Joined on 06/13/07
Great Board, awful northbridge fan
Pros: The motherboard fly's and was really simple to get all setup. The configuration of the BIOS is great.
Cons: Northbridge fan is the bane of my existence. It's loud and gets louder if you reduce the rpms which you would think would reduce the noise. I even put thermal paste between the fan and the heatsink to reduce vibration. My issue is not with vibration is the high pitch squeal that comes from the tower. I've looked online for some fixes and will try those, overall it's more of annoying than anything.
Overall Review: Remember to update the BIOS to 07. It's really simple, you just need to download the update from XFX support and burn to a disk. Boot to the BIOS and set the first boot as the DVD/CD drive. Put the burned image of the BIOS update in the drive, save and exit the BIOS settings. The system should restart and perform the update. The first run at it, the update program got stuck and I had to start over but it was no big deal.
Oh So Nice.
Pros: Really simple and streamlined. Keys function quite near like a laptop keyboard, which I like. Like how function key is subtle with secondary actions above F* keys.
Cons: Delete/insert key is a little different than other keyboards but nothing I can't get use to.
Overall Review: I had an older logitech wireless keyboard/mouse combo with a docking station. The keyboard was always so large and had way too many large function buttons. The ultra-thin is a great complement if you want to be able to launch/control music from the keyboard without huge buttons to do so.
Just OEM
Pros: Fast and simple. No packaging since OEM (besides the bubble wrap). Easy to install and setup. 32mb cache a huge bonus.
Cons: Jumper. As others have stated, the jumper is a pain to get off. There's not a great place to grab it and it doesn't run the full length of the two pins. When you try and get at it, its pushed all the back into it's "cavern". Anyways, use a pin or a really small screw driver and be careful.
Overall Review: Comes with a CD and extra software I didn't use, not sure why this was sent.
Won't skip a beat
Pros: Fantastic card. XFX has put together a great package. The card runs great and even better with two in SLI. I have not had a single issue with running apps or games on full specs at the same time.
Cons: The fans are kind of load even when running at lower fan speeds once the software kicks in after boot up.
Overall Review: Both cards are running on a XFX 780i board with an intel q9400. I wanted a system to be cool and quiet. With the fan noise I may get a couple of large heat sinks to eliminate the noise.
Fast and cool
Pros: This thing is blazing fast. No issues with install and so far. Runs really cool.
Cons: With 45nm, the CPU is less tolerant to overclocking so be careful.
Overall Review: If you are an overclocker it is probably in your best interest to stick with the 65nm architecture.
Nice and Cool
Pros: Great heat sink, and love not having to run a fan. Keeps temp way down, below 40, with standard PC tasks.
Cons: It's quite large. If you don't have a full tower you may be pressed for fitting it within your case.
Overall Review: None