Pros: Quiet. Runs Windows 7 very well. Good speed in most apps. Bloatware is minimal and easily removed. Simple, off-the-shelf form factor; not overengineered. Components are good quality. Easy to open and upgrade.
Cons: No modem. Keyboard and mouse are rather cheap.
Overall Review: Near perfect combination of performance and value. Fast processor, plenty of memory, plenty of space. This PC is great for any purpose except the latest 3D games and video editing.
Pros: - The included fans are relatively quiet and move an adequate amount of air. - fairly sturdy overall - plenty of ventilation on the front and side - Fits a 5x hot swap bay. - Front mounting plate and grips are sturdy.
Cons: - THE TEMP READOUT REQUIRES A SEPARATE KIT that you cannot get on newegg. Had I known this, I wouldn't have bought it. - Heavy! - Front doors are cheap plastic. - No rack rails.
Overall Review: Don't buy it for the temp readout because it is NOT included.
Pros: - SATA and PATA can work at the same time. - Tested speed is just as good as what you get on most motherboards. Full SATA 300.
Cons: - only 2 total SATA ports. Internal ports are enabled by default. Must use jumpers to switch from internal to external ports.
Overall Review: Used with Windows Home Server. If you want true hardware RAID you will have to spend 300 or more. Otherwise, this card is the way to go.
Pros: - Does exactly what it is supposed to do. - Power lights (green) for each drive, they change to amber on drive access. - Takes old 4-pin power connectors as well as SATA, or a combination of both. - Includes SATA cables and flat screws
Cons: - Eject buttons on the trays - Difficult to lock without pressing eject button on the tray; they tray ejects and you have to start over again. If the drive is being written to when this happens, you'll have data corruption. - Fan is very loud and doesn't move much air. When I replaced the fan with a better one from newegg (37CFM/26dba), I found that the pwr connector on the unit is a nonstandard design. If you plug the fan into your MB, then the unit will buzz, thinking the fan had failed. In order to do it right, you're going to have to splice the fan wires and connect your new fan to the unit itself. - lights and power buttons are not aligned with the drives so its not readily apparent which goes with which. - Empty trays in the unit will vibrate, creating a buzzing noise. - Airflow over drives could be a lot better. I hope they put a 120mm fan in their next model.
Overall Review: - I strongly recommend that you twist the lock button after the drive is snapped in place, but BEFORE you turn it on. Otherwise you can easily trigger the drive eject. If the unit is tilted down when this happens -even slightly- the drive tray WILL slide out onto the floor. - An aftermarket fan from newegg is highly recommended, not just for the noise, but to keep your drives cooler, which will prolong their life. - The unit looks like it would be inserted into 3x5.25 bay with the drives in the same orientation but it will only install with drives perpendicular. This usually means that the drives will be side-by-side rather than stacked on top of each other. Installing the unit with the power lights on the bottom works well for me. - The drive slots get different degrees of airflow. Some slots are cooler than others. - Most HD trays require screws with flat, thin, heads in order to properly slide in and out.
Pros: Reference card/ reference heatsink. Works just as well as any other GTX 285. Free COD Game. Runs well on Win7 x64
Cons: read other reviews for cons
Overall Review: I bought the ZT-285E3LA-FCP version (discontinued). The only difference between the two is that the CPU and memory are clocked slightly lower on this card than on mine. Theoretically this card should run a bit cooler, since they all seem to have the exact same heatsink and fan. But its possible that Zotac hand tests cards to see which can safely clock higher in order to sell those cards at a premium. Each GPU chip has different tolerances. So instead of running cooler, the lower clocking cards -like this one- may just have a lower heat threshold, making them unreliable without an abundance of cool airflow. (this is just a guess) If you are having trouble (and you've already tried several different drivers) then download a utility from guru3d to slightly underclock your card. You may take a little hit in FPS, but the card may run cooler and more stable. You need at least 26A on your PSUs 12v rail. Without enough current, any card will degrade in a matter of weeks.
