Joined on 12/10/05
Very Pleased
Pros: So far this card has met all expectations. I'm getting 40-60 fps on BF3 with avg 50 fps at 1920x1200 all settings to ultra. This is without overclocking the card whatsoever. When you count in overclock headroom this card is a beast and literally the best bang for the buck going right now. I've been team red for the last six years, but i'm not disappointed by team green. I'm taking this bad boy to quakecon 2012 in august. Look for ocnier. Hope to see ya there.
Cons: I have not been able to get the display port to work. This may be the cable i'm using is bad. More testing is required on my part. Also Nvidia's layout scheme of one dvi-d and dvi-I is somewhat strange, why not have a unified bandwith layout on the card? Weird....
Overall Review: I got this card with 7% off with a Hardocp coupon that ended 07/10 thru newegg which lowered the price with an additional $20 rebate making it the cheapest 670 offered by the egg. I'm very stunned it didn't sell out. I'm surprised more people can't see the advertisements on newegg that made this an awesome deal. Oh well your loss people
expect RMA
Pros: Drobo 5n compatible. Simple plug and play
Cons: I bought 2 of these last year for my drobos. One last 8 months and was RMA'ed and the other has just now failed right a year. Decent performance when they work but I expect more durability from a name like Plextor. If your considering these then you probably wanna take the newegg extra warranty coverage. The will fail, however pletor does honor it's warranty its just RMA is a pain.
Awesome product
Pros: The unit does everything it states it does. Very easy to set up if you have the right kind of cable card. Works very well with WMC and xbox as a media extender. My xbox in my living room is now my TV tuner hooked thru a powerline network module to that allows access to my house switch. WIFI was not effective for me in terms of HD streaming. It will share tuners thru out the house so now every computer in my house is also a TV. I am FIOS customer in the DFW area so make sure you ask for the red/pink M-cards, the ones with the globe on them from motorola are not compatible in this area (I have no idea why). If the tech doesn't have one on the truck the FIOS plus stores in the metroplex do. I just took back the FIOS dvr box and switched over from Directv. This little box will pay for itself in 2 years and save me a metric f-ton of money in the long run. I had no software issues with it, just make sure you run the setup before messing with WMC. I highly recommend.
Cons: This box is literally 2 home run prime just put in a rack enclosure. I got this one because I have a wall rack mount in my laundry room and I wanted it look tidy. So if you want to go cheaper just get 2 home run prime 3cc boxes. I don't know why SD charges $30-50 more for this unit (boo SD). Also would have been nice for the circuit to be one piece as far as ethernet connections with just one connection versus two to the switch (minorquibble).
Overall Review: The unit is 3 tuners per card however your cards might not be. My area is only 2 tuners per MCard (so only 4 useable tuners). Also WMC per machine will only allow 4 tuners from any one source. I got another tuner 3cc version (for a total of 6 tuners) and found that the WMC I have set up for the xbox will max at 4 tuners from any one source (ie you can have 4 cable card tuners and 2 antenna tuners for WMC just fine but not 6 from each) which isn't a big deal, I just mix and match tuner usage on my other computers so that in the case of recording there are no lack of tuners available. Very pleased with unit but if you do get it, be prepared for a fight. The cable companies are clueless at times in terms of getting these things going. You have to dogged in terms of perseverance, but you and can succeed. DON'T GET FRUSTRATED. Just keep at it. FYI I was a long time Directv customer but now that you can get sunday ticket thru PS3 without having to suscribe to Directv- "Life iS Good!'
interesting crossroads for it and competition
Pros: This is an excellent 5.1 headset. Gaming is awesome and music is good. The directionality is spot on. Very comfortable for long extended sessions even if you have a large head (like my self). Command puck is weighted for non movement on a table ( a big plus with cord movement). The headset itself feels extremely durable and not flimsy whatsoever. The ease of removable cushions is very nice as well. Essentially comes with its own soundcard inside the command puck which for laptop gaming is a godsend.
