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Arthur I.

Arthur I.

Joined on 12/25/02

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 17
Most Favorable Review

Simply Amazing

Phanteks Enthoo Pro Series PH-ES614P_BK Black Steel / Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case
Phanteks Enthoo Pro Series PH-ES614P_BK Black Steel / Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case

Pros: Looks great for a plastic case. Fully dustproof (unless you want to use rear fan as intake on a fully watercooled dustproof system. Cable management is quite good, very comparable to corsair, maybe even a bit better. Great toolbox for all fittings and fasteners. Included reservoir mount. Included fan hub (see cons for some issues though)

Cons: Only a couple but they stood out a bit. Reservoir mount has somewhat useless predrilled mounting holes. Ended up having to drill my own. Not a huge con, but not sure what reservoir those predrilled holes are for. Fan hub documentation is not clear at all. In order to have PWM control you must plug the motherboard fan header into the WHITE fan hub connector (theres only 1), otherwise fans run at full speed and cannot be monitored. Hope that Phanteks update future manuals with this little tidbit of information. Res mount scratches very easily. Res mount blocks A LOT of air from the intake front fans. But hey, no biggy. Window also scratches very easily, so be careful. Only one ssd mount for cable management area, but hey, its $99 for a corsair killer. Kind of a dust magnet on the outside.

Overall Review: My previous case was the 600T White. THat was an incredible case, except for its watercooling abilities. This case is a great water cooler and I'm super happy with my purchase. I put a rigid tubing watercooling build into this case. 360mm rad in the roof (XSPC AX) in pull config (pushpull wouldnt work with this thickness radiator). Managed to get a small 80mm primochill res mounted. Put the pump originally hidden away under the psu shroud, but proved impracticle for changing speeds, so instead I ended up mounting it in the lower drive bay space. After many rigid tubing attempts, I managed to have the beautiful psu shroud on, AND have the pump hidden away in the lower drive cage (but it was quite a bending job)

Most Critical Review

Hope you have a bucket!

SOLEUS AIR LX-100HP 4-in-1 10,000 BTU Capacity Portable Air Conditioner/Heater/Dehumidifier/Fan with Remote Control
SOLEUS AIR LX-100HP 4-in-1 10,000 BTU Capacity Portable Air Conditioner/Heater/Dehumidifier/Fan with Remote Control

Pros: Well, it is semi portable, meaning that you can roll it around. and it cools a room pretty well...and i guess having a remote is rad.

Cons: Let me put it this way. I now have the AC on a chair, with a paper towel jammed in the drainage hole, and a bucket under the paper towel. On average, it will fill an 8 quart bucket per night. There was even a class action lawsuit against Soleus for their bogus 'no need to empty water' claims. Make no mistake, this thing leaks GALLONS of water, and if yours hasn't started leaking yet, it will.

Overall Review: I would have returned it, but after calling Soleus, they informed me that I would have to pay to ship it back, effectively doubling what I paid for this awesome indoor waterfall. That's when I came up with my slapped together drainage rig.

Died 10 minutes out the box

ZOTAC GeForce GTX 970 4GB, ZT-90101-10P
ZOTAC GeForce GTX 970 4GB, ZT-90101-10P

Pros: Cheap. Apparently would be compatible with the EK 670 waterblock (read the cons for more info)

Cons: Lots of video artifacts and died about 10 minutes into using it. It makes a pretty loud clicking noise when the fans spin up. Also, EK put on their site that it would fit on a FC670 waterblock, but then a week later took that down after they actually checked whether it fit or not (not zotac's fault, totally EK's fault). Now I have to return all the parts and go back to my 660 sli config

Overall Review: FWIW, 2 660s in SLI are very close performance-wise to a 970, just in case anyone was wondering. Yeah, single GPUs offer greater stability, and the power savings on the 970 are good, but in case you were thinking about saving your money, this might be good to know. Not a whole lot of confidence in Zotac now, might go for trusted MSI, since they've never let me down before.

Not too shabby

MSI N660 TF 2GD5/OC G-SYNC Support GeForce GTX 660 2GB 192-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
MSI N660 TF 2GD5/OC G-SYNC Support GeForce GTX 660 2GB 192-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

Pros: Coupled with an i7 3770K I got the following numbers: 3d Mark 11 - 6935 3d Mark Vantage - 26959 Uniengine - 3157 Metro 2033 (1440x900, Full details) - 48FPS avg. Highest temps - 55C Runs beautifully. Havent overclocked it yet.

Cons: None yet.

this case is AMAZING

Corsair Graphite Series 600T Arctic White Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Corsair Graphite Series 600T Arctic White Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Pros: LOADS of space. EXCELLENT cable management. You cant see any cables in my setup, except where they plug in. Management is a breeze. Loads of gromets. Enough space on the back panel for all your wires. Lots of ties downs. Huge fans. Dust filters = awesomesauce. Slick design. White LEDs. Inlcuded zip ties. Tooless everything. Blows away my Antec 900 (which i used to love, but is nowadays too limited).

Cons: Shipping this case may cause it to get dinged up, especially since its white. YOu may want to buy this at a local store. The manual sucks...BAD. The usb 3 cord can be problematic when running behind the board and out the back of the case.

Overall Review: The manual SUCKS! (it really does) This made my antec 900 look like a joke (even though this case is ALOT bigger than the 900) even though it doesn't have as many fans. If you want cable management, don't even hesitate.

sweet if youre into minimalism

GIGABYTE GA-970A-UD3 AM3+ AMD 970 + SB950 USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
GIGABYTE GA-970A-UD3 AM3+ AMD 970 + SB950 USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: slick board. Great PCIe layout for Crossfire. EFI Bios. Easy OC (got my AMDX6 1100 up to 3.8). am3+ capable. My zalman 9700LED fits just fine (even though fitting it is scary, but its always been that way) TONS of usb ports (3x power too)

Cons: No onboard test boot button (minor gripe. you can just short the 2 power pins for on/off). No UEFI bios (those things are sliiiick). No usb3.0 header.

Overall Review: Great board if you have a simple setup. I just need 1 graphics card slot, and a pci slot for my sound card. Good amount of room for my ram with the zalman 9700. If youre looking for major connectivity, you may want a more robust board.