Pros: Good price.
Cons: None. Can't blame the product for compatibility issues.
Overall Review: Installed in a 2007 mac mini, which was apparently a late 2006 version, and which doesn't like this memory. Our local mac shop said it's hit and miss with minis from that timeframe. If it doesn't work, it won't even boot or let you do a hardware test.
Pros: - Compatible with MSI 890GXM mobo. - Works in this hot-swap unit: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817993028 - Good performance.
Cons: - Does not work in the Rosewill USB 3.0 enclosure (at this time anyway), due to a chipset incompatibility.
Overall Review: 2.7 TB formatted. 5 1 TB drives in RAID 5 give you ~3.6 TB. Two of these in RAID 1 could be a great alternative in many cases.
Pros: - Easy to install, and the rack and tray seem solid enough.
Cons: - The system it's in ( MSI 890GXM-G65 mobo) won't boot if this is turned on with a drive in it when booting. Hangs during BIOS check stage.
Overall Review: - HD Tune read test started out at 150 MB/s, but steadily dropped. At the end, the read times were 64 MB/s. The slowdown was linear. - Running a checkdisk, with an empty drive, scanned quickly, but then took over a minute for the result dialog (showing no errors) to come up. - Seems slow to come to life. Turning it on after the system is booted, Windows is slow to recognize it. Turning it off, it doesn't always see it's gone, and then may be slow trying to find it again at times.
Pros: Very solid and clean.
Cons: None
Overall Review: The Crucial SSD I put in it wanted to grab the thermal pad and bunch it up, which made installing a bit harder than expected. Used in a 2U iStarUSA case, which was a tight fit, but not the fault of this product.
Pros: G.Skill has never failed me. I got a bad pair of sticks once, and they sent replacements out right away. Their prices are always fair. I don't OC, since I build business machines. Stability is more important to me, and G.Skill has worked well for me.
Cons: None.
Pros: Stock cooler fits in a 2U server chassis.
Cons: The stock cooler (remember, using another cooler voids your warranty) is a bit loud. Not terribly so, but something to be aware of if you're building an HTPC.
Pros: Solid bracket. Solid connectors. Good cable length, and why I got this one. Most end up being just a bit too short. Easy connections and just works. No drivers. No card. Just simple.
Cons: I really wish it came with a low-profile bracket.
Pros: Flat cables can be difficult to route cleanly sometimes. These are easier in some cases, but not all. e.g. they can't bend as tight as a flat cable on its flat axis. Bulge on connector makes them easier to pull out, if you need to unplug when building your system. Connectors seem solid.
Cons: None so far.
Pros: It's the same case as their older eSATA model, which I have used a lot, and works well. The USB 3.0 interface on this is fast, very close to eSATA performance, and only ~20-30% below the internal SATA III drive in a new build. It's my first USB 3.0 experiment, so I didn't know what to expect, and ran a number of benchmarks. I love eSATA, but it's not always as PnP as you might want, which USB is. Things also have a lot more USB ports than eSATA, which bodes well for USB 3.0. The MSI 890 GXM used with this has one eSATA and two USB 3.0 ports. Rosewill tech support responded quickly to my issue with the 3 TB drive.
Cons: It does *not* work with the Hitachi 3 TB drive. It's a chipset compatibility issue. They say they tested with the WD drive, but I can't confirm that works at this time. The fans in these cases sometimes make noise later in their lives, but none have failed in 2+ years of continuous service.
Pros: For the money, this seems like a great card. Can't speak to gaming, but for general use, it's easy to set up and performs well.
Cons: None, though I'm not a big fan of ATI's Catalyst Control Center.
Overall Review: It ran at about 60C with no air blowing on it, and the case open. It's in an XClio Wind Tunnel, and with the side fans on, it runs at45-50C.
Pros: Works as advertised. Not loud, and they move a decent amount of air.
Cons: Price.
Overall Review: I put them on par with the fans that came with my Coolermaster Cosmos case. These seem a little quieter, and a little less powerful.
Pros: It's silent. That's why you get it.
Cons: It doesn't move much air. Look at the RPMs and the specs. Price.
Overall Review: It is what it is. If you want a silent fan, and don't need to move much air, it's a great choice. If not, Scythe has other very quiet options.
Pros: Not too loud, and seems to do a fine job, especially given the price.
Cons: Clip made it slide to the side. Hard to secure. Not sure why I had so much trouble with it, but I did. I eventually got it locked down properly, and wasn't about to take it off to fix the thermal compound unless things got hot.
Overall Review: Even with my wrenching it about, and probably messing up the thermal compound pretty well, it keeps a 2.6Ghz 65W Athlon nice and cool.
Pros: The side fans really make a difference. They're easy to turn off and adjust for testing. On low speed they're quiet. On high they're audible, but not annoying.
Cons: Not much in the way of instructions. The lower 3.5" bay is hard to use, at least on mine. The sheet metal breakout is too high, making it hit the device you try to put in. I couldn't get a 3.5" floppy in there, so had to put the card reader on the bottom, and even tilted it scraped hard on its way in. The Rosewill reader has a solid bottom, or I wouldn't have tried it. I took the bezel off (front fan install) and now it won't clip back in tight. The right side, where the wires are, won't snap into the top clip. The way the drives install, my stiff power cables (Corsair 750) push against the front 25cm fan. Had to tie them back.
