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JOHN F.

JOHN F.

Joined on 06/08/07

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 25
Most Favorable Review

This IS the case I have been looking for!

Corsair Carbide Series SPEC-03 Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Gaming Case with Red LED Fans ATX Power Supply (Not Included)
Corsair Carbide Series SPEC-03 Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Gaming Case with Red LED Fans ATX Power Supply (Not Included)

Pros: Outstanding cable management. Lots of room to move. Case is primarily held together with screws, so disassemble for custom modification is easy. No weak and loose aluminum pop rivets like so many other cases. Easy to install the 120mm fans in all areas. Dust filters at top AND bottom of case. Twin USB 3.0 ports right next to speaker and mike jacks makes use of any user head related peripherals easy. Snap in front panel easy to remove. Virtually tool-less design makes stuffing the guts in there very simple and fast. Very durable black powder coat on steel components-not paint!

Cons: As with most cases these days, the window is a shoddy bit of brittle plastic. It is held in by bend tabs, which make it easy to remove and replace, but the tabs have limited life. I wish it had screws holding it in. Front panel is plastic. I would pay 100 USD for this case if it had a matching steel front panel. The biggest issue with this case is the side panel thumb screws. They are on the small side and have a very small diameter thread stock. The are hard to put in and remove. I actually threw them away, replaced them with thumbscrews from a low quality case I had and expanded the hole diameters accordingly. Note that this is not worth docking an egg in my opinion.

Overall Review: I read quite a few reviews here on Newegg and elsewhere on this case before purchasing it. Many people complained about poor cable management. This only exposes them as being inexperienced. As a retired Naval weapons technician and defense contractor, I wish Uncle Sam would move to Corsair's cable management stand. It is the best I have ever seen. I also saw people complaining about not having room to cram all their gear in the case. This is a mystery to me. All I can figure is people are attempting to fit full tower hardware in a mid tower case. I had zero issues. In fact this case provided me with the easiest hardware install in 20 years. To give you an idea the hardware I am using is as follows: MSI Z97PC Mate Zotac GTX 970 16G GSkill DDR3 1 samsung evo 870 (there is room for two) 2 WD 2TB HDD 1 WD 1TB HDD 2 WD 300GB HDD (required a custom built addition- case holds three 5inch drives) I did not install DVD disc drives as I never use them and my motherboard only has 6 SATA ports. Corsair CX750M PSU Intel i5 4690K Devil's Canyon Corsair H50 120mm Quiet Edition Liquid Cooler 4ea 120mm fans with room for two more (one top/one bottom) As a personal preference, I wish the option to buy cases unpainted, or only primed was possible. I modded my case with a military theme inspired by the Colonial Marines hardware as seen in the movie Aliens. The results are magnificent. In conclusion, do not let the reviews written by whiners turn you away.

Most Critical Review

Second Review after longer ownership.

CM Storm Devastator - LED Gaming Keyboard and Mouse Combo Bundle (Red Edition)
CM Storm Devastator - LED Gaming Keyboard and Mouse Combo Bundle (Red Edition)

Pros: Looks great. Ultra-responsive adjustable resolution. Slick styling and red LED highlights. Competitive pricing. PnP out of the box on Win 7x64 Pro.

Cons: Rotary encoder on mouse wheel failed after just a month resulting in poor responsiveness and near complete loss of accuracy. Autopsy reveals solid electronics, but poorly assembled rotary encoder. Appears failure due to unidirectional microswitch design, that is the wheel only "clicks" to the right. Normal use causes undue stress on the left mounted encoder as a result due to the shear created.

Overall Review: Voided warranty, if any by opening it up, but for the price, I'll replace it with something more durable. Will likely scavenge LEDs for use elsewhere and use case for a future scale model build. Keyboard is still outstanding in my mind.

11/18/2014

Thank you Newegg for recognizing veterans and military members.

Newegg Premier 12 Month Membership
Newegg Premier 12 Month Membership

Pros: FREE to military and veterans and their registered dependents at time of purchase.

Cons: None. This is Newegg folks. Probably the best customer service on the web.

Over-engineered in a good way!

