Joined on 03/16/10
Review update
Pros: It's absolutely beautiful, I really got to put my hands on this enormous tower to get a better feel for it - first impressions still completely existent. So, now I'll do a comprehensive pro/con review now that I've opened her up and checked her innards out. - Space/Wire Management. They really went above and beyond with the H630, many options of where you can tuck the cords through with limited exposure to the central cavity. - Hardware slots. You could fit an army of internal HD's in this beast, with the option to take the actual slots out (which falls back to space management). It's just a beautiful thing, this case is future proof. - SSD mounts. Yes, mounts. They attach on the opposite side of the MB (right in back) and not only are they solid in design, but it's as easy as removing a finger screw and 4 small screws to attach completetly. After that, all that's left is clipping it back on and affixing the finger screw. - Silent. On both sides as well as the top are sound dampening mats, I don't exactly see this as being important enough to say it's a pro, but it's definitely not a con. - Fans. Come's with a 140mm and a 200mm, if you're going for just two fans, this is great. I personally am upgrading the fans to make it more personalized (green LED fans from NZXT that are pretty sweet and solid). - Parts. All the parts are durable, metal casing, mostly metal innards and a few plastic pieces in the drive bays and such to allow a little extra bending so you don't scratch anything up (but be careful, it's plastic and they will break if you try to force it). All around solid. - Air movement. This thing is a beast when it comes to being able to perfect this case with extra fans, but in it's entirety there is so much exhaust/intake portions on the top, bottom, back and front to not have to worry about things overheating, especially if liquid cooled - which I am using/suggest a NZXT Kraken x60 which MRP's around $100. - Motherboard mounts. Already installed, just put on your motherboard and fasten'er in. Voila! You're in bidness. - Vents/Airflow. I've noticed a trend, in my research before buying product a lot of people around the internet (who obviously do not own one of these) have made remarks about the lack of vents... I can assure you, like I said before, there's places to put fans around the entire H630 minus the sides; and if that's an issue for you then this case isn't for you. But more specifically, they were mentioning about the front recesses and top - if you put in the fans correctly, there is absolutely nothing to hinder your airflow. There are many pro's to this tower, but it all comes down to personal preference; do you want a silent case with lots of room for expansion, wire management and space? Or are you looking for a computer that displays whats inside? If you're looking for the latter of the two, check out NXZT Phantom's line.
Cons: Well, I couldn't find anything worth docking an egg, but I did find some things that are worth mentioning to the inquisitive buyer. - Size. This thing is massive. Look at the dimensions. - Packaging. It's a regular cardboard box with two pretty big pieces of styrofoam on top and bottom - inbetween it's virtually unprotected and weak. I had a worrisome hole on the side of it but luckily the object in question didn't pierce or scrape the tower itself. This thing is HEAVY, so note to NXZT, you might want to look into a little bit more safe delivery options, or as a consumer maybe I should have (but seriously, I'm not paying $150+ for crate delivery on a $150 tower). - Parts. Not that big of a deal, but the parts that are included to allow you to attach your parts (ie screws, mounting brackets, etc) are in a flimsy little box that's literally stuck into a HD bay on the bottom/front. I got the contents out fine by cutting the sticker and just leaving the box in - but I'm probably going to have to take the drive frame out (there's 3 in this computer) completely in order to safely remove this stupid box out without breaking anything. They could of easily put this underneath between the styrofoam. - Upon detailed inspection, I noticed one of the screws on the bottom was pretty much stripped... Really? Could of just taken that screw out and replaced it before packing it up and putting it on the line. Lazy. - Stock fans. While not necessarily a con, these fans just look rather... flimsy. But they aren't broken and they spin so w/e - I'm replacing them anyway but these fans together would cost about $20/30 - could do without and lower the price of the tower itself and be a really great price contender of it's class. Maybe offset the price by getting rid of including these stock fans and adding that money into the much needed packaging materials. And that's basically all I could really gripe about, the hole in the cardboard isn't manufacturers fault, the stripped screw is just a lazy employee working fast to get boxes into bigger boxes. I researched the size/specs BEFORE I bought it, so I knew it was going to be large. Fans are a plus but the quality is a arguably a con, and the parts being in a weird place that could break brackets is just annoying but at least I know they aren't going anywhere or loose enough to do any damage to the insides if dropped. But with a tower like this, you WANT to be careful because it's just a beauty.
Overall Review: Ultimately I GEEKED OUT when it arrived, man oh man, my girlfriend laughed so hard at me - I was like a kid in a candy store. This is exactly what I wanted. Do your research, make decisions based on length (although you probably won't need to because this thing has so much space inside) and lastly, make sure you know what you want in terms of tower looks. I don't need anyone seeing what's inside of my computer other than me - this is MY computer, and I doubt I'll be putting it on display like a trophy; I will be using it, not watching it. :D I'd suggest getting a fan controller or something of the sort (maybe a built in hardware driven one that comes with a lot of GPU's & MB's nowadays). NXZT has a few pretty awesome one's as well; LCD touch screens & button controllers ranging from $25 - $90 when available). Especially if you're putting in multiple fans (3+). In conclusion, this is a large, heavy, solid, PS3 looking unit on crack. The sound dampening material they use is great. All around a really great buy for $150 before tax. I'd also suggest buying this product from a store if you're worried about delivery, but hey, that's what insurance is for.
Garbage
Pros: Looks neat?
Cons: Doesn't fit my computer at all, doesn't stay set in place, all in all a good piece of clutter.
Overall Review: Would not suggest this item.
