I gotta say, I love this Corsair Vengeance C70 case. I'm not a fan of flashy paint jobs and blinking lights, but with its dark olive green paint job, flip-up safety cover over the reset button, and side panels secured by screwless heavy clips, the Digital Storm Marauder Level 3 looks like something the military would transport explosive ordinance in. Instead, Digital Storm has filled it with respectable mid-range gaming hardware: a quad-core Intel Core i5 3570K Ivy Bridge CPU at 3.4GHz and an AMD Radeon HD 7850 2GB graphics card.

Monitor: not included. Badass case: included.

As you'd expect from a reputable PC maker like Digital Storm, the wiring job on the inside is immaculate, and there's plenty of room in there to mess around. I always appreciate this style of side-facing, easy-loading hard drive trays that don't make me want to pull out my graphics card just to swap out a drive. Its 8GB of Corsair RAM is pretty standard these days, as is the integrated RealTek ALC887 audio hardware, so there's not much to get excited about there. Externally, you'll find four USB 3.0 ports (two in the front, two in the back) and four USB 2.0 ports in the back, but not much by way of fancy motherboard features or extra ports (such as eSATA) The motherboard comes equipped with the now-standard integrated GPU hardware, but that's all but useless to a gamer with a Radeon HD 7850.

What's absent is notable: there's not even a token SSD in this thing, which in this day and age always surprises me, and it comes with only a 1TB 7,200RPM hard drive. Plenty for most people, I suppose, but I've grown accustomed to at least 2TB of headroom. If you plan on ever doubling up graphics cards, you'd need to pick up a new power supply as well -- 600W isn't going to get you to Crossfire or SLI town. Likewise, though CPU is advertised as unlocked, with just the stock low-profile Intel cooler attached to it I wouldn't be too inclined to go overclock-happy.

Digital Storm Marauder - Level 3 Specs
Chassis Model: Corsair Vengeance C70
CPU: Intel Core i5 3570K 3.40 GHz (Unlocked)
Motherboard: ASUS P8Z77-V LX
RAM: 8GB DDR3 1600MHz Corsair Vengeance Series (2x 4GB)
Power Supply: 600W Corsair GS
Hard Drive 1: Generic 1TB 7200 RPM/32MB Cache
Optical Drive: DVD Writer 24x / CD-Writer 48x
Video Card: 1x AMD Radeon HD 7850 2GB
Cooling: Windows 7 Home Premium (64-Bit)
Warranty: "Lifetime Expert Customer Care" with 3-Year Limited Warranty
Price of Reviewed System: $1,200
That said, I've had exactly zero issues using the Marauder Level 3 -- it's been solid as a rock, and it comes out of the box as crapware-free as if I'd installed Windows myself, save the Digital Storm wallpaper. Plus, as you can see in the benchmarks, it performs like a middleweight champ.


Max it Out

Because all anybody's really interested in doing when they buy a new gaming PC is turning everything up to maximum, that's what I did with the LAN Warrior II: all sliders pushed as far to the right as they'd go -- no compromises. All of this, by the way, is happening on my single 1920x1080 monitor. Nothing fancy.

Batman: Arkham City



It's important to note that, because this is an AMD videocard, completely maxing out Batman isn't really an option -- Nvidia, which owns PhysX, has gone to great lengths to ensure that it won't. I ignored the warning and tried the benchmark with PhysX set to normal, but when the particles started flying the framerates dropped to the 20s. However, playing with Normal PhysX in the brawl challenge modes maintained a steady 40fps, so it'll depend on what areas you're playing in. (This is something to keep in mind if you're thinking about picking up Borderlands 2, which also uses PhysX for some fancy visual upgrades.) Running an otherwise maxed-out benchmark resulted in a super-fast 75fps average, with one dip to 33.

Total War: Shogun 2



I saw the framerate dip below 40 for a couple of seconds during the benchmark, but you can expect good smooth average of 45fps performance here. Based on what little we've seen of Total War: Rome 2, however, I wouldn't expect to be able to max that out when it arrives.

Sleeping Dogs


DiRT 3 was getting close to handing out triple-digit framerate scores, so I'm kicking it to the curb and replacing it in our benchmark lineup henceforth with the much more recent Sleeping Dogs. When I dialed up its extreme-level anti-aliasing, high-rez textures, shadow resolution, shadow filtering, screen-space ambient occlusion, and motion blur, the Marauder choked a little, an average of 26fps and a minimum of 18fps. That's not really playable, but turning the AA down from extreme to high puts things right, roughly doubling the framerate and giving me a very pleasing 49fps average and never dipping below 33fps -- a small price to pay.

3DMark 11

X1654

But is it a good deal?

If I built a nearly identical PC myself I could save roughly $150 to $200, but that wouldn't buy me Digital Storm's three-year warranty, or this clean wiring job (seriously, you don't want to see the inside of my PC). Meanwhile, using iBuyPower's configuration tool I was able to put together a nearly identical system (including the case) for $100 less. So it comes down to brand trust and reputation, and Digital Storm does have an excellent reputation for support. Personally, I'd lean more toward Digital Storm if I were spending more on my PC in the interest of great customer support to protect my investment, but for a mid-range system that's kind of a toss up.


Score



Pros: Great case; respectable performance; rock-solid stability.
Cons: No frills inside; bare-minimum 600W power supply prohibits upgrading.