Joined on 03/17/11
Pros: Awesome price for case/power supply combo. Good-looking for a microATX case. Better looking than the pictures. Build quality is better compared to the mass produced Dell, HP, etc cases. Elevated off ground for PSU circulation.
Cons: none yet
Overall Review: Not really sure what use the watercooling grommets could be. Other reviewer who gave 1 star for their misread should remove his review.
MEH.
Pros: Blows an okay amount of air... Name brand. Matches case. Built in fan 3 speed fan controller (could almost be a con for me actually because of the extra cable management now needed)
Cons: - Very loud on full power. Much louder than the 26db (or whatever) that the description claims. At about a meter, its more around 40db. - Correct on the airflow description, but none of it is centralized; the air practically curves around the outside edge, so if you need more precision for whatever you're doing, this is not the fan for you.
Overall Review: Spend an extra 2-3 bucks and buy a Cougar fan. Higher production quality, quieter, more airflow.
BE CAREFUL WHAT BIOS VERSION YOU WANT
Pros: - 2.5Gbit Ethernet is cool for future-proofing - Wifi 6e is cool for future-proofing, though I ended up disabling it since it's bad for privacy/location tracking if you're not actively needing it. - Dual USB headers matched perfectly with my case's support - Looks clean and simple - Cheap way to drive a 7600.
Cons: Physical: - Only 5gbps USB headers. My case supports 20gbps over USB-C and it would have been nice to have this functionality. Better yet would be Thunderbolt 3 or 4. - Only one NVMe slot. Another would have been nice for a storage drive. - Only one pcie slot, though I think that might be necessary in a mini-itx case - No BIOS reset button; you have to do it through the CMOS jumper, which depending on your configuration may be very difficult to reach. BIOS quirps: - Q-flash is a mess and I had to youtube how to update the BIOS. - BIOS interface could be better, and descriptions of options are terribly nondescript. - BIOS settings & profiles are not saved in the same way the "smart fan" profile is, so they get completely wiped when re-flashing. - ofc, no overclocking support due to the lower chipset, but they don't allow lower base clocks than 100MHz either, for slight underclocking, nor is boost clock controllable (maybe this is normal, idk, but seems weird) - creepy push of Gigabyte Control Center automatically when you start Windows for the first time without it installed already (I didn't even know such a thing was possible from a BIOS standpoint, but there is an option in BIOS to disable the check/push) UPDATE: I just realized that one of the blue USB ports is NOT USB3. Sneaky! They only circled the bottom one in the picture; the top one is USB 2.0.
Overall Review: It's a budget board, so I'll get over my cons, but you do need to know the following: AMD has recently set new standards for mobo manufacturers to follow so their CPUs stop burning out. What this means is every new BIOS (as of date) for this board, after F2, will disable user-adjustable VCore DVID offsets. (SOC is still available, and I tested every version up through F4d). I don't believe the new standards required complete removal, just the inability to positively increase, so Gigabyte made the poor decision to remove it completely. I had originally set them to reduce voltage to improve power efficiency, and this caused me several hours of getting back to where I was after performing a BIOS update. So if you want to retain VCore tweaking on your non-overclockable board, make sure you're on BIOS version F2.
No problems, just a bit underwhelming since it's a budget card
Pros: - High overclocks possible with Afterburner out of the box (+150 core, +1200 memory easily). I was able to force an extra 8-10fps sustained on furmark with this OC. - 2x DP & 2x HDMI is basically ideal. Imo most displays should be DP at this point, leave HDMI for 1080p TVs.
Cons: - Heat dissipation could be better. I wouldn't have minded an extended card with a 3rd fan, in hindsight.
Overall Review: Works for my mini-iTX build, but framerates could be much better on my 3440x1440 display so I may end up upgrading before long.
A beautiful, versatile case that I'll probably keep forever
Pros: - Highly flexible applications due to inner plane being able to move - Quality steel & powdercoat - Comes with a well detailed guide of several configuration options - Can fit a lower case fan or 2nd 2.5" SSD
Cons: - Expensive - No handles for easy mobility (and not much room to install some since the top piece is latched with plastic). - USB cables and pwr switch are too long for my application and they are difficult to route cleanly - Somewhat wasted space on the back if you have a smaller GPU and are not using an AIO cooler. (behind the power supply plane). This area could have easily been repurposed with optional mounts for 2 or 3 full size HDDs or something. - Missed opportunity for a clean white LED in the power switch in their logo. - You have to break out screws to lock the doors for travel, rather than some kind of basic finger latch.
Overall Review: Overall I am happy with this as I have had full size ATX cases my whole life and this is a breath of fresh air. You can really tell some thought went into the design. Version 2.0 should take note of the cons I listed, and maybe consider a way to adjust vertically as well. Doing this would easily allow 2 more case fans or even a 2-by radiator to fit on top - in fact, they probably could have just extended the existing height by half an inch and achieved this. Maybe a small conduit of sorts running on top of the center plane as well to give yet another location to hide cables (maybe those front panel cables!)
Failed in 3 weeks.
Pros: Worked while it did i guess...
Cons: Seagate, you must have incompetent fools designing these things. Unbelievable.
Overall Review: Looked up the warranty as well. I bought on November 23rd, 2014 , warranty good only until August 22nd, 2015. STAY AWAY FROM THIS.