Joined on 02/15/05
Does the job, and does it well
Pros: Very easy to use!!! Plays all of the formats I need it to (see product description). Upscales video to 720p or 1080i. Able to zoom up to 8x on pictures/video. Adjustable brightness, contrast, and volume. Did I mention it is easy to use? Nice looking, shiny black, very easy and clean user interface. Extra USB port on the front for other drives besides a Free Agent Go. By the way, it's easy to use. It works BETTER than connecting my Laptop or Computer to my TV.
Cons: Very small load times (due to 5400 rpm drives) and every once in a while I have noticed a very slight stutter (most people watching haven't noticed it though). No HDMI thus no 1080p.
Overall Review: When it is all said and done I would buy this again. It has a slick interface with tons of features that far outway the cons. I haven't had any problems with the Seagate drives like others have stated. When I get them I delete all of the software that comes on them. I have been using the Seagate Free Agent Go Drives with this, one 250G and the other is 320G. I plan on getting several of the 500G drives to convert all of my movies onto. NO MORE SCRATCHED DISCS!!! I have seen the WD version of this as well. The WD has HDMI and does do 1080p. It also seems to support more file formats. I got the Seagate because of the interface with the drives, and it still plays all of the formats I need (I also already had the Free Agent Go drives). The WD drives connect through a USB cable/cradle, not as slick as the Seagate in my opinion (where it slides directly into the unit).
Put an X through Power
Pros: It's shiny-ish black. It didn't smell like burned rubber when I attempted to turned it on. It's Cheap
Cons: DOA. Outer shell could use another screw or two in my opinion (its a little loose). It's Cheap
Overall Review: Can't say much for it. It came DOA. It does seem to be pretty light for 585W (same weight as the 160W it was supposed to replace). I am getting a different PSU of higher quality. I would not order this again based off of its slight flimsy-ness and low weight. Barely worth the RMA.
Zotac GTX 760 4GB
Pros: Upgraded from Zotac's GTX 280 AMP! edition. Newer games see a noticeable improvement, especially with the newer DirectX 11 features and such. Anything that needs lots of shader power is much better now. Screen Resolution: 1680 X 1050 Battlefield 3- Maxed out plays smooth Battlefield 4- Med-Max settings, plays smooth but FPS dips to around 2 every so often (probably a fault of my system RAM though, see other) Pretty much all other games I have are now maxed out if they weren't before (a testament to the mighty GTX 280!)- Skyrim, Metro 2033, Tomb Raider...
Cons: Coming from a GTX 280 is not that big of a leap in some games. Mostly DirectX 9 games fall in this category.
Overall Review: My Rig: XFX 780i MoBo Intel Core2Quad 9650 4GB DDR2 800 (needs more!) Geforce GTX 760 4GB (graphics) Geforce GTX 280 1GB OC (physix) Thermaltake Toughpower 1200A - (overkill now, but the system started with 3 SLI'd 8800 GTX's)
Graphics Turbo for AGP!!!
Pros: Excellent frame rates in newer games like Crysis, L4D, COD W@W, and GRID. 2-D gaming performance is top notch. Nice Custom Cooler. Runs cool. Definite improvement in gaming over a Geforce 7800gs.
Cons: FINDING the drivers can be a pain. I have always gotten the latest hotfix drivers from ATI/AMD and have had no problems installing/using them. Had to upgrade my PSU to use the card. CCC. Screen flashes when windows first starts up (just annoying really, but I have to wait for it to flash before I do anything or it resets to the desktop like I haven't done anything yet).
Overall Review: This was the best AGP card out when I bought it. I think that the AGP bus has a hard time feeding enough information to this card. I do believe that a 3650 would perform very similarly to this on an AGP bus. My system: P4 @ 3.2Ghz, 2GB DDR400 RAM, Radeon 3850, 160GB HDD @ 7200rpm, XP Pro.
More Like GTX280 lite edition
Pros: Mid level price for extreme graphics capabilities. Very nice cooler, looks good and functions extremely well. It's not loud, even when the fan is full speed.
Cons: Power Hungry little beast. It doesn't blow hot air out of the case. Cooler takes up the next slot.
Overall Review: An amazing buy! Hard to beat the Price/Performance ratio that this little beasty provides. I also have a Zotac GTX 280 AMP! Edition and this is almost as good in Crysis!!! I was only getting around a 5fps difference between the two cards @ 1280 x 800, very high, 8x fsaa. Also it's a much smaller card than the GTX 280.
Gaming Heaven
Pros: Tri - SLI!!! Overclocks like a dream! Eats games for lunch and begs for more.
Cons: This card is long, make sure you have enough room.
Overall Review: XFX 780i SLI mobo, Intel q6600, 8GB Mushkin DDR2 800, 3x XFX GeForce 8800GTX, WD Raptor 150GB, XClio Windtunnel Case