I love ludicrous amounts of gaming horsepower in a small, attractive package. Since 2013 I've been enamored with small form factor (SFF) PCs like Falcon Northwest's Tiki and, though not as powerful -- the Alienware Alpha. If you've ever tried building something comparable in the same restrictive cubic volume, you may appreciate them too. That's why it's always awesome to have new options in this class of boutique gaming PC, which is why I'm writing about Digital Storm's Project SPARK, debuting this week at CES 2018.
Project SPARK is the company's smallest PC to date, measuring only 4 inches wide and 12 inches tall. That gives it a much more petite footprint than their Bolt X system, and makes it about an inch shorter than the Falcon Northwest Tiki (although the Tiki supports a broader and faster range of CPUs and GPUs). And yes, a head-to-head showdown between the Tiki and Project SPARK is inevitable, but until then let's look at what Digital Storm is bringing to the table with their latest PC.
Digital Storm founder Harjit Chana says that advances in motherboard design have allowed them to raise the bar in not only performance-per-square-inch, but also cooling.
Project SPARK is built around the Micro STX platform and is configurable with Intel's Z370 chipset. The company says customers can go up to an Intel Core-i7 8700K CPU and Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 graphics card. In the aesthetics department there's plenty to be excited about, as Project SPARK will boast a custom hardline liquid cooling solution.
The cooling solution looks slick, but the critic in me is always concerned about thermal throttling and GPU temps in SFF builds, particularly if reference cards are used. That's not me casting judgement; I've historically been very impressed with what Digital Storm churns out. But it does make me quite eager to review this little beast.
Expandability is also a high priority when it comes to smaller builds, and Project SPARK will pack in triple M.2 storage slots, a discrete MXM slot for graphics, and a SATA 6Gb/s port. The system should also be fully user-upgradeable.
Project SPARK will ship out in Q2 2018, with a beginning price of $1299. That includes an Nvidia GTX 1060 (more than adequate for high-quality 1080p gaming) but I'm not yet sure what the rest of the loadout looks like.
On paper Project SPARK has real potential to succeed (and it looks beautiful), but I need a few more details (such as PSU info and baseline loadout) and some hands-on before I sing its praises. For now? Kudos to Digital Storm for bringing another promising competitor to the small-form-factor space. I know most people love the space and limitless customization options in their ATX builds, but I just can't escape my love for deceptively powerful PCs in small packages.
