Joined on 05/16/07
Perfect
Pros: Thick, well shielded VGA cable. Have used in multiple setups and the signal was always clear. Does exactly what I bought it to do.
Cons: Absolutely none.
Overall Review: To the guy complaining about 14 pins, it's a driver issue and not a cable problem. Pin 9 on this cable is missing, and according to VGA D-Sub 15 layout, pin 9 is not connected to anything (labeled as n/c). Hope that clears that up.
Overpriced Toy
Pros: Looks neat.
Cons: Underperforms for the money. Tried this product in a variety of configurations and it can't beat the $30 Edimax adapter it was meant to replace. Edimax adapter attains a solid 1-2 bars to a neighbors network far down the street. This thing can't even get 1 bar.
Overall Review: It looked nice, shiny box, cool idea, but obviously not very well executed. Spent about an hour with this toy and that's all it ended up being, a neat toy. Returned for a refund the same day I got it. That was the only good thing about it, the 1 day it took to ship (thanks UPS).
Solid Case
Pros: Solid build quality, plenty of features, tool-less drive bays, tool-less case doors, plenty of places to put fans (9 not including the drive bay cage fans) very clean looking case. One of the biggest pros is the fact that the faceplate is made out of metal instead of cheap plastic, and the paint job is pretty durable compared to most cases. Handles are a big plus, nice and sturdy. Plenty of room behind the motherboard to route cables, includes large plastic clips behind the motherboard tray to secure cables with as well. Both drive cages are removable as well, a nice touch. All of the drive travs have provisions for 3.5 and 2.5 inch drives. There is enough space in the motherboard area to fit an oversize graphics card and not have to remove the drive cages as well!
Cons: There's just enough room to fit a 2x120mm radiator on the bottom, *but*, the holes for the fans are normal fan-hole size (so you need screws with large heads to prevent them from falling out), you also need a power supply that's *just* small enough so your power supply cables can get through (I'm using a Corsair HX850 and my modular cable ends are right up against the radiator). You also have to remove a drive cage to do it. Mounting a radiator on top is possible if you use 25mm thick fans, 38mm are too thick and my radiator (XSPC RS240) hits the motherboard.
Overall Review: Overall this case is very easy to work with and quite modular with the removable drive cages. A pair of these cases were used in the ASUS Experience PC DIY computer building contest at PAX East 2013 and after being beaten to all hell after 3 solid days they still looked good and were fully usable. My system: Corsair C70 Case Intel 3770K CPU ASUS Sabertooth Z77 Mobo ASUS GTX 660 Ti GPU Corsair Vengeance 16GB DDR3 (4x4) RAM Corsair Force GT 120GB SSD Corsair HX850 PSU Seagate 2TB HDD With custom WC: Koolance CPU-360 Swiftech MCP-600 XSPC RS240 2x Panaflo Medium Speed 120mm fans in pull T=Line for fill/reservoir
Awesome cooler w/ the bigger scythe 100mm fans.
Pros: This cooler has gone through several graphics processors and has not disappointed me what-so-ever on any of them, from a 8800GTS G92 to currently being installed on a HD 5830, it shows consistent performance. Mounting mechanism is easy enough to figure out, works with multiple sizes of mounting holes so you can take it with you from GPU to GPU. One-size-fits-all design is very handy. Also, the design of the cooler lends itself to better cooling of all the individual components on the card, as the air that is blown through the fins hits the card directly, and I've observed better temps overall thanks to this. With all settings stock, at 18C ambient temperature and with the new fans, the card sits at around 24-25C idle. Running furmark with 1920x1080 and 2x MSAA settings after 12 minutes, the card sits between 33-34C loaded. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 ran at no higher than 30C throughout a multiplayer deathmatch, and Race Driver GRID ran at no higher than 30C through a race.
Cons: The build quality leaves a little to be desired. The fins are somewhat thin and bend easily, as I've managed to mangle them somewhat while putting new 100mm fans on. The fins aren't soldered to the heatpipes, so this is to be expected, but if you don't plan on replacing the stock fans then don't worry about it.
Overall Review: Paired this cooler with a pair of Scythe Kaze-Jyu 1500RPM 100 x 25mm fans (SY1025SLN12M) for even better performance. This allowed me to run the fans full-speed, getting better temps while staying quiet. As mentioned above, the fins bend easily, and the problem with installing these fans was that their edges are thicker than the edges on the fans that come with this cooler, so it was a tight fit with the included fan clips, as they're not really designed for these thicker edges. I've experimented with numerous fan setups with this cooler, and even after the fins have been beaten up and such, the cooler still performs as well as it did when it came out of the box for the first time. I'm pretty impressed with the kind of temps that I'm seeing on my HD 5830 (XFX model). Even with the stock fans this cooler netted great temps, but I highly recommend these scythe 100 x 25mm 1500rpm fans for the best mix of silence and performance. I definitely recommend this cooler!
Excellent Drive
Pros: - Cool Running - One of the fastest single drives in the 7200 rpm performance bracket. - Reliable (as long as its taken care of, see other thoughts).
Cons: None.
Overall Review: Bought one of these around a year and a half ago and it's still running rock solid. Bought a second one for my system overhaul (2x in RAID 0) and the speed is amazing, 200 MB/s average read in a Core i7/X58 system w/ a ICH10R Raid Controller, exactly double the performance that one drive was giving me. Honestly people, for those of you receiving DOA drives, what shipping option did you pick? If you picked UPS, there's your problem. Hard drives are *delicate*, and the way that UPS typically throws around it's packages does not help your cause at all. For those of you receiving DOA drives, try FedEx next time, the extra cost will be worth the peace of mind, guaranteed.
Correction
Pros: See other thoughts.
Cons: See other thoughts.
Overall Review: The 220mm side fan has an on/off switch for the LEDs on the fan, the fan itself stays on (which is handy in a way). Noticed that I did not write that down correctly. And there are indeed two sets of PSU mounting holes for both orientations.