want the very best performance and user experience, experts recommend splashing out the extra few hundred bucks for their favorite Maingear Potenza Super Stock. But if you just want the best-priced gaming PC that can handle any game you throw at it, reviews say the Digital Storm Bolt is the best deal around.