Pros: Excellent support for Windows 7 x64 Tested with several games on win7 x64, new and old; flawless compatibility; no weird noises or stuck sounds. Lightweight driver does not clog up your system like SB cards. Excellent range of sound; meant for high-end speakers.
Cons: Signal output is a little low. If you use headphones and need more volume, you may need an external amp, or maybe earbud-type headphones. The Windows 7 driver (released June 09) is only 32 bit for now. (but the 32bit driver WILL work fine on Windows 7 x64)
Overall Review: The reason for the low output is probably to minimize any EM noise you get in the signal. When run through powered speakers the sound is flawless. (ex: no HD noise through speakers) The Vista drivers worked okay with Windows 7, but the mixer was limited and the audio from bink movies would cut in and out. The latest Windows 7 driver fixed it all, even though it is a 32bit driver running on a 64bit OS. (might be why the 32 bit games work so well) I used to love SB, but it seems they just can't get their act together with Vista support. Meanwhile HT has already released a functional Windows 7 driver with OpenAL and EAX support. At this point I can't think of a single reason to stay with SB.
Pros: The actual mechanism for clipping it to your RAM seems to work better than other memory coolers I bought from newegg.
Cons: Loud. One fan rattles, the other makes a high pitched whine. So distracting that I had to remove it.
Overall Review: This was the loudest thing in my computer. Louder than my two hard drives, case fans, cpu fans and video card fans combined.
Pros: - Fast switching - simple hotkeys that work - USB keyboard and mouse compatible - worked great for 8 years and counting
Cons: - Two of the ready lights and two of the selection lights burnt out within a year. The other lights have worked okay since then.
Overall Review: - I bought mine in 2001 and have used it constantly since.
Pros: - Best case on the market for aircooling - Excellent video card cooling - Excellent customer support - High quality construction; solid and everything fits like it should. - not too heavy for a tower case - Included fans are quiet; softer than my HD. - Deep/wide enough for exceptionally long video cards and tall heatsinks. - Plenty of room for routing cables behind the motherboard. - The wheels are functional and give your computer about two inches of clearance, minimizing dust intake. - extra screw holes for replacing side and top fans with smaller 80-120mm fans If Cooler Master doubled the price on this case, I would gladly pay it. Simply a class act.
Cons: - Toolless feature for add-in cards is a little better than most cases, but still doesn't hold double-wide video cards well. To be safe, remove the video card before shipping. - Must remove top fan in order to mount the power supply on top.
Overall Review: The side fan is essential for cooling. Don't block it. The top "shelf" is not a cup holder! Don't put any liquids on top of your case. When I first got the case, the HD light was stuck on solid. I emailed Cooler Master and in less than a week, I received a working front panel at no charge. The red glow at the base of the case is a little menacing; as if the case were going to turn into a robot and start beating up on other computers.
Pros: Do you know how agonizing it can be to get to technical support for a mobo? Most RMA'd motherboards are not really bad, but users just can't get them to work for some tiny reason. All they really needed was just a little support. EVGA provides that support; as in a 24/7 hotline populated by techs who speak clear English. The user community is very active, and most solutions can be found on their message boards. The motherboard itself is quality. I have put it through intense torture while overclocking and the board is still solid at 3.8Ghz overclock running prime95 for 8 hours, and LinX for 2 hours. Using only air cooling. - BIOS reset button on the back. - pwr buttons on the board itself. - RAM slots are placed farther away from CPU socket than is the case with other i7 boards. Compare photos. This means that there is plenty of room for a huge Noctua heatsink with two fans and you can still fill all 6 RAM slots with tall RAM. - frequent BIOS updates - quiet
Cons: - Takes 10-20 seconds to POST. This is only because it runs extensive tests on poweron. You can follow the POST tests with the LED screen on the motherboard. - Need a couple more fan ports. - only 1 PS2 port. If you have an old PS2 KVM like me, you will need a PS2-USB adapter.
