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Derrick W.

Derrick W.

Joined on 03/23/03

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 27
Most Favorable Review
Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 - 620W Power Supply with 80 PLUS Bronze Certification and Modular Cables
Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 - 620W Power Supply with 80 PLUS Bronze Certification and Modular Cables

Pros: Stable power, quiet, functional, elegant and understated. Modular cables make cable management a breeze.

Cons: None so far.

Overall Review: My build: Intel i5-3350P Ivy Bridge ASRock Z77M mATX Motherboard Kingston HyperX Black 8GB DDR3 1600 MSI Twin Frozr Radeon R9 270X 2GB Samsung 840 EVO 120GB SSD CM Silent Pro M2 620W CM N200 mATX Mini Tower Running Tomb Raider 2013 at 1360x766 (HDMI -> older Samsung 32" 720p/1080i HDTV) with everything completely maxed, full anti-aliasing, tesselation, etc... No noticeable slowdown at any point thus far - this machine is a beast.

HyperX Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model KHX16C9B1BK2/8X
HyperX Black 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model KHX16C9B1BK2/8X

Pros: 8GB of dual-channel DDR3 1600 memory with heat spreaders from a reliable brand. What's not to like?

Cons: n/a

Overall Review: My build: Intel i5-3350P Ivy Bridge ASRock Z77M mATX Motherboard Kingston HyperX Black 8GB DDR3 1600 MSI Twin Frozr Radeon R9 270X 2GB Samsung 840 EVO 120GB SSD CM Silent Pro M2 620W CM N200 mATX Mini Tower Running Tomb Raider 2013 at 1360x766 (HDMI -> older Samsung 32" 720p/1080i HDTV) with everything completely maxed, full anti-aliasing, tesselation, etc... No noticeable slowdown at any point thus far - this machine is a beast.

Cooler Master N200 Micro-ATX Mini Tower with Front Mesh Ventilation, Minimal Design, 240mm Close-Loop AIO Support
Cooler Master N200 Micro-ATX Mini Tower with Front Mesh Ventilation, Minimal Design, 240mm Close-Loop AIO Support

Pros: Small size, excellent airflow, understated. White power LED is elegant. Easily fit a large GPU, with room to upgrade to a large CPU HSF in the future. Removable drive cages and decent cable management options.

Cons: The rolled bezel of the top PCI slot interferes with the HDMI port of my MSI 270X GPU. The cable baaarrrrely makes a connection - I'll probably have to take a dremel to it at some point. I eventually found a sweet spot between wiggling the card in its slot and angling the cable - not an ideal solution, but it works. Not worth knocking off an egg, as I'm pretty sure that this is a somewhat unique problem with this specific case/GPU combo, but it's worth mentioning.

Overall Review: My build: Intel i5-3350P Ivy Bridge ASRock Z77M mATX Motherboard Kingston HyperX Black 8GB DDR3 1600 MSI Twin Frozr Radeon R9 270X 2GB Samsung 840 EVO 120GB SSD CM Silent Pro M2 620W CM N200 mATX Mini Tower Running Tomb Raider 2013 at 1360x766 (HDMI -> older Samsung 32" 720p/1080i HDTV) with everything completely maxed, full anti-aliasing, tesselation, etc... No noticeable slowdown at any point thus far - this machine is a beast.

Intel Core i5-3350P - Core i5 3rd Gen Ivy Bridge Quad-Core 3.1GHz (3.3GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 69W Desktop Processor - BX80637i53350P
Intel Core i5-3350P - Core i5 3rd Gen Ivy Bridge Quad-Core 3.1GHz (3.3GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 69W Desktop Processor - BX80637i53350P

Pros: Rock-solid performance (7.5 in Windows 7). Lack of integrated graphics means significantly lower wattage - runs cool & quiet even with the stock HSF.

Cons: Lack of an integrated graphics solution somewhat limits its value from a non-gaming perspective.

Overall Review: My build: Intel i5-3350P Ivy Bridge ASRock Z77M mATX Motherboard Kingston HyperX Black 8GB DDR3 1600 MSI Twin Frozr Radeon R9 270X 2GB Samsung 840 EVO 120GB SSD CM Silent Pro M2 620W CM N200 mATX Mini Tower Running Tomb Raider 2013 at 1360x766 (HDMI -> older Samsung 32" 720p/1080i HDTV) with everything completely maxed, full anti-aliasing, tesselation, etc... No noticeable slowdown at any point thus far - this machine is a beast.

ASRock Z77M LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
ASRock Z77M LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: Z77 performance at a reasonable price from a reliable brand. Plenty of connections and features; easy to build a beast of a mATX machine.

Cons: If using a longer PCI-E graphics card, the layout of the connections (SATA in particular, as other reviewers have mentioned) leaves a bit to be desired.

Overall Review: My build: Intel i5-3350P Ivy Bridge ASRock Z77M mATX Motherboard Kingston HyperX Black 8GB DDR3 1600 MSI Twin Frozr Radeon R9 270X 2GB Samsung 840 EVO 120GB SSD CM Silent Pro M2 620W CM N200 mATX Mini Tower Running Tomb Raider 2013 at 1360x766 (HDMI -> older Samsung 32" 720p/1080i HDTV) with everything completely maxed, full anti-aliasing, tesselation, etc... No noticeable slowdown at any point thus far - this machine is a beast.

MSI Radeon R9 270X 2GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 CrossFireX Support Video Card R9 270X GAMING 2G
MSI Radeon R9 270X 2GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 CrossFireX Support Video Card R9 270X GAMING 2G

Pros: Incredibly quiet, rock-solid performance. Has taken everything I've thrown at it and just grins and asks for more.

Cons: None so far. This thing beats the pants off of my old XFX HD 6850.

Overall Review: My build: Intel i5-3350P Ivy Bridge ASRock Z77M mATX Motherboard Kingston HyperX Black 8GB DDR3 1600 MSI Twin Frozr Radeon R9 270X 2GB Samsung 840 EVO 120GB SSD CM Silent Pro M2 620W CM N200 mATX Mini Tower Running Tomb Raider 2013 at 1360x766 (HDMI -> older Samsung 32" 720p/1080i HDTV) with everything completely maxed, full anti-aliasing, tesselation, etc... No noticeable slowdown at any point thus far - this machine is a beast.