cover
patricia j.

patricia j.

Joined on 01/03/09

0
0

Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 26
Most Favorable Review

works with a Ryzen 3 2200G out of the box with NO bios update.....

ASRock B450M PRO4 AM4 AMD Promontory B450 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
ASRock B450M PRO4 AM4 AMD Promontory B450 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: 1...one of the cheapest options for getting a B450 based motherboard but still fells well made 2...2 M.2 slots, 4 memory slots and all the new USB standards 3...stock wraith cooler does not cover memory slots 4...has a built in RGB controller that will work with cheap RGB lite strips

Cons: 1...NO SPDIF output on the motherboard.... 2...no display port...only DVI, VGA and HDMI

Overall Review: if you want to run a 2200G or a 2400G this is your motherboard.....its cheap and works with both of them out of the gate....also is a great place to start for a gaming rig as a Ryzen 5 2600 runs well on it built 5 computers for a church with this motherboard....i have only gotten requests to build more units for personal home use after the install..... KNOWN MEMORY THAT WORKS WITH THIS MOTHERBOARD AND THE 2200G, 2400G and 2500 Ryzen 5 Team T-force Vulcan memory at 3200mhz 2x4gb search "TLRED48G3200HC16CDC01" in newegg's search bar Team T-force Vulcan at 2800mhz "TLRED48G2800HC16CDC01" i have sets of both of these and know for a fact that both sets work....the only thing i will say is the 3200mhz set is better for the 2200G and 2400G....

10/21/2018
Most Critical Review

great memory....NOT FOR INTEL

Ballistix Tactical Tracer 4GB DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory (with Orange/Blue Light) Model BLT4G3D1869DT2TXOB
Ballistix Tactical Tracer 4GB DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory (with Orange/Blue Light) Model BLT4G3D1869DT2TXOB

Pros: i have a 2 sets of the 1600mhz and a friend is running the 2 sets of 1866.....had both sets for over a year.....both sets stay cool without a fan even overclocked....LEDS stay bright even after hours of use with them on the brights settings....they are stable and run great if the motherboard likes them.....

Cons: NOT FOR INTEL BOARDS NEWER THEN A the 3 series of intel CPU's/....IF ITS A 4 digit code starting with a 3 (like the 3930k or a 4690k or a 3570k) IT WILL NOT WORK i have tried them with these CPU's....they would have looked KILLER IN ALL THESE RIGS

Overall Review: GREAT STICKS.........AS LONG as you have AMD.....i have a phenom 555 unlocked to a quad core on a 970 motherboard with 4x2gb of these......friend is running a 990 motherboard with 8350 8 core with 2 of these sets.....4x4gb for 16gb total at 1866.....both sets run fine and look great.....HAVE NO FEAR IF YOU HAVE AMD.......dont get for new intel boards....unless it says it in the manual for your motherboard.....

love the case even with design flaws

DEEPCOOL D-Shield V2 ATX Compact Mid Tower Case 360mm Liquid Cooler Compatible
DEEPCOOL D-Shield V2 ATX Compact Mid Tower Case 360mm Liquid Cooler Compatible

Pros: 1)fits everything i have needed so far on 4 different types of builds from gaming to server 2)cheap for what you get 3)front cover does not really hurt air flow when fans are installed 4)looks good even being cheap 5)front cables will reach any point on the motherboard 6)many wire runs with spacing on the back side of the motherboard to hide all the wires with many tie down points 7)window frames the motherboard nicely and cuts out all the clutter of the PSU

Cons: 1)if you are using a full sized MIRCO ATX motherboard the front cut outs closets to the board will be covered and if you use a full sized ATX board all cut out will be covered forcing you to use the SSD slot's opening to wire the motherboard....about the only size mother that will let you use all the cut outs is a ITX mother and that is pointless in a case this big... 2)SSD mounting locations on the side of the case will not usable with the above motherboard sizes are used as you will have to use these cut out for main wiring on the motherboard....you maybe able to use one of them if you route all the wires in just one of the SSD bays but even then it puts the SSD data and power ports on angles that will be a problem with flat SATA cables...plus it did not look good as my samsung logo was upside down on the SSD drive 3)5.25 has all the front panel wires hanging in front of it making a install of anything in that bay a pain.... 4)support for a 360mm water cooler???.....WHERE???....the only place it could go is in the front of the case....not only will you lose the 5.25 bay installing one that big but you will also not be able to install all 3 fans....the bottom fan wont fit because of the harddrive rack that is riveted to the bottom of the case and the very top fan of the 3 will have almost no air flow....BUT on the flip side it would be easy to get 2 240mm radiators in this case with one in the front and one on top with room to use the 5.25 bay 5)metal is thin and will bend if pushed on....still uses the old time slide guides on the edge of the case that will also bend with very little pressure 6)power supply can only be mounted with the fan facing down....not a big deal but it would be nice if you could flip it up so it sucks air from inside the case....with it only sucking air in from the bottom putting this case on a floor is a bad idea FORGET CARPET 7)wiring fans at the front of the case is a pain....there are NO cut outs for fan wires and i had to run the wires for my 2 front facing fans in to the harddrive cage and out the back of it to hide everything 8)do NOT get a massive power supply....i never get a power supply that is longer then a 140mm to go in this case as even a 140mm deep power supply covers about a quarter of the cut out for the power supply wires to run behind the motherboard tray

