Joined on 03/30/05
Xtrac Ripper
Pros: Replaced a heavily used Qck+ with this and couldn't have been any happier. I've been using Steel Series pads all my life so I decided to give this Xtrac pad a try after seeing the high number of positive reviews. I am a low sensitivity gamer (800dpi, 5/11 windows, 500Hz MX518) and have no problems with tracking on this mouse pad. No problems staying on top of the score board in CS, TF2, and BF3 :)
Cons: As other reviewers have mentioned, there is a pungent rubbery smell emitting from this mouse pad. After using this mouse pad for about a week, the smells seems to have diminished a little bit.
Overall Review: I would highly recommend this mouse pad to any of my friends.
Pretty Fans
Pros: Have 8 of these mounted inside my 900D. They move a TON of air.
Cons: -The colored rings are next to useless -Fans can be a bit noisy at full RPM
Overall Review: i7 3770K @ 4.6 16GB G.Skill RipjawsX 2133MHz EVGA GTX 780 SC+ Asus Sabertooth Z77 Samsung 840 Pro 256GB Crucial M4 256GB Samsung F3 1TB * 2 SB X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro Corsair HX850 Corsair 900D
Works great on rads
Pros: I have two of these on a Thermaltake Water 2.0 Pro and they move a TON of air.
Cons: Noise level: stays reasonably quiet even at full RPM
Overall Review: Bought two for $9.99 each.
Sound Blaster Z
Pros: Upgraded from a 7 year old SB X-Fi Xtreme Gamer. There is a noticeable audio difference in both games and while listening to music. The Creative Control panel is intuitive and lightweight. One of the benefits of using this sound card is that you can have speakers and headphones plugged in at the same time and you can switch between the two easily via the control panel. Took Creative long enough to implement this awesome feature :D
Cons: While all the connections in the back of the card are labeled with icons or numbers, I feel that it would be easier for poeple to differentiate between each connection if they had labeled each of the connections with text rather than icons or numbers. Particularly for the 5.1 speaker connections, they have it as 1, 2, 3. Would be better if they had it as Front, Rear, Sub/Center.
Overall Review: The included driver disk, as expected, was pretty outdated. I was able to grab the latest version of the drivers off of Creative's website but the download was painfully slow ~15-30KB/s. Nothing wrong with my Internet as I usually get about 3MB/s down from other websites.
Water 2.0 Pro
Pros: Works great. Pump is nearly inaudible. My i7 3770K @ 4.4 topples out at 65c after 12 hours of Prime.
Cons: None as of yet.
Overall Review: I did my fair share of research and numerous people had claimed that the included fans were noisy and did not move any air at all. Given the benefit of the doubt, I decided to replace the included fans with 2 x COUGAR CF-V12HP.
Asus Sabertooth Z77
Pros: Works great, no problems as of yet. The thermal armor really helps bring down temperatures. My first experience with the new UEFI bios and so far I'm really liking it.
Cons: Doesn't cook Ramen noodles for me.
Overall Review: i7 3770K @ 4.4GHz 1.2v 16GB G.Sill Ares 1866MHz 9-10-9-27 1t 1.55v Asus Sabertooth Z77 Thermaltake Water 2.0 Pro w/ 2x COUGAR CF-V12HP EVGA GTX 680 SC+ Intel X25-M 80GB Crucial M4 256GB Samsung F3 1TB x 2 Creative Sound Blaster Z Corsair HX850 Windows 7 Pro SP1