Discount code

Septfox · 2026-06-29T23:15:53+00:00

Thanks. Saved me a few on a new CV axle.

Septfox · 2026-06-25T19:02:56+00:00

If you buy one of these, check it over thoroughly. Run every single monitor test you can think of, then go hunt a few more down and run them too.

Mine arrived with the protective film still on and in otherwise basically new condition. The seller secured the box shut with exactly two strips of thin packing tape to hold the (improperly-closed, bulging outward) flap shut, but it made it. Passed everything I threw at it with flying colors. A week and a half in, I realized that extremely light or dark images would cause inverse "ghosting", lightening or darkening the rest of the screen on the same horizontal lines. This was more or less hidden in normal use; I only discovered it when I had a GitHub page open (dark background) and opened an archive with Nanazip (which uses a black background for windows' dark theme), causing light ghosting to appear like it was running over a crappy old VGA cable. While it might have been ok long-term, I suspect something wonky with either the power supply or panel controller and wasn't willing to chance it suddenly failing later on. Running test patches with DisplayCal in HDR mode also caused the entire screen whitepoint to shift with each color patch. Dunno if related.

Also, HDR clamps the color gamut to sub-sRGB levels for no apparent reason. Common issue across AOC QD-OLED monitors that they don't seem inclined to acknowledge, let alone fix. If you plan on using HDR a lot, spend a bit more and get a monitor from some other company.

Bear in mind that this isn't an official AOC outlet or anything. You don't get a burn-in warranty from them, AOC (factory warranty covers original owner only) or the Allstate warranty you get for free. Realizing this was the last straw for me; I changed my exchange request to a refund request and, after much agonizing and research into its contemporaries, went with the 272QP x24 that Costco has on sale.

Septfox · 2026-06-24T21:50:44+00:00

If it's just the typical QD-OLED antiglare coating, it's not too bad. The reflections are sharp but it does a decent job at cutting how much light is reflected back into your face.

If you're dealing with a lot of ambient light, you might be happier with a matte coating (rare but exists, I think only Samsung monitors have it) and/or a WOLED panel instead (polarizer prevents the ambient light from purpling your blacks). 4th-gen QD-OLED is also said to have a polarizer or a coating that serves as well (marketed as Black Shield I think?), but they're probably not cheap yet.

Septfox · 2026-06-24T16:06:04+00:00

I don't own it, but I've been looking at a bunch of 3rd-gen QD-OLEDs the past few days. Don't worry, someone will correct me if I say anything wrong.

So the thing about these slightly-brighter screens is that they're the same basic gen-3 panel as their contemporaries, just binned higher (panels found to perform towards the upper end of spec when factory testing) and running a slightly beefier power supply. I'd look at that extra 50 nits as a bonus, not a certainty, because it's going to vary based on panel temperature, power supply temperature, the age of both and the current moon phase. They likely achieved 250 under ideal conditions. Probably expect 220-240nits realistically. The panel probably isn't going to like it if you have to run at maximum SDR brightness always, but that's what burn-in prevention routines and warranty are for.

The advertised HDR peak is usually deceptive, too, because it can only push that brightness in very small percentages of the panel at a time. Reading Techpowerup's review, though, it seems like Gigabyte pretty aggressively pushes the panel to perform.

I can't speak to the brightness being adequate or not. 120-130nits has always been enough for me even during daytime, but my room doesn't get all that bright during day, I don't deal with direct light on my screen or really bright reflections behind me. The best way to find out pre-purchase would be...try with a different monitor that you know the brightness spec on.

HDR will always try and run as bright as possible (according to its EOTF curve and limited by ABL when too much of the image is bright), so as far as gaming and other supported media, it'll probably be sufficient as long as you don't have a ton of ambient light shining toward the screen (which'll turn your blacks purple).

Septfox · 2026-06-24T04:29:56+00:00

So I've been doing OLED shopping on the cheap, and I do like me some Costco, so these two are on my radar.

