Christopher B.
Joined on 12/12/05
- 49
quiet, fast

Pros: -quieter than my 970 strix -faster, games definitely seem a bit more fluid, fewer hitches (running at 2560x1600) -works just fine w/o any extra s/w. I just used the newest drivers from nv, didn't install any gigabye s/w. The less crud running the better imho.
Cons: -not a huge speed increase from my 2 gen prior 970, at least on the stuff I play, but worth it to me
Overall Review: -initially kept booting to black screen, but it was just the monitor and card defaulting to incompatible modes (old monitor). Booted into safe mode, install drivers, change settings, good to go. -be sure to have both 6pin and 8pin cables for your psu, and a solid enough psu to push the whole sys (I aim for double the stated load, due to surge demands and psu efficiency considerations) -I only install the driver, physx, and the usbc driver, skipping all the other crud (3d stuff, user management s/w "experience" etc).
way too noisy

Pros: does drop my cpu temp under load a fair amount (by giving the hot gpu air somewhere to go, apparently)
Cons: doesn't drop my gpu load temp at all way, way too loud, just unacceptable. A whoosh noise (likely due to the grating and the internal air dam), and a high pitched whine (the fan itself). Simply not something I can leave in there as is. I don't own a dremel, so I'm not sure I'll have much luck trying to make it quieter.
Overall Review: I'm trying to cool a Gateway mini tower that has a gtx660 stuffed in it; obviously more heat than a stock i7 igp. So I'm beyond the design intent a bit, although a 660 is pretty efficient for current tech. This slot cooler does a little exhaust hot air, and dropped my cpu temp by 5C, despite being necessarily below the gpu due to mobo slot placement. I've read of folks who've modded this cooler to increase airflow and decrease noise, I'll try that next. Cheap enough to discard, worse case. I think there are better ways to cool a warm tower than this, if you care at all about noise (unless you are able to mod it, and thereby decrease the noise...maybe??).
short life, limited utility

Pros: silent, good capacity, nice clean display, works just fine not too big (about the size of a full sized college textbook) in theory, it has plenty of capacity for a single user rig w/ a modern monitor, and all the router gear. Not so much in practice (see below) USB connectable (although I think they dropped their in house software?) BONUS: buttons *not on top* so cats can't turn it off accidentally <- key feature! :)
Cons: I've had a bunch of these (and similar products from them). They tend to only last a couple years before the charging electronics or the battery (less often) fails. This is my 5th or 6th, but I rationalized the failures as it'd been awhile and it was a familiar brand and nice looking product. This particular one *should* power a 200W load for half an hour. Instead of 30m I got 30s on a fairly new one that was fully charged with only a 215W load. The time remaining display said 30m..29m..28m..(counting down every second). We've only had a few short outages here, and I've never run it all the way down but today it barely gave me enough time to shut down. The unit is only 6mos old.
Overall Review: nah, I'm going to start looking at other brands. This is a shiny, pretty ups but overall the brand's products have not performed anywhere near the stated values, pretty consistently. Short product life, and extremely short load time even with a modest load. Probably ok if you just want to not crash on brief flickers in the power line, but nothing more than that.
good basic sata drive, not synology compatible

Pros: works fine, have used quite a few of these for a several years now. No troubles when used internal to a pc or via an external usb adapter cradle.
Cons: do not put these in a synology (they're not listed as compatible by synology, and they're not kidding). Just a fair warning in case you, like I do, have a few of these spare lying around. Endless corruption and errors, even with every possible firmware update. Note: I don't blame crucial, I think synology has little interest in compatibility with industry std gear as they sell (expensive) drives...but this shouldn't be the case.
Overall Review: great drive for an older pc. Not suitable for a synology NAS. Own several of these drives, they work great.
fast, quiet, everything works

Pros: -really, really quiet -games run noticeably better than on my 2070 -works fine under linux; everything just works
Overall Review: noise is the most important requirement for me, with performance being second and cost third. I don't care at all about rgb or anime-theme plastic bits, or any of that nonsense. This card is really, really quiet; that's the whole reason I went with this over other brands/versions/models. The GRE is a step up in hardware but is clocked less aggressively, which is perfect for me. Yes, 7900XTs are slightly faster, and 7800XTs are only slightly slower (if at all), but that's fine. My room noise level is <18db, and my pc is built/configured specifically to minimize noise. This card is a great fit for that. Even flat out, at max power/unlimited it's much quieter than my Windforce 2070 (which was one of the quietest of it's time/pricepoint). NB: I did have to scrub the nv drivers from my distro to switch, but that's not hard even for a newb like me.
works fine, check connections if problems

Pros: -looks surprisingly nice, I really like the open deck look and black/chrome -seems very solidly made for the price -wired, no unneed wireless and no toxic battery with a limited lifespan -has bright, uniform rgb backlight (it has a few modes, I don't use them) -keycaps allow very good visibility in low lighting; thick bold letters glow brightly. This was a bit feature for me, my last keybd predated backlit ones. -I think this will be much easier to keep clean than a traditional keyboard where the tray has a lip. Cleaning my noppo choc mini was a nightmare; this should be much better in that regard. -very inexpensive!
Cons: -the red switch version is quite loud for my prefs (like, louder than the original IBM keyboards I think? it's really hard to compare sounds over that long a time period, but it seems like it). I'm terribly noise averse, tho, so most folks will probably find it normal for a mech kybd. -keycap font is a kind of obscure pseudofuturistic font that is a little hard to read. Totally usable, just the symbols are stylized enough it takes a second to parse some of them. That'll pass with time/familiarity, and some teen probably will think it's "kule" :) -on the totally minor end of things, I'll look for a mono-led variant next time (plus brown switches or whatever their quietest is); the rainbow is colorful but maybe a tad garish. Not a real drawback, tho.
Overall Review: Updated review.#2 I initially had trouble with this not working. At first I thought it was an incompatibility with linux, but it didn't work on a Windows pc either. It turns out the removable usb cable must have been jostled during shipping. It was securely in, but not connecting for some reason. Removing and reinserting both ends of the cable a few times eventually caused it to spring to life. It seems fine now, I think the shipping was just a bit too rough. Probably better to ship it w/o the cable inserted. It works fine now in Windows, mint, and Pop OS. It looks great, types fine. The noise is purely a personal prefs issue; it's probably about normal for red switches? I usually use browns or membranes to keep the noise down.
- 2
surprisingly good
refurbed lappie was in near perfect shape (minor scratches on case), apparently new battery (9.5hr charge? nice!), virtually a new machine once i gave it a good disinfectant wipe just to be safe. Much better than I expected from a refurb by an unfamiliar vendor.
good refurbed gear
2 items from them, both in excellent shape. One was missing a part so returned for refund, but that went smoothly too.
