Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Computing
  3. Reviews

With 16 fans, Digital Storm’s Aventum III is part gaming PC, part space heater

By

CES 2015 was all about small computers. There were new laptops with fifth-generation Core processors, Intel’s tiny NUC desktops, and even a PC on a stick. Only one company had a massive new full-tower system: Digital Storm.

I stopped by its suite to take a look at the Aventum III, a huge computer designed with hardcore gamers in mind. Its most striking trait was undoubtedly its size, as the two models on display towered above everything else in the room. Digital Storm says it plans to support the Haswell-E platform, up to four video cards and up to eight hard drives, capabilities that will put this upcoming desktop head-to-head with Origin’s Millennium and Falcon Northwest’s Mach V.

The Aventum III stands out through sheer volume of cooling.

Any company can stick a bunch of hardware in a tower, however. Something else is needed to set a new desktop apart. The Aventum III’s party trick is its unique, modular internal wiring and liquid cooling arrangement that Digital Storm says will help users upgrade or customize their system. Cords and cooling tubes are positioned at key locations in the case, so it’s easier to connect or disconnect hardware.

Sheer volume of cooling also differentiates the Aventum III. The desktops I saw had a total of sixteen fans along the top, front, rear and inside the case itself. Digital Storm hopes this configuration will allow for extreme overclocking of the processor and the video cards, though the company wasn’t willing to make any promises about maximum clock speeds just yet. Still, it seems clear that cooling will not limit what this desktop can achieve.

The design of the enclosure obviously targets the hardcore audience with its plethora of LEDs and liberal use of cooling vents. In fact, it appears that almost as much of the tower’s surface area is dedicated to intake or exhaust than not. While a certain audience will love this approach, I have to wonder how such aggressive cooling will affect noise. A system as powerful as the Aventum III can generate significant volume, and the only way to counter it is with solid, sound-deadening panels. Digital Storm isn’t including any such measures in this desktop.

Digital-Storm-Aventum-III-hands-on-6
(Digital Trends | Matt Smith)

Both the systems used for display were open, affording us an easy look at the innards. To be honest, there’s not much to remark on besides the cooling and wiring features already mentioned. The layout is entirely conventional; power supply at the bottom, motherboard ports facing the rear, hard drives at the front. Conventional can be a boon, though, as it means the system will be easy for owners to understand.

Gamers can snag the newest Aventum this spring. While the model I saw was close to finished, it wasn’t a final production unit. The design may change before release. Pricing isn’t available this far out, but it’s expected that high-end models will easily top $6,000.

Highs

  • Plenty of cooling
  • Spacious enclosure
  • Easy to upgrade wiring and cooling
  • Extreme hardware options

Lows

  • Extremely large
  • Might be loud
Topics
Matthew S. Smith
Matthew S. Smith
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Matthew S. Smith is the former Lead Editor, Reviews at Digital Trends. He previously guided the Products Team, which dives…
Best early Black Friday deals under $100: Amazon Echo, TVs, headphones and more
The Amazon Echo Pop on a desk.

Update 11/19/24: Black Friday is still over a week away, but you can already start your shopping with the Black Friday deals under $100 that we've gathered here. There's a possibility that these affordable items get even bigger discounts when the sale officially launches, but we won't blame you if you're already tempted by today's prices.

Black Friday will start on November 29, but if you've already got the itch to shop, check out the early Black Friday deals under $100 that we've gathered here. The offers cover smart home devices, laptops, TVs, kitchen gadgets, and so much more, so if you want to start enjoying discounts without blowing your entire budget for the shopping event, take a look at our favorite bargains below.

Read more
Understandably, Stalker 2 is a bit of a mess on PC
Key art for Stalker 2. A character in a lit-up gas mask and a gun on their back.

Stalker 2 is one of those games I never thought would actually release. Originally announced 14 years ago, the project was shelved after developer GSC Game World closed its doors, only to be reignited in 2018. Then, as the originally announced 2022 release of the game approached, Ukraine, where the developer was based, was invaded by Russia.

There are plenty of games that suffer in development hell, but they pale in comparison to the struggles Stalker 2 has gone through. The fact that the game is even here is nothing short of a miracle. Like other titles stuck in development hell, though, Stalker 2 is far from perfect, particularly when it comes to PC performance.

Read more
Nvidia may keep producing one RTX 40 GPU, and it’s not the one we want
The Alienware m16 R2 on a white desk.

The last few weeks brought us a slew of rumors about Nvidia potentially sunsetting most of the RTX 40-series graphics cards. However, a new update reveals that one GPU might remain in production long after other GPUs are no longer being produced. Unfortunately, it's a GPU that would struggle to rank among Nvidia's best graphics cards. I'm talking about the RTX 4050 -- a card that only appears in laptops.

The scoop comes from a leaker on Weibo and was first spotted by Wccftech. The leaker states that the RTX 4050 is "the only 40-series laptop GPU that Nvidia will continue to supply" after the highly anticipated launch of the RTX 50-series. Unsurprisingly, the tipster also reveals that the fact that both the RTX 4050 and the RTX 5050 will be readily available at the same time will also impact the pricing of the next-gen card.

Read more