20 Best Zen For 2K (2022 Updated)

This is a fantastic Sub. Period! BUT – This review and rating is not about the sub, It’s about the company and their fantastic customer service after the sale, and in my case, way after the sale. I have owned this sub for over six years, and it has performed flawlessly in our home as part of our AV system that is on for several hours a day, every day.

On Christmas Eve, the sub started making all sorts of terrible popping sounds. After troubleshooting for the cause, I came to my own conclusion that the sub was blown. That evening, I decided to order a replacement and SVS had the best price on their site so I placed the order directly with them.

When SVS opened the Monday after Christmas, I thought I would give them a call and see if the sub I had could be repaired. They answered the phone with a real person, and that great person spent about 25 minutes with me troubleshooting the issue.

We determined that it was the amplifier. Then the great customer service tech looked up the serial number and confirmed that the sub was out of warranty. I expected this and was prepared and ready to pay for the replacement amp.

But no, that great customer service tech insisted that it was not that far out of warranty and they were going to replace it at no charge. I tried to argue, but lost the fight. This all took place on a Monday morning, by Wednesday afternoon, a had the new amp in hand.

Because of the excellent design, it was very easy to swap out, and I was back in business. I want to point out that, not only did they replace the amp for free, the shipped it to me free of charge, and provided a pre paid shipping label to send the blown amp back.

Here I was ready to buy a replacement sub, and the same sub, by the way, and not only did I not have to, it cost me a total of $0 dollars to get my sub repaired. In summary, my 5 star review is not because of the great products, don’t get me wrong, they are 5 star as well.

Nor is it because they repaired my current sub free of charge. This 5 star review is a testament to their customer service. Having a knowledgeable person that wants to help solve your issue, and the company’s dedication and enthusiasm in which they want their customers to be satisfied is something we just don’t experience very often these days.

You have a customer for life!.

I purchased a second PC-2000 once I heard they would be discontinued. Reading on the benefits of dual subs, I wanted to make sure I would be able to match my existing PC-2000, which I love. I’ll admit, at first I wasn’t completely blown away, however I knew that setup was key.

After performing a sub crawl and relocating both subs, having my wife help tweaking phase – the room now has much fuller, better low end. Sometimes I’ll turn the second sub off just to see the difference.

It’s a small room at 12 ft. by 12 ft. , so it really slams. Songs like Animals As Leaders ‘Physical Education’ or movie scenes like the club fight in John Wick really show the advantage of going dual in terms of “slam” and more well rounded bass.

I can also run the subs a bit lower to reduce the overall stress and remove any unwanted “sounds” from driving a single hard. Lastly, SVS’s customer service is second to none. Those guys and gals that have helped me since buying my first made all the difference.

Knowing that I can get a hold of someone that knows what they’re talking about is huge. Thanks for a great product.

My biggest issue with this sub was how long I had to wait. Due to the shipping container back up, I waited 2 months for it. But SVS constantly sent me updates each time there was a further delay. Now that I have it, WOW! I took measurements, but it was still larger than I expected, its a monster! However, despite its size, its very accurate.

I requested the optional port plug, and with that, I have almost two subs in one. With the plug in, the bass tightens quite a bit. With the port open, its thundering. Along with all the adjustments for tuning on the app, the customization of sound is endless.

I now have a complete SVS home theater system with Prime Satellites, Prime Elevations, and Prime center and I am very pleased with the sound. Everything is built very well!.

I have the 1st PB 1000 which has a single 10 inch cone and was aiming for a second, then months later SVS had finally upgraded the PB 1000 pro with 2 (12 inch dual) cones that others slightly a little bit more wattage power and lowering the HZ from 19 to 17 in quality which is now the best sub I’ve owned so far and an app to easily set up from my phone (champion) my living room is 13 by 13 feet and the PB1000 pro absolutely rocks it in there.

it’s just about right you can hear and feel the low notes really well which makes the original PB1000 Useless to my liking anymore because there’s also a blue bright light at the front of it which was annoying.

I am glad SVS has removed it and placed blue lights at the back of the new sub so that it cant be seen (good work fellows) I am running dual with the original PB 1000 and the balance of setting up them up is tricky because the original doesn’t have the app.

this is the reason why I want to get a second one to gain that even response with volume and low frequency effect as well. the only downfall about this sub is that it’s volume is not as loud as the original.

but I still guarantee this sub as an excellent performer for films and music. I don’t feel the need to upgrade for PB 2000 Pro (I need a really bigger living room for this) In future if SVS manages to come up with another upgrade for PB 1000 Pro with 3 cones/ wattage and lower Hz added added to the mix.

then i’ll be waiting for it.

I had a can of this clear sitting on my shelf for months waiting for me to work up the courage to use it. I must admit, I was intimidated by the whole thing. I have been using Krylon clear for my projects for about a year and it is not up for the task of protecting my products.

