All i wanted to know. Preciate it! Funny how RIU seems to be predominately A51 bias and GC is topled bias. Maybe one day i'll get into the DIY LED. Nothing better than DIY when you succeed at it. But right now i'm not trying to burn down anything or anyone. ha
I've noticed that GC is also sponsered quite heavily by topled. They do seem pretty good bang for buck though, but I'm pretty sure its more a result of marketing rather than actual results. The reason A51 gets such a good rep around here is because they provide all the information regarding their components. Same as the onyx from rapidled. They can honestly tell the customer what they are getting. A lot of the 'china panels' will say things like "Cree and epistar led chips!!" when in reality only a small amount of LEDs if any at all are actually cree, epistar or whateve else.
There are too many companies that are rebranding chinese fishtank led panels and simply changing out some of the spectrum to make it more appealing for growers. They do not care about efficiency. They will grab any old 630nm led and stick on the panel. A lot of them are using the same LEDs that they put into shop signs.....(damn zenor diodes). But the whole point of going to LED is to be able to grow like a hps with a significant reduction in heat and power consumpion. Panels consisting of low efficiency LEDs are really going to struggle to match the output of a quality panel made with the best available components. I would take 100w of a51/apachetech/onyx over 200w of 'generic grow led' simply because the actual light output will be higher per watt.
Also, a lot of people like the lifetime warranty, appreciate the service and would prefer to buy something made in the USA rather than china. I personally don't care either way, because I am not american, and 99% of everything I own or will own will come from china, but I can certainly see the appeal.
So while it does occasionally feel like a bit of an area 51 ciclejerk around here, but it is only because they work as advertised. You ALWAYS get what you pay for, and for many people paying a little extra is worth it to them.