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douglas c.

douglas c.

Joined on 05/11/02

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Most Favorable Review

Almost 5 Eggs

Thermaltake Core P3 TG Pro Snow Snow SPCC ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Thermaltake Core P3 TG Pro Snow Snow SPCC ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Pros: It's White Good space Open concept great for Air-flow Support is slow but they do deliver

Cons: Lack of instructions Limited Riser card compatibility Somewhat expensive Lack of replacement parts

Overall Review: I've been a system builder for over 25 years but never tried building a custom cooling loop and after running my I9-13900K in an ITX case with a single 240 AIO and watching my temps get into the 90's when video editing, I decided to give it a shot using this case. I've been a Thermaltake Fan for some time so I naturally drifted to their cases, and also required a front usb C gen 2 port so I had limited choices and had to have white. For some reason I went with the Corsair cooling stuff and after watching many videos I felt good about building a loop. I like the hard tubing look so went with that. Now for the case, first thing I noticed was a picture only manual, which made the build interesting. The case gives you several options on layout and some options based on motherboard size, ITX has the best options but still limited. I never built a system with a vertical PCI vid board and this case has that option so I had to try it, Do yourself a big favor and buy the Thermaltake PCi riser board, I tried 2 others and none fit correctly, The Thermaltake one fit this case very well and will not force you to mod the case as do the other riser cards do. You can also have a vertical mounted power supply, BUT, one or the other, even with an ITX MB, you can not have a vertical mounted power supply and a vertical PCI board, one or the other. As my pics show I have 9 Thermaltake RGB fans in the case which left me about 200 miles of cables which I tied up and have them in the back behind the back case cover, which can be a pain in the @#$% to get to fit on unless all your cables are tucked well into the back of the case and the small thumb screws can be quite a hassle to get to line up. The case is Heavy, once its built it's not a case your going to be moving all around the house unless your a weight lifter. I talked with Thermaltake about a few replacement parts I wanted to buy after modding the riser plate but they offer only 1 part for this case, the fan bracket, That is terrible. The included Pump/reservoir tray seems only compatible with the Thermaltake reservoir, my Corsair pump did not fit on it so I had to mod using the included 3.5 brackets for extra Hdds to build a small base for my Pump, I could of mounted it to the fans but that threw off my mount points for the radiators to keep straight lines on the tubing. I like the way the case ended up and my after using 2 360 rads my temps are in the mid 60's under heavy load and that is with an OC'd 19-13900K, no more thermal throttling. So the case is good but they could of made it better and I have dealt with Thermaltake support several times and they always stand behind their products and replace everything that is defective, it just takes a bit. But that is the Norm ever since the C word. The case supports up to 4 3.5 or 2.5 drives but if you use over 2 Hdd's you have to mount them to the back fan bracket, the 2.5's will fit but the 3.5's are too thick to mount on the back and close the cover so in my case where I had a rad and fan on the back fan bracket I could not run over 2 3.5 Hdd's but you can buy another bracket and mount them on top of the case if desired, or usb them.

Most Critical Review

Oudated version

GIGABYTE Z790 AORUS PRO X LGA 1700(14th,13th,12th Gen) Intel Z790 X ATX Motherboard with DDR5, 5* M.2, PCIe 5.0, USB 3.2 Type-C, Wi-Fi 7, 5GbE LAN, Q-Flash Plus, EZ-Latch Plus
GIGABYTE Z790 AORUS PRO X LGA 1700(14th,13th,12th Gen) Intel Z790 X ATX Motherboard with DDR5, 5* M.2, PCIe 5.0, USB 3.2 Type-C, Wi-Fi 7, 5GbE LAN, Q-Flash Plus, EZ-Latch Plus

Pros: Don't know

Cons: Don't know

Overall Review: I am not writing a review on the board as I never got to try it due to the fact that Newegg tried to pawn off their old stock of Rev 1.0 on me which is insane considering how old that revision is and how problematic that board is. Just letting people know that fact in case they expect to get the 1.2 version which most likely won't happen, of course it's always possible since they have several warehouses but you would think a reputable company would avoid sending out boards with known issues such as 1.0 has.

10/16/2024

Perfect for me

Phanteks M25-120 D-RGB fan, High-Airflow radiator performance, PWM control up to 2000RPM, ARGB/DRGB lighting, Daisy-Chain cable, White,3 Pack
Phanteks M25-120 D-RGB fan, High-Airflow radiator performance, PWM control up to 2000RPM, ARGB/DRGB lighting, Daisy-Chain cable, White,3 Pack

Pros: good air flow low noise daisy-chain power and rgb connector PWM

Cons: so far none

Overall Review: I bought these to replace my Iceberg Glacial fans which do not have daisy style power connectors and since I use 10 fans in my case that means a lot of fan cable, these cut my cable clutter way down, they perform great and love the all white appearance,

12/11/2023

Pump great, interface clumsy.

