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Dominic B.

Dominic B.

Joined on 03/02/07

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 13
Most Favorable Review

Very Fast 4TB External USB 3.0

Seagate Backup Plus 4TB USB 3.0 3.5" Desktop Hard Drive STCA4000100 Black
Seagate Backup Plus 4TB USB 3.0 3.5" Desktop Hard Drive STCA4000100 Black

Pros: Fast 4TB External USB 3.0. I voided my warranty right away and used this for an internal 4TB in my system. Cheapest price for a 4TB internal @ 189.00. Drive inside was a Segate Barracuda XT ST4000DX000. Benchmark @ 130mbs read 128mbs write as internal. Similar with USB 3.0 Awesome.

Cons: Be careful. Using it as an external the drive can get hot. I measured 56C with 1 hour copying over mkvs (movies). Plus I bought this same exact model a @ BB and it only had a Seagate Barracuda ST4000DM000. Which only benched 115mbs read 71mbs write. So luck of draw what model of hdd you will get in it.

Overall Review: USB 3.0 performance on this thing is as fast as using it as in internal drive. Heck I can't even find any internal 4tbs @ 189.00 atm. Plus with President day sale you can get this with 3 day shipping with $162.00. Not bad at all.

Most Critical Review

Nice SSD Rack 6GB

Vantec EZ Swap F4 MRK-425ST-BK 4 Bay 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s SSD/HDD Removable Rack, SATA III ready (Supports 9.5 & 12.5mm height SSD/HDD)
Vantec EZ Swap F4 MRK-425ST-BK 4 Bay 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s SSD/HDD Removable Rack, SATA III ready (Supports 9.5 & 12.5mm height SSD/HDD)

Pros: Nice looking SSD/HDD rack. Getting full 6GBs with my four OCZ Vertex 4's (1.5GB Raid0). Easy to remove your SSD's without having to open case. Plus makes cable mangement look alot better.

Cons: Be careful with the back SATA connectors. The ones that come with the Rack work fine and fit snug. However, if you are using your own SATA cables you may have problems. The SATA ports are tight and may not fit your own SATA cables!

Overall Review: Vantec needs to redesign the back ports to allow a more wider range of SATA cable types to fit in. I had to mod the plastic around the SATA ports to fit my sata cables. I should have just RMA'd it. But my mod works fine. I am giving 3 out of 5, because It wont fit every type of SATA cables.

Awesome Power Supply Running for 3yrs straight!

SeaSonic  X-1050 ( SS-1050XM2 ) 1050W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Full Modular Active PFC Power Supply New 4th Gen CPU Certified Haswell Ready
SeaSonic X-1050 ( SS-1050XM2 ) 1050W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Full Modular Active PFC Power Supply New 4th Gen CPU Certified Haswell Ready

Pros: I bought this power supply in May of 2012. I been running it in a home server for over 3years straight! Zero issues. Very silent, can't even hear it running. I am glad I bought this power supply over some of the other competitors. Very reliable.

Cons: None no issues with this.

Fast SSD

HyperX 3K 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) (Stand-Alone Drive) SH103S3/120G
HyperX 3K 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) (Stand-Alone Drive) SH103S3/120G

Pros: Very Fast SSD in ahci and raid 0. Raid 0 (two SSD) performance on Asus Crosshair V beat a pair of OCZ Vertex 4 on Read 90mbs or more. Very stable so far no BSOD's in Win8. Plus got these on sale for $69 a piece!

Cons: Raid 0 write peformance was not what i expected and did not work very well with my Asus Crosshair V. Was about 100mbs+ slower than OCZ vertex 4. However, this could be caused by my firmware. I noticed i was using one build less than the newest one. Plus, I couldnt get the firmware upgraded. Was a pain to find on the Kingston web site. I was in AHCI mode for the upgade, but it kept failing. I upgraded many SSD's firmware and never had this problem. Perhaps its an issue with Win8 compatiblity and the upgrade program. I'll try on win7 later.

12/10/2012

Great, different but some flaws.

Cooler Master HAF XB EVO - High Air Flow Test Bench and LAN Box Desktop Computer Case with ATX Motherboard Support
Cooler Master HAF XB EVO - High Air Flow Test Bench and LAN Box Desktop Computer Case with ATX Motherboard Support

Pros: This case has alot of innovation on it side. Definately different and looks nice. I like the way the side panels and top are removeable. Lots of Airflow through the front and lots of ways to customize it.

Cons: Lots of plastic. Hot swap 3.5 bays are cheap made and can break easy. LOUD with front fans on full speed but could be modded and replaced. Hard to get in and swap heatsinks in the future because cpu backplate is hard to access from bottom. Especially once you have everything installed the way you want it.

Overall Review: I bought this for a build I did for my dad. Looks great and suits his desk setup perfectly. However, I would not want this for myself. I feel the lower half of case doesn't offer adequate cooling for my HDD's. Its a little louder than I like and I don't think it would hold up long with its cheap hotswap bays and materials.

12/10/2012

Great Cooler but expensive

Noctua NH-D14, Premium CPU Cooler with Dual NF-P14 PWM and NF-P12 PWM Fans (Brown)
Noctua NH-D14, Premium CPU Cooler with Dual NF-P14 PWM and NF-P12 PWM Fans (Brown)

Pros: Keeps my 8350 30c idle 50c load. Overclocked to 4.5Ghz 58c load. Very silent, high quality made. Came packaged very well and I am using Artic silver 5.

Cons: Very large heatsink. Largest i installed and expensive. Is it worth the price? Honestly no. I can buy a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus for $30 and get close to same performance with push pull and the right fans installed and be just as quiet. I could get 32c and 52c load out of my Cooler Master Hyper 212.

Overall Review: If you are all about a few degrees different then get this cooler. However you can get close to the same peformance with a cheaper one if you know what you are doing. With the price of this cooler you can get a closed loop water cooling system and get better performance.

12/10/2012