To err, or not to err?
Pros: It keeps either your CPU or GPU running cool. It WAS idling @ 23c and max under stress was around 54c. Very good liquid cooler until I decided to change some things around for aesthetics and wire management.
Cons: I'd like to address a few problems and also address corrective actions, speaking from working with the kraken x60 & using ASUS Maximus vi Hero mobo. Setup is easy, but for those new or having crazy problems let me be the one to explain to you what can happen - because it happened to me. 1st of all - DO NOT put the fan headers onto any of the CHA_FAN's on your motherboard, use the ones attached to the PCU connecter. What will happen, you ask? Well. You'll fry the CPU header. That's what will happen. Smh. Oh maaan. I felt so stupid when I saw mr sparkity sparks take flight on the 24pin PCU connecter mobo side. Then, smoke! Lots of it! Looked like a jet up in the sky trailing smoke - except it was from the back of my computer. I thought I straight up fried my motherboard like a deep fried twinkie. At first I was going to write an absolutely HORRIBLE review for this, but luckily, I'm smarter than the average nail. In order to fix this, I disassembled my computer completely, unplugged everything, and started building it all over again. Literally, I built my computer all over again and installed Windows 8.1 - the whole 9. Now, after I installed each part again, I used the CPU's factory fan and made sure I had a fan header that works; thanks be to ASUS there was a CPU_OPT fan header because my CPU_FAN was completely fried. After going through some absolute head bashing, I finally was able to install the Kraken x60 again, absolutely NO PROBLEMS (other than it might idle a smidgeon higher than before). The only problem I see presented in the Kraken liquid cooling unit is it's necessity to use a 3rd party program in order to use it. Which you don't really need to use as long as you install their core stuff, then you can delete the Kraken software, it will be LOUD but cool. Another problem that people might encounter is that if your RAM seats directly next to your CPU it might give you a headache trying to make sure the hoses aren't pushing up against your sticks of RAM. I would suggest low profile, but I'm using dual sticks of Corsair Vengence (2x8gb's) and it really doesn't get in the way, but like I said, it all depends on how closely your RAM is seated, I don't think I could put anything in the 1st seat, I have them in 2 & 4. No big deal. Just be aware, if you pull a noob mistake like me, be prepared to fry your CPU fan header. I think my motherboard just couldn't handle the amount of power that was being drawn into the Kraken (which is really weird… but in my utter frustration and anger after seeing smoke billow out of the back like a smoke signal I read other correspondingly frustrated users state similar experiences). All in all, I'm super angry I burnt out a few components and hope I didn't really destroy my motherboard, but, luckily I'm a crafty individual and I said OHHH HECKKKK NOOOOO YOU'RE GONNA WORK WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT :D Happy New Years! Don't electrocute yourselfs!
Overall Review: I'm going to be laughing at myself for awhile, I encourage you all to do the same.
Just Awesome
Pros: It's made by ASUS. I stand by them, I've had this monitor for about a year (give or take) and I have had absolutely no problems with it. I use my headphones for gaming and sometimes for movies (I have 7.1 Surround Sound headphones - the speakers on here aren't very loud). Graphics look great, no problems that others have mentioned here - no mysterious "dead pixels" or weird freak-outs with the monitor - it's been really solid. I love it, I'll probably get another one or two.
Cons: THE MOTHER *$&*%@#$ BUTTONS! Lord have mercy! I absolutely HATE the buttons to change monitor settings.
Overall Review: Honestly, this unit should come with a small remote to be able to change volume/settings. It's nearly impossible to do with hands like mine - I'm not a fatty but it sure makes me feel like one.
It's worth what it cost's.
Pros: Price. I find it aesthetically pleasing, the Chimera might not look great in your room (I don't know) but it looks great in mine. I don't like having open sides on my computer and the tower is legit - don't have to worry about it breaking because something knocks into it. I don't care what people say about AMD Mobo's, I'm still a fan - the bulldozer series (as caveman-like as people make them out to be now) do a great job - this specific mobo can be overclocked by a [full] 1GHz if you want. As for the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520 - Hey, it's not amazing, but it gets the job done. I've been a right wing NVIDIA Geforce fanatic for a long time, I'm loyal. I've been hearing people say to update this to the 550 Ti? But you'd need to upgrade your power supply as well. I'll worry about it down the road.
Cons: You get what you pay for. Can't complain - I did my homework and this was the best bang for the buck. I literally bought the last one they had in stock at the time. The only thing that got me P-O'ed was I paid for 3 day shipping and it should have arrived on a Friday, but it came on a Monday - I ordered it on a Tuesday afternoon. Didn't have anything to do with the product though.
Overall Review: I know I was kind of hesitant to buy this model because there were 3 other comments, vice other exact parts setups minus the casing that have over 100. So, that just means other people wanted those because the case made the computer run 20x faster ;D Look, bottom line - if you want an affordable starter gaming system that will do you justice and you'll enjoy - this model is it, no matter what the case looks like. I bought this to basically run CS 1.6, watching movies in my bedroom & Skyrim (have it for xbox360 but DLC is never gonna be released). Also as a local network for my laptop & printer to deal with day to day school functions. Pretty easy stuff, might even be overdoing it. I paired this with some higher end comp accessories, the Logitech G510 Gaming Keyboard, Logitech G9x Gaming Mouse, ASUS VH232H 1080p Full HD 23" Monitor, and then threw in a D-Link Xtreme N PCIe adapter - Just to give you a run down. I'll update my review a month after owning it for final thoug