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Bram D.

Bram D.

Joined on 07/11/04

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 5
Most Favorable Review

Pretty good deal

Thermaltake Element G VL18501W2Z Black SECC / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Gaming Case w/ 850W Modular Power Supply
Thermaltake Element G VL18501W2Z Black SECC / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Gaming Case w/ 850W Modular Power Supply

Pros: Great Looking case inside and out. Colorshift LED fans = win + decent airflow. At the same time, the fans are super quiet and the front intake has filters. Pretty decent price for Modular PSU and case together. Matte Black not glossy, so not so many fingerprint issues. Cable management is pretty nice, includes clips behind the mobo tray. PSU cables are pre-sleeved, as are most of the wires running of the control panel. Front bezel removes easily. cut out in the mobo tray for the CPU matched up well with my mobo. Plenty of room for a tall cooler even with slightly concave side panel and huge fan. also, nothing DoA or broken in transit!

Cons: 8 pin connector on the PSU is a bit short to route behind the tray and plug into the mobo (the access hole is a bit small too). I kept wishing the mobo had a little more clearance around the top and rear fans, I finally took them out so I could work my fingers into the areas where things needed plugged in. Another cable management hole on the top of the mobo trary (front) would be nice for routing cabling for optical drives. Sleeving on the USB header / audio header cables were not shrink wrapped leaving some exposed wires between the end of sleeve and the header; the sleeving also had a weird feeliing to it. Cabling for the power switch, LED, reset and HDD activity lights were not sleeved at all. Back panel feels a bit flimsy, I had to be very careful when popping out the I/O panel as well as the PCI slots in order to not bend it. No window on the side panel.

Overall Review: Pretty happy with this case once I got everything put together. There's a good amount of room to work with on the inside a lots of places to hide extra cables (modular PSU helps as well). CPU: Intel i7:930 Cooler: Zalman CNPS9900 Mobo: Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R LGA 1366 RAM: Crucial Ballistix Tracer DDR3 1600 (2GB x 3) GPU: MSI N460 GTX Cyclone 1GB HD: Samsung Spinpoint F4 2TB (waiting til after taxes to upgrade to SSD for the OS excluding the HD, WEI of 7.5 w/o any overclocking.

10/11/2010
Most Critical Review

Was hoping for more durability than this

MSI MAG Series CORELIQUID 360R, ARGB CPU Liquid Cooler (AIO): Rotatable Blockhead Design, 360mm Radiator, Triple 120mm ARGB PWM Fans LGA 1700 / AM5 Compatible
MSI MAG Series CORELIQUID 360R, ARGB CPU Liquid Cooler (AIO): Rotatable Blockhead Design, 360mm Radiator, Triple 120mm ARGB PWM Fans LGA 1700 / AM5 Compatible

Overall Review: Worked okay while it lasted. 2 months after build it appears to not have enough coolant in it to keep the CPU under 85C (idle) Wish the integration with the MSI mobo was better

was a bit nervous, but...

GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: what a nice board! With all the DoA report here I was a bit nervous when ordering, but much to my relief it arrived without any apparent mishap. Lots of connectivity, 2 PCIE x2 slots @ x16 USB 3.0 and SATA III The board looks very nice with either red or blue LED illumination.

Cons: Price may be a bit high? Grasping for a wish list here, but I'd love it if the USB headers were actually on the front of the board instead of the bottom ... front audio header is way in back too. Honestly, does anyone need the floppy connectivity anymore?

Overall Review: So far so good with this board. Haven't had a lot of time to play with overclocking, but all my stuff runs so much faster now, I hadn't really needed too. current rig's hardware: Intel i7:930 GA-x58A-UD3R LGA 1366 Crucial Ballistix Tracer (2GB x 3) DDR3 1600 MSI N460 GTX Cyclone 1GB Samsung Spinpoint F4 2 TB HD (need some money back from uncle sam for my SSD)

10/11/2010
MSI GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 1GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 SLI Support Graphics Card N460GTX CYCLONE 1GD5/OC
MSI GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 1GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 SLI Support Graphics Card N460GTX CYCLONE 1GD5/OC

Pros: What an upgrade! Went from running on low settings and resolution to Ultra and high resolution on SC2 and I haven't even had to try the afterburner software. fits nicely in my case

Cons: was hoping for a better price drop with the release of the twin frozr, guess its still too new (only $20 rebate? and it takes 12 ~ 14 weeks to recieve it back???)

Overall Review: Intel i7: 930 Crucial Ballistix Tracer (3x2GB) DDR3 1600 Gigabyte GA-X58-UD3R LGA 1366 MSI Nvidia GTX 460 Win7 Professional: Score 7.5 w/ overclocking Also SC2 trial coupon?? what a dumb promo.

10/11/2010

Well lived case

APEVIA X-Infinity ATXB6KLW-BK/420 Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 420W Power Supply
APEVIA X-Infinity ATXB6KLW-BK/420 Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 420W Power Supply

Pros: I've had this case 2004, its still holding up well despite multiple moves over that period. Side panels have held well too, except for some paint scratches * Good illumination both from the front LED's on the door and the fan's on the top and side-door. * Digital Temp Indicator on front (connected to probe for case heat only) * Space for additional fans in front of the HDD bay as well as on the rear panel

Cons: * As mentionned in other review, dust bunnies seem to accumulate rapidly in my case. * PSU is cheap & can't really accomodate much load * Top fan placement is poor... any replacement PSU you buy that can handle the load of fans as well as a GPU and a few drives will necessitate mounting the fan to the exterior of the case * Temp indicator stopped illuminating after 6 mos. * Wiring for connecting your mobo to the top mounted switch / USB are short and make management difficult

Overall Review: For the money, I have been really happy with this case through the years. I wish there were easily changeable / washable filters to help alleviate some of the dust issues, its difficult to get at the fans in the front of the case w/o removing the plastic faceplate / door assembly. Door illumination looks best if any optical drives are also black.