Joined on 02/10/07
Lucifer V2 UPDATE
Pros: Easy instal. Great PWM control. Excellent Value compared to liquid cooling. Fanless it will cool most any non-overclocked CPU all day. (My i5 4670k barely got above 35c idle not overclocked with this cooler in fanless mode.) Using the ASUS Z87 Ai Suite I am able to slow the fan down to 300 RPM and make it completely silent under normal usage.
Cons: Tricky install if you don't follow these steps.
Overall Review: Before you start, assemble the mounting hardware for your particular socket aligning the correct slots in the mounting brackets for your CPU (be aware of the three bolt pattern on the back plate of the 1150 MB-keep mounting brackets vertical) and tighten it all up -checking that the longer end of the cooler (the one with the long slender key way) will face towards the back of the case. Then, detach only the base plate and insulation pillars. Place the back plate with bolts through the mounting holes on your MB being sure to align it with the three holes on the base plate to assure you get it right. Then, hold the base plate while placing two insulation pillars for one side and attach that mounting bracket loosely with nuts. Then do the other side. Then hand-tighten them all down. Now take off the retention plate. Apply thermal paste (arctic silver 5 or your favorite) Make sure to remove sticker from heat sink base NOW! Now insert the retention plate into the cooler and lower it onto the mounting brackets. They should line up perfectly. Begin with a long screwdriver and attach the mounting bracket to the rear (down through the key way groove) until it catches for a few threads, then screw in the mounting bracket closest to the memory. Tighten them both until they are snug and won't turn without force. Mount the fan on either side, being sure to utilize the extra fan cable efficiently, and also making sure the fan does not either hang too high or too low for your system, and then plug it into your CPU fan header. Done. If you are confident of space, you can mount the fan before installation and save some pinched fingers. It's that simple. This thing really does compete with closed loop water cooling so enjoy! Running fanless will increase temps on hard working systems. Beware: only go fanless if you are planning to NOT overclock. My temps jumped up over 100c when overclocking fanless...
Central = Superb Home Media Hub
Pros: Installed easily. Streams everything I put on it (Movies & TV Shows) to my android phone (Verizon Galaxy S3) flawlessly! That is something I have been looking for for years. Backups work well, as expected. Internet connectivity also works great. I've connected to it from work several times and it is always there and accessible. Transfer speeds on LAN are very good: a 2TB video goes through in less than a minute on a GB Ethernet connection. It has great ventilation! Every external drive I've ever seen is like a little oven box with maybe one side vented... This thing has mesh with dust screen on the entire top and bottom and stays nice and cool so it will also be easy to vacuum clean when dust builds up. Awesome design.
Cons: PS3 can not see the media. It sees the drive and folders but does not see the media. Maybe if I do some research I will find a solution but for now as a PS3 media server it doesn't work. My Roku finds some of the videos but not all of them and that is a Roku defect (one of the many.) Everything that does stream through Roku looks and sounds great though. Transfer of data / streaming over the internet is abysmal. Nothing I have tried will stream over internet and requires download which seems to take about about a minute per megabyte, sometimes much longer, sometimes less. Terrible for roaming access to your media library. A 1.2GB movie took almost three hours to download to my phone from a wi-fi connection at my office which has N (which my phone used) wi-fi and has a 30MBps connection. It is definitely the Seagate...
Overall Review: For PS3 just use PMS and a different hard drive/ NAS/ whatever. That works. This doesn't. The Roku does stream all of the videos it finds beautifully though so the Seagate Central is working great in that regard, but for some reason the files I shared with my Roku through the PC just work whereas some files on this drive don't even get recognized... Not exactly a seamless user experience, but the best is saved for last: This thing paired with my Galaxy S3 via the Seagate app and streams every video on it regardless! That is a life saver when the kids go to bed and I need to hit the back porch to toast a stogie and catch up on whatever I'm watching! Bottom line: This is another failed attempt at what everyone wants to call "Cloud Storage." This thing isn't even close to what Google Drive or Drop Box can do when it comes to actually sharing data over the internet. It is very nice to be able to see and download your own files, but this is not going to turn your home computer into your own personal Netflix. It just doesn't do that.
Not used to an 80%-er but the typing experience is sublime.
Pros: So smooth and quiet I can use my PC when my easily-annoyed wife is asleep! The analog clock sold it for me and I absolutely love the ability to control all functions of the knob FROM THE KNOB! That is a game changer in keyboard design. Also easy to change the keycaps - which I did to some shine through and some clear for the WASD keys to make it easier to hunt down the Scavs...
Cons: the springs on the keys are soft. no tactile feedback, but with short travel there is not much confusion about which key you meant to press. 80% take some getting used to if you are used to a full 10key.
Overall Review: well built and easily modified. The knob is a complete 100% OWN on every other keyboard maker out there.
Garbage. Must Give Credit Card
Pros: If you want to give your credit card info to these people, you may like this light bulb. If you want the strangers running this operation to be able to see everything on your network, you may like this light bulb. If you are stupid, you may like this bulb.
Cons: Could not access the bulb through the app without giving a credit card number.
Overall Review: FAIL. DO NOT BUY.
Stable and Fast (Updated)
Pros: Immediately recognized as 5600 with XMP1 in ASUS ROG Strix Z690-I mb. Passed memtest. Very stable in 3d mark. UPDATE: Able to overclock to 6000 Mt/s in the on a 13700k with no voltage tweak at all. Very solid RAM.
Cons: Would not POST at all in Asrock Z690M. Tried clearing cmos, updating BIOS to no avail.
Overall Review: This RAM isn't on ANY of the QVLs for any Z690 I looked at but per their configurator, Crucial says it is compatible with both boards I tried. Not so much with Asrock. ASUS is still my go-to after 15 years even with some recent quality hiccups. I would buy two more sticks of this in a hearbeat if my board had two more slots!
Very Small, Very Fast
Pros: Excellent capacity and size for a portable drive. Light as a feather but seems solid. Speeds are as advertised as long as you use only USB 3.2 Gen 2 or higher cables, adapters, and most importantly, USB 3.2 PC ports. Anything less will disappoint.
Cons: Small and light enough to lose easily. Does not come with a USB type A adapter so if you need one, get the right one. Any variation in cable, adapter, or port drastically reduces the transfer speed, so the "U" in USB is not as "Universal" as one might like.
Overall Review: Highly recommended if you need the storage AND the speed. This price is competitive with similar drives but if you don't need these speeds and don't care about having something smaller than a credit card, a 2TB SATA SSD and enclosure can be had for less. I compared this to a USB 3.1 500GB Samsung SSD that promised 500MB/s speeds back in 2015 and gave up to 450 consistently over USB 3.1 or 3.2. (It still works like new 9 years later after many read write cycles.) This doubles that easily as shown in my Crystal Disk Mark scores, attached. Copied an 8.7 TB 4K movie in 3 and a half minutes. Copied a 2TB movie file in under 50 seconds. It is faster than a direct attached SATA drive of any speed and as fast as most of the less expensive NVMe M.2 drives that connect directly to PCIe lanes so this little drive us up to the task.
On time an d as advertised!
Both of these external enclosures transfer files at the maximum the SSDs are capable of over USB-3 and USB-C. Very pleased!
4GB DDR4 Memory stick
Arrived on time and worked as advertised.
3 Gigabyte SSDs arrived on time and worked perfectly
Worked for me.