Joined on 08/30/04
Everything you need and Quiet
Pros: -Nearly silent. -Long cable length OK for Antec P180 -Has the optional 24pin power and the 8 pin power some boards need. Converts down to the standard 20 pin and 4 pin so it fits everything. -Perfect for your every day SLI system.
Cons: -I think the wrapped cables plus zip ties for the wrapping plus the heat shrink over the zip ties makes the cables rather thick in places. Cabled do look very good and with the wrapping though.
Nice player
Pros: -Plays about all you throw at it, for the price this is an excellent player for DVD and other standard definition material. -Local HD option is nice, supports all manner of USB storage too. -Many bang the menu look but I like the black menus, they look nice simple and are informative but definitely not colorful. -Really small size.
Cons: -Somewhat loud fan that is rather high in pitch. -TrueHD playback broken, even though it is on the features list. Not so bad as all TrueHD titles are required to have another form of non HD audio on the disc. -DTS HD master audio not supported, but the player does extract and pass along the 5.1 core audio component just fine. -No bluray menu support, though that may come via a firmware update sometime in the future according to their forum. -On HD high bit rate or large file material it has problems playing over a network so if you want to play a bluray rip it needs to be on the internal drive or a USB drive, no exceptions or fixes found and many are looking into this on their forum. -For most playback if you are using optical it needs to be set to SPDIF RAW to pass multi channel audio, but for some reason when playing MP3 files you have to go in to the configure menu and change to SPDIF PCM to hear sound, rather inconvenient to have to switch back and forth but it is a quick chan
Overall Review: If you don't want bluray level material playback this little box is great but you must go to the Patriot forums and read up on this player, it generally makes a lot of people happy but you need to be informed about the quirks. I did post on patriot support forums and also contacted Patriot support via their contact support form via email. I didn't get much help on the forums but they returned my email in about a day and they confirmed the TrueHD problem is being looked into and also confirmed that the network problem with video stuttering exists for files in size over about 8GB. The players that do support network bluray playback and HD audio are over three times the price. For the cost this box comes so very close to being amazing.
Feature Packed
Pros: USB3 SATA6 (one out of THREE SATA controllers on board) Improved BIOS layout in F6J is great, easy to understand with lots of current status information. Every detail available and not hidden that I could see.
Cons: Would like to see Intel LAN at this price range Combo USB/eSATA connectors are a gimmick, would like discreet connectors so I can use both at the same time. Trying for 3x SLI/crossfire with reduced PCIEx8 is unnecessary, would much rather have 2x SLI PCIEx16 and have the extra slots in a position where they can be used still.
Tight timing and low voltage
Pros: Low voltage, one of the few to run intel spec 1.5v Fairly tight timings at rated speed XMP SPD profile setting makes setting up a snap Pretty decent support Has SPD settings for 592mhz (1066), 666mhz (1333), 740mhz(~1480) and XMP profile1 at 800mhz (1600).
Cons: Unfortunately the first set I ordered had problems being detected, would rarely show correct memory size on startup. This required an exchange through newegg and cost a little lost time.
Overall Review: Being used on a Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD5 rev 1, also bought through newegg. G.skill support forum is pretty informative and was able to pick out the problem in one exchange.
Perfect for Windows Home Server
Pros: Quiet Large storage capacity Low power/heat
Cons: There are faster drives out there but that isn't the market segment for this product.
Overall Review: 5900RPM is unique to this drive. The STR numbers approach much faster drives but without the power consumption and noise. Makes it a great media streaming drive.
Strange fit, looks great
Pros: Looks very good. Durable aluminum construction, no plastic.
Cons: As others mentioned the fit on this is a little bit strange, does not fit correct in an Antec P180 case though it can still be made to work with a little effort. Basically it sits just a little bit high and a hair too wide.