It does look nice, yes, but the Krylon has no chip or scratch resistance at all. Enter Clearmax- I started a higher end paint project and decided to pop the red cherry on the can I had sitting on my shelf.

I painted like I normally would with my Krylon cans and it was same spray feel. I didnt have to learn any new techniques or methods, just spray and go as normal. I laid down 3 nice coats of the clearmax and let it sit overnight.

To my surprise within 24 hours this stuff was ready for wet sand and polish. I was able to work faster with the clearmax because it dried HARD over night, well hard enough to work and not worry. When I reassembled my project I didnt have to fear that I would chip the clear or paint like I wouldve with the Krylon/Rustoleum.

I have full confidence in the Clearmax and my only gripe would be- why did I wait so long to use it? Sure, it is a little more expensive but knowing that my projects will be professional grade from here on out allows me to step up my game and offer betterand wilder paint projects to my customers.

I dont have to (but do anyways) handle my projects with kid gloves because fragile subpar clear coats. I will be stocking up on the Clearmax and using it from now on.

It’s temporary at best. While it goes on well and looks great (with a properly prepped surface), when exposed to weather I haven’t seen it stay adhered for more than about 18 months. I’ve painted cars and motorcycles since the early 90’s, and I have some small jobs a couple of years ago that didn’t warrant breaking out my gun, so I bought this.

I was pretty damn happy with the results, so I ended up painting small areas of my own truck, and using this for a clearcoat. About a year and a half later, it started peeling off in sheets. The PAINT I applied didn’t, just the clear.

Matter of fact I’ve never had paint peel off. I’ve used other clearcoats that didn’t look nearly as good (or go on as easily) but on some things it’s been 20 years and the clear is still on there. Not this stuff.

That said, it was on a road-going vehicle that’s parked outside. If you used it on something like a guitar or a refrigerator I guess it would be better protected, and last longer. But the whole point of this stuff is to endure the elements.

Ah well.

If you want lasting results on any paint job, you have to have professional clear coat. The problem comes from needing a compressor, spray gun and then you have to buy the clear coat and hardener, then mix them together.

This takes all of that out of the equation and gives you a quick and easy solution for many different applications. No store bought clear coat comes with a hardener or is UV protection rated. You want the hardener to make it more resistant to scratches and bumps and you have to have a UV protection clear coat if you’re doing auto repair or in my case, restoring headlights and taillights.

Automotive light fixtures come with factory clear coats to prevent yellowing and fading and after time it breaks down. If you’ve ever tried to restore your lights and found them yellowing faster, it’s because you literally stripped off the clear coat that protects it.

This clear coat spends very fast and is only meant for small areas. If you don’t have enough, you will end up with a rough surface and make things look cloudy. Keep this in mind for whatever project you’re working on.

Overall, very satisfied with the results. I bought some cheap replacement light fixtures for my truck and used this to seal them because knockoff OEM parts do not come with clear coats (oneof the reasons why they’re so cheap) and this will hopefully make them last even longer.

Carcassonne:H&G feels and plays much different than its older sibling. At two players, the game feels – in a good way – a lot more swingy due to the fact that finishing rivers (roads) is much more difficult to accomplish.

This is offset by counting the usual tiles placed, along with vsible fish in the river system. Animal scoring is a lot more intuitive than the fields, and there is a very direct “take that” element with the tigers you can oh so lovingly place for an opponent.

Forest (castle) scoring has a bit of a twist on it with the Menhir tiles. These allow the person who *finished* the forest – not necessarily who controls it – to immediately grab a random face down menhir tile and then place it.

These tiles range from having special abilities, to simply boosting the VP value of forests or lakes. End game was particularly interesting, since meeples – excluding hunters – are removed, as incomplete things are not scored.

Overall, I think this is a great version of Carcassonne, though I believe it would play better at 3+ player counts due to the altered mechanics of scoring and addition of special tiles.

This is a fun table-top game where players take turns placing tiles to form a map-like playing board on which they can score points by placing their meeples (pieces) and completing features (buildings, roads, monasteries, etc).

Pros: * Very easy concepts to grasp and learn. Ages 7 and up! * Tremendous replay value: every game has a different map-board to play on and difficulty/strategy levels can be increased for variety (see below) * Adjustable difficulty levels with supplemental rules (Farmers, River, and Abbots are supplemental rules included in this edition).

Additional expansions are available for purchase for even more variety of play to the base game. * Instructions and rules are generally well-written and color-coded with pictures and examples * Charming and pleasing art style and illustrations * There are published rules for solo play as well! Cons: * Requires a minimum 3 x 3 playing area to accommodate a random, expanding map-board as tiles are played * A few of the in-game scenarios and specific rulings can seem vague and may require research online for clarity.

I bought P5 originally but there were issues as stated in point 1 and it also gets very hot after 10mins. While they offered a replacement to P5 plus, the new product still have issues. I put this in an external harddisk encasement and below is my feedback.