Overall Review: What really differentiates motherboards now is the support. You may not need it much but when you need it, you REALLY need it. EVGA has the rest beat in this category. Overclocked i7 920 to 4.1ghz on air, but I backed down a little to keep my temps below 70c. Runs well with OCZ Platinum, but I would have gotten the taller heatpipe memory had I known they would fit.
Pros: Unbeatable CPU cooling for under a hundred bucks. - The included thermal transfer compound is quality and obviates the need to separately buy premium thermal grease. There is plenty of it too. - It can be mounted to blow horizontally or vertically. - Very quiet, quality fans. Softer than my HD I would buy another one if Newegg would sell it with the 1366 mounting kit.
Cons: I came here to write a glowing review of the NH-U12P SE1366 120mm model which is compatible with the new i7 1366 socket but I find that its been "Deactivated". This model is only compatible with the i7 if you get the mounting kit separately. I can't find it on newegg but I believe Noctua has offered to send 1366 socket kits if you can prove you own the NH-U12 and are willing to wait for a shipment from Australia. Why would Newegg deactivate such an awsome product? Perhaps they didn't see the difference and thought it was redundant. The only con is its size. It may not fit some mini and mid towers. Its also heavy and could damage the motherboard if you try to ship your computer and the package is dropped along the way.
Overall Review: Apply the thermal compound exactly per the instructions. Do NOT spread it around the chip like butter. Detach for shipping. Its easy, just loosen two screws.
Pros: Bluetooth works well, even in my car. Speakerphone works well and is adequately loud. Sturdy construction. It has received much abuse, yet the buttons all work and the screen is easily readable. Screen seems especially scratch resistant. No case or jacket needed. Familiar Microsoft software, including IE, Media Player, Word, and Excel.
Cons: Do not rely on this phone to indicate that you have new voicemail. Most phones have a persistent indicator that displays as long as you have new messages and will chirp every hour or so. The Dash has no way to do this. I missed quite a few important messages this way. Applications are slow to load --including your phonebook! Sometimes your first couple key presses do not register. Because of this, you cannot manipulate it by “feel” like other phones. The camera is particularly poor. Shots must be absolutely still or the photo will be a shapeless blur. Video is about 3-5 FPS of blur. My old Nokia 6130 would take MUCH sharper still images as well as sharp video at about 15fps with the same camera specs (1.3mp) The ear speaker (not speakerphone) output is rather low, too low to hear in a crowded room. The LCD is not very bright; difficult to read outside, even when not in direct sunlight. There is no way to record a call.
Overall Review: It had so many good things going for it, but due to deal-killers like voicemail notification, bad sound, bad camera, and slow software, it is only marginally usable and I regret buying it.
Pros: Specs show this drive as having 16MB cache, however the drive I received had a 32MB cache. :) The drive inside is a Samsung, Spinpoint 750GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb; nearly as reliable as Seagate. The drive runs cooler (33C) than the Seagate 320GB drives inside my case. It also runs faster than my internal drives in eSATA mode. Drive is very quiet. The blue/red status/activity lights are pleasing.
Cons: HD enclosure is solid, so much so that it would seem that any shock on the case would transfer that energy directly to the drive itself.
Overall Review: Just don't drop it while its running and you'll be fine.
Pros: Works with my Logitech G15 automatically! I can control the KVM from the keyboard and use all the special keys at the same time. Works with my Logitech G5 mouse as well, right out of the box. Quite a few programmable features- configuring relatively easy. EDID emulation helps prevent windows from getting confused about screen resolution. After switching, keyboard and mouse start working with the selected computer immediately.
Cons: Video is rather slow to display after switching. When I switch to another computer, I have to wait 4-6 seconds before the video will display. This happens even when the computers are running the same resolution. (your keyboard and mouse will start working almost instantly though)
Overall Review: I've been working with several different brands of multiport KVMs for many years. NONE are perfect; most are pretty bad actually. All the best KVMs I have worked with are made by IOGear. KVMs still have a long way to go as far as compatibility and functionality, but the GCS1104 is the best example of how far they have come.