Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/298092
C G W M a r ch / A p r i l 2 014 ■ 47 want to show off the inside of the unit. Launching the unit was quick. With the combined power of the CPU plus the SSD, the unit produced some amaz- ing loading times. For example, my launch time from 0 to Desktop clocked in 39 seconds (with a brief pause to enter my log-in at 35 seconds). Thanks to the SSD drive, launching software will never be the bottleneck to getting work done, but with an eight-core Xeon processor, neither is processing power. In this case, the CPU was being cared for by a Vortex Liquid CPU cooler. Two tubes extended out of a beefy 120mm fan housing and into the CPU unit to provide maximum protection against high temperatures. The box itself was user-friendly. The case had two buttons at the top of the back panel, one on each side. Pressing these would unlock the side panel so I could take them off and expose the guts of the computer. The amount of open space inside the unit made it easy to navigate. My first operation was to install an RME digital audio card in one of the open PCIe slots on the board. Pulling out the bracket was as simple as unscrewing a thumbscrew. Equally simple was the action of re-installing the 4 tb drive, which had slipped out of one of the rails that sup- ported it during shipping. I pulled out the drive – no screws necessary – and aligned the rail so that the pins would insert into the screw holes, and shoved it back in. Little did I know until I booted the computer that I had accidentally pulled out the power plug on the drive so it didn't show up as an available stor- age device. Luckily, you can open both sides of the case, so finding this issue and fixing it was a breeze. Evaluation With all the hardware configuration work out of the way, I began installing all my software and moving data over, as well as loading a few benchmark programs. For benchmarks, I installed NovaBench, SiSoft Sandra, and Pass- mark's Performance Test 8.0. On the art side, I installed Autodesk Maya and Softimage, as well as Adobe Photoshop CC. For music, I installed Sonar X3. Systematically, I kept all the programs on the SSD side, and stored all my data on the SATA disk. Throughout this setup process, I didn't incur any glitches or software hang-ups or crashes of any kind. My data transfer was slow, but I attribute that to my home network and not to the Slade Pro. On NovaBench, the system scored 1,995 which fell well above the three- month average for systems tested. SiSoft Sandra ranked the system 926, which was higher than 91.76 percent of all its results. Performance Test 8 gave it a PassMark rating of 4381.1 and ranked the Xeon E5-2687W chip with the second-highest rating in high-end CPUs. This thing is a speed demon. Working with Softimage, I could orbit a scene of high-resolution spheres in wireframe with a 23,623,680-triangle count at 76 fps, 48.9 fps shaded, and 30.8 fps shaded with wireframe on. To test Photoshop, I used the bench- mark test offered by hardwareheaven. com and clocked a total score of 155.4 seconds overall. Conclusion Digital Storm provides a sleek and fun tower system that belies the tradi- tional form that most workstation-class computers convey. This workstation comes with all the high-grade profes- sional components that any industry- savvy content creator would want, plus the addition of customized hardware features other vendors don't provide. However, with this custom-built fea- ture set, Digital Storm comes close to, but overshoots, the price point offered by the big guns, like Dell. In a search for comparisons, a Dell T7610 worksta- tion with similar components totaled $5,736, whereas this review system costs nearly $200 more. The Dell is cheaper and also has two silver handles to help carry the unit – an oversight on the Digital Storm system that I missed – but the layout and friendly features inside the Dell box pale in front of the awesomeness that is the Slade Pro. And the workstation could be better. This system doesn't even come with Digital Storm's exclusive Hydrolux con- trol board that automatically adjusts fan speeds based on strategically placed temperature probes. Nor does this system have the flashy copper piping or red wiring that the Avernum system does. With a "take-no-prisoners" style and customized performance enhance- ments, Digital Storm is set to redefine what it means to be a professional workstation-class computer. ■ CGW Carey Chico is a freelance writer and an 18-year veteran of the games industry. He can be reached via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/careychico/. Digital Storm Slade Pro SPECS: Processor: Intel Xeon 8-Core E5- 2687W v2 (25mb cache) Motherboard: ASUS Sabertooth X79 (Intel X79 chipset) System Memory: 32gb DDR3 1866MHz Power Supply: 750W Corsair CX Storage: SSD: 256 gb Solid State (Samsung Model 840 Pro Series) SATA: 4tb Western Digital Black Edition (7200 RPM) Card Reader: Internal digital media card reader Optical Drive: ASUS Blu-ray Player/ DVD writer (play Blu-ray and burn DVDs) Internet Access: High-speed net- work and wireless Quadro Card: Nvidia Quadro K4000 3 gb Extreme Cooling: Digital Storm Vor- tex 120mm radiator liquid CPU cooler PROS: ■ Sleek and extremely configurable mid-tower box ■ User-friendly interior features ■ Very quiet ■ Hyper-fast load times thanks to the SSD CONS: ■ Side panels with press latches have a habit of popping off accidentally ■ Monolithic tower with no handles to help maneuver it around