Joined on 03/10/09
Update to prior review
Pros: The other poster recommended a 40mm fan which was spot on for the size required, so thanks to that person / poster. The length of the screw for me was about 2x-3x longer than required, but I was able to cut the screw to shorten the length and get the fan closer to the sink. Temps without the Fan would run 165 - 180F!! Temps with 40mm fan is now: 120F - 145F if copying files. Screw length was minor issue and the other poster truly saved many hours of headaches with their research!!!! FINALLY, please keep your cover on your case when running this card WITHOUT a fan!!! The card temp can rise above 205F. Also, I would keep this card higher up on the MB and not place it towards the bottom of the computer due to airflow and it can increase the temps of card even higher!
Cons: Why no fan included on the card when purchased I have NO IDEA!
Overall Review: Note: I did add a couple of Enermax 120mm fans to replace some older and louder Antec Stealth 120mm fans in my case. Before adding / replacing the case fans, it probably added roughly 5F-8F to the temps I posted above on the physical card. I also added a couple of 80mm fans to help with airflow in the case, BUT the biggest improvement was adding the fan directly to the heat sink. Also, don't forget to purchase a 3-pin fan spiltter cable if you don't have an free spot to plug in the add-on fan!
Be careful of the special offer
Pros: Good price and its a WD drive as long as its not refurbished. NEVER had a problem with these drives or WD until purchasing them for really cheap price. If you care about your data, the newegg deal might not be a good deal if you have to RMA the drive
Cons: Picked 3 drives up from NewEgg on their sale....I had 2 out of 3 drives have MAJOR unrecoverable errors discovered. The drives were "refurbished" at the end of September. Sticker said the were manufactured around that time frame
Overall Review: Drives were supposed to be sold as new, but I'm thinking WD and newegg just unloaded a ton of drives on the consumer hoping that less customers would return the product than what was purchased. WD RMA both drives without a major issue or problem, other than data loss which would occur if you weren't running a data backup program.
Great card for WGC computing
Pros: Card is a beast for crunching World Community Grid work units. It cut the time in half to process a work unit compared to the previous card I owned which was a Nvidia GTX-285 Not as loud as expected after reading reviews form other users. I don't really use for gaming, but more for virtual machines and graphic / video editing. It seems like the colors are a little bit better on my monitor??? Or could be a placebo effect. Everything draws and pops almost instantly onto the screen when launching programs and browsers with 15-20 tabs. Launching both Chrome and Firefox at the same time.
Cons: None so far!
Overall Review: The stock cooling fan is a little bit louder than 3 enermax 120 cooling fans I have installed for my water loop. It really doesn't bother me when listening to music. Since not really a gamer, this card should last well into the future. Have adequate airflow thru the case and that will help to minimize the speed of the default fan running at max speed on the graphics card.
Works good for cooling Adaptec RAID card!
Pros: Was recommended by another poster to use on the Adaptec 6405 RAID card. It works very well and reduced the temps on the card!! Temps without the fan --> 160F - 195F Temps with Add-On fan --> 120F - 145F
Cons: none so far, worked as expected and ddoes the job I need to keep the RAID card cool
Very Reliable Drive
Pros: As always, I've not encountered any problems with these drives. My old Dell computer still has the 75GB version of the VelociRaptor drive running strong without any failure. No problems with the packaging from NewEgg and never had to RMA a drive yet. I've always purchased the WD drives in various versions and have been lucky so far I guess with no drive failures. Have not went with the new 6GB drive though because it sounds like there "could" be issues with this drive as of now!
Cons: N/A
Overall Review: Hopefully, I have not cursed myself by stating no problems and then I have a drive crash in the next couple of days!
Nice Monitor for the price
Pros: The monitor settings for me out of the box were perfect and did not require adjusting. It's even brighter than my old Samsung Syncmaster 245BW 24 inch monitor. The picture quality with the HDMI cable is much better in full screen mode than the standard DVI cable picture compared to the old monitor I listed above. I like how thinness of the monitor and should not put out as much heat especially in the summer!
Cons: The monitor will wobble due to the peg device that the monitor sits in and does seem pretty cheap compared to the stand Samsung gave me on the old monitor. Note: This is only when I put my hand on the screen, and if I set something on the desk, it's not like the monitor is shaking. Can't really adjust the angle / height of the monitor. I think most users would pay extra money for a better quality stand.
Overall Review: I don't plan on moving the monitor much on my desk, but it could be a problem for people who like to constantly adjust move the monitor. Using in a dual monitor setup and I'm overall very pleased with the monitor so far. If the stand could be improved, this would easliy be a 5 star monitor