Joined on 06/28/02
Make sure you are HDCP compliant!
Pros: Pretty much what everyone has said here. However, i am writing this mostly to inform everyone of something that i bet most have missed (see other thoughts).
Cons: None really, just an issue with HDCP compliance that i'll explain more below. This is not a Con as it's clearly stated in multiple places. I simply overlooked it!
Overall Review: I bought this for my home PC with no intention of ever hooking it up to a real HDTV. In my research i had totally left out something rather important. You have to make SURE that your computer and monitor are HDCP compliant. Go google this if you don't what it is. I had completely overlooked this aspect. My entire computer is HDCP compliant (your video card, OS, video card drivers must all be compliant). However, monitor isn't! Due to no one but my own fault, i will have to buy a new monitor to watch any hi-def content!
Cheap case, you get what you pay for
Pros: The price is good and it looks good.
Cons: Everything else... My company bought two of these for client computers and they are simply terrible. At least we are only out a few buck for each case. One of our cases was DOA, all the supports on one side of the front were broken. We are in the process of talking with Newegg to get a replacement. In the process of putting together the computer with the case that wasn't broken, i sliced my fingers several times. The metal in this case is very sharp and also very flimsy. I've had to bend pieces back into place several times. I will never buy another Linkworld case again and i advise anyone else to do the same.
Pros: Quick and simple review! 1. Fast 2. Fast 3. Did i mention it's fast?
Cons: 1. It's more expensive than platter based drives but still not as expensive as the high end SSD drives that offer the same performance using a different technology (MLC/SLC) 2. Small in size for the price
The Best GPU? Maybe...
Pros: What we have here is quite possibly the fastest GPU on the planet. This thing is mind boggling fast. I personally upgraded from an 8800GTS G92 and was surprised to see the performance increase that i did. The rest of my computer is starting to show it's age as i have a Core 2 Duo E6600, 3GB of DDR2 800, and a Corsair 620w PSU. I fought myself on whether i wanted to really lay down the money on this (this was before the recent price drop) and finally said "what the heck, money is just money" and spent it. I was expecting maybe a 5-10% speed increase as i thought the rest of my system would bog the card down. Instead, i am seeing 25-50% speed increases.
Cons: Price obviously, even more so because i bought it before the price drop. This card also requires quite a hefty PSU but if you are seriously considering this card, then i would have to assume that you know this and have the proper setup. Heat is also going to be a issue. This card gets really hot and if you dont have proper cooling it may end up going into thermal shutdown.
Overall Review: Competition from AMD has driven down the price, and there is fact that the 4870 X2 is actually faster in most cases. The 4870 X2 isn't available for purchase yet but the expected price is to be close to the GTX 280. Here's some more food for thought. When you are reading other reviews on other websites, they are most likely going to use super high end hardware to test the GPU. When you are using a fifteen hundred dollar CPU and two thousand dollars worth of memory, i would hope you get phenomal frame rates! So what about the other 95% of the computer users? People like me, with a 1.5 year old setup and pondering if this new card would make a difference. If you are one of those, i say go for it on one condition. Make sure you look at the AMD cards too, specifically the 4870 and the 4870 X2. These are very fast cards as well and cheaper than the Nvidia cards. I can honestly say, that had i known the 4870 was going to be as fast as it is, i probably would have got it instead.
Pros: 1. Fast 2. Quiet 3. Very little driver bloat
Cons: 1. Size
Overall Review: I bought this card to replace my aging radeon X1950XTX. It's only very slightly bigger (maybe 1/4") than the radeon. It's far more quiet than my old card and obviously a good bit faster.
Bought for a friend
Pros: Corsair memory is pretty much the only memory i'll buy. It's fast, it's pricing is very similiar to other companies and their warranty is good as well.
Cons: None
Overall Review: I bought this stick for a friend to upgrade their computer to play World of Warcraft a bit better. They had been running on 512MB total before, so this upgrade doubled their memory. Everything went wonderfully, and the memory works perfectly.
Good seller
Good seller, fast shipping and excellent packing. What more can you ask?