CORSAIR iCUE LINK XD5 RGB ELITE LCD WHITE Pump-Reservoir Unit – D5 PWM Pump - 480x480 IPS LCD Screen - iCUE LINK Connectivity -  22 Addressable RGB LEDs - 440ml nylon reservoir – WHITE Metallic bod
CORSAIR iCUE LINK XD5 RGB ELITE LCD WHITE Pump-Reservoir Unit – D5 PWM Pump - 480x480 IPS LCD Screen - iCUE LINK Connectivity - 22 Addressable RGB LEDs - 440ml nylon reservoir – WHITE Metallic bod

Pros: Strong pump good looks great led display

Cons: Icue hub required software required usb 2.0 power

Overall Review: I have used the Corsair XD3, XD7,XD5 pumps/reservoirs. and liked them all enough to still use 2 of the 3 mentioned. My issues with the XD5 Elite pump is the required use of the Corsair Icue hub which on the system I had the pump connected to would not update the firmware of the hub correctly and until firmware was updated, hub would not function, I had to update the hub on my other system.Once updated pump worked great. Very strong, has great water flow with 2 360mm rads and a 240 rad in same loop, I was impressed to see the pump reach near 5000rpm when cranked up. Corsair decided to change the power for this pump to a single row USB 2.0 header connector and you better be sure of the correct pin-out sequence when connecting the cable to your motherboard header or kiss the pump and or USB circuit goodnight, this didn't happen to me but it could as there are no labels or symbols to guide you other than the knowledge of where your +5 pin is on your motherboard so a reverse connection is possible, I don't like relying on a USB 2.0 header supplying power to my pump, I much prefer the sata connection or even a 4 pin molex connection for pump power, my MSI motherboard has 2 USB 2.0 connectors, my case uses one of them and my Thermaltake Pacific cpu block uses another, and the Corsair hub required 1 and the pump requires 1, making me either use a usb 2.0 splitter or forfeiting my case usb ports, The Thermaltake usb cable has 2 connectors which use the same Micro usb port so I was able to connect both the block and hub to 1 cable. I also don't like having to use the Icue software to control my pump speed, I prefer the 4 pin power connector using my motherboard fan /pump header and setting my power curves from my motherboard. The Hub also requires a PCI-X 6 pin connector, forcing me to add another PCI-X power cable to my modular power supply as my vid board was already using two 8 pin connectors, so the required hub needs a full usb 2.0 header, a Pci -x connector and the device cable and the pump required a half usb 2.0 header , why the hub could not supply the power to the pump was confusing for me, if your not using all Corsair ICue devices, your not going to save any cable space. The good of the pump is the display is beautiful, and the Icue software is accurate. I bought this pump to replace my XD7 pump which takes up a full 360 rad area on a case, but after running thermal tests on my I9-13900KS , even with an extra 360 in the loop, I gained no substantial drops in temps. Because of all the cons mentioned I returned the pump and kept my XD7 in the loop. Of course this was just my experience and my opinions and needs will vary for most others. The pump performs good and looks good but for me I could not justify the $300 for a no gain scenario in either performance or looks, your experience may differ.

12/11/2023

Terrible desgn

PrimoChill Female to Female G 1/4 Drain Valve
PrimoChill Female to Female G 1/4 Drain Valve

Pros: white handle

Cons: versatility

Overall Review: Only problem with this valve is it has no rotating section which allows you to line up the handle on top or side which is insane! My Bitspower has such a ring which will allow you to align the part anyway you want versus this one where you are dependent on where it lines up after you have tightened up any other fittings. It has a section that looks like it rotates but instead it simply unscrews from the body which seems quite pointless. You have to use a male to male adapter with a rotating section or your in trouble.

Doughtful

ORICO M.2 NVMe SSD Case 20Gbps Aluminum M.2 NVMe SSD Hard Drive Enclosure USB 3.2 GEN 2 For M.2 SSD Up to 2TB With A to C and C to C Cables - M2PAC3-G20
ORICO M.2 NVMe SSD Case 20Gbps Aluminum M.2 NVMe SSD Hard Drive Enclosure USB 3.2 GEN 2 For M.2 SSD Up to 2TB With A to C and C to C Cables - M2PAC3-G20

Overall Review: I have tried many M.2 usb enclosures and understand the speed relationship from the enclosure to the final reading. I tried this device on 2 systems, both Gen 2 usb C ready using 2 different M.2 drives, both capable of 3.5gbs speeds, one was a gen 4 drive reaching 6gbs, using this device neither drive was able to go beyond the 1gb speed, which of course is the speed a 10gb case will deliver, I saw the reviews for this device and several users said the same but I also saw the review which claimed this to reach the 2gb speed, I have to believe that either they got a different case to reach that speed or it was a fake review.