Thermaltake Riing 12 RGB Series High Static Pressure 120mm Circular RGB LED Ring Case/Radiator Fan - Triple Pack - CL-F042-PL12SW-B
Thermaltake Riing 12 RGB Series High Static Pressure 120mm Circular RGB LED Ring Case/Radiator Fan - Triple Pack - CL-F042-PL12SW-B

Pros: Very solid fan construction: You can feel these bad boys are not flimsy. All cables are weave-wrapped AND rubberized: Little risk of nicked wires or shorts here. RGB rings are truly RBG: Green is actually green, red is actually red, etc. Cables are more than long enough for a ATX mid tower case or smaller. Static pressure fans. While designed for liquid cooling radiators, if you use dust filters, you should be using these as case fans too. Built in anti vibration rubber pads on both sides of screw holes is brilliant design. No more need for tiny o-rings or gaskets. Fan controller is compact and easy to use.

Cons: Only two cons, and they are in no way reasons to knock off an egg: 1. Fan speed control. In order to use the speed controller properly, one MUST set the 4-prong output on the motherboard to full voltage. This is not mentioned in the instructions. If you do not do this you will see your fan speeds and RGBs "pulse" due to a low voltage condition. Note this is not the pulse lighting setting in action. I verified this condition with a multi-meter. You MUST have 12v DC input to the controller. 2. Maximum fan speed. This is mostly personal preference, but in this day and age, a limit of 2000 RPM on a 120mm fan seems a bit odd to me. Particularly when set to full speed at 12v without LED ring turned on, they barely max out at 1800 RPM, even if only one fan is connected to controller. This was verified with industrial RPM test equipment, both mechanical and visual. This was demonstrated in the various fan control software that came with my motherboard.

Overall Review: I really enjoy these fans. They are very quiet, though I personally could care less how loud a fan is in my system. I would rather know I have proper cooling airflow than have a quiet computer. I never have, and never will, understand why people get obsessive over fan noise. The RGBs work really really well for every color except white. It is virtually impossible to get a true white with these. This however is true of most LEDs. I had originally got this set just for the green setting as for some reason green 120mm variable speed fans are hard to find. Now I can set the colors to whatever I want. Currently I am using a "xenomorph" acid blood shade of green, but often set them to red at night. I put these in a custom built case inspired by the military hardware in the movie ALIENS. They look amazing. If you read other reviews here complaining about short cables or where to put the controller, I believe this is a result of poor planning by the end user. In my case (literally) I traced and cut out a space in the window and then CA glued the controller in place. It looks great, particularly as I see no point to a see through case window and had already painted it to look like an airlock hatch. The fan speed controller now looks like airlock cycling controls. I do wish there was a way to post pictures of the solution I used to solve the "Where to put the controller" issue some complain about. I should note here that adding extra length to fan wires is a simple task that anyone can do if you are trying to use this set in a full tower. Thermaltake has outdone themselves with these fans and should be applauded for creating such a great product. I do wish there was a four and six fan version.

To date the best mouse I have ever owned!

Logitech G502 Proteus Spectrum RGB Tunable Gaming Mouse, 12,000 DPI On-The-Fly DPI Shifting, Personalized Weight and Balance Tuning with (5) 3.6g Weights, 11 Programmable Buttons
Logitech G502 Proteus Spectrum RGB Tunable Gaming Mouse, 12,000 DPI On-The-Fly DPI Shifting, Personalized Weight and Balance Tuning with (5) 3.6g Weights, 11 Programmable Buttons

Pros: Lots of programmable buttons. Fits my hybrid claw/palm grip perfectly. Preprogrammed surface settings with the Logitech software (web download). The on/off switch for the mouse wheel is the answer to my dreams. On and it ratchets. Off and it freewheels. Best idea yet for a gaming mouse. Multiple DPI settings fully programmable. "Sniper" mode button

Cons: Software interface for programming lighting is pretty user unfriendly. Unless you don't mind a steady on, or pulsing in one color. Rear slide pad on aft end was all dinged up straight out of the box. Good news is it does not affect form fit or function. Sure wish there was a Logitech decal in the box to add to my collection of hardware stickers.

Overall Review: I bought this to replace a Corsair M65 RGB that didn't quite fit my hand right, had weights that dragged on my HyperX SKYN mouse sheet and had the mouse wheel completely fail a week out of the box. (Shoulda bought it from Newegg. A certain retailer that rhymes with Boost Bligh would not allow a return even with original packaging and receipt...) I should have never left Logitech and purchased that extremely overpriced Corsair mouse. As a long time PC gamer (30+ years) it is exciting to have a mouse that meets almost all of my expectation.

Does what it needs to do

Seagate Desktop HDD ST2000DM001 2TB 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive
Seagate Desktop HDD ST2000DM001 2TB 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive

Pros: plug and play

Cons: no issues

Overall Review: Windows 10 users: if your new drive doesn't show up under this PC, left click the start button and select disk management. You will need to manually allocate the drive.