Joined on 03/05/07
X-Fi Platinum- Good times
Pros: Nice sound card with crystal clear sound.
Cons: Have to jump through some hoops to get the mic input to work with steam.
Overall Review: Be aware optical out is on the front of the case with this card!
EVGA 8800GTX - warning hot graphics!
Pros: Card is super fast with tons of ram. Super preformer, but you knew that.
Cons: HOT HOT HOT! The car spews out tons of heat when under load. The temperature of the room I game in is consitantly a couple degrees (f) hotter than the rest of the house.
Overall Review: Very nice card, but big so check your case to verify you have the room. High power, takes 2 6pin power connectors (adapters for 4 pin mux included) so take a good look at that old power supply before you buy.
XFX 680i motherboard - solid preformer
Pros: Motherboard is designed by Nvidia. When XFX made this motherboard they used the direct nvidia specs. I knew they were new to the mobo market, but using the straight reference design from nvidia maked it (basicly) a no brainer. The layout is excilent and can take you large cpu heat sync with no worries of blocking the ram slots or misaligning a capacitor.
Cons: No problems so far!
Overall Review: Designed to support the Nvidia's physics initiative (using an older nvidia gpu for phys calcs, stay tuned!)
Nine Hundered Case- Early Impressions
Pros: The Ninhundered Case has lots of room for whatever you are planning to pack in it. I have a 8800 GTX with a large processor cooler and a RAID array (2 drives) with some room to spare. The power buttion and front console are convenently located for a system that will be setting at floor level (1892 port is a nice touch). Hardrive bays are easy to pull out the front of the case for future upgrades. Very good airflow with the stock fans and a few extra mounting spots to get more (for all you over clockers out there!). Also something that I found after the purchase, the case has holes for running liquid cooling tubes thru the backwall of the case. I hadnt seen this feature in any of the picture or feature description but it is nice if you would someday like to add an external cooling option. Fans are pretty quiet and can be turned down if you dont need the extra heat distribution.
Cons: This case is BIG it has a huge fan that makes the back of the case rise up an additional 2 inches. Only other downside in my book would be the hardrive bays dont have any real vibration isolation washers to keep those loud drive quiet.
Overall Review: Be aware that this case has only 3 3.5 inch bays (so if you sound card has a front pannel component you are down to two).