1. I did the same thing of putting the new P5 plus SSD into the encasement. This time round it is significantly faster, BUT still slower than what I would normally expect of SSD, from 10+ mins reduced to 3+mins.

It has become something like my old hdd when connected in terms of initial connection time. 2. The drive is still hotter than other SSDs that I have so this is something for your R&D to take note. 3.

Please take note that to claim the warranty, ALL shipping fee are born by the purchaser apparently. I sent it back to Crucial costing me $11. They sent back WITH shipping invoice from FEDEX asking me to pay $40.

So in short, you will need to fork out an additional $60+ to $100 depending on which type of shipping fee you opt for to claim the warranty.

Product: This is an excellent supplement, one I’ve bought before and will buy again. NO fishy taste, and although there’s a faint smell of it if you stick your nose in the bottle, there’s no no aftertaste or fishy hiccups.

Just be aware that these pills are LARGE. Studies have shown that if you’re taking certain anti-depressants, taking fish oil can boost their efficacy (but you need to take the correct dosage of fish oil, with the right omega-3–I advise talking w/your doctor, s/he should know).

Also, watch out for a sale, I typically find one on Pharmaca’s website for at least 10% off. 5-star product. Processing/Shipping: it took over 2 1/2 weeks for this to arrive. Once it was shipped it came in a reasonable amount of time, but I couldn’t believe how long it took to get out of the warehouse.

If it had take a week to arrive, I’d be fine. Even 10 days. But 2 1/2 weeks was just ridiculous and I had forgotten I was even expecting something by the time it arrived. Despite the discount, I don’t think I’ll purchase anything else from Pharmaca (I had ordered another product at the same time, and it took over 2 weeks to arrive, so this wasn’t a fluke).

Bottom Line: buy the product, just at a physical Pharmaca store or from a different online vendor (that you trust–make sure it’s legit, counterfeit vitamins/supplements are an issue to watch out for).

I have an issues where my particular XPG SX8200 Pro uses the SN2262G chipset, ADATA seems to have changed the chipset on more recent XPG SX8200 Pro devices to use the later SN2262EN chipset, my motherboard seems to have a compatibility issue (Gigabyte Aorus z390 WiFi Pro, although the device is on the compatible list of drives, but my assumption is it was tested with the later EN chipset) where the computer will fail to post, or if it does post it fails to recognise the memory correctly and has startup/post issues on rebooting often requiring a CMOS reset.

After searching for the issue it seems some other people also have issues with this and other Gigabyte z390 motherboards and the earlier G version of the chipset, but the EN version does work ok, I have contacted ADATA and there is currently no firmware for the G version and as the device ID didnt change there is no way of knowing which device you will get until you open the packet and view the drive.

The device works well in my other computer and other NVMe SSDs work fine in my z390 motherboard, but because of this compatibility issue I have marked it down. If you know it will work in your PC then I would recommend it, but if you have a Gigabyte z390 I would read up on it first to make sure others arent having a similar issue, maybe its also a combination of my DDR4 memory.

With all that said, it is a fast drive and was reasonably priced but I now have a drive that I cant use in the computer I purchased it for. I have marked as not good quality, not because the quality itself is poor, it seems fine, more because I dont think it makes sense to change the internals of a device and retain the previous model number making it hard to know if the device is the one you think you are buying and I now have to go through an unnecessary returns process.

I already considered I had quite a responsive W10 pc with a Sata SSD installed and 32 gb of ram. After reading about the speed of these M2 SSDs and as my motherboard had an M2 slot available I took the plunge and decided to reorganise the PC and put the OS and programs on this M2 device.

leaving the data files on the Sata SSD. Certainly, the OS and programs load in seconds, and I am very pleased at the outcome. The improved response time is very noticeable although at present I don’t use the PC for anything taxing.

As I intend to digitise many old photgraphic slides in the near future I used this as an ‘excuse’ to spend on this M2 memory. However when I found that the cost of this device (500GB) was only about 15-20% more than a decent make Sata SSD, and could run at 3X speed I decided on the change.

This ADATA device is certainly less costly than an equivalent Samsung 970 EVO and has had good reports in the technical press. I would certainly recommend this device if your PC needs a boost and can accommodate an S2 memory, either via an M2 motherboard slot or using an ISO extension card.

This product works as designed and is fantastic. and yes it works perfectly with an area51M R1 or R2 alienware laptop–BUT YOU MUST REMOVE THE HEATSINK WHICH HAS A HIGH CHANCE OF DAMAGING THE SSD AND DEFINITELY WILL VOID ANY WARRANTY OR RETURN.

I RECOMMEND BUYING THE VERSION WITHOUT THE HEATSINK which apparently is more expensive due to higher demand. (fine print) A51M is only gen3 whereas this SSD is Gen4 so the SSD is capable of much more speed than the laptop can take advantage of, but I’m sure you will not notice the difference short of HDD speed benchmarks.

