Joined on 11/02/09
Great Board, and Fixed Linux Sleep/Suspend/Hibernate Issue!
Pros: Fantastic overall and good quality, especially when on sale! Picked it up for only 84 before Xmas with a rebate. **Its futurerpoof with USB 3.0 and SATA III, this is important as hard drives get faster and saturate SATA II 1. MANY connections, both for PCI and SATA. 2. Good onboard graphics. Handles everything I need my HTPC to do. 3. Unlocked the extra cores on my AMD x3 445 4. Looks pretty inside my clear sided NZXT case :)
Cons: Not big cons at all, just noting these for people who it might affect. 1. Crossfire ONLY works with onboard graphics if you buy a SPECIFIC card (one of the 5*** series cards I believe). You can still do cross fire with two other ATI cards dedicated cards, but to do hybrid crossfire with the onboard you have to buy the ONE card that they specify. Look it up if this is important to you. This goes for ALL 880 boards I believe. 2. This does consume more energy than the mATX version of this board (~15 watts with the same HW). For some people this may swing a decision to ditch extra PCI for more energy efficiency, but nothing wrong with this board in particular! Just noting this in general.
Overall Review: Overall Im very happy with this board. I am using it for my HTPC/Server and am running Ubuntu linux. The install went perfectly, but I had issues with sleep/suspend/hibernate for Ubuntu. It would just wouldn't go to sleep. After 2 weeks of frustration, I figured out it was the USB 3.0; other boards with USB 3.0 have the same issues, these just wont go to sleep properly and wake the system back up, even with nothing plugged in. This may be the issue for Win 7 as well, but I am unsure about this. In any case, there is a fix! I wrote up a page on TomsHadware to save people the time of searching online for it. To search for it, its called "Getting Sleep, Suspend, or Hibernate to Work With USB 3.0 Boards!" by Ansemx324. If you have questions on how to fix the issue just comment there and Ill be glad to help.
WATCH OUT FOR MAIL IN REBATE!
Pros: Looks like a nice enclosure and people said it performed really well for an esata version of this (look up the esata version if you want to see the reviews).
Cons: I almost bought one of these a few months ago, these "Free with ____ rebate" deals have come up numerous times in the last year, but NO ONE ever gets the rebate! They must have put this up as a different product to get rid of the bad reviews on the esata version that warned people about the scam, but there were loads of them
Overall Review: Last time I canceled my order after hearing that the company doesn't honor the rebate. ---I guess what happens is that they REQUIRE the packing slip, but then they make sure you dont get one, so the rebate is void, or they just never send you a rebate anyway and never respond. For $15, its a pretty good deal on an enclosure, so it may be an okay product, but Im writing this to warn people when they see the deal, not to expect to get any money back. I hate people who rate products that do not own them, but I really felt like there should be some kind of flag that the "free" deal IS, in fact, too good to be true from this company. Not saying don't buy it, but just beware that in the past, NO ONE has gotten that rebate (why would they ever put it up for free?)
Great IP Cam, especially for the price!
Pros: Works well, ESPECIALLY for the price! I stress that you'd have a hard time finding decent USB cams that are under $30 (which is what I got this for around 4/17/11), let alone a Network Cam. Most network cams are $60-$200. So don't compare this to those other cams, they are probably better quality, but for only $30 this is a great cam for the price! Picture during the day time is completely fine. Its actually quite good, and if someone broke into my apartment, this takes a good enough picture to identify who it was. Good software included. Includes motion sensing and will even email you a snapshot of what it caught on camera. Again, tested it, and the pic is good enough to identify the person.
Cons: Like everyone else said...low light is bad. its basically dark or grainy at best, so dont expect any night shots. To have the ability to edit all features of the cam, you must use IE and have ActiveX. This seems to be a problem with some other cams too. Not a terrible issue though, but a heads up in any case.
Overall Review: Again, for the price, this is a great cam. The software works pretty well, especially for coming free with the camera. It supports up to 16 cams (not sure if it works with other brands), but not a bad deal at all. One review is from someone who said he will let you view the camera if you emailed him. I did an he was an AWESOME guy and did let me see a live feed! Give him a good rating whether you contact him or not ;) Im planning to buy a few more, Im happy with the camera and the price! Ill upload a video that I took with the camera so you can see what it looks like. The conditions vary, sometimes it is much jerkier than it is now, but again, good enough to see whats going on!
To the review about HDCP
Pros: Its not missing anything like the 1st review believes it is!
Cons: Doesn't have an HDMI port. LED screens save energy and look better, but can experience bleeding, although I DO NOT know if this screen is a bleeder or not!
Overall Review: I do not own this product yet, but it is going on sale today and only has 1 review that needs some clarification. The review said it was missing an inverter, but it is not. This says DVI (HDCP included), which means it can play protected material (like blueray dvd's, dvds from your dvd player, your xbox). These all encrypt their video data going out from their video outputs, then the screen decodes them and shows the video. Without HDCP on the monitor you cannot use xbox or play dvds or what not. The 1st review I think confuses this with HDMI, which it doesnt have (this is a type of video input). There is no such thing as an "HDCP converter", HDCP is something built into the monitor that allows it to play protected content. Just wanted to clear this up for people that it didnt say it had a DVI-HDMI converter, and its not missing. Also, you want HDCP, so be happy :)
In response to Carol
Pros: Just wanted to write this in response to carol. There is a Wake on Lan option I believe, it is listed in the manual on page 2-7 from their website. I do not own this board yet, but that comment was holding me back because I want this to go to sleep and wake up when needed to save power. Please know that this should be possible. Great amount of Sata ports! Also DDR3 which is nice and will extend the life of the board.
Cons: I do wish it was something other than VGA, but for around 100 its alright.
Fantastic card and very pleased!
Pros: This card is great. I put it in my Cannon Powershot and went to my girlfriends concert to take pictures and record video of her group singing and was very impressed (read below). I bought the card so that I wont have to worry about running out of space since videos chew up a lot really quick and 8 gigs is plenty. Normally there is lag after taking videos and the camera can't be used for a min after the video is done, but it was almost instant after every video I took! Even after 5 minutes of video, it only took a split second to be back up and ready! My other cards are not nearly that fast, not even for a small video
Cons: Had to cut the package to turn in the rebate?
Overall Review: I haven't gotten my rebate yet, and I have just bought 2 sets of patriot ram and this patriot card, all with rebates, but they make the process decently simple. Just a few bits of info and the UPC, hopefully Ill hear from them soon. I have bought two of these now, and for under $10 apiece how can you go wrong? They also look very nice, not that you look at them often, but still