Digital Storm BOLT X: A Kaby Lake-Based SFF PC with Custom Liquid Cooling

At CES this year, Digital Storm introduced its new compact PC design that weds a small form-factor with a specially-designed liquid cooling system. The BOLT X is designed to enable a significant overclocking potential of components even in a space-constrained form-factor, and it should benefit those who need to have maximum performance in a minimum footprint.

Over the past few years we have observed the culmination of several separate trends: compact computers with liquid cooling, with style and with serious overclocking capabilities. The new BOLT X from Digital Storm is the company’s next-generation SFF PC with a HydroLux LCS that features a number of upgrades aimed to advance its cooling performance  as well as improve the system in general. First off, the BOLT X has two 140-mm top mounted fans (up from two 120-mm fans in case of the BOLT 3, the predecessor). Second, it comes with an integrated stand that helps to minimize the amount of dust it sucks in through openings for cool air on the bottom. Third, it features a simplified open layout to make it easier to upgrade and service the PC.

Just like the predecessors, the Digital Storm BOLT X can accommodate a Mini-ITX motherboard and one graphics card located beneath the mainboard to ensure proper cooling and compatibility with custom cards that have tall PCBs. With the BOLT X, Digital Storm will offer the Intel Z270-based platforms (so, they will support technologies like NVMe, Thunderbolt 3, USB 3.1 Gen 2, 802.11 ac Wi-Fi, etc.) along with various Intel Core processors powered by the Kaby Lake microarchitecture. As for GPUs, expect the PC maker to offer the latest graphics cards that will be available with its BOLT X — NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 10-series for now and whatever comes up next.

At present, Digital Storm does not discuss the exact number of SSDs/HDDs that can be housed by the BOLT X chassis, but the PC will definitely support one high-performance M.2 SSD with a PCIe 3.0 x4 interface on the motherboard as well as a number of storage devices in a 2.5-inch form-factor. Following the latest trends, the boutique PC maker eliminated the ODD from the chassis completely, resulting in a perfectly flat front surface.

One of the intrigues of the new BOLT X system is its PSU. In theory, Digital Storm can install almost any SFX power supply inside (except, perhaps, the SFX-L versions) to improve overclocking potential and/or support power hungry components. However, with the BOLT 3 the company only offers 400 W PSUs.

Digital Storm will start selling BOLT X systems in the first quarter. Exact pricing will depend on actual configuration and will thus vary. At present, the company offers BOLT 3 systems starting at $1906, so the new versions are likely to start at approximately the same price-point.

Gallery: Digital Storm BOLT X: Kaby Lake-Based SFF PC with Liquid Cooling

Related Reading:

• Corsair’s Bulldog 2.0 Gets Kaby Lake-Compatible Z270 Motherboard, New Cooler
• GIGABYTE’s New Console: The ‘Gaming GT’ PC Launched with Core i7-K, GTX 1080, TB3
• Calyos NSG Cube: Passively Cooled SFF PC with Intel Core and GeForce GTX 1060

CES 2017: GIGABYTE’s Thunderbolt 3 to 8x USB 3 Dock

In some ways, Thunderbolt 3 is opening up a new world of connectivity. Having 40 Gbps of bandwidth to play with, along with a number of key mobile devices turning to it as their only source of connectivity, will in some form or another drive the hub and peripheral market beyond what TB1 and TB2 did. That being said, the market is still a bit slow: products are announced, but are region limited or produced in small quantities while the rest of the market develops the functionality to use it. So when we see a good trinket, it can be exciting if it reaches retail.

So enter a GIGABYTE dock that takes Thunderbolt 3 and splits the PCIe lanes between eight USB 3 ports, four using Type-A and four using Type-C. I must confess that I didn’t confirm if these were USB 3.0 ports at 5 Gbps or USB 3.1 at 10 Gbps, which if it was using the latter I would suspect employs a PLX switch and a set of ASMedia ASM1142 controllers to provide the functionality, but would also mean that a user could not pummel the maximum data rate of each port when all were in use. If I were to be cynical, this could just be a single controller and a hub, which would make the unit very disappointing.

At present this unit did not support power passthrough or daisy chaining, however we did suggest both to GIGABYTE as a feature, especially the latter with the ability to daisy chain storage devices. Given that this unit doesn’t require external power, it is at least taking the power required from the TB3 connector. Something like this would go a long way to helping users that rely on a single port out of their device at least. Now admittedly there are a variety of TB3 docks coming to the market offering all sorts of port sets, and these docks typically start at around $150 to get anything more than a couple of USB ports, an Ethernet port and a card reader. We’ll wait and see how GIGABYTE decides to play in this space.

Gallery: CES 2017: GIGABYTE’s Thunderbolt 3 to 8x USB 3 Dock

CES 2017: GIGABYTE’s Thunderbolt 3 to 8x USB 3 Dock

In some ways, Thunderbolt 3 is opening up a new world of connectivity. Having 40 Gbps of bandwidth to play with, along with a number of key mobile devices turning to it as their only source of connectivity, will in some form or another drive the hub and peripheral market beyond what TB1 and TB2 did. That being said, the market is still a bit slow: products are announced, but are region limited or produced in small quantities while the rest of the market develops the functionality to use it. So when we see a good trinket, it can be exciting if it reaches retail.

So enter a GIGABYTE dock that takes Thunderbolt 3 and splits the PCIe lanes between eight USB 3 ports, four using Type-A and four using Type-C. I must confess that I didn’t confirm if these were USB 3.0 ports at 5 Gbps or USB 3.1 at 10 Gbps, which if it was using the latter I would suspect employs a PLX switch and a set of ASMedia ASM1142 controllers to provide the functionality, but would also mean that a user could not pummel the maximum data rate of each port when all were in use. If I were to be cynical, this could just be a single controller and a hub, which would make the unit very disappointing.

At present this unit did not support power passthrough or daisy chaining, however we did suggest both to GIGABYTE as a feature, especially the latter with the ability to daisy chain storage devices. Given that this unit doesn’t require external power, it is at least taking the power required from the TB3 connector. Something like this would go a long way to helping users that rely on a single port out of their device at least. Now admittedly there are a variety of TB3 docks coming to the market offering all sorts of port sets, and these docks typically start at around $150 to get anything more than a couple of USB ports, an Ethernet port and a card reader. We’ll wait and see how GIGABYTE decides to play in this space.

Gallery: CES 2017: GIGABYTE’s Thunderbolt 3 to 8x USB 3 Dock