This SSD even reduced to Gen 3 speeds is still incredibly fast. Full review points as the product is great, not it’s fault Dell made the alienware with no room for a decent heatsink.

With the current shortage of manufacturing plaguing the availability of goods, I wanted to jump on purchasing this SSD for my PS5. I got WD SSD on sale, and the price for 1TB wasn’t bad at all. I know that prices will eventually recover and drop and other manufacturers will offer competitive prices, but I’ve been a loyal buyer of WD drives ever since I had a 386.

Even with photography and film, I’ve still chosen WD over Lacie, and I’m looking forward to installing future titles on this when the PS5 runs out of stock memory. Installation was simple. Based on the length of the SSD, you just need to use the screw from the PS5 and install it at the end of the chip where there’s a half circle.

This will hold the SSD in place. Happy gaming!.

Works perfectly providing you full/additional 1TB of storage ( console’s 667gb). Games run great (reads actual 6,500 MB/s). Very easy to install (5 minutes). Hardest part of install is being careful removing the PS5 cover panel 🙂 This SSD meets all PS5 requirements, including pre-installed heatsink.

Figured I write this to also offset other review giving it two-stars without even trying it (misleading to someone considering it). Only negative is that the price is steep (lookout for sales that knock it under 200).

Having said that, it’s competitors (Samsung) are similarly priced.

Hardware Used: ASUS Prime B560-Plus motherboard i5-11500 CPU paired with Enermax ETS-T40fit (200W TDP) CPU Cooler WD SN 850 500GB gen 4 x4 M. 2 NVMe SSD Patriot Memory Viper Steel (2×8 GB) DDR4-3600MHz XMP memory 500 GB capacity drive is more than enough for me, only Samsung and Western Digital have something less than 1 TB.

Knowing that Samsungs 500GB and smaller capacity 980 Pro drives may have uncleared cache problems causing very slow speed after one month or so, I chose this WD SN 850 model with the hope of avoiding similar problem.

This is my first build of 11th generation Intel CPU and PCIe 4. 0 motherboard. Buying this SSD is just something that I WANT but not something that I NEED. When installing WIN 10 to the new PC, the first step is to copy files to the drive after product key verification.

I just could not believe my eyes that the Copying Files process was completed at the blink of my eyes. It was so fast, completed in one second (installed from 128 GB Samsung Fit flash drive, up to 300MB/s).

The same copying process for my previous builds took two minutes or so for PCIe 3. 0 motherboard with 2. 5 SATA3 SSD (installed from DVD drive) or fifteen minutes or so for PCIe 2. 0 motherboard with 7200 RPM mechanical HDD (from DVD drive).

Win 10 probably had the files to be copied read ahead into memory, otherwise even the flash drive with 300 MB/s still could not get it done in one second. That is how I can appreciate the speed of this drive, otherwise I just do not have daily tasks that demand such a high speed to make it noticeably faster than my other PCIe 3.

0 x4 M. 2 NVMe SSD PC. I ran different benchmark programs for this drive, only listing sequential reads here. Userbenchmark ~ 3,500 MB/s (at this point I thought I got a Gen 3 M. 2 NVMe drive) Samsung Magician ~ 6,358 MB/s AS SSD ~ 5,500 MB/s Crystal Disk Mark ~ 6,940 MB/s WDs Dashboard has nothing to test benchmark All programs (including BIOS and Win 10) indicated the model is WDS500G1X0E, not WD SN 850.

I will not complain here that the speed is not close to 7,000 MB/s spec, probably because 500 GB models use smaller cache than 1 TB or 2 TB models. There is always a discount in speed for smaller capacity models.

With this drive and the hardware configurations, I can compile a video of about ten and a half minutes in one and half minute, that is, in about 14. 8% of the video duration. My other PC with PCIe 3.

0 motherboard and gen 3 x4 M. 2 NVMe SSD compiling the same video took about 26% of the duration time to complete. Will buy more in the future for Linux and Win11 if the price can drop significantly.

I’ve had this drive for a while. It is amazing, only gets hot a bit and needs a bit cooling. Now i purchaed the second drive but i’ve realized that the model code on the new one was different “WDBAPY0010BNC” the first drive was “WDS100T1X0E” So i decided to make some search on internet, the products that was tested by some autohrities and reviewers on the internet had tested the “WDS100T1X0E” Also on WD product page for SN850 1TB w/out heatsink is said as the model: WDS100T1X0E.

SO now I have big doubts on this new drive? I don’t think that it is fake cuz this model is also sold by well known sellers, but what is it then? Is it a revised model which includes cheaper components that is produced special for Asia market?? Did WD do smt.

like the other companies infamous on such tricks? First produce the high performing model to be tested by everyone, then after 6 months sell the second version with the same brand name for a cheaper price? I saw some comments on the forums but i couldn’t find any concrete proof that is the exactly same drive.

