Joined on 04/02/12
An Excellent Case
Pros: *Looks cool. The pictures are misleading - the case is a very dark gray, with glossy black highlights and a dark gray mesh front. It looks ten times better than in the pictures. *Seven fan mounts! This is a relatively cheap case for those of us with extreme cooling needs. *Red LED fan in front looks very cool. It has a subtle glow, and isn't overly garish like a lot of other LED fans. *Fans are pretty quiet. *Has a side window, which is nice. *Interior is painted red, which makes the side window that much better. *Power and Reset buttons feel solid and crisp. *Front IO panel is actually useful, and uses a motherboard header for the USB 3.0 ports. *Tool-less drive bays were actually designed to be used by human beings. Seriously, you'd be surprised by how many companies come up with a "unique" tool-less design and mass-produce it, even though it's total c***. *Comes with a 3.5" to dual 2.5" internal drive bay converter. *Case speaker and black twist ties are a nice touch.
Cons: *Reset button on front is rather small. I have small fingers, and it's difficult even for me. Those of you with even normal-sized fingers might have a tough time with this. *This case is kind of on the cramped side. Of course, what do you expect for a case of this size with seven fan mounts? It's big enough to fit any of your necessary components, including 12"+ graphics cards, but large CPU fans and many watercooling setups probably won't fit inside. *Stock fans don't push a huge amount of air. They are nice and quiet, and more than adequate for your daily (and overclocking) needs, but if you are looking at putting in 7 x 80+ CFM fans, you'll need to replace there. *Two of the fans (front and top) are 4-pin Molex connectors. Bad 4-pin Molex connectors. It took me about fifteen minutes to hook up these two fans, because the stupid pins wouldn't all line up. Plus, I'm going to get a fan controller, so now I need to get a couple of extra cables.
Overall Review: The product description is a bit off. First off, there *is* an eSATA port on the front. Also, these are the fan mounts: 1 x 120mm front (standard, red LED) 1 x 120mm rear (standard) 1 x 120mm bottom (optional) 2 x 120mm side (optional) 2 x 120mm/140mm top (comes with one 140mm) *I was personally hoping that the bottom 3.5" external bay was an adapter for an 5.25" bay, but no dice. I wanted to put my 5.25" fan controller in the bottom bay, but it's not that big of a deal. *It does come with an instruction booklet, but it's pretty thin. However, how thick of an instruction booklet are you expecting for a computer case? All of the cons are minor, and overall this is an amazing case. I managed to pick this up for only $40, and wow was that the best choice I've ever made. If this case costs $80, then you might want to look elsewhere. If it costs $60, then it offers a great alternative to the Antec 300. If it's $40, then BUY IT.
Dead
Pros: Good price, nice connections, overclocks, overall a very nice board...
Cons: ...if it would work. My board was DOA. It was stuck in an infinite loop of beeping 50+ times and rebooting. This indicates a power failure, but when I tested with a confirmed working PSU it still refused to work.
Overall Review: Gigabyte makes great graphics cards, as I've already bought 3 from them. Don't let this product dissuade you from the brand as a whole - overall they are very good. This product is just a dud.
Good while it lasted
Pros: I used mine for a wireless keyboard, and it worked very well while it lasted. From across the room (~10 ft) it had no perceivable latency, on par with wired keyboards. The maximum range I got was 20 feet, through 3 walls and a WiFi network, which isn't bad at all. Once it was all set up, I had no dropout issues at all - it simply worked. I didn't use any fancy speakers or headsets with this, so I can't attest to the sound quality, but I can say that this will work just fine with Logitech keyboards that claim to require a Logitech receiver.
Cons: Dead after 4 months of use. After plugging it in, it failed to work and started getting very hot to the touch. I'm guessing a resistor blew. This appears to be part of a severe design flaw - if you look inside the receiver, you'll see that right at the very end of the USB connector are a couple of resistors sticking up, just within range to be bumped by the USB connector it is inserted into. If you plug the dongle in too far, it will bump against the resistor and potentially break them. This is unfortunate, because other than this little bitty detail (which caused it to cook itself to death) I was quite happy with this receiver.
Overall Review: I guess you get what you pay for. I was hoping this would at the very least last a year, but oh well. I had one of the LEDs blow out within 2 weeks, which was mildly annoying, but I had my dongle hidden away so it didn't bug me too much. I had significant difficulty setting up a Bluetooth keyboard with this, but it was a Logitech keyboard only made to work with Logitech receivers, plus I was inexperienced, so I don't blame the adapter for it. I was aware of the issue with the resistor location when I got this, and figured I could work around it just fine - turns out that didn't matter. Another review explains what parts are required to repair it, but I'm not experienced with soldering components nor do I have the necessary equipment, so the cost of repairing it is much greater than to replace it. I gave this product 3 eggs because it worked splendidly when it did work, but only lasting 4 months is very bad. One thing I can recommend (both for this model and any Bluetooth receiver): If you're using a desktop computer, keep it as far away from any WiFi antennas as you can. They'll both interfere with each other significantly. Either plug it into the front of your case or use a USB extension cable to wire it further away; in my case, on the other side of the desk, away from the path between my router and WiFi antennas. This improved performance greatly and fixed all of the periodic "skips" in communication.
Excellent for the money!
Pros: Very fast, especially for a USB 2.0 drive.
Cons: None
Overall Review: The cover slides off and clicks into place, but after a couple of weeks the clicking mechanism broke and now the flash drive won't stay closed. However, it's solidly built, so even after being tossed around in my pocket for over a year it's still in very good shape.