Joined on 01/26/06
Good for consolidating multiple drives
Pros: A good sturdy enclosure for up to 4 drives. Supports an encapsulation of all 4 drives visible as one large drive or having all 4 drives visible. Good at maintaining heat levels and very simple installation. Good airflow, has vents on the side of the casing, then blown out the back.
Cons: OUCH LEDs... they are BRIGHT. There needs to be laws about how bright LEDs can be. had to put several layers of duct tape over them in order to dampen them completely. 8 LEDs and the blue ones are the brightest
Overall Review: I'd like to mention that no where does this mention RAID or other connectors like firewire. Those of you listing those as CONS, should adjust them to your thoughts. Those are not valid cons to the device as it clearly does not list those as a feature. That is like buying a minivan and complaining that it isnt a convertible. You buy this product knowing what you are buying, if you wanted something else, then buy something else. Airflow is fine even with the "full cables" and a front panel with no holes. The casing sides have holes along the length of it which are used for air intake as the fan at the back will pump air out of the system. Additional holes without filters and fans will only cause dust accumulation. Contrary to popular belief, just because an item is not designed as a wind tunnel, it will operate to necessary standards without overheating.
Small appliance, little consumer support
Pros: Convenient size for home use. Can be used for a variety of applications
Cons: Lack of included riser board Lack of included 2.5" drive mounts Minimal amount of USB ports makes initial configuration difficult Biggest Gripe: SUPPORT. I own 4 of theses systems, one has a possibly failed temperature sensor as it goes into the overheating panic mode within a few minutes of operation. I sent in an RMA in 09/29/2011 and shipped it and followed through with the process. The last contact was received on 12/13/2011. I have made multiple attempts to contact support regarding the RMA and have not heard anything. (as of 4/26/2012)
Overall Review: If the atrocious support did not turn me away from the SuperMicro brand, I would still buy additional systems as needed given the few options available for a small rackmount server
Pros: Fairly simple installation. Kept temperatures low. Fans are quiet and have rubber mounting points keeping vibration down, could use longer cabling on them
Cons: Barely lasted 3 months, under heavy loads (2+ hours of gaming) pump started to make a grinding type noise infrequently. Later it would start to do this under no load Tubing felt fairly stiff yet cheap, difficult to position into the system. Radiator seemed to collect a fair amount of dust on it, not easy to clean at all.
Overall Review: Felt like trying out a liquid cooled system, no intention of overclocking. Wasn't the worst experience, but not the greatest at this price for the duration that i would trust it to cool my system. The fans are nice so at least something came out of it in the end. Warranty sealed unit so trying to fix the pump by removing air bubbles would be less than ideal
First SSD to die on me
Pros: While it was working, it was reasonably fast high capacity SSD storage. Not the best out there but was able to pick it up at a decent price. Read speeds for all but random were 230MB/s and up
Cons: When this fails it is unbelievably frustrating. It is currently operating with write speeds tests of less than 2MB/s. The drive is barely a year old and has half the usage of other SSDs I own. Reading these other reviews that popped up after my purchase date do not leave me comfortable with purchasing any PNY drive again.
Overall Review: I've contacted PNY support on their site, not even an automated confirmation of them getting a message is sent. Even if I do manage to get a refurbished unit with their 3 year warranty on the drive I would rather use a different drive for my needs
Pros: I have had this running in a system for an entertainment center for over a year. Hardly notice the sound of the computer.
Cons: None for my uses.
Overall Review: It is a bit on the large side, make sure you have room in your case. It is also NOT meant for an overclocked CPU. It is a lower RPM rating to be quiet while maintaining decent airflow.