Joined on 12/27/04
Nice, quiet case. Airflow is questionable
Pros: -Orange color for your orange build -Very quiet case, as their company name implies -Good build quality.
Cons: -This thing runs pretty hot. I don't think there's good airflow in the front. -No basement for the PSU. -Grommets come out of their housing very easily. Make sure to hold them in while feed cables through -I was not satisfied with the cable management system, particularly access holes for the top of the mother board. -The built in fan speed control button is poorly documented and doesn't work well. It also makes all your fans spin at the same speed. Plug your fans into the motherboard and use dynamic fan controls instead.
Overall Review: My main complaint with this board was the built in fan control switch on the front panel. First of all, there is little to no documentation on how to hook the it up! I spent over an hour trying to figure out how it worked and getting it right. Was hard to find documentation on it anywhere. Second, once I got it working, I realized that all my case fans would now spin at the same speeds and I'd have to manually move that switch. In the end, I plugged all my fans into the motherboard and used dynamic fan controls. So long as you can manage the heat well, I'd recommend this case. It's nice and matches the orange aesthetic I was going for.
Bad for gaming
Pros: It's cheap
Cons: It's cheap No extra buttons Can only send two keys at a time Cable is too short for any normal desk
Overall Review: I bought this to be a cheap replacement to a wireless keyboard that kept dropping signal. Well, I got what I paid for. I wanted to primarily game with this keyboard, but it can only send 2 two keys at a time. That is not nearly enough. Don't buy this if you're playing a game that uses wads for movement. You won't be able to do the things you need to do, like running and jumping sideways at the same time!
Plays games well, but a disturbing trend
Pros: I can crank up the settings and get good numbers on the screen.
Cons: It's very expensive It's massive. I had to get a new case just to fit it It's power hungry It's loud
Overall Review: Although NVIDIA is the market leader in graphics cards, I don't like the trajectory they're on. This card is bigger and more in every way, including physical size and power draw. Seems to me they're hitting diminishing returns on scalability. The only way to make it do better is to run it hotter and make it bigger. You'll notice that they're relying heavily on AI to fake the frames instead of linear scaling. In short, I hope there's a dramatic shift in graphics cards that doesn't require ever increasing budgets, size, power consumption and heat. Something's gotta give. We need a new paradig, like when Apple converted from intel to ARM chips. Game breaking, reset moore's law, etc.
Stopped working after 3 months
Pros: When it worked, it was a nice motherboard
Cons: After 3 months, I started getting blue screen errors indicating a hardware problem. The led in the board indicated a vga problem. System would show any video. So I swapped in a known working video card and it wouldnt post at all. Through a lot of trial and error, I found that if I plugged in the monitor to the hdmi port on my video card instead of DisplayPort, I could get into bios. I couldnt get much further. Sent it in for RMA from asus and they said they couldnt replicate the symptom. I found many other users online having the same problem. Very frustrating. Im now going to buy a different motherboard and eat the cost since asus wont fix this board . Not sure Ill buy another asus mobo
Overall Review: Id like asus to make this right, but I dont feel like they will.
Good drive
Pros: -Fast -Reliable
Cons: -Loud -Cannot close tray by pushing it in. You have to use the button.
Overall Review: This is a fine drive. It could be a great drive if it was quieter and I could just push the tray in, rather than using the button.
Top end gaming performance at a great price
Pros: -My games run at 100+ fps at max settings, 2k resolution @165hz. Yes, you can get higher fps, but is it worth the cost? -The stock cooler (wraith spire) is pretty nice. Has an RGB ring on the top and does a great job at cooling. (Stock settings, have not overclocked) -Overclockable (I don't overclock, but I know this thing can) -Desktop apps run nice and fast. Games run flawlessly at max settings. Haven't experienced any crashing yet. It just works. -Support for Ryzen will only increase. This thing runs great now, I'm excited to see how it does with more mainstream support!
Cons: -Documentation was unclear on the RGB ring on the fan. There's a small cable thats easy to lose which you must plug into an RGB header. -Support for Ryzen is not as widespread as Intel. I haven't had any problems with it yet.
Overall Review: I bought this chip for gaming. It has not disappointed. I pair it with a 1080ti and 16 gb DDR43000. I also run at 2k resolution @165 hz. I get 100+ fps on all my games, many up into the 130 fps range. I know that intel chips could probably net me a few extra fps, but once you're that high, it doesn't matter. For the price, this CPU is excellent for gaming. I'm very pleased with this purchase and want to see AMD become a legit competitor again. Even if they don't, I saved some money by getting this chip and don't feel like I sacrificed anything. The only reason you'd need a faster chip or go with intel is for benchmark numbers. Don't waste your money simply to see numbers on the screen. You'll get top of the line gaming performance from this chip at stock speeds, let alone if you start over clocking. 10/10 would buy again!