A large part of my life and my total income are derived from sitting at a desk working on a cheap company laptop. I decided some time ago that if such a large part of my time and the earning of my income is to come from a computer I was going to have the best for a change. So I undertook a years long research project to identify the Company I wanted to put my hard earned cash into, to make my "dream" machine.
Any computer is just a part of the equation, the ergonomics of the environment have a large impact as well. The desk must be spacious, the lighting good, the room spacious and most important of all, the CHAIR must be of the best quality. Fortunately for me My other half gave me the greatest gift ever, a top end Herman Miller Aeron office chair for my Birthday some time ago...this chair is fabulous and I can't thank her enough for it. My butt has to be in this thing up to 1/3 of my time or more every week. I cannot imagine a better computer/office chair.
Over the last couple of years I investigated any number of designer computer companies, each having its own special niche. For some it was custom paint jobs, some had custom crafting in the chassis, some used proprietary parts and methods.
Eventually I settled on Digital Storm Online as the company that would be getting up to $10,000 of my cold hard cash. I chose Digital Storm Online for several reasons. They had the usual assortment of High End equipment available for their builds and they have a wide array of choices available to choose from on the web site. More importantly than the "usual" things they offered, I found a fun community there on the company forums with a number of new and long time advocates of the Hobbyist and Computer Enthusiast. Names like !ender, Dragoonseal, DST4ME, Justin.Kerr and Venom and many others are constantly there to help new buyers navigate the traps and pitfalls encountered when undertaking to make a cost effective best bang per buck system. The thing that struck me about these forum members was that they did not care if they were advancing Digital Storm's agenda if they thought a mistake was being made they spoke up and DSO listened to them (more on that later). The large population of first time buyers and repeat buyers with this steady crew of knowledgeable people helps DSO give their customers the best chance of being totally satisfied with their final purchase decision.
One suggestion I would make that is of some serious consequence is that the forum lacks a private message function that would allow people to settle their differences of opinion in private, as it is set up now the various egos involved in a difference of opinion are forced to hash it out in public sometimes derailing the Original Posters request for information.
To sum it up, Digital Storm's reputation with the BBB, and the comments from past customers and DSO's beyond peer dedication to customer service and the dedicated band of people on the forums is why I chose DSO for my experiment into HIGH end custom computer purchasing.
In coming posts I will include pictures and some of the inside story about my quest to get my dream machine.