DIGITAL STORM BOLT X
http://www.digitalstorm.com From £1282 (approx) depending on chipset
What makes a small form factor system? Surely massive, hulking machines don’t qualify, but is
shaving only an inch or two off a standard mid-tower desktop enough? That’s the question asked by the
Bolt X, the latest iteration of Digital Storm’s “slim and powerful” small form factor design.Measuring 15.5 x 6 x 20 inches, and weighing up to
30lb, the Bolt X is only an inch or two smaller than
many mid-tower cases, and massive compared to
super-compact systems, such as the Corsair One.
We wouldn’t call it small judging solely from the
exterior, but things are different once you look
inside. The most impressive achievement of the
Bolt X’s size is its slimness – at only six inches wide,
some finesse is required to fit all the components
soundly. That includes a vertical alignment of the
graphics card, connected to the mobo by a long
ribbon cable.
Speaking of that GPU, it sure is a doozy. The Bolt
X is one helluva gaming machine, rocking a single
GTX 1080 Ti for pixel-pushing power. It doesn’t pack
the same punch as crazy high-end dual-GPU builds,
but there’s also no SLI to worry about. The single
GTX 1080 Ti is a powerhouse on its own, pairing
nicely with Intel’s i7-8700K Coffee Lake CPU. Both
are slotted (the GPU remotely, as we mentioned)
into an Asus ROG Strix Z370-I motherboard that
also sports 32 gigs of DDR4-3000 RAM.
The first thing we noticed when firing up the Bolt
X: Wow, this thing is loud. The CPU fan, a Corsair
H115i 280mm Liquid CPU Cooler, was whirring
loudly at idle, kicking up to a roar at even the
slightest hint of load. The problem was quickly
sorted, though, with a tweak to the fan control
profile in Corsair Link. Without much ado, the Bolt X
was purring along quietly.
So, what kind of power does this compact system
pack? Quite a bit. The GTX 1080 Ti crushed our
1080p gaming benchmarks, averaging 167fps
in Rise of the Tomb Raider, 104fps in To t a l
War: Warhammer II, and 74fps in the
super-demanding Ghost Recon: Wildlands.Those are largely overkill numbers, though, and we
wager most users won’t be saddling a £2k system
(yep, the Bolt X is pricey) with a 1080p screen.
1440p is a much more logical companion, and the
1080 Ti performs admirably in that slot.
Rise of the Tomb Raider’s three-part benchmark
served no issue, with the Bolt X scoring 145fps in
the Mountain Pass, 110fps in Syria, and 106fps in
the Geothermal Valley—an average of 121fps;
perfect for a high refresh rate 1440p monitor such
as the Asus ROG Swift PG279Q or the Acer
Predator XB271HU. Total War: Warhammer II’s
Battle benchmark proved a bit more demanding,
but with a score of 74fps, the Bolt X still survived
unscathed. The only benchmark to dip below the
coveted 60fps line was Ghost Recon: Wildlands –
but just barely. A score of 59fps there is nothing to
scoff at, as that game’s Ultra graphics preset brings
even the most impressive systems to their knees.
Small or not, the Bolt X brings the might of a
full-size gaming powerhouse. And while pricey, it’s
not nearly as extravagant as some of the pre-builts
that we could mention. Throw in Digital Storm’s
top-notch build quality, metallic paint finish, custom
cable-sleeving, and did we mention the built-in
software-controlled RGB lightshow? It’s clear to see
that X marks the spot.PC90 %
Hardware
REVIEWS
PROCESSOR: INTEL CORE I7-8700K @ 3.7GHZ / GRAPHICS: NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX
1080 TI 11GB / RAM: 32GB DIGITAL STORM PERFORMANCE SERIES DDR4-3000 /
MOTHERBOARD: ASUS ROG STRIX Z370-I GAMING / PRIMARY STORAGE: 500GB WD
BLUE M.2 / ADDITIONAL STORAGE: 3TB SEAGATE/TOSHIBA / COOLING: CORSAIR
H115I 280MM LIQUID CPU COOLER / PSU: 750W LIAN-LI PE-750 / CASE:
CDIGITAL STORM BOLT X WITH STORM BLUE EXOTIC PAINT / WARRANTY:
LIFETIME EXPERT CARE WITH THREE-YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY
(THREE-YEAR LABOUR AND ONE-YEAR PART REPLACEMENT)ZERO-
POINT
Cinebench R15 (Index) 959 1,644 (71%)
CrystalDisk QD32
Sequential Read (MB/s) 1,721^559 (-68%)
CrystalDisk QD32
Sequential Write (MB/s) 1,473^529 (-64%)
Rise of the Tomb Raider
(Avg fps)^93 121 (30%)
Total War: Warhammer II
(Avg fps)^55 74 (35%)
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon
Wildlands (Avg fps)^48 59 (23%)
3DMark Fire Strike (Index) 9,12 8 12,8 6 3 (41%)Our desktop zero-point consists of an Intel Core i5-8400, 16GB of DDR4 at 2,666MT/s, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080, and a
500GB Samsung 960 Evo PCIe SSD. All games tested at 1440p using highest available preset.0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%BENCHMARKS