Joined on 03/24/08
Great PSU!
Pros: Modular cables are EXTREMELY HANDY. Made my life and cable management so much easier. Voltages are very stable, I'm able to overclock well and reach the lowest c-states with my 4770k. Reliable up til now, has plenty of room for me to expand my computer
Cons: None.
Overall Review: Current Build: ASUS Maximus VI Hero w/ i7-4770k PNY 770GTX 2GB VRAM Corsair 2x8GB 1866 DRAM Corsair H80i CPU Cooler Antec 900 Mid-Tower I plan to throw in another 770 someday (probably during thanksgiving or December when sales are abound) and I have no doubt it will be easy to integrate it given this PSU.
Great Case but Tight Fit
Pros: Everything fits. No worries on having a GPU that is too big, even a 780GTX will fit. Stock cooling is already pretty good. Has a VERY USEFUL case fan slot built right behind the front fans for PCI cooling (BARELY fits with my 770GTX, but it is removable if you run out of room). Existing cable management is sufficient. Easy to setup.
Cons: The case is literally millimeters away from being ideal. It should be about 2 or 3 millimeters wider to allow for guaranteed usage of the side fan slot. One of the stock case fans is slightly faulty: The built in RPM monitor lasted maybe 2 days before it stopped reading, but the fan still works great otherwise.
Overall Review: I managed to fit everything in here including a Corsair H80i CPU cooler. IT WILL FIT, but it will restrict your usage of the side fan slot. If you get a small enough sleeve fan, you can fit it. CABLE MANAGEMENT: I said it was sufficient, but it can get out of control rather quickly with this case. Plan things out well and clear out as many cables as possible before moving in the next part, otherwise its a birds nest.
Great GPU, not so great price
Pros: Very powerful out of the box. Works as advertised and have been able to run most everything on Ultra.
Cons: None yet *fingers crossed*
Overall Review: I use MSI's Afterburner software to overclock my gpu. Works well without much heat increase. My GPU outperformed the norm in the Furmark benchmark without having overclocked it. I caught my GPU on sale for $299, but not everyone can be so lucky. Note: I ran into issues with Metro Last Light, but those were caused due to some sort of driver conflict that occurred during Metro's first launch (from steam). Reinstalling PhysX drivers fixed the issue and put me back on the highest possible settings. My Build: ASUS Maximus VI Hero w/ i7-4770k PNY Nvidia 770GTX 2GB VRAM Corsair 2x8GB 1866 DRAM Corsair H80i CPU Water Cooler Antec 900 Mid-Tower
Very capable if used correctly
Pros: Works great out of the box. The UEFI BIOS is very easy to use and gives ample ability to overclock. The XMP profiles are also very helpful. AI Suite is very helpful and auto tuning features are useful.
Cons: CPU Level Up feature is near useless. If you are going to overclock, do it yourself. AI Suite runs into access violations from time to time and needs to be exited and reran.
Overall Review: Take advantage of the UEFI BIOS and do not rely on AI Suite III to keep you up-to-date, download most BIOS updates manually from ASUS. Unfortunately, my 4770k is one of the lower 30% that do not overclock well above 4.2GHz so I could not take full advantage of this mobo's features. The Xtreme Tweaker helped me get a very stable build.
Luck of the draw
Pros: Out of the box, this processor runs great. Auto-tuning feature of my MAXIMUS VI mobo put it at 3.9 GHz without me actively overclocking it. You are guaranteed at least 4.2 GHz with over 90% of 4770k's that are put out.
Cons: These processors are luck-of-the-draw. You may get lucky and can get a stable overclock build at 4.7GHz with a core voltage of only 1.25V or 1.3V, but there are those out there who struggle to get a stable overclock at 4.2 GHz with 1.2V.
Overall Review: My current setup got a stable build of 4.2GHz at 1.2V with a cache ratio of 39. I would not recommend ASUS's "level up" feature, as it doesn't work well at all. I ran into stability issues when moving from manual to adaptive core voltage, but was able to improve my stability by increasing the current capability to about 120% and by increasing my LLC.