Is there anything that Western Digital tell on it?.

The WD SN850 and the Seagate FireCuda 530 are the best NVMe’s for upgrading your PS5, as after all the upgrades and installations have completed, you are only left with just over 600gb. After installing Horizon Zero dawn (PS4) and Control (PS5), I was left with only 460gb.

So, yes you need to get a storage upgrade. I have x16 PS5 games and lots of PS4 games which run at a better frame rate with a 4K graphics upgrade. So this was a no brainer, make sure you upgrade your PS5 firmware to the latest version or it won’t recognise the NVMe storage.

Also, one it formats the NVMe for use, I found that it gave me inaccurate read speeds of 5156 gbps when it should be up to 7000 gbps. I checked a few YouTube channels regarding this and it appears to be a normal thing until the firmware is finely tuned.

The FireCuda got read speeds of 6170 gbps when it should be 7300 gbps. But that aside, it performs as advertised, switching between games is a breeze and loads times are next gen as are update installations.

A Far Cry from my PS4 with a 2TB Seagate SSD upgrade (pun intended).

I had been looking forward to an upgrade to Zen2 Ryzen next year, but since my 4 year old Intel motherboard died, I had to upgrade a bit sooner than expected. I bought this CPU to hold me out until I can get a good deal on a Zen2 3rd Generation Ryzen in the future.

I managed to overclock mine to 3. 9 GHz stable. I could almost squeeze 4GHz out of it, but it’s not entirely stable and would take a huge step up in voltage to get it there, and the heat that would come along with it.

it’s not worth that extra 100MHz. 3. 9 is still very respectable performance-wise. My previous CPU was an i5-4670k. I never delidded it so it ran hot with Intel’s poor performing thermal paste between the die and heatspreader, regularly getting into 90C degree territory under load.

I have a more than capable AIO liquid cooler but it didn’t improve temps over a Hyper 212+ that I previously had on it thanks to that thermal paste. Now I have 2x the amount of cores, 4x the amount of threads, and it runs significantly cooler at almost the same clockspeed.

I’m blown away at how terrible Intel’s paste really is, and they used it for so long. I love that AMD never compromised in this area, not even on the lower end Ryzen chips. All of them are unlocked and have a soldered heatspreader.

That’s value if I’ve ever seen it. For those of you looking to build a Ryzen system, as of right now, Zen2 looks like it’s right around the corner. 1st generation Ryzen isn’t far behind 2nd gen in terms of performance, but the upcoming 3rd gen should be a much better improvement.

I would suggest scoring a good deal on this CPU instead of an R7- 2700X in the meantime and put that money saved towards a future upgrade, or holding out for a little longer until the next generation arrives.

I’m not regretting my decision one bit.

Went from a 3600x to this. Prior system config had a number of issues, some were known causes (5700xt + PCIe gen 4, looking at you). With new setup, there were improvements across the board. Everything is smoother and faster.

Used primarily for gaming and photo editing, I was a little surprised at the improvement it brought to gaming. The fps improved noticeably, but more importantly everything also became smoother, fewer stutters and moments of lower frame count.

I don’t think the 3600x should have been bottlenecking anything on the prior configuration. I was able to rule out thermal paste or CPU cooler issues (and used the same on the new CPU) so whether some problems I had before were due to bad luck on the CPU lot draw, or improvements in other areas of CPU tech between generations, etc.

the end result was that the machine actually feels like it’s now high end, especially after upgrading the GPU now as well. Bottom line is that this is a great processor. It was hard to justify at the prices when released, but once it dropped below 400 after the 5800x3d cpu came out, I couldn’t pass it up.

It should last me some years before I feel the need to jump to the new socket. If you’re already on AM4 this is easily worth it, but if you need a full new system and can wait a bit, it might be better to get the newer gen socket when it comes out.

The Ryzen 9 5950X is an astonishing processor that delivers excellent multi-threaded performance at the consumer level. You have a basic high end desktop (HEDT) without the accompanying high end price.

It’s an expensive CPU, but in the context of its performance it’s a bargain. There are plenty of other reviews out there that attest to this. The main issue I would like to highlight are the thermals.

I upgraded from a first generation Ryzen 7 1700 which used an AIO 240 water cooled setup. This was fine for the 1700 but it cannot cope with the 5950X when it is running with all its cores. The temperature rapidly rises to 90 deg C and then thermal throttling kicks in to declock the processor cores and reduce the temperature.

I’m very impressed because I had run into heat issues with the 1700 at one time (I think there was a bubble in the water loop) and that CPU would just shut down rather than declock. I’m not at all disappointed.

