David W.
Joined on 07/21/04
- 3
Excellent Value, Solid Performance
Pros: Easy installation, drivers neatly labeled in folders, comes with a low-profile bracket, auto-detected by Windows 8, automatically plays well with esata port multiplier. With no change in other hardware, write speeds over esata are consistently 2-3 times as high as with an old Silicon Image Sil3112 chipset card.
Cons: Jumper function on card is not immediately obvious. Driver installer application threw an unclear error (but manual driver install through Device Manager worked fine).
Overall Review: Currently connected to a Sans Digital TowerRAID TR8M+B, after the card that came with it (Silicon Image Sil3112 chipset) started bluescreening 32-bit Windows 8, apparently with driver errors. The enclosure contains 6 drives (across 2 esata cables) merged into a single Windows 8 Storage Space.
Works great, when it works at all
Pros: While the PSU worked, it worked great. Highly stable system with a quad core i7 overclocked, four 10k RPM hard drives, two SLI'd GTX 280s. Granted, my clocks weren't too aggressive, but I had virtually no stability problems (and I'm all but certain the issues I did have were due to poor heat management.)
Cons: The thing died on me, then the replacement died again, both deaths within the 3 year warranty window. Not sure whether this is bad luck, or bad quality control.
Overall Review: To their credit, Rosewill were quite good about processing the RMA with Newegg, who fulfilled it with no fuss. Also, the first PSU death didn't take any other components with it, though I'm still waiting on the RMA replacement for the second. This is a much more palatable deal at $100 than it was at ~$160 when I bought it.
Still crashing after BIOS update
Pros: Raymond from support was very responsive, card works well when it's not randomly dying.
Cons: Even after updating the BIOS, increasing the fan speed, and trying to underclock the GPU and memory, it still crashes within 5-20 minutes of load. Sometimes it will crash under idle for no apparent reason.
Overall Review: Thought this was a solid card that was getting 1-egged because people weren't updating their BIOS. Looks like I got a legit stinker.