Joined on 06/07/14
I'm dead loyal to XFX at this point.
Pros: -Great Performance -Good bang for buck card -Runs quietly at low loads -looks great -low temperatures -XFX support is available to help past any issues.
Cons: -Kinda wish I had the option to buy the LED hard swap fans at time of purchase as a bundle.
Overall Review: I have recommended this specific card to my roommate and have not regretted it. I have owned other XFX graphic cards in the past and they have yet to disappoint me. For those who stated that drivers were having issues, that was a RX480 issue, not just this specific card and that problem is ling gone by now. I think that card looks great out of the box but I got the blue LED hard swap fans for like $20 and it made the card stand out inside my computer case. I will soon be buying another one of the same card to run them in Crossfire, probably overclocking both.
Best University Student workstation/Personal CPU
Pros: I have this chip installed in my primary desktop which I use for both gaming and school uses. Let me start by saying that, if you want a gaming only computer, this is probably not the best CPU for you. Most games are not currently optimized for multi-core performance past 4 cores, so an Intel chip, which focuses more on per core performance, is probably a better bet. However, if you do any sort of CPU heavy workload like simulations or video editing, this chip is a unstoppable at the price point I paid for it. I got this chip for $290 while it was on sale. I paired it with a X370 mobo from MSI as this is the highest performance chip in the line-up at the time that did not require a more expensive TR mobo. Performance wise, benchmarks don't always present the real world performance of the CPUs that are being tested. From personal experience, I can say that this CPU took 2 hours 21 minutes to run a CFD (Computational fluid dynamics) simulation compared to 4 hours 5 minutes that it took a computer with a I7-6700. Both had the same amount of RAM though the i7 uses DDR3 instead of 4 but the difference in performance would not come from this alone. Both simulations were run without off-loading calculations onto the GPUs. I should also mention that this was not the only simulation I ran on both computers and from my experience, this was not an isolated incident. Not only did the simulations finish much more quickly, I was still able to run other programs (netflix and a game) on my system with the sim in the background, where as the other computer would lag if I touched the mouse too much. I know this isn't the best apples to apples comparison, but I don't have a better comparison other than my roommate's computer with a 7700k. In a different simulation, he did it in 1 hour 34 minutes and my computer completed the same in 1 hour and 7 minutes. This was despite having twice the amount of RAM than me. Gaming wise, it is still a very solid contender. CPUs are only strained when a game has to crank out frames at a massive rate. I game at 1080p and above and get bottle capped by my GPU and monitor before getting anywhere near maxing my CPU.
Cons: -3200 RAM took a while to get stable. -No stock cooler -Likes to heat up more than other Ryzens, though no where near what my Intel chips get to.
Overall Review: I would buy this chip (or the newer iteration of it) for all my systems if I could. I would also like to say, I don't write reviews for a product until at least 6 months of owning it. I usually overclock my systems, but I have not had any reasons to overclock my chip. I fine with my system remaining as cool and silent as it is now. I have not had any CPU related issues either.
I don't regret my case choice. Not even a little.
Pros: After owning this case for over one year and having to lug it back and forth between my parents house and my dorm, I can vouch for the strength and durability (provided I wasn't an idiot when moving it) of this case. The case has plenty of space to work in. the SSD mounts in the back are useful, the dust filters are convenient, the amount of fans and radiators it can hold make cooling easy, comes with fans and a fan controller, etc. I could go on, but the take-away should be, this case was very effective for my build. I would definitely buy another case from this brand for my next build.
Cons: the case looks kinda plain, but not enough to take off an egg. Also the front panel may get in the way of certain CD players, again not enough to take off an egg.
Overall Review: the first one i ordered arrived damaged, received a second one in no time flat. overall happy with my shopping experience.
exceeds expectations
Pros: 144hz 1ms response time great colors great calibration easily positioned the list goes on and on and on
Cons: it can't cure malaria
Overall Review: absolutely amazing monitor that I can't believe I got for $180
Great CPU
Pros: works great with my graphics card, no bottleneck
Cons: non so far
Overall Review: i plan to overclock once water-cooling arrives