Martin J.
Joined on 06/25/05
- 49
Great card for 1440 performance

Overall Review: Purchased this card to replace a 3070. It is quite a bit more powerful than the Nvidia card, especially without Ray Tracing or any of the upscale tech on. With RT on it seems to pretty much be around the same ballpark of performance. I was rather surprised to find that CP77 takes this card to task on the RT Ultra setting. In spite of that aspect my monitor supports the Free Sync (Premium) and plays seamlessly well down to ~50 FPS. CP is the only game in my collection that works this card that hard. I am seeing well into 100+ FPS on almost every other title I have played on it @1440 with highest settings in most cases. The card looks good both front and back so it would be a good choice for standard mounting or vertical mounting. I don't notice it being any louder than the previous card, and not notable over the case/cooler fans. Temps stay in line quite well. So far I have not seen it go over ~76 degrees with a roughly 21* ambient. Overall am pleased so far, and would recommend at the price point.
it's big

Pros: The size and response time. Price
Cons: Overly bright with low contrast.
Overall Review: To rate the monitor at three stars for the price is probably being too critical. I needed a new screen and probably went too big, too low spec due to the price, got "stars in my eyes". It's got a really good gaming mode and allows you to increase the response time up to 1ms. The issue is that the color is too bright to watch at that mode continuously and begins to tire the eyes. In response to this issue, there is an eye saver mode that subdues the brightness and color considerably. It also slows the response time to a point that causes mouse trails and text shadows when scrolling. Overall, I would say if you are looking for a large size monitor to use for viewing streaming movies, etc, or only for gaming at this price it would be worth considering. Otherwise, for full time office I would consider looking elsewhere in hindsight. Not worth going to the trouble to ship back over, but I wouldn't purchase again.
Serious chops for a LP card

Overall Review: For a low profile build where replacing OEM power supplies is an option this is a serious contender for that market, possible among the most powerful out there aside from workstation cards...not sure. Paired with something like a 7600X or similarly powered CPU it is fully capable gaming card for many modern titles. Card does not have a backplate which is a bit disappointing. Power connector is on the end of the card towards front panel in standard install. Noise level is very low considering the three-fan design. Temps have stayed under 80*C consistently.
Great little card in spite of the market

Pros: Fits your small form cases with OEM power supplies Serious chops for some G-Sync 1080 play
Cons: terrible for use with V-Sync monitors
Overall Review: This card is really well outfitted for one of the low end-low profile cards. It has a nice backplate and carbon fiber accents (stickers) that make the card look superb if you had an opportunity to show it inside the build. One is going to want to take advantage of the various upscaling methods on the market, is best for 1080 low-mid gaming and absolutely not ready for Ray Tracing to be turned on. Seems best targeted at low noise, low power, low heat builds on OEM power supply with a 1080/60 target in mind. It really, really benefits this card to have a monitor which is G Sync compatible. The money currently saved just biting the proverbial wallet and purchasing a get by level card and a good monitor while we wait this out is a significant consideration. Good tidings my fellow gamers!
It is a budget case, for sure.

Overall Review: This seemed to be a good offering to re-install some old parts I had hanging around to make a 'flip' PC. The lighting is pretty much a must with most buyers these days, so with the included and ARGB fans it seemed a shoe in. Where this isn't particularly the spot to mention this the case went missing for several days in the shipping process and arrived much later than expected. On to the case: It is very light and somewhat flimsy with the side panels off. All of the edges inside the case are finished so there was nothing sharp. There is very little room for cable management and the drive bay that sits in the basement pretty much has to be removed so that there is room both for proper fan down installation (PSU) as well as somewhere for the wires to stay. Once together the case feels as sturdy as it needs to and looks pretty good overall. No USB C provision. The fans in this case connect to a Molex adapter, and in spite of appearing to be standard PWM, they are not. The harness and controller they are hooked to uses the case reset button to change colors and provide fan power down the same cable. There are plenty of color and pattern options and seem to match pretty well with the little harness adapter you can purchase for other ARGB fans (such as cooler fan, etc.). There is no provision for connecting the three pre-installed fans with other fans. There is a 3 pin ARGB header on that harness but since the mobo installed doesn't have one I cannot comment on what that does. The glass front panel is held on with some grommeted thumb screws. Be very careful in that the glass almost jumps out when you loosen that last screw. It would be very easy to break if you aren't super careful. The rear side area is FAR too narrow. Gamdias could take some good notes and do users a favor by stamping a slight outward indention into that back side panel so there is some room. Most aggravating about this is that if you use cable extensions (which I had to due to cable length on PSU) there is basically nowhere to tuck them. Cable management is nearly impossible to get done without also seeing the wiring through the cutouts on the motherboard tray. Additionally, there is a "lip" of sorts around the motherboard rear cutout that puts almost any wire directly in the way of the side panel closing properly. Gamdias could take another hint here in that there are no top and bottom catches for the side panel. When you have cabling in the way, like it is going to be, the side panel actually bows outward at the top and there is simply nothing to be done about it. I have never spent as much time cable managing a build as I have this one. If I were actually tracking labor on the build as part of my process (like business instead of hobby) this aspect alone would suck any profit out of what would be considered reasonable hardware for the case/price point. I was finally able to get everything tucked in such a way as not to be seen from a normal sitting position. I would highly recommend using a power supply with long, flat cables on this case. I would also recommend considering using only an M.2 SSD on this build. The drive bay issue is sort of inconvenient but most likely will just Velcro tape a 2.5" SSD down in the basement towards the front facing (fan) side. Otherwise, noise level is low, and cooling seems perfectly adequate for a low to mid-tier build. I cannot see why someone considering higher end parts would relegate them to this case. Be aware of your graphics card width/length and also tower cooler height. You have 150mm but figure anything a smidge past that width wise could be an issue. Consider your graphics card power connector. When labor is considered alongside the parameters my hardware set this was not a super good choice for a case. I see the pricing is quite low now, so if one was looking to do a super low budget build and had in mind the shortcomings of the design it should be pretty easy to work around. The case looks great once together aside from the side panel bowing, but nothing to be done for it. I would not go so far as to recommend purchasing this case outside of budget. I have used other Gamdias cases and was very impressed. This one, not so much.
Best current price, quick delivery

Overall Review: Not a whole lot to say. Best current price outside of a sale. Delivery was quick. Genuine product key that isn't going magically de-activate.
- 2
Purchased a refurbished laptop and it was great
The laptop came looking brand new, not a scratch on it, just none of the peeling film. It arrived a solid week before the estimated delivery date. although I may have gotten lucky only coming from a few states over. The laptop itself was packed in a bubble bag that was very nice. The charger was in the little folded bit of cardboard on one end and rattled around a fair amount. Might be a good idea to put a small strip of bubble wrap or air pillow in there.
Picked up a refurb Dell laptop that was marked as B grade. I can't find a mark on it, everything is whole and undamaged by a quick look. Shipping was faster than estimated. I would buy from them again.