Cons: Bass production compared to TB HPA2's is less. I haven't tried the z6a's so I can't compare. Mic is less than stellar as others have reported, however, when directly plugged to sound card its is much better which leads to next problem the strength of headset is through the puck, not sound card. When hooked up to sound card directly it sounds washed out (Creative fatality in my case). This is due to inline amp puck control not having capability to hook directly to sound card. If hooked up through puck only the headset is spot on for the most part for audio, though I have noticed some stuttering from time to time on games like L4D2 however it is very sporadic and could be a steam issue not sirus issue.
Overall Review: Simple suggestion for product improvement since I know CM reads these posts. A very easy fix would be to sell a second puck add on with no internal independent sound card circuitry but with capability of puck controls ie. surround, center, bass, volumes (essentially turning it into a dumbed down amp similar to what turtle beach offers now). Another suggestion is to include a puck for v2.0 that can hook to either direct sound card or usb with simple added button to off internal sound card on the puck when hooked directly to sound card. Also the ability to either software change the coolers of the lights on the headset and puck or order one with different colors would be nice as well (i personally prefer blue).
construction and amp vs power and play
Pros: I love the sound of the these headsets in terms of versatility with respect to gaming and music. Turtle beach really nailed that part of the equation. I own 2 of these, both of which were bought on sale from newegg. Directional targeting is very good, and music on these can blast your ears which is very nice if you like it loud.
Cons: The amp problem: to understand this you have to know that there are 2 versions of the HPA2's technically but they are same model and UPC code. The old version had a true powered amp that plugged into your power strip with your computer. This version was by definition more clunky because of the extra added power brick, however i've yet to have the ear screeching/high pitch squeal on the those ever, though with age its starting to get more pops and hisses. The newer version is more portable for lan's etc because it simply uses USB plugs for its power (please keep in mind the headphones are exactly the same for both version only the amp itselft varies). This version by default carries a know bug of the high pitch squeal (which is very painful and annoying i might add). This can be mitigated by turning the computer volume to half and pushing all the amp setting i.e. surround, center, etc to full and even then the squeal after long periods can still occur.
Overall Review: I really wanted to give this headset 4-5 eggs if your talking about the old revision which i don't think you can find anymore, i would give it 5 eggs but since the revision 2 is all that is out there now i have to give it 3. Still these are some of the best 5.1 headsets for the money (true 5.1 headsets are getting harder to find). I also owned the psyko 5.1 headsets for comparison. For pure direction targeting in gaming the psykos are better, but only by the smallest margins IMHO. If you factor in the cost delta and the added ability of the HPA2's to play music well with regard to base, the HPA2's are by far a better deal. I'm hoping the amp issue can be solved by TB in future. This headset/UPC is do for a complete reboot, unfortunately thanks to console PC gaming just doesn't seem to have the profits margins these companies want. On a personal note, I would love to see someone's review of the HPA's compare to the sharkoon xtatic digital. I'm hoping neweggs starts selling them
Weird Market implementation
Pros: Well I bought this exact drive at another retailer that ryhmes with "tries" during a Xmas sale for a slightly cheaper price (i'm sure you can guess). I then proceed to void the warranty on the drive for the internal drive itself. The drive inside is a 3TB 7200 rpm drive. It works really well as my new internal drive for my home server.
Cons: Assuming you as a customer were to use this an external data drive then usb 3.0 or esata would be a must for such an item. If you try to transfer up to 3TB of data on any drive over a usb 2.0 bus then it will be terribly slow. You are better off buying it and voiding the warranty by gutting to internal drive which is 7200 rpm to boot. So much for that more expensive green power drive by WD LOL.
Overall Review: Why does Newegg only carry the external hitachi 3tb drive and not the internal one???? Not neweggs fault, just weird market implementation by hitachi. I took 2 eggs because of Hitachi's weird marketing strategy. Well hope this review helps people. :)