Overall Review: The hard drive trays are tight. A bit hard to get on. Should be very secure though. You'll probably need a fan extension cable if you put a fan in front of the 3.5" drive rack. Rubberized front is kind of unique. Front USB, etc. connectors are on the right edge, facing to the side.
Pros: Lovely to look at. Labeled, easy to use, power and reset switches right on the board. RAID software is very nice.
Cons: No floppy cable (if you need a floppy to install RAID drivers) - need a long one to reach in a large case. RAID5 write performance with five 1TB WD Green Caviars is nothing to write home about.
Overall Review: Docs don't mention RAID 5, and the setup for it was a bit odd. I wanted a non-RAID boot drive, and the RAID array for data. I tried to set the raid array up as LD1, but it would skip LD1 and make it LD2, with ensuing boot issues. I then found the undoc'd RAID-ready setting, made the single drive use that as LD1, the other five as LD2, and all was well. Give yourself some time if you don't normally do RAID setups. Using x64 and a 5TB array, you may need to make at few passes to get the OS installed and all partitions set up (the 2TB issue). e.g. I had to create a partition on the array, but then had to delete it and make the LD a dynamic disk to combine the 2.0 and 1.6 TB partitions into one big one. I wouldn't mind having another fan connector, but I like fans.
Pros: Very quiet, with decent flow.
Cons: Price.
Overall Review: It's not going to blow out your birthday candles, but you get these because they're quiet for the amount of air they move. If you want to move more air, get the higher CFM model. Scythe has a nice variety, so you can mix and match.
Pros: Just put five of these, in RAID5, in an XClio Wind Tunnel, and they run between 23C and 29C, depending on how fast I run the side fans. I also put a 120mm fan in front of the drive rack. Good value for the money.
Cons: *Maybe* a bit slow (see below).
Overall Review: Under RAID5, using chipset RAID on mobo, writes are slow, which I expected. It's worse than I thought it would be (comparing to a dedicated Areca controller and Hitachi drives), but read speeds seem fine. After experimenting with settings (e.g. NCQ on/off), I haven't improved it, and believe it's a combination of chipset controller and power saving drives. It is what it is.
Pros: Runs cool and quiet. Just got one as a boot drive for a new machine, after being so pleased with the two I have RAIDed in my main rig, and another that's been running 24x7 for a few years, with great SMART stats.
Cons: None
Overall Review: I think I'll stick with these drives unless I need SAS, SSD, or large capacity. e.g. this one is a boot drive, with 5 1TB drives RAIDed for data storage.
Pros: Tons of connectors - 4 PCIe connectors. Quiet. Good quality. I'm always impressed with Corsair PSs, from the packaging on down. Makes it look like they care. Price, if you wait for a sale, and maybe even a rebate.
Cons: With so many cables, it would be nice if they were a little more flexible, particularly the SATA connectors. Bit of a pain to dress them down and around.
Overall Review: In an XClio Wind Tunnel case, with only one optical drive, it worked out OK. I tied all the excess cables up near the top of the case. The SATA cables were the only real issue, the way the internal drive rack and mounting system is for this particular case. I also have a modular Corsair in another case, and I really like it.
Pros: Tiny. Comes with cables. Decent price, and works well once you have it configured.
Cons: The manual is wrong. As another reviewer noted, it comes configured with internal ports enabled. Move jumpers to the left to enable external ports. Windows utility software is pretty ugly.
Overall Review: No hot-plug support until you set up their utility software it seems. I'm not uninstalling it to verify though. I haven't configured it for RAID, but it still gives an error when you unplug a drive that was mounted at boot. No harm done, but it can scare you if you're not ready for it. Coexists fine with mobo RAID, and Marvell adapter.
Pros: Nice length. Not too expensive. Quality seems fine.
Cons: None
Overall Review: Flat, but nicely flexible in that direction.
Pros: Quieter than the SilenX IXP-54-09 80mm I got at the same time, which is rated 5.5 db quieter. Good cable length. Very slim. Comes with brackets to mount to HDD. Good air movement for sound rating.
Cons: None off the bat. Expensive, even if you wait for a sale.
Overall Review: I mounted it in a drive tray. Unable to mount directly to drive in my case. I was able to make it work, but if you have a special setup, you may need nuts to go on the back side of the bracket. For any normal setup, you won't need them. I've had very good luck with all the Scythe fans I've gotten. They perform well for the relative sound they put out.
Pros: Quiet. Comes with soft mounts (and screws). Cable is a good length. I consider the fluid bearing a good feature.
Cons: None, unless the gold color bothers you.
Overall Review: Not *quite* as quiet as the Scythe Kaze slim 100mm fan (got them at the same time), which is rated 5.5 db louder. Cable is very thin, feeling almost fragile, and the four-pin to fan adapter has a bare pin on the fan side. Decent air movement for size and sound rating.
Pros: I've had one of these running for almost a year. The SMART readings on it show absolutely no errors. Either they're working the numbers, or I got one awesome unit. No errors. No noise.
Cons: None.
Overall Review: I've never seen another drive peg the SMART meters in SpeedFan, or show zero errors of any kind. My WD160s are in RAID, so I can't see the SMART data for those without some effort. Runs at 37C in a CoolerMaster Cosmos, with two WD160 drives and two fanless vid cards.
Pros: Same as before
Cons: Same as before
Overall Review: The model number for my drive is MZ-7TD500BW, which is NewEgg item http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147190. I just mismatched the models when I posted earlier.