I had purchased with an open mind knowing that an upgrade to the CPU cooling might be necessary — but not before I installed it to see whether it really was needed or not. This review is to let others know that if you want the best, you’ve got to be prepared to support it with some quality cooling.

Sound and synth engine is great and key bed is fantastic but it’s not without its faults. The joystick is loose as anything. The midi mapping on the keyboard is very odd. The middle C outputs C2 when I would expect it to be C3 or C4 and when using it as a midi controller touching any knob alters your patch so you better not accidentally save.

I might contact Modal and see if they could implement a dedicated midi controller mode to resolve these things. The original factory presets were also pretty underwhelming but after updating the firmware the new set is awesome and makes it a completely different beast.

I know it’s not about presets but they do need to inspire you! Oh, final thought. I don’t know why it looks like a lovely grey colour in all marketing images and demos as it’s actually black. A minor point of course but a bit weird.

Played the game several times; one of the most enjoyable PC games with great graphics and funny side-quests. If you do search everything everywhere (literally), you can earn lots of cash and a handful of extra goodies.

At the very-very beginning some gold coins are tucked away in that little wooden building on the sea, where one small boat resides, for example. The story-line isn’t too genuine, but still interesting.

Didn’t have a chance of getting an original copy back then, when it was released in 2013. Now I do have one in my collection, thanks!.

Bioshock Infinite is a stunning looking game on the XBox 360, one might say the best looking game on the system. For Bioshock veterans, what is new- In short, it’s the gear system and “tears”. “Tears” are literally tears in the space time continuum and they allow the player to bring in, via Elizabeth, various tools to help with the games firefights.

You can for example bring in cover points, weapons, medkits or even the “patriot” a half man half machine tank of an enemy who fires chain guns. The gear system is probably the games only failing point.

The idea is, you can equip 1 chest, helmet, boots and gloves, and they effectively give you special abilities. The problem with the system is that a player will typically, in my case, pick the gear that increases their damage and coin drop – although if you want you can specialize to stun enemies when you jump off a skyline, or set them on fire when they attack you and so on.

It sounds really cool on paper, but once you get in the game you will find that you never experiment with it because the GUNS in the game are so effective against enemies on their own. That brings me to the other new addition.

Like Bioshock 2, you can wield your “vigor” power alongside your gun of choice, the difference is that now your melee attack is ALWAYS available. You can also do a melee “finish” attack, which really serves no purpose other than gratuitous violence even though some gear benefits from having you do melee executions.

You can only have two guns at any given time, but you can stockpile the ammo. Guns have two variants, the Vox Populi version, and the Columbia version. For example, my favourite gun is the Hailfire which is a rapid fire grenade launcher, and it’s variant is the slower firing Volley Launcher.

You don’t get the Hailfire till about the final third of the game, so I found myself using the highly effective shotgun and machine gun. There is one other gameplay change which I really cannot get into without possibly spoiling part of the storyline, except what I will say is that traps you lay for enemies may attack allies later on.

So the game is a competent shooter, and frankly it’s by far the best action yet seen in a Bioshock game. The plot on the other hand. if this were a movie a reviewer would describe the plot as being “byzantine” and “convoluted” and “predictable”.

It’s definitely the weakest storyline in the Bioshock series, but only because the ending of the game is highly predictable. Partly this is due to the player KNOWING to expect a plot twist at the end of the game, but it sure does help that the writers decided to give you the most obvious hints right off the get go.

The game is saved by the always brilliant Bioshock setting, in this case it’s a depression era 1920’s. You will get a clue right at the start of the game when you hear a barbershop quartet singing a Beach Boys song that something about this world isn’t quite right.

And if that wasn’t obvious enough for some people (who perhaps haven’t heard the Beach Boys song), a little bit later on you hear a 1920’s version of the 1980’s song “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” playing on a phonogram.

That’s probably the storytelling’s strongest point, the feeding of tidbits of information to keep you guessing, it’s just unfortunate that the games big ending is spelled out for you (literally).

A good game with some great scenery, intriguing story and good spread of different powers but the locations are very single track and don’t give you as much choice in how to take on an area than say Dishonored did.

You go between a period of walking and exploring an area, then you arrived in an area with some combat but generally stealth doesn’t feature because as soon as you attack one person everyone springs to action and it becomes a straight shoot or power them to death.

The bad guys have little to differentiate them as generally you get melee types who charge at you guns and arms blazing, some who stay back and in cover and others who roam about in the mid distance chucking fire or explosives at you.

Once you clear an area you loot the objects and the corpses then move to the next area exploring as you go. You gradually pick up coins from bodies and objects lying around which you can use to buy upgrades for your powers and weapons from machines positioned around.

The game also handily leaves weapons lying around in key locations where they will be useful for an upcoming location, such as RPGs or sniper rifles depending on who is coming up which largely scripts what you need to be using.

