Joined on 07/10/07
Quality
Pros: Solid metal construction with nice enamel finish. Does its job flawlessly. Mushkin logo is attractive.
Cons: Didn't come with free RAM sticks.
Overall Review: Screw holes lined up perfectly with the housing of an ADATA SSD and with the HDD cage of an Azza Solano 1000 case. Not sure what to make of complaints that the screw holes don't line up. Maybe a one-off defect?
Dead after 24 hours usage
Pros: None
Cons: A staple item, though inexpensive, is utterly worthless if it dies in short order
Overall Review: The 30 day+ failure is much more insidious than DOA.
Good value for money, odd compatibility issue required svc
Pros: *Good performance for the money (purchased Sep. 2011); performed well in 2x Crossfire configuration. *Despite the service issues noted below, the cards both performed without any problems under the latest version of ATI drivers they would accept (12.8). *I invoked warranty service simply because there was no sign that the driver compatibility issue would be resolved without service, and I didn't want to be stuck with dead-end product when eventually the lack of a current driver became a serious issue.
Cons: Purchased it with a PC in Sep '11, then another to pair with the 1st in a Crossfire configuration, which worked well. Both cards strangely refused to work under ATI Drivers later than 12.8. Software troubleshooting down to Windows reinstall was of no use; PowerColor said the cards needed to be flashed to a new BIOS. However, they would not guarantee to replace the cards if they failed during the flash process. I found this problematic because in order to do this in utterly appropriate fashion, it seems, you need to have a floppy drive connected to your motherboard via a legacy floppy drive cable (i.e. not USB). Thanks to Steve Jobs and the fact that gas costs money, nobody has these anymore. So that increases the chance of failure. A small increase perhaps, but with $300 of product plus no small amount of inconvenience and frustration on the line, the lack of reassurance was worrying. If the process was likely to be error-free, why not simply make the guarantee? I pressed this issue with PowerColor support through a long series of emails and they ultimately agreed to accept both cards in an RMA. The replacement products appeared to be brand-new or refurbished/factory cleaned product, and appear to be equivalent and work properly.
Overall Review: I'm fairly confident I was legally in the right, since these cards were still under warranty and I think they had an obligation to provide a working product that would accept current ATI drivers. However, it's quite unclear whether this position could be vindicated in a legal proceeding, and at a reasonable cost. Hence I appreciate that PowerColor did the right thing, albeit not without some prodding.
Nonexistent product support
Pros: The drive works just fine
Cons: Accidentally threw out the disc of bundled software required to burn Blu-Ray discs (since 95% of all discs that come with a hardware product are junk outdated drivers anyway). After I realized I had thrown away a disc I actually needed, I contacted Asus to purchase a replacement. It took 10 Asus reps nearly 2 months to reach the conclusion that Asus Corporation is not capable of providing a replacement disc, either for free or on a fee-for-replacement-parts basis. They simply don't have it. Thus I am stuck with a blu-ray burner drive that does not burn blu-ray discs.
Overall Review: Last purchase I will ever make from Asus
DOA, 1st Newegg RMA
Pros: The heatsink looks awesome.
Cons: DOA.
Overall Review: My first Newegg RMA experience was pleasing, but I'm still rating it 1 (would rate 0 if allowed) because I'm rating the product, not Newegg service. Big waste of my time getting into my HDD cages only to find out the product doesn't work.
Won't display a PS3 signal
Pros: Great specs, good price, nice picture
Cons: Had to return it three times before I got one without dead pixels. WILL NOT WORK WITH A PS3 despite it apparently being HDCP compliant.