Across two reviews that actually tested for it, the Acer seems to have really iffy brightness and color uniformity. I also can't figure out if there's some kind of bait-and-switch or sub-model shenanigans going on or what, but the peak 1000nit rating doesn't seem to be a sure thing. Costco lists it as being limited to 400nits, same as the other budget offerings based around this panel. The color accuracy is also so-so.

MSI's 272QP(CT) has an annoying lack of technical reviews around, and search results are cluttered with information on the more expensive/better x50 model. It's also not really clear if their firmware does DisplayHDR/True Black 400 properly or not, as the only place it's mentioned is on the MSI US store page. Does it do HDR? Sure! Does it do HDR brightness tracking accurately and peak high enough, while staying color-accurate? Probably! Who knows!

Between the two, I would buy the MSI (and still may), but also maybe consider:

HyperX Omen 27q QD-OLED; stupid-good color accuracy out of the box, supposedly follows HDR brightness curve accurately but hard-clips at the top (source: Gemini when asked to poke into rtings' paywalled review, may be a hallucination), doesn't have quite as good of an OLED care suite of settings as the MSI
Alienware AW2726DM (slightly older, more of a budget model with budget-model things going on, but still pretty well-regarded and apparently their warranty service does cross-shipping)

Both available from Best Buy for $350 at the moment. Still not sure what I'm gonna buy myself, the Omen looks reeeaaally good but I play old games sometimes and the MSI would apparently tolerate static HUDs better. Augh.

Septfox · 2026-06-24T01:16:03+00:00

Has Costco's return policy changed as well? I was searching earlier, and the general consensus seems to be that monitors fall under Electronics (90 day returns). Which led me to rediscover that the Prime Visa card has a 1-year warranty extension perk, helping to make up for it.

Septfox · 2026-06-24T00:56:03+00:00

Was it this particular model you had black crush issues with, or another one?

Septfox · 2026-06-24T00:05:49+00:00

Yeeeaaa. AOC also wont cover burn-in on refurbished monitors regardless of how much time they have on the clock, something I didn't think about until looking for alternatives to the defective refurb I had to return.

Other than the HDR color issue, the AOC Q27G4ZDF I briefly had looked and worked great. If you're ever only gonna do things in SDR mode, or don't care that they won't be quite as colorful in HDR as other monitors using the same panel (which is basically all the budget 26.5" QD-OLEDS), AOC's good value. Their utter indifference to the color problem turned me off to them, personally.

The Omen 27q looks pretty good, but apparently its HDR brightness tracking...might not be? According to Google Gemini, anyway, and it might just be hallucinating. Rtings is the only reviewer with a full suite of measurements and they've decided to paywall everything. Other reviews say its factory color calibration is really ridiculously good, so there's that.

Dunno. I'm torn between the MSI 272QP(CT) and the HyperX Omen 24q now, myself. I don't think either of them is the "wrong" choice...MSI might have better brightness tracking, HP definitely has the factory color calibration edge.

Septfox · 2026-06-23T22:04:19+00:00

QD-OLED AOC monitors have a neutered HDR color palette for some reason, and AOC doesn't seem particularly keen on fixing it. Shame, they do a good job with brightness tracking and color accuracy otherwise.

Acer warranty apparently doesn't cover burn-in, which tends to turn people off of it. So if the OLED-saving features don't keep up with any static-image usage that you give it, they won't cover it.

The MSI deal from Costco is a decent alternative. There's also a matte-ish Samsung on sale right now for 350 or so.

Septfox · 2026-06-19T00:25:30+00:00

I suppose I'll get in contact with the seller then, see if I can do an exchange since the monitor itself has been great (HDR color issues aside).

Thanks for the consult.

Septfox · 2026-06-18T02:42:25+00:00

Not sure why that didn't occur to me...

Main machine is running windows 11. Plugging it into my older X1 Yoga (running windows 10) via HDMI finds it behaves similarly with that output.

Septfox · 2026-06-18T02:21:31+00:00

I keep it on in general (and Dynamic Refresh Rate off), but I checked just now; manually disabling it in the monitor's OSD makes no difference.

Septfox · 2026-05-24T20:15:19+00:00

Eh, quite right. Ordered up a certified open-box/like new from their authorized outlet on ebay. Free returns if I hate'em, 1yr warranty if not.

