Pros: Nov 2017 UPDATE : Still running strong. I have never ran a system this long before. This thanksgiving will be 6years that I have had this system up and running. Still at 4.7ghz. Not that anyone is reading these old reviews but wow has this system done well. Still plan on keeping it as primary for another year or so. Now that Coffee lake just came out I am getting closer to moving this system into a different location. I play modern games with crossfire 290's and monitor my in game MSI afterburner specs on a separate screen. I primarily play Bf4 at 2560x1080p / 75hz / ULTRA and my CPU still stays between 60-80%. More modern titles use 80% +. What a great long term system. Just bought the deluxe version of this board , i5 2500k and 16gb DDR3 for my kids system($40) and it is rocking at 4.5ghz. Hard to justify upgrading when these older hardware gets the job done. I have used this board for 3+ yrs running my 2700k at 4.7ghz easily on Megahalems air cooler. I run 4x 8gb Gskill 1866mhz ram modules. I had originally 1600mhz modules that also worked. I simply have the MB set to XMP profile and CPUz shows all my timings are correct at the rated 1866mhz speed.

Cons: None.

Overall Review: This is an old board and I simply wanted to respond to this recent review from KRAM P.

Pros: Looks great, handles plenty of power. Sliders are nice compared to knobs. Flush sliders work well with front bezel door on my Fractal XL R2.

Cons: There is a hum/buzz to all of my fans when I run the controller (on any of the 5 sliders) anywhere in the middle of the slide/voltage position. Only way to avoid hum is set it to lowest setting or highest. Defeats the point of a fan controller, no way to dial in your fans for the right noise to performance ratio. My already low RPM case fans hardly move any air at the lowest 5v setting and the highest is just a hair louder than I would like. This issue happens with multiple brand of fans -Fractal Design Silent Series R2 FD-FAN-SSR2-140 -COOLER MASTER R4-S2S-124K-GP -COUGAR CF-V14HB Vortex -Rosewill ROCF-11003 Hyperborea 140mm The Fractal built in 3 fan controller DOES NOT have this issue with all the above listed fans. Only this NZXT controller causes them all to have a annouying hum/buzz that completely defeats the purpose of the controller. I have been using the controller for the last month and just running fans either LOW or HIGH but now knowing this isn't fan related but controller related I am irratated. Just got my Hyperborea 140mm in the mail and they have the same issue even being a PWM fan that is supposed to be able to undervolt. Well they do undervolt fine with the basic fractal contoller just not with this NZXT. I wish I could recommend this controller, it would be perfect if it didn't create the buzz.

Pros: The 2yr 15 license bundle for dirt cheap was a nice price I thought for a known AV software suite.

Cons: The product seemed ok except for the major CON below. I started noticing weird hang ups on my systems that I didn't know what it was coming from. I even reloaded 1 of the systems thinking the OS was corrupt. I would click say on the start menu or double click a icon and nothing would happen for about 30secs then all the back clicks would all happen. Noticed this happening on many of the 9 modern fast PC's. As soon as I would uninstall the product problem was gone. I then went through the rest of my systems and uninstalled the software. My main rig it wouldn't uninstall. Their uninstall tool would corrupt my system where I had to reload a image back up twice before I learned the tool was corrupting the system. Ended up doing a clean install due to this software. Never again for me. I did not expect this software to be this bad, I thought I would get my 2yrs out of it.

Overall Review: Back in the hunt for a stable , polished AV software suite.

Pros: XMP profile booted right up on Gigabyte X570 Aorus Elite & Ryzen 3600. First thing I checked was if they were a DUAL or SINGLE ran kit and FINALLY A DUAL RANK kit. Heat Spreaders are a classy red not like the retail image which appears more fire engine red. Low profile heat spreaders can help in certain tight space situations but my cpu cooler doesn't overhang so it didn't matter if they were tall or short heat spreaders. Update

Cons: Only Cas 18 but it was a cheaper kit at a hair over 100.

