Joined on 05/22/08
Great for mechanical hard drives
Pros: Assuming a proper cable is purchased, SATA III hard drives can connect at 6 Gbps. Good compatibility with older motherboards. I used an Asus P5E x38 motherboard. Using mechanical hard drives, this card outperforms competing cards in RAID 5. Using a RAID card makes it possible to transport an array to a different machine with data intact, not likely with motherboard RAID. 512 MB cache supercharges smaller file transfers and assists in larger file copies. See other thoughts for benchmarks. The card's onboard RAID chip performs the processing necessary for RAID, without stealing cycles from the CPU like cheaper cards or software RAID.
Cons: Boot time - With card installed, takes about 30 seconds longer until logon screen appears. Does NOT come with cables. (Its cheaper to purchase the card and cables separately anyway.) Requires additional cooling than the built-in heatsink. I used Vantec Spectrum Fan Card (Model SP-FC70-BL) which by default aims the flow of air perfectly at the card's heatsink. Seems more optimized for mechanical hard drives than SSDs. Required about 27 hours to initialize 6TB RAID5 array with three 3TB drives.
Overall Review: I purchased the card to create a RAID5 array on an older PC using three Seagate 3TB hard drives (STBD3000100). 64 Kb stripe size, used default allocation unit size in Windows. Plugged the card into the 2nd PCI Express x16 slot. Any reviewer should mention their motherboard and model(s) of hard drives and whether it all works together or not, as compatibility info is very valuable to know. I purchased the StarTech SAS8087S450 SAS Cable which saved money over buying the "kit" that includes the card with a cable. Warning: Western Digital drives are known to drop out of RAID arrays unless they are the WD Enterprise (RE4) series! Benchmarks using CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1 x64: 4000 MB file size Sequential Read : 300.667 MB/s Sequential Write : 297.637 MB/s 50 MB file size Sequential Read : 1312.676 MB/s Sequential Write : 1284.467 MB/s Not a typo! Probably due to 512MB cache on the card. If any questions, I'm at optimum.net
Even on sale, its not a deal!
Pros: Inexpensive when on sale. Attractive looking modular power supply with four PCI Express connections. The included connectors are identical to the connectors of an older Rocketfish 700W power supply I own, giving me more cable management options for use with both PSUs. The connectors are sleeved in black mesh which helps to hide them and make for a more attractive build.
Cons: DOA -- never worked even once and had a burnt, electrical smell to it. Quality contol for Rosewill is apparently lacking, resulting in many of their PSUs arriving either DOA or burning out within a few months. I spent $16 to send this defective unit back to Newegg, negating the advantage of buying the unit on sale.
Overall Review: This was my first purchase of a Rosewill PSU. I used the 750W PSU to replace on older working 700W PSU in a system. First time I powered up my system with the new PSU, my system began to reboot continuously, even when the PSU was plugged-in to only a few peripherals. I really wanted to like this power supply, but getting a defective unit makes me worry about the quality control at Rosewill. The customer feedback of higher-end (650W+) Rosewill PSU models shows several with an unusually high percentage of 1-egg ratings (often DOA units). One model has 20% of its ratings = 1 egg, and another model has 25% of it's ratings = 1 egg. Think about it: 25% means that 1 in 4 customers had a problem with it. Not good, especially when the customer has to spend money to ship back a defective product.
Uniquely Secure Flash Drive
Pros: Small and compact Attractive and glossy look Fast USB 3.0 class speeds. Write Protect Switch (for extra security)
Cons: No place on unit to store cap when removed. Write protect switch is harder to set than it should be. Case not actually metal but "metallic" (plastic).
Overall Review: At the time I purchased this flash drive, it was one of the few USB 3.0 models that also has a write-protect switch. The write-protect switch (which makes the flash drive read-only until set back) prevents the unit from getting infected from a virus or malware. This is an essential feature for anyone who finds it necessary to travel around and transfer data (like a presentation) to various remote or unfamiliar computer systems while being sure nothing can infect the drive and be brought back "home". I would have given the unit 5 eggs if it felt less flimsy and had an easier to access write-protect switch. . . giving presentations or needing to copy data on tomaking sure
Good Cable for Adaptec RAID 6 Gbps
Pros: Flexible, flat cables similar to standard SATA cables in thickness and flexibility. Cables are thin enough to route wherever you want but do not feel cheaply made. Allows my SATA III hard drives run at their full speed of 6 Gbps. Cables are just right for a mid-tower case and not so long they block airflow or get tangled.
