Joined on 03/26/14
Good product. Not ideal for technician.
Pros: - Easy to use. - Recognizes basically every hard drive and SSD. - Cloning works pretty well, albeit some issues. - Fast when using USB 3.0. Works well with USB 2.0. - Lots of useful ports. The extra USB and SD Card slots work perfectly.
Cons: - Cloning is slow and can take quite a while, compared to an internal SATA clone. Also, the partitioning isn't adaptive. Cloning a small hard drive to a larger one will leave un-allocated space. You will have to tweak the partitions using an OS to get the full HDD size. - Cloning sometimes fails for some combinations of old HDD. If going for a new one, it isn't an issue. - Deal breaker for me: I have no access at all to the S.M.A.R.T. readings using this dock. An older single dock works, while this one doesn't. So a tech can't really know if their hard drive or SSD is failing, nor can the end user.
Overall Review: All in all, an excellent product for someone with lots of disks and needs something quick to read the data. File transfer and write works well. Cloning is also quite easy to use and does the job, albeit with some work to do afterwards. But if you want to do diagnostics using this dock, better look elsewhere, as S.M.A.R.T. is inconsistent at best, unusable for the most part.
The baseline for 5070
Pros: - Performs as expected - Runs cool and relatively quiet (3 fans) - Has an indicator light for 12V-2x6 connector if it is misaligned or unplugged. - No coil whine if paired with a good power supply - Lightweight - Includes a 12V-2x6 to Dual 8-pin adapter.
Cons: - Still over MSRP - 12V-2x6 isn't the most reliable, but at less than 250W: it will not have issues.
Overall Review: Overall a good performance for something relatively available. It performs around the same as an RTX 3080Ti, but at 2/3 the power. And has just enough VRAM for modern games at higher settings. The power draw for this card is spot around 220-230W, and performs as expected in most benchmarks. Temperatures stay healthy at this power draw given the ample cooling, never going over 75C even in a closed case. This specific Asus model is well built, has a good back plate, although it is surprisingly light for the dimensions. Fans look to be of good quality, and should last as intended. There is a very light coil whine when benchmarking and over 500FPS, which is kind of normal. Initially had quite high coil whine, but this was due to a less than desirable power supply (A750BN). Using a higher tier A850GL removed all but the ultra high FPS whines. Overall, recommended if you want to take advantage of the newer Nvenc or Ray tracing cores at a price that doesn't destroy the bank.
Excellent 1440p monitor with lots of features. (edited)
Pros: - Easy to assemble. A single twist of the hand is needed for the stand. VESA 100mm available. - Very light, but still holds stably with the stand. No wobbling. - Matte finish on screen, which helps seeing small details instead of reflections. - Good contrast ratio. Calibration out of the box is acceptable for colors, brightness, etc. - Radeon Freesync usable with HDMI or DisplayPort - No noticeable backlight bleeding - 75Hz and latency control helps making a big difference compared to standard 60hz IPS: much smoother - Flicker-free - 2x HDMI is useful for other consoles, etc.
Cons: - Silver bezel does not make for the best contrast. It is visible even in a dark room. - There is no routing for cable management. You will see the wires from up front. - Comes with only a single HDMI cable (white). (edit) - Has around 5 dead pixels after around 1 weeks. Not really noticeable at viewing distance. - Developed backlight bleed in the top when manipulated for tilt, because the bezel is too thin and simply pinching the bezel affects the backlight position (it is edge lit).
Overall Review: - White back with a silver bezel and stand isn't the ideal color scheme. You may want to verify before buying. Still has a nice sleek look. - You must use either HDMI or DisplayPort to display the correct native resolution. Using DVI with an adapter will max out at 1080p 60hz on this monitor. - Connecting using DisplayPort caused issues (intermittent freezing) on all monitors with my Radeon RX580. Using HDMI instead solved the issue. - DisplayPort had no issues on an older Nvidia GTX760 on a different computer. So it's still a guess whether the DP issues are related to the video card or the system itself. - Image quality and features are the same if you have an HDMI 2.0 enabled video card. Freesync is enabled as well on HDMI for this monitor. Overall, this is a highly recommended 1440p monitor for the price. Matte screen, smooth response times compared to 60Hz, and has Freesync enabled.
Good economical casing with lots of space.
Pros: - Nice brushed finish does not keep fingerprints. - Case is durable and solid, does not rattle. - Lots of interior space and plenty of space and holes for wiring cables behind the motherboard. - Comes with basic screws. - Good dust filters - Low Price
Cons: - Arrived with a scratched glass inside, presumably because of the wiring or handling. There is no protector film inside. A shame, since this is why it's not 5 stars. Try selling a new PC with scratched panels... - Includes no tie wraps for cable management, but at this price, it's not to be expected.
Overall Review: Large casing, recommended for any budget gamer build. Nice, clean look, and easy cable management makes for a great build. I'd check for a scratched glass before installing everything though, in case that kills the deal for you.
Works as expected.
Pros: - Relatively silent - 3TB - Consistent - SMART really has no issues (no reallocated sectors, etc)
Cons: - Mine had over 3.5 years of use for less than 100 on/off cycles. Hopefully these have been really refurbished... - Limited Warranty
Overall Review: Consider these good for short term storage or for PVR/DVR products. I would not recommend use for sensitive data on the long run.
Perfect for older computers
Pros: - Much quicker than any HDD by far. - Good price point. (refurbished) - Stable and reliable. - Perfect for any computer which only has SATA 2
Cons: - Lots of added stickers and writing on it. Best kept hidden. Not for showcasing. - SATA 2 which means lower speed than newer SSD by at least 30%.
Overall Review: - 160GB is not a lot by today's standard, but sufficient for most cases. Keep size in mind when buying. - SATA 2 cannot go faster than around 300MB/s on read. If you work with large files, it might be better getting a more recent SATA 3 SSD, or even better yet, AIC (PCI-E). These seem to be used drives that have been wiped and tested. The price point per GB is a good contender, as the added 40GB on regular 120GB SSDs is very welcome. Reliability for these drives is reputed to be great. Ours was recognized immediately by the BIOS and we had no issues with cloning. Speed is excellent, faster than many cheap SATA3 120GB drives.