Then at various points usually at the end of each stage you get a cut scene to advance the story arc. Its enjoyable but not engaging and I can’t see it getting a replay once completed even with the collectibles and achievements that they leave around to try and encourage that.

Listening to recordings or finding things hidden away is never that enjoyable especially when you can obtain all this info from the internet afterward anyway. Like Dishonored it was enjoyable but ultimately its quite easy to complete on medium, there is nothing that unique or beguiling and it seems a little shallow with little replay value.

At least in Dishonored I felt like the areas were larger and made me think about how to get through them cleanly. Here you just have to go in hard every time to win and there isn’t enough of a challenge or reward involved in how you do it so each set area kind of blends into one another.

Its visually good and fun enough but with limited replay.

I purchased this product right before a meet because I broke my other spikes. I am overall happy with the shoes. They have had some problems that I have had to deal with, but overall I liked them. They are solid shoes that can get the job done but they aren’t anything too crazy.

Some of the problems that I faced have to do with durability and too much flexibility. With track spikes I really don’t wear them that much, I only put them on before races and I only have about 10 races a year.

Within the first 4 races the insoles of the shoe started to fall apart and made running in them a little uncomfortable. The other problem that I have with them is how flexible the bottom of the shoe is.

With sprinting spikes you want a hard non flexible bottom and on the shoes they are really bendy and I feel like it takes time off my races. I do love how affordable the shoes are. For only paying $60 you are getting a good pair of spikes.

For what I needed they do just the job and are a lot cheaper then buying a nice pair for $150. They also hold the spikes in the bottom a lot better than most pairs of spikes I have had. I think if someone wants to get into track they are the spikes that you should get.

I overall am happy with the shoes that I bought and wore. They will get the job done and are easily accessible. They aren’t perfect shoes and do have some problems, but for $60 you really can’t ask for much more.

Was freely available on other platforms, for straight purchase from website. The raffles are a fail safe if the item is going to be popular. CK are the kings of hype within the sneaker empire marketplace.

They have access to a variety of drops with most hi end releases covered. The release page is an ever changing shitshow, with the Bureau of Meteorology sharing the same accuracy with the weather reports, when it comes to actual release dates.

Maximum hype releases don’t even show up on the CK page or app until the last minute, coinciding the the social media hype onslaught that strictly accompanies the release.

LOVE! having small feet is the biggest plus. I got half a size bigger than my normal size and it wasn’t too big on me, sizing up might have even been better for more wiggle room! I’m an 18 yr old female with size 7.

5 feet and got an 6. 5 in the big kids sizes. super cute. Easy to pair with any and everything. Crease prone but that’s with every pair of ones or forces so. Love them so much ! GET THEM!.

NOTE: If you haven’t played the game, you may want to read later. Okay. I’m speaking from a point of view where I came up on MK when I was little. So I was around during the beginning days of the franchise.

As I have stopped purchasing new MKs many years again sometime after MK4 and Shaolin Monks came out, I decided to give this one a chance. I really didn’t like the story line whatsoever, especially how it ended which don’t make any since.

So I won’t be playing Story Mode anymore probably. How Scorpions “human” side came to be was confusing as I have never seen that part of him. Sub-Zero was okay. I didn’t like those kids too much though.

Too much immaturity in the world of MK if you ask me and Johnny Cages daughter defeat Shinnok? That was about as bad as that Star Wars The Force Awakens movie. I did not like Shinnoks new second and final appearances.

His first one was okay I guess. He should have been a little more built and powerful being an Elder god. His “demon” appearance at the end was not a good idea. I think we have seen enough Satan-looking characters in movies and games as it is.

Other than those pain points, the graphics was good and there are a lot of original move-sets which I really enjoyed out some of the characters.

After researching various PCIe Gen4 SSDs for the PS5 (and discovering this drive had the most votes for “”best performance”” across multiple review/analysis sites) I decided to give it a shot, making sure to get the one with the included heatsink (important!) I was not disappointed, like WOW.

For full disclosure, I purchased the 2TB SSD with the included heatsink. # Easy to install: Sony gets points for this category as well for making it so simple to open and add/upgrade the SSD inside the PS5.

We simply slid off the white cover, removed the SSD expansion door/shield, and used the already included (with the PS5) hardware to fasten the SSD into the slot. The dimensions of the SSD (including the heatsink it comes with) are a perfect match for the SSD expansion slot on the PS5.

It fits like a glove (see pictures). Then it was simply a matter of closing the expansion slot, replacing the cover, and booting up the PS5! # Setup: As soon as the PS5 booted up, it recognized the new SSD and gave me the option to “”format”” it (required to set it up to recognize the PS5’s file system).

The formatting process took about 20 seconds and then it was done! It was ready to use. You must make sure you go into the PS5’s ‘Storage’ settings to make sure you designate your new drive as the installation location for new games, or specific content (if you want to use it that way, of course).

