Joined on 12/16/07
Undeniable performance for the price
Pros: Excellent cooler. Regardless of the immense power draw and tdp, it stays very cool and at comfortable temperatures. Over engineered design using top tier components. Sapphire really spared no expenses here. This is without a doubt a carefully crafted card. Performance that will happily provide stable 60fps in any game at 1080p, many at 1440p, and some older games such as the Witcher 2 on ultra at 4k. Will likely continue to provide more than satisfactory performance for quite some time.
Cons: Enormous card. If you have a large case you won't be bothered in the slightest, but it's not viable for those looking for a smaller enclosure footprint. Heavy as can be. So heavy in fact I feel this card should come with a warning regarding potential damage to pcie slots. If your case doesn't offer an extended length card support and the idea of rigging your own is unappealing to you, look elsewhere. The screws at the rear I/O plate are not enough to level this monstosity. Power hog. There is no denying that this card is far from efficient. While it offers performance exceeding a super clocked 980, it draws a massive amount of power in the process. If you have a good quality power supply with a beefy amperage rating on the +12 this is not a massive issue, but it's something to consider.
Overall Review: I meet all the above criteria, and am satisfied with this card. Just over a year ago this was not only a high end GPU, but possibly the best version of the card. It's a shame that the fury was so poorly received, and it's an arguably bigger shame that this fantastically crafted example from Sapphire is the one that's up at such a discount. But it's also to the benefit of the consumer, provided they've made their peace with the obvious downsides to this card. If you've been in the market for something in the rx 480 8gb and 1060 6gb price range and this card is still available for the 259 I paid, it beats the snot out of them hands down. The quietest versions of either card are likely not as transparant as this thing, and if you have the case and psu to support it, it's the best possible decision. On a minor note, I've been seeing coil whine mentioned quite a bit in regards to this card. Maybe I got lucky, but with all panels affixed to my case, I cannot hear any trace of the coil whine. I'm very familiar with coil whine as the adapter for my xbox one screeches nausiatingly even with the console turned off. With the panel of my case taken off and my ear up close to the card, I can make out the drone of the coils. But it's a very low pitch and even in that scenario took some concentration to distinguish from the hum of case fans. I'm well aware coil whine can be worse on some cards than others and is a bit up to chance, so I won't discredit those complaining of it, but I want to make it known that at the very least not all of these cards suffer from it.
Does not work with Vista
Pros: I couldn't tell you.
Cons: Although it's stated it works with XP, Vista, and 7, there are actually only drivers available for XP and 7. None exist for Vista.
Overall Review: Should have known not to get an intel product.
Bass Headphones
Pros: Excellent bass response both with the amp on and off. Doesn't sacrifice as much in detail as I was expecting and actually manages to be fairly well rounded for having such a dynamic driver. Compared to Dre's most expensive competition, the Beats Studio, I would take these any day. Super Comfortable ear cups. Solid construction. Awesome deal at $100
Cons: Ugly styling. They're almost too goofy to wear anywhere but the house. Don't work well with most kinds of music. Classical, country, most rock, and various sub genres won't take advantage of the heavy bass and will end up falling flat within the reduced mids. Seemingly poor soundstage with the wrong kind of music. MSRP is clearly nothing more than retail markup.
Overall Review: In these headphones, I was looking for something to enjoy electronic music, hip hop, rap, and industrial music. From those genres, the heavy bass and pronounced highs truly shine. I already knew they would muddle out any other genres and I was fine with that. No shame in owning more than one pair of headphones. Bottom line is only get these if those genres are what you're looking to get a better experience out of. If you're not interested in them, these aren't for you.
Worth the peace of mind
Pros: Cheap. Works. Free shipping.
Cons: none
Overall Review: Really no reason not to get one. I know it's essentially just a wire connected to a clamp and it probably wouldn't be hard to fashion your own, but if you can afford a grand for a brand new gaming PC, you can't afford not to spend another $5 on something like this.
Nice case for the price
Pros: Has a lot of features, including some I've never seen before like the 180degree motherboard tray and front mount PSU. I like the color and the red LEDs weren't too intrusive. And if they are, well you can turn them off. I think it would actually look a little better with some red LED's on the fans to show through the vent up top, but maybe that's just me. Lots of space, lots of fans, and I honestly can't say I know of a similarly priced full tower with a removable motherboard tray. Makes installation so much easier. The hot-swappable HDD bays seem really cool.
Cons: My case came with a rubber grommet missing from one of the water cooling passages. Since I'm running on just air, it wasn't a big deal. Some of the rear expansion slot covers weren't completely painted black. You could see the primer underneath and it looked as though the black paint had only been misted over the ends. Again, not a big deal, but it's really unfortunate. Another thing I didn't really like were the molex connectors. Only the bottom 140mm fans have 4pin that can connect to my motherboard, but if connected, the LED/FAN button will only control the LEDs. Removal of one of the 140mm fans will be necessary to install the PSU, which was a bit of a pain. The tooless drive bays are kind of weak. I accidentally broke one while lifting up on the latch. I wasn't trying to force it or anything, it's just really cheap plastic. Friction holds my DVD drive in ok, but I've seen much better solutions.
Overall Review: Overall it has some features that really make it an interesting case. I love the design, the colors, and the LEDs. There are some clear quality control issues, but nothing too sever. Other than the stuff listed above, it's got a pretty sturdy build quality and I think it's a pretty amazing case for the price. On a side note, AZZA donates a minimum of 50% of their profits to charities, which is pretty neat.
No reason
Pros: none
Cons: none
Overall Review: There is no reason to buy a blu ray player at this time! Blu ray is taking a leap forward soon and you will have to buy a new one all over again. BD 2.0 will be all around better, and you might as well just buy a ps3 if you're going to spend this much money to play blu ray. Not to mention PS3's can upgrade via it's updates, so it's really a better choice due to price than any other blu ray player. Not to mention it has A LOT of other features. I'm not a fan boy, I just know how to save money!