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Brian S.

Brian S.

Joined on 03/19/02

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 15
Most Favorable Review

Read the TDP Advisory!!!

Noctua NH-L12 120mm & 92mm SSO Bearing PWM Fans CPU Cooler
Noctua NH-L12 120mm & 92mm SSO Bearing PWM Fans CPU Cooler

Pros: Nicely designed, quiet, comes with thermal paste along with all the mounting hardware you could ever possibly need. Very low profile in single fan mode.

Cons: Stay away if you have a 120W TDP Processor!!!! If you check the manufacturers website they tell you that you can only use this with a 120W TDP AMD processor if you have good case flow! And the single fan operation mode won't work at all! I found this out the hard way when trying to run single fan mode with an 8320. Works great 99% of the time, but when you stress test it the system will crash due to overheating. I managed to mount the 120mm fan to the bottom, since I have a small case and it seems to help the temps, but I still can't stay stable when running Boinc or any stress test.

Overall Review: I've been looking for a quality low profile cooler and thought this would fit the bill. It definitely beats the stock cooler without question, however for anyone with an FX8xxx series processor I can't recommend this cooler. I'm either going to have to leave the side of my case off or get a water cooling setup. Still kicking myself for not going to Noctua's homepage, but I'd like to see this 120W TDP info on the product data page to warn consumers.

Most Critical Review

Stay Far Far Away

HP X702 128GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive P-FD128HP702-GE
HP X702 128GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive P-FD128HP702-GE

Pros: Was cheap when I bought it.

Cons: Stopped working after a month. Now shows up as a 1GB drive, even the HP utility won't fix it.

Overall Review: These guys should be in jail for fraud, stay away from this crud will never buy another HP thumb drive again.

Great picture, replaced a dual monitor setup, very happy!

LG  34UM67-P 34" Class 21:9 UltraWide IPS FreeSync Gaming Monitor 2560 x 1080 60Hz 5,000,000:1 Contrast Ratio with 4-Screen Split and Dynamic Action Link + Black Stabilizer, SRGB Over 99%
LG 34UM67-P 34" Class 21:9 UltraWide IPS FreeSync Gaming Monitor 2560 x 1080 60Hz 5,000,000:1 Contrast Ratio with 4-Screen Split and Dynamic Action Link + Black Stabilizer, SRGB Over 99%

Pros: - Great IPS picture, very bright. - Underclocks to 30Hz - Freesync works great

Cons: - Swivel mount sucks, limited movement - Stock range of 40-75Hz not good enough for full freesync coverage

Overall Review: Replaced 2 24" monitors, lost a few inches of real estate, but I'm very happy for both gaming and productivity and lack of multi-monitor headaches with waking up from sleep and icon placement. Fairly easy to underclock, but once done freesync works incredibly well. Just remember to turn freesync on in the OSD first otherwise it won't enable in the control panel. Only regret is not being able to justify it's bigger brother w/ 1440p resolution. If you can find a sale get it. Unfortunately prices on the ultrawidescreens are not falling very quickly.

Company engages in deceptive business practices

ASRock ASRock Fatal1ty Gaming Z170 Gaming K4 LGA 1151 Intel Z170 HDMI USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
ASRock ASRock Fatal1ty Gaming Z170 Gaming K4 LGA 1151 Intel Z170 HDMI USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: -Works w/ Windows 10

Cons: - Company removed SkyOC feature for non-K overclocking.

Overall Review: - Company advertised SkyOC feature, the reason I purchased not only my processor, but this motherboard. 2.5 months later and the company has now disabled the feature completely. Asrock engages in false advertising and deceptive business practices.

Rock solid

TP-LINK TL-WDR3600 Dual Band Wireless N600 Router, Gigabit, 2.4 GHz 300 Mbps + 5 GHz 300 Mbps, 2 x USB port, IP QoS, Wireless On / Off Switch
TP-LINK TL-WDR3600 Dual Band Wireless N600 Router, Gigabit, 2.4 GHz 300 Mbps + 5 GHz 300 Mbps, 2 x USB port, IP QoS, Wireless On / Off Switch

Pros: Third party firmware support, excellent performance, rock solid uptime.

Cons: Initial manufacturer firmwares were reported to be flakey, WiFi range is typically not rated the best in its class.

Overall Review: Before upgrading to the latest version of OpenWRT I checked my uptime which was 388 days on this thing!!! I can't stress enough how good this thing is with OpenWRT simply due to QoS and CoDeL support. No matter what is being downloaded it still is able to process all http requests, VoIP, etc without any hiccups. Very very good device.

11/27/2014

Great case with a few flaws

Corsair Carbide Series Air 540 (CC-9011030-WW) Black Steel High Airflow ATX Cube Case Support ATX Power Supply
Corsair Carbide Series Air 540 (CC-9011030-WW) Black Steel High Airflow ATX Cube Case Support ATX Power Supply

Pros: Excellent cooling, excellent for water cooling, excellent air flow, unique design, beats that pants off corsair's other offerings.

Cons: Feels like a beta product, included fans have no pwn, not enough 5.25" bays, existing 5.25" bays can't accomodate a reservoir without modification, a little tight with wider radiators, likely won't be able to fit third fan in a 360 and 240 radiator setup, limited hard drive space for those that need it, power cable for sata drives should be one wire not 4, plastic feels on the cheap side.

Overall Review: I moved from a 650D case with 1 radiator to a double radiator setup, and the 650D is absolute crud for water cooling (In general crud compared to this case). Thankfully I'd been eyeing this case for a while and it fits the bill perfectly, there's not much else out that can compete when it comes to water cooling. First things to note, plan your setup carefully. This case really is ideal for 2 x 280mm radiators. If you have existing hardware then 1 x 240 and 1 x 360 might be a better fit. Be warned though that fitting a top fan on that 360mm radiator might be tough if not impossible as it comes very close to the top radiator. Also be wary of your radiator width. I have a standard height radiator in the front and a double wide one up top and with a single set of fans it does start to encroach over the mobo. Second thing, if you don't have a water cooling system and are thinking about jumping in with this case, stay away from reservoirs that go in 5.25" bays. My existing 2x5.25" reservoir would not go into the two bays without having to modify the case. There are two large metal flanges that stick inward, clearly designed to ease insertion of single height objects like DVDRom drives, which have to be bent back. Furthermore, they have plenty of room to stick another set of 2x5.25" bays on the bottom side, but declined to do so. Both cages should be easily removable so those that need it can do it and those that don't can get the cages out of there. The included fans are decent but none of the 3 x 140mm fans are PWM, which is simply unacceptable in this day and age. I ended up replacing all of them and just removed the rear fan entirely. The setup for the two drive spaces in the bottom is quite nice and convenient. The cable routing for those drives is also great, minus my gripe about using 4 wires for the power cables which just adds to the clutter. If you have more than 2 full size HDD be aware that you're going to have a bad time. This is NOT a file server, look elsewhere if you want massive storage. In this day and age you should probably setup a NAS if you need serious storage. Overall I'm very happy with this case and I would take it over the 650D any day of the week. Side by side this is wider, but due to the lower height it feels a lot smaller. Even if you don't do water cooling, I think this case has a lot of great features to make it worth your while. My cons are generally nitpicky things which should have been resolved during testing, which is why I pointed out that this feels like a beta product. There isn't a lot out there to compete with this, but I definitely think this is the best design period for desktop systems.