Joined on 05/11/06
Very Good Case at a Good Price
Pros: - Airflow - Build Quality - Versatility - Appearance
Cons: - Limited Hard Drive Space - Slide-lock Side Panels
Overall Review: Upgraded from an NZXT H510 for better airflow and this case delivers on that extremely well with only a slight bump in dimensions. It is well made with rounded edges everywhere that matters, and provides good airflow flexibility. Looks great too! It fits my Kraken 280mm AIO easily, though mounting on the top prevents a 3rd fan there. A 240 or 360mm AIO radiator would avoid that and fit just as easily. My only disappointments with it are that there is limited space in the hard drive cage for full size 5.25" drives, fitting only 2 where it could have easily fit 3 with a better cage design, and the slotted tabs for anchoring the side covers are cantankerous to deal with while feeling very 20 years ago. A hinged design would be much easier. That said, the AIO fans are the only ones that run constantly for me at a very low speed in this case and without thermal heat-soaking from my Ryzen 9 5900x and RTX 2080Ti. The 4 x40mm fans I have installed only need to run for more demanding things.
Seems to Work OK - Sort of . .
Pros: Works great for adding SATA ports onto boards that have few of them.
Cons: I don't want to say this is a problem with this card, but my system no longer suspends with this card installed. Also, I am not able to attach more than one additional drive to the system. When I attached my two older 80GB drives in RAID-0, they would shut down after a few minutes. That could be a power rail limitation with my now 8 year old 230W supply however, but running an Atom N330 only sipped about 60W before I added this card.
Overall Review: Again, the problems I am experiencing could be due to my power supply, so unless these issues are a trend in these reviews, they probably aren't noteworthy.
Might be a 5-Star Product
Pros: XMP-4000
Cons: Not A-XMP rated for 4000MHz.
Overall Review: I could never get my PC to post using the XMP profile built into my MSI X470 Gaming Plus Max w/Ryzen 9 5900x even with the most recent BIOS updates. Manual settings could only get it to 3864MHz, but that may be more about A-XMP compatibility than the RAM itself. That is only a 4% hit on RAM performance, and a far less impact on total system performance. This RAM is XMP, not A-XMP rated however, so it's still great performance at a decent price.
Best Bang for the Buck in a 34"
Pros: - Sharp - Bright - Good Contrast - Low Glare - Smudge Free Bezel
Cons: - Black Levels - No VESA Mount Points - Middling Refresh Rate
Overall Review: This is a fantastic monitor for the price in this segment, offering a curved panel of very good quality at price that simply beats the pants off the competition with the same resolution. With a typical viewing distance for me at about 28 inches, the pixels are difficult to discern individually, and real life images appear more lifelike on it than on the 23" 1080p monitor it has replaced. I can't imagine going with fewer pixels however unless the viewing distance were significantly further away. Likewise, a 4k monitor would be a waste for me without it being significantly larger - and I don't want anything that huge on my desk! This monitor is big enough! I was happy to see that my R7 370 graphics card handles the extra resolution nicely as well, allowing me to play with maximum detail in War Thunder (except for anit-aliasing, which I leave off for that game). The FreeSync feature does a great job of eliminating tearing, and although a higher refresh rate would be nice to eliminate motion blur, I don't consider that a big problem. I only knock off a star on this monitor for the black levels because if you have seen one of the new OLED panels, you will know what you are missing there. In spite of that, this monitor is still very good with very even backlighting. The VESA mount issue is listed in the details, so just know what you are NOT getting there! I would definitely purchase again!
Very Clear FM - So-s0 Bluetooth
Pros: - Excellent FM Signal Strength Clearly Drowns Out Distant Signals - Syncs Quickly - USB Port for Simultaneous Charging - Bright Easy to Read Frequency Display
Cons: - Heavy - Poor Bluetooth Operation
Overall Review: It may be that the one I purchased is simply defective, but it has an issue with the bluetooth glitching randomly for just a fraction of a second. It pauses and disrupts the rhythm of music playback very slightly by very noticeably. It's bad enough that we simply don't use it for music at all, but I have taken to using it in my work truck to listen to talk radio streams for which the problem is not noticeable. As this has happened with both my Android phone and my wife's 6 Plus, this is clearly an issue with the receiver. We may try ordering another one for the music playback in the vehicle we originally got it for, as I have not seen other reviewers mention the bluetooth glitch and ours may just be bad luck.
Good Value
Pros: Inexpensive and reliable.
Cons: Construction seems flimsy.
Overall Review: I use this keyboard paired with my Nexus 7 tablet and seems to work pretty well for that. I only had to pair it once and it automatically re-pairs with no trouble whenever I want to use it. I think it's pretty decent bang for the buck if you don't mind the compactness and somewhat flimsy feel. You won't be confusing the quality of it with something like the Apple Bluetooth keyboard, but this was also half the price.