Or you can simply transfer files to and from the SSD expansion at your leisure. # Performance: While this drive claims read speeds of around 7,300MB/s your mileage may vary on the PS5. The PS5 reported around 5,700MBs – but keep in mind this is not a limitation of the SSD but the data transfer subsystem of the PS5 itself.

Rest assured, it’s most likely the drive is capable of up 7,300MB/s on compatible hardware, and you can sleep easy knowing that its bandwidth capabilities are well in excess of what the PS5 needs to run at peak performance.

I ran a test by copying Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End (57GB of data) from the PS5 local storage to the new SSD. It took around ONE MINUTE to transfer! That’s insane. I then installed the new Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves collection to this storage and benchmarked the performance/load times of the game, and they were on par with the PS5’s local storage, loading up an entire level in just under 2 seconds! I’ve read that high performance SSDs like this one can even perform a little faster than the on-board SSD that came with the PS5, but, the performance of either drive (internal or expansion) is so fast already, the differences will be too subtle to notice.

Especially on PS5 optimized games that load faster than the time it probably takes to start your stopwatch and benchmark. # Final Thoughts This SSD (with the included heatsink) is clearly designed with PS5 expansion in mind.

If that is why you’re looking at this SSD then I can strongly recommend it. It’s easy to install, fits like a glove, and performs well in excess of what the PS5 requires. It has been going strong in my PS5 for 6 weeks now and I am extremely happy with this purchase.

Added this to my PS5 and it provides some needed storage. I do notice that the system runs hotter and louder when using a game installed on the Firecuda SSD. I have noticed some lags on the system. I have also received some crashes i didnt have before the install.

When playing a game from the Firecuda and pressing start, i can hear the fan and system get softer but, as soon as i resume the game, it gets louder again. It also does this when holding the PS button.

Not sure what that’s about. Also, For some reason, putting this in was trickier than adding an ssd to my ps4. It was hard to tell when sliding the SSD in the slot if it was placed completely in correctly as there was no click noise or feedback.

The PS5 or the Firecuda did not come with the NVME screw so i had to pay $15 for a pack of them as I couldn’t just find one at the hardware store. It was extremely hard to remove the bay screw from the PS5 and i had to use a lot of force.

Some online searches show others had similar experiences. So far this thing has held up and my ps5 is still alive so for the most part everything seems fine. I prefer to run things on the PS5 ssd because of less fan noise and cooler run.

Time will tell if this thing holds up. Sony should have released proprietary SSD’s like Xbox.

I purchased this drive to use as the main OS drive in my desktop PC and the performance is amazing and consistent. It looks great too however the chonky heatsink doesn’t really affect performance as read and write tests over an extended period consistently resulted in the same speeds.

Drive temps with and without the heatsink were negligible as there was only a 2c difference on average. However it does look pretty slick! Unless a heatsink has fins, grooves, or something to increase surface area they generally dont offer much cooling.

However I did notice that the drive heated up to operating temps quicker without the heatsink which makes sense given the heatsink absorbed the heat causing the drive to heat up a lot slower but once max temps were reached they were the same as no heat sink.

Ultimately either way the performance was the same! Which goes to show the quality of the drive is pretty good! I certainly will buy again!.

These high tops are the best! Retro looking with all the modern-day comforts. I got them for my 14-year-old son and he loves them. They arrived just in time for the Colorado snow and they’re the best alternative to snow boots (which he refuses to wear, so it’s nice knowing that his feet are warm and dry in these all day).

They also have really grippy soles and great traction on the snow and ice (and the basketball court). He said they’re incredibly comfortable and go easily from school to basketball practice. The colors are great for someone who doesn’t like loud and bright.

The swooshes are even reflective. Not sue if these would be too hot to wear in the warmer weather as we’ve only tried them in the winter, but time will tell. All in all a great winter shoe, and a good alternative to a boot if that’s what you’re looking for.

I’m a huge fan of these sneakers. They fit well and are comfortable, but what makes these 5 star sneakers is the style. Subtle details that put these shoes above the rest. The green color is a really deep forest green, it’s so unique.

the material of the green part isn’t leather- it has the look of ripstop nylon, but not sure if that’s what it actually is. The black and gray parts are leather- all really nice quality. The mix of textures adds an interesting look to the sneakers.

Like I said, these sneakers are very comfortable. There’s enough room in the toe box that it doesn’t feel cramped. I’ve been wearing these on some of the coldest days this winter and these keep my feet as warm as some boots I have.

These are WORTH IT.

I don’t usually wear a sports brief (it’s low-cut or a jock, typically), but damn if these aren’t the most comfortable pair of undies I’ve worn since who knows when. I bought ‘em for the color, I stayed for the fit.

I feel solid and supported in the pouch, and with no riding up or rubbing in at any of the wrong spots, I can wear them all day. It’s a nice little feeling being able to go about your day knowing you’re sporting something a little sexy underneath.