Joined on 07/30/03
Unlock the card
Pros: it's working well, so far I've got 4 monitors plugged, two 30" Dells and two 20" Dells. using both mini display ports one dual link DVI plus the one HDMI, I might swap to / from the single link DVI to /from the HDMI If I hook up my 46" Samsung up just for kicks to test 5 displays off one card.
Cons: I do wish the DVI ports were both dual-link - because I have two 30" Dells I'd rather keep the display ports free for a dual headed second or 3rd computer. the Dell 30" only have one (full size) Display port, but they have 2 dual link DVI ports
Overall Review: I loaded the Sapphire 6970 firmware and that seems to have improved the speed. (So far it's working as expected with the BIOS unlock / update) I'm using two different brands of mini display port to dual link DVI adapters and they are less then perfect (but I don't think it's the card. http://www.techpowerup.com/137140/AMD-Radeon-HD-6950-can-be-unlocked-to-HD-6970.html
No Duplexing for scanning, faxing or copies
Pros: Supports windows 7, duplex printing is nice, the output quality and speed are a big improvement over my decade old Tektronix phase 550 that recently died. The non duplex ADF is not bad, I ran through some random stuff to test it out and it was 40 pages before I had a jam.
Cons: After printing my 7th page, I got an error about "No Waste Toner" To get to the perfectly brand new waste toner, I had to remove the two removable parts above it, the Belt and Drum Units, 3 times to clear out this bogus error message, plus several power cycles at each attempt the Duplex unit is for printing only, no scanning, faxing or copies can be double sized, the ADF will not get both sides of an original. I was going to get one with a true duplex but Newegg deactivated the one i was looking at, when Brother replaced or discontinued that model. MFC-9840CDW would be the way to go if you need to have that a true duplex (ADF scanner)
Overall Review: The scan to ftp works best with my Samba file servers. I setup two windows 7 64 bit stations with what came with the printer then downloaded the updated full windows 7 (64bit) drivers, the scan to PC feature would work for a while then stop, with the windows firewall up or down, scanning to my fileserver (via ftp is working perfect) As expected, network printing from Windows 7 works very well. Scanning to USB works well. printing from USB is kinda slow
multi monitor setup working well
Pros: less fan noise and heat then the 6950 it replaced. Once I got a proper driver loaded it picked up my multi monitor config (all the apps loaded on the same monitors); it's the same length as the 6950 It replaced.
Cons: One fewer DVI port then the 6950 and it requires 6+8pin power in place of the two 6pins the 6950 required, I had to use the included cables to rig up the 8pin, my older PC power and cooling 1K does not seem to have an extra 8pin for a video card.
Overall Review: 4 monitors, two Dell 2001FP (Portrait mode; at the ends) and two 30" U3011 in the middle for a 7520x1600 desktop, Mini display ports connect the 30" Dells, HDMI to DVI dongle ->2001FP; DVI port connect the two smaller Dell monitors Each DP monitor also got a 7.1 audio (unneeded by me so I disabled) CPU Core clock and VDDC does seem to change as needed.
Does not work with the WD 3TB WD30EZRSDTL
Pros: it's USB 3.0 and is plenty fast
Cons: 3TB WD shows as only 746.39GB and not 2794.39GB "Full" size; the drives wiggle around in the case when you slide them in; has no button to 'eject' them like some others have
Overall Review: Even with all the problems it works ok most of the time (before drives larger then 2TB came out)
Works with WD 3TB WD30EZRSDTL
Pros: I just got a 3TB WD drive and because my other drive dock BYTECC T-200U3 only showed 746.39GB and not 2794.39GB I thought I'd come and point this out.
Cons: Has worked fine for me so far and worked with my brand new 3TB WD HD
Overall Review: I keep a desk fan pointed at whatever HDs I have in my docks to keep them cool
Large, hot and sometimes fast
Pros: As expected, It works when connected to my USB 2.0 head unit, an alpine iDA-X305 (formatted FAT32) to serve up mp3 / m4a files just fine
Cons: It gets VERY hot, and it's physical bigger (longer) then any other USB keys that I have.
Overall Review: it's seems to run about twice as fast when connected to a USB 3.0 port compared to when it's coming off my many usb 2.0 ports when connected to a USB 3.0 (it will burst up to 55 MB /sec, but spends most time doing a copy around 18.1 MB/sec) No bench marking software just my normal copy to / from of music files to compare it to the USB key I lost (while walking it from my car)