Joined on 05/21/11
Decent budget case. Deserving of my longest review in 6 years, 3,045 characters!
Pros: Cheap. The case is a beautiful shade of black. Really good looking. Easy to mount cd/dvd plastic brackets. Fans included. Filters on vent holes. Fan mount on side of case. Metal is sturdy. LED lighting in the fans is not overzealous. The power button is awesome. SATA cabling does not have to be 2 feet long, 6 inches would be fine. What am I to do with all my super long cables? Did I mention that I really liked the dark shade of black? I hope it does not fade...
Cons: There are net enough screws. I would pay the $0.5 for more too. Minus 1/2 star. There is only one PCIe bracket. The rest are punch-outs. I would pay the extra $1 for them. Punch-outs are just stupid, especially for a DIY PC (which is the trade name... You guys should know better). Minus 1/2 star. The fan in the front blocks the HDs from being placed all the way back into the case slot. This makes the cables coming from the PSU and the ones going to the HDs very hard to connect and bends them a lot too. This looks like it could have been fixed without changing the case design, just move the fan further into the plastic front panel. Minus 1/2 star. The cable management is minimal. I did expect and am fine with that. There are no ties to help either. Fans make a quiet humming noise. It is a bit annoying, like a mouse that will not shut up. I can change them if I want to. I'm OK with it for now. There is no recess on the back of the case. I have seen many prebuilt computer cases that have a recess on the back beginning at the motherboard's panel insert. This adds a hand hold for the back of the case with a corresponding one on the front where the cd/dvd drive inserts. I don't know why this case does not have one or another handhold. I could not believe when I read reviews that stated that the plastic panel on the side got scratched easily. How is it possible? I don't know. Perhaps the plastic has been recycled 1 too man times (in spite of the claim that plastic can be "infinity recycled" the molecular structure breaks down as a result of time and the recycling process, hence the smell of hot plastic). So, yes, it does scratch very easily. The scratches are not visible from a distance and/or with dim lighting as is common under the desk. I personally don't care as long as it stays together.
Overall Review: At least one person reported that the front USB connectors will break if you use force on the device or when inserting a USB device, I have not had this problem, but the connectors do not seem that solid. Personally, I prefer it this way because I would be most upset if my expensive flash drive broke vs. a piece of plastic that I will glue back on for $0.5. My biggest mistake with this case so far has been that I should have attached the side fan's power cable before installing the PSU and the lowest PCIe card. I had to do some disassembly to get to the MBs fan header. I have not yet gotten the front USB 3.0 header working. Perhaps it will not work with USB 2.0 devices like the back ones will? The review had to be long. Normally I'm much more quiet...
Not as advertised, 2/3 capacity!
Pros: Better than a lot of junky online batteries.
Cons: 900mAh promised, 633 and 672 were my results when testing with a ZK2L3 battery capacity meter. After a full charge cycle I brought them down from 1.4v to 0.8v.
Overall Review: I did not test the other 2. I am surprised that these get such good reviews on other, independent sites. I would buy them again, but only on sale (they are not worth it otherwise) .
Good UPS, bad noise figure.
Cons: I purchased this for use with my oscilloscope. But the UPS emits a lot of EMI interference.
Overall Review: It's not mentioned in the listing, but this particular UPS will interfere with your sensitive equipment, such as your oscilloscope, ham radio, maybe WiFi as well. They don't really say. I, or you, will want to get a UPS that complies with FCC regulations to not emit harmful interference. You can normally read about the interference by consulting the manual or the back of your UPS unit.
Good drive.
Pros: It works well and is stable.
Overall Review: I've been using it for almost 2 years. It has about 10K hours on it. It has over a million LBAs written. Mine is the 2TB model.
USB-C hub minus USB-C port
Pros: It works well with just about anything I can plug into it.
Cons: It doesn't work with USB-C items. IDK why. I even considered the USB-C port on the hub might be used just for charging the laptop, but no, the laptop's USB-C charger doesn't charge the laptop through this hub.
Overall Review: It's a fine hub, but forget the USB-C port. It doesn't seem to work for anything. Maybe it's a power out port only.
Runs Linux
Pros: Runs Linux
Cons: MS Pluton, of course. The WiFi doesn't work yet with Debian Linux. The drivers probably exist, they just haven't percolated down to the latest distro.
Overall Review: Again, beware of Pluton.
Good seller.
Item arrived on time and in good condition.
Good seller.
Item arrived on time and in good condition.
Good seller
Item arrived on time and in good condition.