Digital Storm Bolt II: Devil’s Canyon Inside

Power consumption doesn’t usually have a big influence on buying decisions when it comes to gaming PCs. Even so, it’s worth taking a look at the kind of power draw you can expect from your prospective PC: some systems are bigger power hogs than you might realize. The power measurement chart is one of the few graphs in which smaller numbers are better.

Power Test
Real World Performance

The Digital Storm Bolt II has a light touch. At idle, the system pulled only 66.3 watts – a little more than Digital Storm’s Vanquish II, but much less than most gaming systems we’ve tested recently. The rig kept its cool under load, too, drawing only 233 watts. That’s better than even the Vanquish was capable of under load.


As for noise, the Bolt II is quiet, but not silent. At idle, the system has a very soft, low hum that is drowned out by nearly any other noise – even typing. Fire up a game and the fans rev up a bit, but that noise too is moderate and not distracting. Unless you’re very sensitive to noise, you’ll hardly notice the Bolt II’s soft hum.
 

Joshua Gulick

Joshua Gulick

Josh cut his teeth (and hands) on his first PC upgrade in 2000 and was instantly hooked on all things tech. He took a degree in English and tech writing with him to Computer Power User Magazine and spent years reviewing high-end workstations and gaming systems, processors, motherboards, memory and video cards. His enthusiasm for PC hardware also made him a natural fit for covering the burgeoning modding community, and he wrote CPU’s “Mad Reader Mod” cover stories from the series’ inception until becoming the publication editor for Smart Computing Magazine.  A few years ago, he returned to his first love, reviewing smoking-hot PCs and components, for HotHardware. When he’s not agonizing over benchmark scores, Josh is either running (very slowly) or spending time with family. 

Related content