cover
Christopher M.

Christopher M.

Joined on 07/22/06

0
0

Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 5
Most Favorable Review

Excellent value

G.SKILL 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Laptop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBSK
G.SKILL 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Laptop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBSK

Pros: This memory is a great value. The price is competitive and these sticks run at great speeds. I installed these into my Toshiba Satellite C855D-S5351. This laptop originally had only 1 stick in it so the memory was not running dual channel. Once I installed these, it gave it a boost of speed. The quality looked to be very nice and solid. If you're looking for a good bargain on some DDR3 1600 RAM, these are definitely hard to beat!

Cons: None

Overall Review: The only small issue I had was the heat spreader made these sticks just a little thicker than traditional sticks. My RAM is situated such that they are right on top of one another. I almost couldn't get the second stick to get clamed down all the way. A little encouragement on my part though and it snugly fit in there. Not anything that will cause this excellent product to lose a star, just keep in mind how much space you have to work with. Mine was pretty tight and they still fit, so I imagine it shouldn't be an issue with most any other setups.

10/18/2013

Interesting case setup

Antec Mini Skeleton-90 0.8mm cold rolled steel Mini-ITX Desktop Computer Case
Antec Mini Skeleton-90 0.8mm cold rolled steel Mini-ITX Desktop Computer Case

Pros: Let's start with the obvious one. Breaths great! I use this to hold my mini-ITX HTPC (Home Theater PC). My old case was this little black box that just cooked the computer hardware. It didn't have the room for decent fans. I moved to this case and had about 20C drop in operating temperature. Perfect! The large fan on top does a good job of moving air and also provides some nice lighting if you prefer it. It should be noted here that it is highly recommended that you use 2.5" drives with this case. There are two slots that you can slide these hard drives in to and it leave you a 5.25" bay if you would like to use some sort of DVD/Bluray drive. If you must have a 3.5" drive, you're going to lose that CD/DVD/Bluray slot.

Cons: Main issue for this computer was that the size and shape of the case greatly reduces what you can put into the expansion PCI-E slots. I had a TV tuner in this computer and it doesn't fit anymore. I will need to get a USB tuner to continue recording shows. If you're considering putting a video card in here, make sure it's low profile or it may not fit. Dust/fur/general things you don't want on the hardware. This isn't a HUGE issue but I would recommend blowing out your hardware more often if you live with animals or a dusty environment. Usually cases can help limit how much dust/fur can get on the hardware but with this case it's all exposed. Just something to keep in mind. That's pretty much it for the issues I had.

Overall Review: In my opinion, this is a cool case to build a HTPC. It also makes for a good basic PC. It's cool to show to your friends and has an interesting look. If you're the type who's a little out of the box, this is a good way for you to go.

12/12/2013

Wow! Just... Wow! Where's the six egg option?

SAMSUNG 840 EVO MZ-7TE250BW 2.5" 250GB SATA 6Gb/s 1x nm Samsung Toggle DDR 2.0 3-Bit MLC NAND Flash Memory (400Mbps) Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
SAMSUNG 840 EVO MZ-7TE250BW 2.5" 250GB SATA 6Gb/s 1x nm Samsung Toggle DDR 2.0 3-Bit MLC NAND Flash Memory (400Mbps) Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Pros: Fast!!!!! Speedy!!!! Ok, we got that out of the way. I've owned my fair share of SSD's (totalling around 6 or more as of this writing). Each of them are very fast in their own right. I run benchmarks on all my computers. That includes HDD and SSD speed tests. This one is my new ranking champion. Screaming fast. I've got this installed on a Toshiba Satellie C855D-S5351. I believe it only has a SATA II connection but this SSD is still blazing fast. One of my tests with HDTune got me up around 300MB/s at one point, and averaged around 200MB/s on average. After changing the BIOS to the SSD setting and enabling it's quicker boot option, my laptop starts up from a cold boot in just a little more time than it takes to come back from my normal desktop standby. This this will boot into windows in about as much time as my giant desktop will get done with it's POST. It's fast. I highly recommend this drive as an excellent value!

Cons: Makes every other computer with a traditional HDD seem like they're not running at all at which point will frustrate you and you will want to buy more of these and put one in every computer you own and that your friends own and that your work owns and you'll go broke but at least you'll be happy with your computer speed. :) Just kidding. No cons here.

Overall Review: It's AWESOME! Nuf' said.

10/18/2013

Solid Mobo on a budget

ASRock A785GM-LE AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 785G + SB710 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
ASRock A785GM-LE AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 785G + SB710 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

Pros: Great compact board with good feature set. BIOS is easy to navigate and it boots with different images during POST. Good board for budget or small build.

Cons: None. See comments for thing to watch out for.

Overall Review: So the space between the CPU and the RAM is very small, so much in fact that the CPU heatsink I got for this (ARCTIC Alpine 64 Pro Rev 2 CPU Cooler for AMD) would NOT fit with both sticks of RAM. Be careful in selecting your CPU heatsink.

Good Stuff

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ

Pros: Great value. Work as promised. Fit side by side with my existing memory. Would recommend to a friend.

Cons: None.