Joined on 03/25/06
Great 24" Monitor
Pros: I just ordered my second one of these to replace a different, older monitor. The first one I bought over a year ago and absolutely loved, so when one of my others died, naturally I went and bought a second one of these Samsungs. It's 1920x1200 16:10 with vivid colors and fast response time, and the screen technology works well for everything I throw at it (games, web, videos). The monitors support DVI and Displayport inputs, but no HDMI so keep that in mind. The USB 3.0 hubs built into the back are very convenient; I didn't expect to care about or use them, but my first one's USB ports are almost always full. The stand it comes with has a wide range of motion you can use to set it up just how you want, which is wonderful.
Cons: The stand is pretty easy to adjust on accident, which can be annoying if you accidentally bump the monitor.
Overall Review: I've read people saying that the monitor has issues with light bleed, but for me personally, I haven't seen anything of the sort on either of the two I now own of this model. Still, worth considering before purchasing. The other thing to remember is that USB 3.0 uses a pretty hefty amount of data bandwidth, so having the 4 ports on the monitor in use can potentially affect the USB ports on the back of the computer, or vice versa.
Good RAM, Good Price
Pros: Price and specs were good, once I told my motherboard's software to use XMP the RAM began operating at advertised speeds with no further effort on my part.
Cons: The plastic fins are a bit sharp. I'd seen other reviewers mention that they cut themselves, so I was particularly careful when slotting it in. I can absolutely see how one might get cut when doing so. Just be careful at that part, and apply pressure a little back from the fins.
Overall Review: Good price:performance and easy to get running.
Great card, questionable software
Pros: The card itself is extremely powerful. I went from struggling to run a number of modern games to being able to put settings to high+ at 1920x1200. My CPU is now the limiting factor. It runs cooler than the reference spec AMD cards by 10-30C, which I'm very glad for.
Cons: For the actual card, my only con is that the fans are very loud and seem to rattle. I'm not sure if the rattling sound is a defect or not, but since I already had to RMA once I'm hesitant to do so again. I'm kind of tired of waiting for the card to ship back and forth. Speaking of that, I did have to RMA this card once already as it was DoA. Most of my cons are due to the driver software. I have numerous problems from the drivers that are infuriating. I want to mention them, but I won't deduct stars from this actual card for them as they're an AMD problem. Switching from a full screen graphical program to another program (alt tab to Discord from a game, for instance) tends to be slow and tear the display heavily. Minimizing or dropping focus from a full screen game causes massive stuttering on audio transmitted over HDMI while the full screen game is not in focus. There are random graphical flaws and tearing or texture blanking in a variety of games. None of those were present with my previous Nvidia card, and unless they are resolved in the near future I might return this one and get another Nvidia card purely for the difference in quality of drivers.
Overall Review: The card itself is stellar, barring a possible defect with the fans. I'm incredibly impressed by the performance. I do, however, hesitate to recommend it to my friends at this time because of the abysmal state of the drivers in my experience. Still, if you know what you're getting into with AMD drivers and are willing to tough it out while they fix them, you won't be disappointed with the hardware itself.
Good Card
Pros: I have yet to find something this card can't handle; the only slowdowns and issues I get are due to my horrible hard drive (which gets replaced soon). I haven't noticed any noise increase over my old 260GTX, and the installation was about as simple as a modern (ie huge) graphics card can be. Additionally, for the price (when I bought it a couple months back) the power it puts out is amazing.
Cons: It's big. Took a bit of effort to get the thing into my Antec 300 case and all the wires routed so they reached where they needed to be. That said, it does fit, with some room to spare, and everything got where it needed, so it's not a major issue.