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  • Owned For: more than 1 year

4 out of 5 eggs Good fan with a few caveats. Corsair H100 owners take note here. 01/16/2015

This review is from: Cooler Master SickleFlow 120 - Sleeve Bearing 120mm Silent Fan for Computer Cases, CPU Coolers, and Radiators (Smoke Color)

Pros: Relatively inexpensive and move a good amount of air. For the air they move the noise level is acceptable.

- Not exactly quiet at full speed, but that's a given.
- Fan blades aren't removable and there's no direct access to the fan bearing (so you can't add a drop of dry lubricant to it every now and then unless you resort to some modding. More on that in a moment.

Other Thoughts: I've owned several of these fans over the years ( some red LED versions and now four of these specifically) and have been extremely happy with them. After a while the bearing does start to go, but given the price it's not a huge deal.

I bought four from another vendor to replace the extremely noisy fans on my Corsair H100 cooler. If you have a non-PWM based fan controller and you hook up the fans to that instead of to the fan controller on the H100, you'll be fine. If you attach the fans directly to the H100, you're just begging for trouble.

Five minutes after installing the fans and hooking them up to my H100, the distinct smell of overheated plastic became noticeable. For whatever reason, the fans (ALL FOUR OF THEM) were getting extremely hot and spinning up and down on the H100's controller. Thankfully I figured out what was going on and was able to shut everything down before they were permanently damaged. Right now all four are attached to a voltage resistive type fan controller in my system and they're happily spinning without going into thermonuclear meltdown.

The reason I knocked off an egg wasn't because of this issue though. I knocked off an egg because unlike some other fans, there's no easy way to get at the fan bearing to add some lubricant every now and then. Some fans have an opening at the back of the fan and either a sticker and/or a rubber plug that seals it against dirt. It's great if you're religious about maintenance or if you have a noisy fan and you want to add a drop of oil to silence it.

If you don't have that access hole, you'll either need to take it apart, replace the fan, or resort to some surgery using a drill and a small drill bit to add you own hole (which is what I ended up doing to mine).

I'm not sure if it's because of the little overheating experienced when plugged into my H100 or if they were like this from the factory, but all four of my fans were running noisy. It's probably because they're technically running upside down to be honest, but the way I was able to silence them was to drill a small hole directly in the middle of the back of the fan (where the metal shaft of the fan hub would be), add a few drops of Teflon based bicycle chain dry lube, and then seal the hole with some tape. Yeah I voided the warranty by doing that, but my fans are a lot quieter now. :D

Overall I'm really happy with these fans. I just wish they made a PWM version of them and that Cooler Master made a higher quality version of it where you can access the fan bearing if needed. I know it sounds silly but it's little things like that that this old dog looks for.

ZyXEL GS1910-24 Smart Gigabit Smart Managed Switch
  • Verified Owner
  • Owned For: more than 1 year

5 out of 5 eggs Untouchable at this price point! 12/21/2014

This review is from: ZyXEL GS1910-24 Smart Gigabit Smart Managed Switch

Pros: I can't add anything more than what previous reviewers have already said other than I've owned this switch for about a year now and it's worked flawlessly. It's relatively straight-forward to configure; if you've configured a managed switch before you'll have no problems. The GUI interface is easy to navigate too. ZyXEL has also continued to support this switch by releasing updated firmware since I initially purchased it. Just be sure to read the directions on how to install the firmware or else you risk bricking the switch.

Cons: None.

Other Thoughts: I bought this for my home network and it's worked so well that I'm going to be rolling out several in a small office environment. I can totally attest to what a previous reviewer said about how Netgear's GUI interface is really clunky compared to this switch's as well.

Wacom ACK40401 Wireless Accessory Kit
  • Verified Owner
  • Owned For: less than 1 day

4 out of 5 eggs Works great. One little gotcha to be aware of though. 11/28/2014

This review is from: Wacom ACK40401 Wireless Accessory Kit

Pros: It kinda cuts the cord for the most part. It works well and there doesn't seem to be any input lag either.

Cons: It will only charge when plugged into a computer's USB port.

Other Thoughts: Installation couldn't be easier for this. You pretty much just plug it into the tablet and computer and it works. There's only one gotcha that I wish didn't exist.

Technically you're going to need to hang onto the USB cable because the only way to charge the battery is by plugging the tablet into your PC. Why is that a bad thing you ask? Well that means if you want to use a USB charging brick for a device like a cellphone, you're completely out of luck. It simply will not charge from a USB power source that isn't a computer. It's not a complete letdown since it works rather well, but it would have been nice if you could charge the battery using any USB power source rather than using your computer to do so (and leaving your computer powered on in the process).


Manny R.'s Profile

Display Name: Manny R.

Date Joined: 08/01/04


  • Top 1000 Reviewer
  • Reviews: 65
  • Helpfulness: 30
  • First Review: 02/01/08
  • Last Review: 01/16/15
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