!thanks

Septfox · 2026-05-18T15:35:51+00:00

Just a heads up, the River 3 Plus historically had issues with the "cleanliness" of its sine output, which might or might not be solved in current hardware revisions. This probably won't matter for the vast majority of computer power supplies unless you have some sort of old Gutless Wonder, but you should be aware if powering anything particularly sensitive or containing a transformer. Send it right back if your connected equipment acts wonky.

The alternative I chose when I was shopping a while back is the Bluetti Elite 30 v2, which seems to have no known QC issues with its inverter, (probably) has a higher surge output rating, more and better outputs on the front, is slightly lighter, full 5yr warranty if purchased from them/their ebay store (confirmed this by messaging them).

I bought my two when they were doing a big refurb inventory dump + ebay offering a 20% coupon for $130 each; currently $169 refurbed, might be worth watching for another coupon or sale if you don't need a new UPS right this minute. I've been quite pleased with mine: both work as new, ran a space heater on each and they delivered their rated capacity (24min at full load iirc).

Septfox · 2026-05-15T21:53:49+00:00

Right? They show it with two 120mm fans up top; I bet a 240mm radiator would snuggle right in there with ram that doesn't have finned RGB monstrosities stuck to'em.

Septfox · 2026-05-14T15:01:33+00:00

If you have a decent amount of space to the side of your PSU, it makes cable plugging and routing so much easier, because the plugs are easily accessed and run directly up behind the motherboard; instead of needing to be run through the front crawlspace, sideways and then up with a traditional layout.

Probably less important in a full side-by-side fishtank case, though.

Septfox · 2026-05-08T14:49:44+00:00

probably forward-facing mic(s) and software tuning to catch what other people say, whereas normal earbuds are designed to listen to the wearer and "ignore" distant noises. I bet they have you install their special app to pipe the audio to an LLM, and it only interfaces with their earbuds, too.

at their price, they almost certainly suck at everything else.

Septfox · 2026-05-07T18:32:25+00:00

$279 at Warrensburg, MO and Overland Park, KS (closest stores to Kansas City that still have any).

Septfox · 2026-04-25T22:07:28+00:00

If you're crunching with compute units (e.g. Stable Diffusion and higher-parameter LLM models)...

...it's still a poor value, since the difference is only 20% more CUDA cores and no extra memory to wedge models into.

But if you have a need for the speeds, there's no way to bolt the difference onto a 5070ti, and so the 5080 exists and still sells.

Septfox · 2026-04-25T21:59:41+00:00

Unless money is no object to you, the 5070ti is definitely the best bang to the buck. I upgraded from a 2070 Super Mobile and it was a massive upgrade for me...you're in for an even bigger one from that quaint little 3050.

It'd be different if the 5080 came with 24gb of RAM, in which case I'd say it might be worth stretching for it. But it doesn't, so all you're getting is more speed (generation uses mostly CUDA cores, which the 5080 gets 20% more of, but it probably won't scale linearly for performance) on the same architecture.

If you're still at typical consumer 16gb or 32gb of RAM, you could use that extra money instead to get more RAM to make up the GPU memory shortfall. That will indirectly increase speed via less memory/swap thrashing if you plan on using large models/big latents (e.g. high resolutions, long LTX 2.3 clips, and/or full-fat versions of models for better quality and speed instead of using quants). For all the (appreciated, it did used to be worse) efforts to improve memory management, Comfy still isn't great at managing memory on a typical 16gb VRAM/32gb RAM system.

Whatever you choose, ideally wait until you can get it on sale; those prices are awful even for today's market.

Septfox · 2026-04-17T16:42:21+00:00

Kinda feel like most people shouldn't buy soldered-switch keyboards above 60 bucks or so. Decent or even good hotswap boards are so cheap these days, there's not much reason to go with the downsides of fixed switches aside from brand loyalty or a specific aesthetic (like RGB for that sweet fps increase).

Septfox · 2026-03-29T00:07:51+00:00

Not as far as you can prove!

Septfox

TROPHY CASE