Joined on 01/05/14
Great MB so far
Pros: Great looking in my open air Thernamtake case. UEFI features both simple and advanced modes (and dual BIOS in case you perform a stupid) M2 slots allow for on board NVME storage LOTS of drive controllers (currently running 2x SATA HD, 4x SATA SSD and 2x M.2 NVME sticks) Memory slots take advantage of my air cooling on CPU Was able to stripe the 2 m.2 NVME slots for super fast boot drive Board has been rock solid for months. Lots of nice tweaking applications for tweaking the overclocking right from in Windows.
Cons: The 3rd M.2 slot is under the 16x PCIe slot, and those NVME sticks run HOT.
Overall Review: Windows 7 was very hard to setup on the striped M.2 RAID 1. lots of UEFI fiddling and searching for how to videos to get it working. Windows 10 was easy. 10 total SATA slots, but if you use the M.2 channels, each one you populate replaces 2 SATA channels, so if you run all 3 M.2 slots, then you only have 4 SATA channels left for other drives. 2 separate drive controllers. Lots of USB headers Love the USB 3.0 support. Overall build for just under $2k 1 x ASRock Z170 Extreme7+ LGA 1151 Intel Z170 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard 1 x Intel Core i7-6700K 8M Skylake Quad-Core 4.0 GHz LGA 1151 91W BX80662I76700K Desktop Processor Intel HD 2 x G.SKILL TridentZ Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3400 (PC4 27200) Intel Z170 Platform Desktop 2 x Plextor M8Pe M.2 2280 512GB NVMe PCI-Express 3.0 x4 MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) PX-512M8PeGN 1 x EVGA SuperNOVA 850 G2 220-G2-0850-XR 80+ GOLD 850W Fully Modular EVGA ECO Mode Includes FREE Power On Self 1 x CRYORIG H5A Universal Mid Tower Cooler For AMD/Intel CPU's. 1 x EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 FTW GAMING ACX 3.0, 08G-P4-6276-KR, 8GB GDDR5, RGB LED, 10CM FAN, 10 Power Phases 1 x Thermaltake Core P5 Green Edition ATX Open Frame Panoramic Viewing Tt LCS Certified Gaming Computer Case 4x SSD and 2x HD were leftovers from older systems.
Fast, fast storage, for those with the budget, do not hesitate.
Pros: Easy to install. Snappier than SSD. FormFactor is much tighter and neater than clunky old disks and cables, for a nice tidy motherboard (positive for case airflow). Did I mention no cables? I bought 2 x 512 and striped them RAID 1 for a full TB of ultrafast storage... It's almost so fast that I find myself asking if I still need RAM in the system (of course you do... silly) Gosh I really love these things. Feb 2018 - still running strong - still delighted!
Cons: They get HOT while running. I got the version without the heat spreader and I think I might want to buy some sort of focused cooling solution for these babies. On my ASRock Z170 Extreme7+ LGA 1151 Intel Z170 HDMI I had to do a lot of fiddling in UEFI/BIOS to make windows 7 install on my RAID 1. Win 10 was no issues. New Fast Stuff is usually expensive stuff. This is no exception.
Overall Review: They do have firmware and you should update it.
Careful you don't drool on it!
Pros: SEXY hanging on my wall next to my desk. Great for tidy wires. Built for water cooling but works great with air. LOVE the feature to rotate the PCIex16 slot to show off the video card. Lime Green - looks more like funk art than tech - great conversation piece - nobody on the block will have a case this cool. Easy to remove front panel allows for easy cleaning. Love the 3.0 USB slots on front edge of case. Lots of choices for mounting/orientation of case. I used a LED TV mount to hang on my wall. Removable vent cover held in place by magnet strip for easy cleaning. Great balance between flexible build options vs ease of assembly. Routing cables was a pleasure. Can mount up to 3 ugly 5 1/4 drives inside of the case with quick mount trays. Can surface mount up to 3 SSD drives on the front of case with decent cable options to hide your SATA and Power cables and still have plenty of room for your Water cooled radiator and 3 x 80mm fans. Sturdy/heavy
Cons: Had to hang upside down in order to have the USB slots on the front because of my desk orientation (Wall on left of desk). Clear plastic front panel somewhat subject to scratches and a little static makes things a little dusty looking. Tempered Glass panel would have improved things here. The back of motherboard where you plug all your cables in becomes the only eyesore in this otherwise ultra clean case. I did mention heavy... not ideal if you still do LAN parties... If you wall mount, the hardware will need to be removed when you want to get inside of the case - a bit of extra work, but worth it.
Overall Review: This will be the last case I ever buy and I am thrilled to have it in my office.
Great card for the money
Pros: Got this card during Black Friday for a great deal. LED can be configured with an App. Super sexy in my Thermaltake case. No complaints on quality and frame rates for Watchdogs or Tom Clancy's Wildlands. Fan speed configurable, beautiful finishing touches.
Cons: none
Everything I asked for
Pros: Love the Eco mode for the fan. Since I am over-power on this supply, the fan almost never comes on. Plenty of power for my ASRock Z170 Extreme7+ LGA 1151 Intel Z170 HDMI running a single EVGA GeForce GTX 1070 FTW GAMING Loved the modular cables. Made build time so easy, and routing cables was a breeze. Cables are very nice with braided covers and shrink insulation finish. Came with little cloth bags for everything with velcro - very nice touches to the packaging. Case Badge was nice quality as well
Cons: None
Great balance between price and performance
Pros: Was an easy OC to 4.5ghz on my ASRock Z170 Extreme7+ LGA 1151 Intel Z170 HDMI with simple air cooling with CRYORIG H5A Universal Mid Tower Cooler For AMD/Intel CPU's. @ about 100C under load. Was not the best chip I could buy, but the power per price value totally hit my sweet spot. Recommend.
Cons: No complaints
Overall Review: For day to day use I run it at 4.0.
Fast and Friendly
Seller re-routed my order to come from a closer warehouse (and sent an e-mail letting me know what they had done). I was delighted.