Cons: Price for cable is currently a bit high, but its still cheaper than purchasing a RAID card "kit" that includes the card plus the cable.
Overall Review: Bought the cable for use with Adaptec RAID 6405 6Gb/s SATA/SAS 4 Controller Card. Used the cable to connect three Seagate 3TB SATA III drives to the card, and it works well.
The Best for High Resolution Gaming!
Pros: Fantastic graphics power - with its 3 GB frame buffer, the card is made for excellent performance at extremely high resolutions. PCI Express 3.0! When I upgrade my computer system using a PCI Express 3.0 motherboard, the card's performance should be even better. No problem with setting up the card on my ASUS P6X58D-E LGA 1366 motherboard. The HD 7970 is a single-GPU card that often beats many dual-GPU cards, especially at 2560x1600 and on multiple monitors. Diamond's 5-year warranty is longer than many other 7970s on sale. The 6 pin and 8 pin PCI Express power connectors point "up" so that they do not lengthen the card, which is about 1 inch longer than the HD 6870 card it replaced. Is compliant with DirectX 11.1, which is the Windows 8 standard. Did not notice any heat problems, but have not tried to overclock yet.
Cons: Price is quite high, but not compared to the $500 - $800 charged for flagship cards of the competition that are actually much slower. No drivers included with the card, requiring you download them from the manufacturer's website. (Documentation says the drivers were still in development at the time the card was packaged.) I recommend you download the drivers before physically uninstalling the older card(s). When working hard, the card has been known to draw over 250 watts. At lower resolutions (1920 x 1080) the card's frame rate is comparable to other cards and probably overkill. You need to be running games at high resolutions and with the details turned way up for the HD 7970 to really shine.
Overall Review: Because I purchased a 30 inch flat panel display (2560x1600), I replaced two Radeon HD 6870 cards in Crossfire with the HD 7970. What a difference! In running Unigine Heaven 2.5 benchmark, the 7970 produced superior images including stunningly realistic output with extremely intricate bitmaps and pervasive physics that were absent with the 6870s. I plan to wait a while before buying another 7970 card for Crossfire mode, at least until the drivers mature and the price goes down a bit.
Good choice for 30 inch screen
Pros: The Chief KCG110B holds heavy flat panels displays, such as 30 inch Dell Ultrasharp. Solid Construction. The arm is mounted to my desk, and the attached monitor is extremely stable. Fluid motion. I can adjust the display easily, as the arm is extremely responsive due to its pneumatic cylinder ("air piston") mechanism vs. the tension springs used in competing products. Provides different mounting hardware for various monitors. A panel can be rotated from portrait to landscape easily, in either direction, even if the monitor's original stand lacks the capability.
Cons: Limited tilt of monitor up/down (+/-15º according to specs). However, when using monitor, this has never been a problem. Included instructions are not particularly easy to follow. Routing cables through the arm is rather challenging, as the screws that open and close the arm's cable routing hardware are difficult to reach on the underside of the arm. There is no "click" or other indication when trying to rotate a panel to a perfectly level position, requiring a bit of guesswork. All the adjustment screws are hexagonal and, although the hex wrenches are included, are inconvenient to adjust compared to standard or phillips screws. Attaching a panel to the arm requires removing the panel's original mounting bracket to be replaced by the bracket included with the arm. While time has shown the new bracket to be perfectly strong, it does not LOOK as strong as the original which originally gave me pause before installing.
Overall Review: I purchased the Chief KCG110B to replace an Ergotron model that I had been using for a 24 inch flat panel. My research indicated that the Ergo arm, which uses springs for tension, may be able to hold a 30 inch panel but will be extremely wobbly. My new panel, a Dell U3011, works fine with the new arm mount and has no wobble problem at all. Highly recommended for 30 inch panels or for a smaller and lighter monitor if you plan to adjust the monitor daily. The Chief KCG110B is probably overkill for smaller panels, though.