Joined on 01/28/05
Runs cool
Pros: I got it for CAD-CAM, and replaced my 3 yr old Quadro 4000. Of course the performance is great and probably way overkill. But what I love about this card is how cool it runs. My old card was always hot enough to fry eggs on, even at idle, and that's why the 4000's would burn out and start blue-screening your system after about 3 yr. I am hoping to get more out of this improved, cooler-running design. PNY acts like it was intentional/normal for the 4000 to run that hot, but it was an inferior design, intentional or not.
Cons: None yet.
Overall Review: Expensive at 780 but not much more than the card it replaced. For a while I was running off the Intel CPU graphics. I could still run 2 screens at 1680x1050, the the material rendering in CATIA looked almost just as beautiful. The difference is seen when you rotate the model with the spaceball. Whereas a real card will do this smooth as silk, the model would freeze for a sec and jump in big increments of motion.
Pros: Works OK, after a few headaches. I wanted front & rear USB3 on an older computer, and this seemed ideal for that.
Cons: The 3rd party seller is in China, and it ships from there. It took over 11 days. USPS tracking said it arrived a week ago-wrong! (Wasted my time filing claims for lost package). Then I had to drill out the plastic bracket legs to fit my floppy bay, not a big deal. Then Win7-64 didn't recognize. Newegg tech support miraculously supplied this USB3 driver link, which solved that problem: http://am.renesas.com/media/products/tools/introductory_evaluation_tools/starterkits_evaluation_boards/usb_3_demo_card/RENESAS-USB3-Host-Driver-30230-setup.exe
Overall Review: after the pain, I am "happy" with it now. But shopping at newegg isn't supposed to be like a risky flea market purchase. I don't like they way they have so many 3rd party sellers that are sometimes a little ... lower tier than what we're used to. This was not some $2 product. $35 for a product like this is high priced.
Nice case
Pros: I built a new system for my wife 6 months ago with the Compact version, and since I wanted an optical drive bay, the new system I recently built for myself, I chose the Define 7, instead of the Define 7 Compact. Very happy with both of them, they make well-designed, high quality products.
Cons: None so far
Overall Review: Yes I would purchase again
Watch Out for type of DVI you have
Pros: I like Star-Tech stuff most of the time
Cons: Beware of the difference between DVI-I (analog) and DVD-D (digital). This adapter is for analog. My laptop dock is DVI-D, I learned the hard way. DVI-D is missing the 4 extra pins around the larger prong. If you have to connect a digital DVI_D to vga, you need the much more expensive active converter. DVI2VGAE
Overall Review: The description could have been better regarding this, for people like me who forgot that there are different flavors of DVI out there that won't interchange. I'm sharing dual monitors between a desktop and laptop dock, and the desktop uses the DVI inputs on the monitors. VGA is all that's left for the laptop. The Dell dock had one vga for monitor 2. But for monitor 1, must use the dvi-d output. Was looking to use a VGA cable between. Ordered the active converter instead. Samsung has a new 24" out with display-port & DVI duals, but the other specs aren't as good as what I already have.
Died after 14 months
Pros: Worked ok until it died suddenly without warning
Cons: At 14 months, died. Data recovery is not possible or practical. Will have to re-create some Quickbooks data that I stupidly let stay pointed to the C drive. SSDs are fine if you don't keep any valuable data on there, and have a backup image at the ready for when it fails.
Overall Review: After talking to others, these things don't have the best reputation as far as lasting. I'm used to standard drives, where if it runs for the first few weeks you might likely get 4-5+ years out of it. 14 months is way to young to die and have to hassle with reloading software etc. 1 star is being generous.
no audio
Pros: Adapts display port on my Dell M4500 to HDMI
Cons: No audio comes across through the HDMI...very disappointing
Overall Review: I ordered this with an HDMI cable on the same order. The cable arrived in 2 days. The adapter arrived about a week later. You get spoiled by Neweggs always-speedy, efficient shipping. This thing was sold by a 3rd party and shipped via snail-mail. Rather aggravating, I didn't even notice at first that it wasn't sold by newegg (from neweggs website!)
works as expected
nice cable, great seller