Overall Review: This was my 3rd attempt to get a "DUAL RANK" kit at 2x16gb 3200 C16 or 3600mhz C18 . I thank the reviewer soren121 from 8/6/2021 which listed his kit as DUAL RANK. I tried two other 2x16gb 3200/3600 kits before this and both will be returned for refund as they both were single rank sticks. Please do not get DUAL RANK confused with DUAL CHANNEL. All these 2x8gb or 2x16gb kits are DUAL CHANNEL but the memory chip layouts are either in a dual or single rank configuration. I wanted a total of 2 ram sticks in this system but wanted a dual rank configuration. So I knew I either needed to buy 4x 8gb single rank sticks or 2x 16gb dual rank sticks to get where I wanted to be. A good bump in performance running dual rank ram vs previous single rank 2x8gb kit. Beware this CMK32GX4M2D3600C18R kit likely ships in both single and dual rank as I read some people on a different website had single rank kits. This is common now as getting dual rank in 2x16gb is more of a lottery now compared to the past when 16gb sticks were almost all dual rank. Not anymore. These two kits were the first two kits I tried that were both single rank so they are both going to be returned. Corsair 2x16gb 3200mhz C16 - CMK32GX4M2E3200C16 - SINGLE RANK KIT Gskill 2x 16gb 3600 C18 - F4-3600C18D-32GVK - SINGLE RANK KIT

Pros: -Cheapest 480gb I could find at $64.99 -Fast Speeds using HDtune Read 564MB Write 526MB via Sata3 connection -Load times greatly improved on my PS4 Pro and no noticeable difference from my Intel SSD installed internally or externally. -Clearly faster load up of maps for Wipeout Omega and Horizon. -I have only ran it about 24hrs so time will tell if I have issues. At least there is a 3yr warranty and my intended use can survive a failure anyway. Just hoping it will last. Read below for how it is being used.

Cons: -Couldn't find any firmware updates on the basic website, no tools even. -Many high failure reviews

Overall Review: I simply wanted to load my PS4 Pro games onto a SSD to improve loading times. I did first install a Intel SSD as the internal drive and then realized the PS4 is constantly recording every game you play on a endless loop which means lots of unneeded writes to the internal drive. I put the 1TB HDD back as primary drive and decided to find a cheap SSD to install as an external drive. This way the HDD gets all the extra writes and less priority games while the external SSD will store my favorites. If this drive fails as an external it will be as easy as redownloading the games onto the HDD. All save data is on the internal drive so very little loss if this cheaper drive does fail on me. Problem solved, fast game loading and redundancy in case this drive fails. I would use an image back up program if this drive would be used as a primary boot drive. I actually would just buy a Samsung,Intel or Crucial for more important roles but as a game drive or secondary drive with back ups this is a cheap way of taking advantage of faster SSD speeds at close to half off normal going rates.

Pros: THESE ARE OPEN BACKED HEADPHONES!! For all the reviews that complain about all the sound leaking, just simply ignore them. They obviously did not do their homework and they all were wanting a closed back style of headphone. This was primarily why I bought these. I wanted to try OPEN BACKED headphones and due to the rave reviews online for these. I am no expert I can only tell you what my ears like and these are a treat. I have HD201's, Mon0price Premium HiFi, Velodyne VQuiet , RS120 & RS140 Senns and my primary main set that I have used for 10years my Sony MDR-V6. I run them off my Soundblaster Z headphone amp port and I mainly use them for games and youtube. Some music and movies. I bought a back up pair when they were $55 and now I just bought a 3rd pair for $50 since I have 3 PC's that the kids and I will likely be playing together in games like TF2. I realized the closed back headphones make it very hard to communicate together while in the same room and causes my kids to be yelling back and forth. Now we can isolate our own sound but also hear very clearly(as long as the volume isn't too cranked) each other which is perfect. These SHP9500s are wonderfully clear. I went back and forth comparing to my V6's and I ended up retiring my V6 to 2nd place. I just placed an order for a 2nd set so if I ever run into any issue with these I will have a back up. They have less bass than the V6;s but the clarity is amazing. Watching sports, playing games, everything just sounds so natural and as if I am in the middle of a room with good speakers not speakers in my ears if that makes sense.

Cons: Good and bad thing is the clamp force is very light so not great for moving around but wonderful for long term sessions. They don't fold up and are larger than normal so these are best suited for at home.

Overall Review: IGNORE ALL REVIEWS THAT MENTION these have sound leak!!! They are supposed to be open backed headphones NOT CLOSED. It works great for hearing still in the house when I am listening to something on the quiet side. I can still hear the door or family. They can also hear my audio if they are in the office with me but that is a small price to pay for such a natural clear sound with long term comfort. The volume they hear is greatly dependent on how loud you are playing them. Like I said I just ordered another pair 6months later(now ordered a 3rd pair) as a back up. Most comfortable, best sounding headphones I have every listened too!!!