Joined on 03/09/07
Pleasantly surprised
Pros: Price with rebate is right on target. Overall this case won me over. Was initially skeptical, but build quality and features are good for price point, though metal is thin, and in some areas sharp. But again, at this price, what do you expect? Front design is very novel/cool, piano black glossy panel, HAL 9000-like red jewel power button, USB 3.0 & 2.0 jacks on the side. Plenty of PCI expansion slots, and 2 included case fans in rear are not only a nice touch, they work well, and are quiet. Can easily accomodate ATX boards, though mATX probably makes sense at this size. While it is listed as mini ATX tower, it isn't exactly the smallest case, though def not large either. Good compromise size-wise, IMHO.
Cons: Subtracting one egg for the following reasons. 1. Internal design left me wishing for more in a few areas. Most importantly, only one 5.25" bay and 3.5" bay are built in to the case. Front mounted bottom PSU location limits addition of an additional bay frame. The minimal instruction sheet (which is essentially useless to inexperienced builders) indicates a space in middle bottom of case to place additional HDD, but leaves job of securing it up to you. With addition of a couple PCI cards, this space disappears anyway. There is space between the included bays and the PSU area for one or two more bays, so in the age of RAID setups and SSD+HDD combos, I don't understand this exclusion, even at this price level. For my purposes, I simply used a Momentus XT Hybrid HDD, and didn't use any additional drives, so this worked out. 2. The DVD drive sits behind a front door that flips down when the tray ejects. This is fine, but the tray usually gets stuck on the door when it retracts, though am working on a solution to this. 3. PSU location setup limits it from exhausting the internal air. Instead pulls outside air in, which is not altogether bad, just a preference. However, this can be worked around if so desired.
Antec RMA Victim
Pros: The power supply itself receives 4 stars; the one star rating is for my RMA experience with Antec, see below for details. The PSU falls just short of 80+ Silver status, and ran a Tri-Crossfire array wonderfully for almost 8 months. While it functioned, and before it fried my 3 R9-270's, I had almost no complaints about the PSU.
Cons: PSU is not the quietest, and does get loud/expells heat under load. PSU also employs more than one rail, so in heavy load applications, you have to carefully plan out what the PSU will power via which connector. My PSU died after 8 months of running a Tri-Crossfire, then died and took out my three R9-270's with it.
Overall Review: Arrived home one day to find my system shut down; it runs 24/7, so highly unusual for it to be shut off. System protected by APC SMC1500 UPS. Inspection inside the case revealed an oily substance under where the PSU had been installed, and my 3 HIS R9-270's were no longer functional when placed into a back-up rig and tested extensively. Began testing PSU, which failed to power on different bench rigs, failed multiple "paper-clip" tests, so qualified as toasted to me. Opened RMA for PSU three months ago, along with asking renumeration for the 3 destroyed GPU's. After much arguing, Antec declined request for GPU's, but accepted PSU back. Ended up getting replacements from HIS directly for GPU's; nice way to avoid any responsibility, Antec. Antec RMA department has now had my PSU in their possesion for more than a month, and have thus far ignored my repeated pleas to send a new replacement unit to me. The RMA "supervisor" I have had the misfortune of dealing with, Patrick Solamo, takes upwards of 8, 9, 10 days to respond to my communications, blaming the frequent LANFests he attends. I am now forced to obtain legal counsel in order to secure my rightful replacement for this product. I have been a faithful and frequent Antec customer since the late 1990's, but this ridiculous ordeal has lost them a customer for life, and I will go out of my way to advise my clients to avoid Antec as well. Had never had a problem with any Antec products until this PSU, and if the RMA process was in any way reasonable, I would still consider them in the future, but this experience has eliminated that possibility forever.
Gold Standard
Pros: What else more needs to be said for this classic air cooler? Does all as advertised, and does it extremely well. Keeps my OC'd 1055T super frosty, under 25 degrees in normal use. Bought it when rebate was in effect, just an obvious buy. I was VERY surprised by how quiet this actually is, nearly inaudible in most situations.
Cons: None. Just a few notes of caution for installation though. Is tall, so make sure your case has the clearance. It can be somewhat difficult to install bottom bracket, but is def doable.
Great Value
Pros: Runs cool and quiet. Ends up being $89 with rebates, and comes with Far Cry 3; nice combo! Plays limited number of games that I've tried on at least medium-high settings. Fairly compact size, and you can overclock it a fair amount with the included Afterburner software, which is great on all Radeon cards, btw. 3 year warranty, has been perfectly stable thus far with an OC'd Athlon X3 and reduced latency 8GB DDR3 memory. Ideal high mid range GPU IMHO.
Cons: No physical Crossfire support, but not an issue for an occasional gamer. Other than that, don't know what more you can expect out of this card at $90.
Solid so far
Pros: *FANTASTIC* deal when on sale, ,(<$20) even though you have to wait for rebate. Great output and size for mATX and HTPC builds. Very quiet, low heat output in mATX system running Athlon X3, MSI 7770, Momentus XT Hybrid HDD. Three year warranty. Cables well wrapped and perfect length for mATX case.
Cons: Once a gold standard for PSU's, Corsair's quality control seems to be lacking as of late in certain products, so read multiple reviews before you buy one of their units. Not modular, but knew that, and really cannot complain for the price. Rebate wait time is annoying...
GREAT deal
Pros: Awesome little kit, I use it almost every day for a variety of things. Cannot beat the price/value prop when on sale!
Cons: None. Not ideal for a network tech, but really, asking for too much at this price point.