Joined on 05/05/06
My new favorite SSD
Pros: Priced similarly to competing Sandforce 2281 ONFI synchronous 180GB drives. Read performance running my search application is identical. My first SSD under 1$ per GB ! 32nm Toshiba toggle nand permits more write cycles than the smaller nm devices.
Cons: Write speed measured by running my indexing application was couple percent lower than the 2281 based ONFI synchronous drive. But it's not enough to make me change preference.
Overall Review: I've bought three different SSD brands so far. Never had a problem with any of them. Performance is within a few percent for all. They are all fast enough, so I buy based on price. I prefer Sandforce because they don't burn up as many write cycles for garbage collection as Marvell. The performance difference is insignificant.
Action is too loud and rough for me
Pros: Priced too cheap to return. Helped me realize how good my current mini keyboards are.
Cons: Loud, cheap-sounding, high friction, non-scissor key action.
Overall Review: Was misled by good reviews. There are surprisingly few quality mini scissor switch keyboards available. My search continues..
Use tweezers to insert the rubber mounts
Pros: 37-60C temps on i5 @4.4 Ghz with SpeedStep enabled. Mounting system allows removing heatsink without removing mobo, like certain others. Super price/performance. Fits perfectly in my HEC Blitz case.
Cons: Fan felt unbalanced spinning by hand and hummed when plugged in - had to toss it. So many small parts and many more wrong ways to fit them together. Simple drawings don't convey the complexity of installation, a video would be more appropriate. This is not supposed to be a puzzle. But the results are worth the surprising effort required - if you don't break something.
Overall Review: Use tweezers to insert the rubber mounts all the way in !! I like the three fat heapipes and cool fin shape :)
Handles 32GB - not 16GB as in spec
Pros: So far I tried the 870 and 880g based mobos I checked which spec states max 16GB ram take 32GB - this one included. No complaints from memtest86, or me. Memtest86 shows DOUBLE the memory bandwidth of my 4x and 6x Phenoms. Semi-auto FX 4100 overclock to 4.67 GHZ !!!
Cons: none
Overall Review: This mobo + FX 4100 blows away all Phenoms for integer performance. I saw it myself. I almost didn't go with FX 4100 cos of all the 2nd hand shill opinions out there.. It's unbeatable for my purposes.
16GB Acer K125-based netbook
Pros: Working in Acer 721 K125/880g based 11.5 netbook.
Cons: none
Overall Review: Not many 16GB netbooks these days. Useful for ramdisk or special software that can utilize the ram. Ramdisk beats SSD.
Effortless cpu+ram overclock, handles 32GB
Pros: One of the few mobos which explicitly handle 32GB. Effortlessly overclocked A8 8450 to 3.6 Ghz and 32GB DDR3 1333 to 1600.
Cons: I'm not a fan of the (slow) mouse interface, but not a big deal.