Joined on 10/21/01
One of the best purchases I ever made
Pros: Very quiet. 15% more efficient than my old high-end PSU. Has fixed cables and modular ones. Has one fixed molex and one fixed SATA strip (exactly what I need). I couldn't have asked for a better PSU. This one is perfect in every way.
Cons: This PSU is huge and heavy, so make sure you have room. It has dual PCIe power cables when I only need one. Neither are concerns to me.
Overall Review: I have a high-end 5-year old 480w Thermaltake PSU. I replaced it with this PSU and it was noticeably quieter and at least 15% more efficient according to my Kill-A-Watt. There is one strip of fixed molex and fixed SATA power cables as well as 2 PCIe cables. The rest are modular. I love that design, but others have complained about it. The non-modular cables are a trivial bit more efficient than the modular cables.
stuttering mobo that died an early death.
Pros: All the features are great. If it worked as advertised, it would be perfect. I also liked how the connectors were laid off.
Cons: Well, when it ran, it was prone to stuttering with minimal load. I was running an Athlon 3800 X2 with 2GB, so I assume that's plenty to play a simple mp3. Ultimately, my dismal rating was due to the fact this motherboard worked fine for 3.5 months and then just died spontaneously this morning. I expect their customer service to be useless, just like MSI, EPox, and every other motherboard manufacturer. I'll most likely end up having to buy another motherboard since most motherboard companies don't respond with reasonable speed and their responses are never helpful. I had a piece of junk motherboard from ASUS in the past and their tech support was useless. Finally, their PCI Express clip to secure the graphics card was very poorly designed and makes it extremely difficult to remove a graphics card without breaking anything.
Lots of bugs. 2 have had hardware failures
Pros: Diagnostic LED, good features, overall. Probably a great motherboard when it works. Works with Ubuntu (I run Intrepid Ibex 64-bit). Performs well.
Cons: My first one died after a week and Newegg was awesome and returned it quickly. My second one died a month after arriving. Now I'm dealing with DFI for RMA and they're rude and unhelpful. There were also a lot of stupid bugs. For example, the motherboard won't boot when my IOGear GCS1764 is plugged into it. It'd throw a USB device error. Dozens of other systems have no problem with the KVM, though. I didn't have my motherboard long enough to troubleshoot it and look for a solution. I run Vista 64-bit and Ubuntu 64-bit. Vista can't shutdown properly. It'll shut down and then post C1, a memory error. I then have to unplug the power cable and then it'll boot just fine. The problem doesn't occur in safe mode or Linux. I am using good OCZ Reaper memory modules. I've installed the latest drivers from their sites and reformatted my OS to make sure no old drivers were installed.
Overall Review: The SATA ports are awkward and don't accept cables with clips...without forcing them in and hoping they don't pop out (the springy clips on most nice aftermarket SATA cables put outward tension on cable, making them come out easier than normal cheapo SATA cables) . I didn't personally like their overclocking software. There's no BIOS mode wizard for % overclock like most companies have. You have to either use poorly documented Windows software or set all the settings manually. DFI's RMA and tech support are jerks. I probably will never buy another DFI board again. They're unhelpful and don't take any responsibility for finding a solution. They keep blaming someone else for their boards having electrical failures and their driver bugs. If your product either doesn't even power on or doesn't work in Windows, how can you blame other people? How can a motherboard company not take responsibility for their products under those scenarios
Causes circuit trouble. Avoid!!!
Pros: Low noise, modular cabling. Would be a perfect PSU if it actually worked.
Cons: This power supply makes the power go out in my home office. It also cannot shut down properly. I bought this power supply to replace a Thermaltake 480w PSU for a future upgrade and to tidy up my box. I have a 15A breaker (new home). When I hit the power button to shut it off, the breaker flips. When I shut down via Linux/Windows, it never actually shuts down, just reboots. My only option to power this down is to flip the switch on the back of the PSU or unplug the computer.
Great Iron
Pros: This is a great iron. My wife bought it to steam her clothes and I use it every morning to prepare my clothes for work. It irons clothes MUCH faster than a conventional iron. Unlike one of the other reviewers, I have no issues with it spurting out water. Once fully warmed up, it produces "dry" steam (no droplets). It "feels" very powerful. One swipe per leg with full steam and your khakis are perfect. It takes a few swipes with a convention iron to do the same. There's an added bonus in that this is very good for removing stains. I had shirts with subtle food stains that don't come out in the wash, but a bit of detergent and forceful blast of steam and they're gone. I was very surprised with this purchase. It's solidly constructed, every detail appears of the highest quality, and it's very effective
Cons: This thing take 5-10 minutes to warm up. In order to save time, you must plan carefully. A regular iron is ready in 30s. I turn it on, enter the shower, and then can iron a pair of pants in < 30s.