Overall Review: even with my grips its a great case looking at how cheap it is....just know you wont be able to really install more then 2 drives using a full sized ATX board as your only options become the harddrive rack and you dont really have support for a 360mm cooler like the box claims, you should be fine using this case....have bought 4 so far and will buy more as time goes on.....if you need more then 2 drives in this case i would go with laptop drives as with a mounting plate in the harddrive bays you could turn 2 spaces in to 4 using nothing but 2.5 drives and the mounting holes for the bottom and sides

great little SSD drive GET IT

Corsair Force MP300 M.2 2280 240GB PCI-Express 3.0 x2, NVME 1.3 3D TLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) CSSD-F240GBMP300
Corsair Force MP300 M.2 2280 240GB PCI-Express 3.0 x2, NVME 1.3 3D TLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) CSSD-F240GBMP300

Pros: reads and writes at speeds listed on the box and works on both intel and AMD based motherboards....for the price point it would be stupid to use a SATA based SSD over this as its 3 times faster then a samsung EVO sata based SSD.....(the last time i bought one it was only 10 dollars more then a 240gb SATA base samsung) WORTH THE 10 EXTRA DOLLARS FOR 3 TIMES THE SPEED

Cons: does not come with a heat sink....i have this on a system with a motherboard that has a built in heat sink for the M.2 slot....its 10 degrees F cooler then the system with no heat sink on this drive(i have 2 myself and have bought over 10 for other people)

Overall Review: for the OS and programs this is the best option....gaming on it is also nuts in the fact BF4 loads maps faster then people even running SATA based SSD drives for the game....for normal daily driver use everything opens the instant you click on a program

great cheap fans

COOLER MASTER R4-S2S-124K-GP Silent Case Fan (4-Pack)
COOLER MASTER R4-S2S-124K-GP Silent Case Fan (4-Pack)

Pros: 1)quite but still move a good amount of air 2)come with screws 3)same fans coolermaster includes with most of their cases 4)first set i bought was over 5 years ago and they still work 5)4 120mm fans for under 15 bucks ARE YOU KIDDING ME???

Cons: 1)short power leads that are at best 15 inches long 2)mustard ketchup wires that stick out like sore thumbs 3)no molex adapters included but on the bright side they are not built in to the 3 pin power plugs like some cheap fans

Overall Review: need to fill those empty fan holes in your case for not a lot of money then these are your fans....hay they work well last for years and keep your system cool all at the same time not sounding like jet turbines other notes....old set would spin up at 400RPM's at lowest voltage and max out at 1000RPM's....the newer versions of these fans spin up at 500RPM's and max out at 1200RPM's.....the 2 sets i have running 1200RPM's is about 3 years old with no issues i build tons of computers in a single year and have used these for many years in everything from home made servers to gaming rigs...cant be beat for the price, number of fans and how much air they move

works great other then the WIFI can NOT be beat for the money

GIGABYTE B450 AORUS PRO WIFI AM4 AMD B450 USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
GIGABYTE B450 AORUS PRO WIFI AM4 AMD B450 USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: 1) great set up for overclocking with a 8+3 power phase 2) well thought out for the most part in layout 3) memory slots are not on top of the CPU socket so bigger coolers should fit with heat sinks on memory 4) lights built in to the board look good 5) easy overclocking options in the bios 6) included wifi antenna uses a magnet and can be placed on the sides of cases without it moving 7) below 130ish price point its a great board for the money and even beats boards that cost more in features 8) heat sinks for the M.2 slots really help....temps on the same drive are 10 degrees cooler with the heat sink on....(i have the same drive on this and on a other system...i wish the heat sink would fit the other system but it uses a custom bolt that is embedded in the board)

Cons: 1)wifi without using the A band i only see 50mbs no matter what my true internet speed is or what my router is able to out put that is up to 450mbs on the N band....if i use both N and A bands i get 450's...i have installed the intel controller software and had the computer in the same room as the wifi router....cheap 250 dollar ACER laptop hits 80mbs in the same room with a single channel N only WIFI card....in gaming it only adds about 5ms to ping times in BF4 and BF1 and runs fine but it would slow down massive game downloads if you only have a N based router(FYI my internet speeds at 112mbs to 110mbs on most days) 2) fan header placement kinda stinks....one is at the bottom of the board in the middle of all the other ports, one is next to the CPU power plug at the top corner of the board, one is mid board for rear case fan like most and the last option is the secondary CPU fan port giving you a total of 4 besides the CPU main....this kinda stinks because you will have to run extensions to get front case fans hooked up to the motherboard on any of these ports...on the bright side the extra CPU fan header has its own controller...if you know you are only going to need 4 fans plus the CPU main fan, plan on getting fan extension cords for any fans in the front of the case...you get 4 total plus main CPU......good number of headers just bad placement 3)NO USB 2.0 ports on the back of the motherboard for mouse and keyboard....i have never seen a 3.0 USB mouse and most keyboards still run 1.1 even for high end ones....i was lucky in the fact i had a old set of USB ports that go in a PCI-E slot but plug in to the mother ports for USB 2.0 to give me those 2 ports on the back of the case....most people wont care but i have a ton of things to plug in with a 3D printer and tons of other toys 4) the 2 SATA ports just below the main 24 pin will not be usable if any type of M.2 drive is used....does not matter if its X2 X4 or SATA based.....those 2 SATA ports get shut off....

Overall Review: if you can live with 4 SATA ports plus a M.2 drive and have real dual band router you cant go wrong with this motherboard.....even if you get rid of the wifi factor you cant beat this board at the current prices for what it gives you