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James W.

James W.

Joined on 02/24/06

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 6
Most Favorable Review

Amazing - Best case in 22 years of PC building

Fractal Design Define R4 Black Silent ATX Midtower Computer Case
Fractal Design Define R4 Black Silent ATX Midtower Computer Case

Pros: I have been building and designing PCs and hardware for 22 years. This is hands down, the best overall case I have ever used. There are cases out there that do single things better, or are better looking, but this is the absolute best combo of all the things a case is supposed do. I am currently in the process of swapping out all of my cases to this case. Cooling is excellent. Sound levels are amazing. Cable routing is impeccable. HDD mounting is very good. I have not installed a 5.25" drive, so not sure how that will work.

Cons: The case is a little wide, but that allows for all of the cable routing behind the motherboard, so a known trade off. My only complaint would have been to include another fan in the front. I am running 8 HDDs in my case, and I am purchasing another fan to keep the top half of the drives cool. This would have increased cost, so I guess a good business decision, most people are not putting 8 high temperature HDDs into this case.

Overall Review: As I said, I am replacing all of my Antec cases with this baby. Will keep everything almost as cool, but will lower the noise floor in my house a considerable amount. The Wife Approval Factor (WAF) is through the roof. The first case to ever increase marital bliss.

Most Critical Review

High Failure Rate

Scythe SY1225SL12SH "Slipstream" Case Fan
Scythe SY1225SL12SH "Slipstream" Case Fan

Pros: When they work, there is no better fan. I have been a huge fan of Scythe for several years, the only fans I have bought in the last3+ years have been from Scythe.

Cons: I ordered 12 of these about a years ago. I was doing my 6 month maintenance on my 3 PCs, mainly dusting and 5 of the 12 fans no longer work, after about 14 months of service. So out of warranty and a lot of cash. I over use fans, the PCs are kept in an AC'd closet, so don't care about fan noise, so not the end of the world if one or two break, but I expect a fan to outlast the PC, not the other way around. All of my older Scythes still work. I wonder if they made drastic manufacturing changes??

Overall Review: Will keep an eye on the replacements, hopefully, just got a bad batch of them.

11/18/2011

Disappointment!

Western Digital Black WD2001FASS 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive
Western Digital Black WD2001FASS 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive

Pros: The ones that work are awesome. I have 6 in a WHS, able to stream video, music, what have you to 4 different machines without any problems. I would love to whole heartedly recommend these. I have bought over 40 WD HDD in my life time. I used to be incredibly satisfied with their great products.

Cons: Ok, I bought 6 of these in June 2010. They were all installed into a NORCO RPC-3216 case. Great case BTW. My WHS is on 24/7. All of the fans in the case have been upgraded to much louder but higher flow rate. There are 8 total HDDs in this case, staggered to allow the best air flow over and through the front of the case. 2 of the WD HDD have died in the last 6 months. A 33% failure rate for their top of the line 2TB HDD is unacceptable. I want to remove the other 4 drives but I can't afford another 1200 bucks of HDD atm.

Overall Review: WD customer service has also been very helpful. Wish they didn't have to be. The first slowly died, so I was able to recover much of the data off of it. The second drive hard broke, and if installed into any machine, the machine won't boot.

Blazin

Crucial RealSSD C300 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) CTFDDAC256MAG-1G1
Crucial RealSSD C300 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) CTFDDAC256MAG-1G1

Pros: Seems to predict the future it is so fast. Puts my Raptor to shame, which will now be retired.

Cons: None so far.

Overall Review: Did I mention that it is amazingly fast! Core i7 930, dual 5870s, ASUS Rampage III.

Great case

NORCO RPC-4020 4U Rackmount Server Chassis w/ 20 Hot-swappable SATA/SAS Drive Bays
NORCO RPC-4020 4U Rackmount Server Chassis w/ 20 Hot-swappable SATA/SAS Drive Bays

Pros: This is an extremely well constructed case, the Hyundai of computer cases. If you are expecting Lian-Li level of quality you are in the wrong place. Everything is working great! If you need to house multiple HDD, this is THE case to do it in. I have built 75+ PCs for friends, family, etc. Great case.

Cons: The delta fans that are included move a lot of air, but I swapped them out with new fans, move almost the same amount of air but much quieter. The space between the fan mid-plane and where all of the connectors plug into is tight. I ended up modifying my brand new power supply to hack as much wire out of it as possible. This really eased installation of the 10 power connectors. Took a few hours. I also had to modify the wiring harness for the new fans. Again well worth it though.

Overall Review: I love this case so much, we bought 2 of the RPC-470 cases and some extension cables. We are putting all of our PCs into a rack. Much cleaner install and the office looks pretty cool with a rack full of PC gear.

LIAN LI PC-A17B Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
LIAN LI PC-A17B Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Pros: This is my first Lian Li case also. I currently own and use 2 Antec 900 cases, but was looking for something a little different. This case is just that, a little different. I like the all aluminum build and I really like the power supply being on the top of the case. One problem with the Antecs is that the 4 pin extra 12+ volt line may not reach. I also like not having 2 fans in the front, allows for more choices on how to install 5.25” drives and accessories, such as a fan bus. The case is quieter than the Antec, which makes the wife happy.

Cons: The two 120mm fans that came with the case are adequate, but I swapped them out with 2 high end Scythe fans. There is more than twice the airflow with the same noise level.

Overall Review: Overall a very good case that weighs less than the Antec 900, is it worth 70$ or so more, that is a tough question.