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Vernon I.

Vernon I.

Joined on 03/15/12

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 9
Most Favorable Review

Best deal around hands down

Lenovo IdeaPad Y510p (59390909) Intel Core i5 4200M(2.5GHz) 6 GB Memory 1 TB + 8 GB SSHD Hybrid Drive 15.6" Gaming Laptop Windows 8
Lenovo IdeaPad Y510p (59390909) Intel Core i5 4200M(2.5GHz) 6 GB Memory 1 TB + 8 GB SSHD Hybrid Drive 15.6" Gaming Laptop Windows 8

Pros: *Huge 1080p capable screen *2 750m Nvidia cards with SLI *USB 3.0 *Cheapest laptop with these specs- period. Ok I got this laptop for under $900 off of a NewEgg special. The Y510p is better than the Y410p because the 410 does not actually support Ultrabay which makes future SLI options non-existent. The computer has a non-gaming battery life of about 4 hours and a gaming life of 2 and some change depending on your brightness settings.

Cons: Mouse pad is a little to far to the left which makes ----*WASD gaming sometimes trigger the mousepad to do weird things. *5600 rpm hard drive is not acceptable for an OS. *Requires a fresh install of windows 8 to have a good experience.

Overall Review: This laptop comes loaded with bloatware and Lenovo apps that are unnecessary and slow down the natural Windows 8 experience. The first thing you should do with this is get a new hard drive that is preferably SSD but at least 7200RPM and install a clean Windows 8 OS. I ordered a 256gb SSD with the laptop and had no issues installing a fresh copy on it and running smoothly. Second, Windows 8.1 will disable SLI for some reason. So do not install 8.1 if you value this feature. I was unable to get Nvidia to recognize the second graphics card until I reverted back to Windows 8. After everything was fine tuned this laptop is able to run everything on 1080p with high or ultra settings. Everything being Black Ops 2, Resident Evil 6 and SWTOR. I have not tested much else. Boot time with an SSD is about 4 seconds but that is normal. Remember to manually enable SLI in the Nvidia control panel as it is by default disabled.

Perfect cheap board for SFF

ASRock H61MV-ITX LGA 1155 Intel H61 HDMI Mini ITX Intel Motherboard
ASRock H61MV-ITX LGA 1155 Intel H61 HDMI Mini ITX Intel Motherboard

Pros: Has everything you need to build up a good SFF case. Booted up instantly and was up and running in less than 20 minutes for a total computer build. Pretty fast and easy. Has the MOBO power connection at the top where I wanted it.

Cons: Wish they had a model with USB 3.0 rear connections. Don't really care because it is a living room build up.

Overall Review: This is my 2nd ASRock board and I am thrilled to say it was just as easy to get going as my last. Took 20 minutes max for this thing to get from the packaging to a running computer.

Works great

Athena Power AP-MFATX40P8 20+4Pin 400W Single Server Power Supply 80+ Bronze Certified
Athena Power AP-MFATX40P8 20+4Pin 400W Single Server Power Supply 80+ Bronze Certified

Pros: Solid Flex ATX psu. Quiet most of the time. Tons of cables to accommodate anything you can throw at it.

Cons: When the fan does turn on it stays on permanently until the computer is restarted. Wouldn't really care except that it is noisy and distracting.

Overall Review: Needed one for an old HP Pavilion Slimline that I gutted, painted and built up with modern components for my living room. This fit the bill perfectly and installed in a few minutes. Would buy it again.

Nice quiet card

PowerColor PCS+ Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 CrossFireX Support Video Card AX7870 2GBD5-2DHPP
PowerColor PCS+ Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 CrossFireX Support Video Card AX7870 2GBD5-2DHPP

Pros: Fast and smooth performance Easy overclocking interface Fits well in a midtower setup Included a stand to support the weight BENCHMARKS Using this card and a z75 board with Ivy bridge i5 and 16gb of ram I run 80fps in Tera with all settings maxed. SWTOR is 90fps on max. Crysis maxes at 320fps with an average of 72fps. Skyrim with the HD texture pack runs slightly choppy at max settings with a low of 24fps.

Cons: Powercolor's website has bad links to get updated drivers. Tried more than 1 computer and the links are just bad. Really disappointed because I did not have an optical drive and I had to rip the disk to an external drive using someone else's computer. FYI you can download Steam and it will update the driver to the latest available version.

Overall Review: The hardware and bundled software is perfect and this card is a great value. The card is always cool even under loads for hours in my Coolermaster Elite with 5 fans and a stock cpu fan.

10/17/2012

Good for boards without on board audio

ASUS Xonar DG 5.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI Interface Sound Card
ASUS Xonar DG 5.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI Interface Sound Card

Pros: Easy to install the card and drivers Decent sound to headphones 7.1 emulation and amplifier on headphones is nice

Cons: 7.1 emulation on the headphones isn't perfect. Hard to explain but the sound is somewhat distorted. I have tested this with both Bose headphones and Aviators.

Overall Review: Best to add to boards with bad or missing sound integration. I went with this card over the more expensive ones because of the built in headphone amp. The amp does work and improve headphone sound but the card overall is just slightly better than onboard sound. I use an Asrock z75 pro motherboard.

10/13/2012

Amazing value!

ASRock Z75 Pro3 LGA 1155 Intel Z75 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
ASRock Z75 Pro3 LGA 1155 Intel Z75 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: PCIe 3.0 x16 2 USB 3.0 interfaces plus a slot for adding two more Great layout and heatsinks Booted right up after installation Great GUI bios and nice CD package

Cons: Perhaps could have traded the bottom PCI slot for an express slot but you should factor in your extras before purchasing a board.

Overall Review: My setup Core I5 Ivy Bridge 16gb Corsair Vengeance at 1600mhz Asus Sonar soundcard PCI ATI HD7870 GHz Edition GPU PCIe 3.0 Corsair 600w PSU Benchmarked in Crysis2 Max 320fps Min 41fps Avg 71fps

10/13/2012