“The Velox is one of the most powerful gaming desktops we’ve tested, and its value crushes the competition.”
- Attractive and reasonably sized enclosure
- Solid processor and game performance
- Relatively quiet
- Good value
- Enclosure looks a bit bare-bones
- As-tested hard drive performance was mediocre
Skylake shootout
We pitted this system against four other Skylake desktops. For the full scoop, including processor and gaming benchmarks, check out our comparison.
Digital Storm is making its move. Founded in 2002, the company has grown quickly and, in the past half-decade, has become one of the most well-known enthusiast PC builders. Its advance has been the result of consistently solid systems with a take-no-prisoners approach to high-end gaming.
The Velox fits that theme. Compared to other Skylake desktops we’ve reviewed, it has the most industrial look by far. Its all-metal body looks like it means business — which personally, I like — but others in the Digital Trends office felt it was old-fashioned and unattractive.
No matter what you think of its looks, there’s no denying it’s a more reasonable size than some other mid-towers. The case also let out surprisingly little fan noise despite its plethora of cooling vents.
The performance of the Velox is solid in most regards. Aside from an overclocked Intel Core i7-6700K, our review unit included two GTX 980 Ti graphics cards, sixteen gigabytes of RAM and a Samsung Evo 850 hard drive. That last component proved a weak spot. It’s not slow, but compared to the latest PCIe hard drives like the Intel Series 750, it’s not impressive.
Fortunately, the Velox provides some room to upgrade. It’s the most affordable Skylake desktop rig we’ve tested, beating similar competitors by a few hundred dollars. That’s money that could be spent on a hard drive upgrade. The Velox also ships with a relatively good warranty, which adds to the value. The Origin Millennium is a more refined system overall, and was quicker in our testing. But the Velox is perfect if you care about performance and value.
Highs
- Attractive and reasonably sized enclosure
- Solid processor and game performance
- Relatively quiet
- Good value
Lows
- Enclosure looks a bit bare-bones
- As-tested hard drive performance was mediocre
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