Joined on 09/09/12
Strong feeling board for a great price
Pros: I bought this with the new Haswell i7-4770k and got $100 for the combo; what a steal! I had my AMD Gigabyte mobo for about 3.5 years and decided to switch over to Intel because of all of the benchmark reviews and comparisons between the FX 8350 and the Haswell chipset. I have always been pleased with Gigabyte's durability and have not had to RMA their boards. Visually, this board looks really nice. The red and black look great in my white Storm Stryker case. This mobo was extremely easy to install in my Storm Stryker case. The cable management was also extremely easy to do and I like that this board has all USB 3.0 since it's backwards compatible with USB 2.0. The UEFI on this mobo is AMAZING looking and overclocking will be a breeze once I get my Antec Kuhler 620 liquid cooling installed.
Cons: The front audio ports of my Stryker sometimes disrupt the back Realtek audio ports that are on this mobo. It's not worth taking off an egg though because I'm sure I will figure out how to fix it.
Overall Review: My Rig: GIGABYTE GA-Z87X-UD4H mobo Intel Core i7-4770K Haswell 3.5GHz (will be overclocking once I install my Antec Kuhler 620 liquid cooling system) Crucial Ballistix Sport 16gb DDR3 (two 8gb sticks) @ 1600 Gigabyte Nvidia GTX 760 2gb OC Windforce Edition (Rev 2.0) Samsung 840 Pro 128gb SSD WD Caviar Black 1TB HDD @ 7200 EVGA SuperNOVA NEX750B 750W BRONZE ASUS 24X DVD Burner Cooler Master Storm Stryker Case Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit OEM
Nice 32 GB flash drive, but never got my rebate
Pros: Decent flash memory Works with Xbox
Cons: Never received my rebate
Overall Review: I have never had a problem with the hardware; however, the rebate never came and I am confident that all of the information that I sent in was accurate.
Make the switch from a standard keyboard to brown MX!!!!
Pros: Full number pad Responsive typing with the Brown MX switches, yet quiet Half-backlit keyboard that has various levels of brightness Media keys Windows button disable No drivers to install The price (I pad ~59.00 with rebate)
Cons: The function key remains permanently active if held down too long
Overall Review: This is my first mechanical keyboard, but I highly recommend it. I made the switch from a wave-styled Microsoft key-masher, and the Brown MX switches are a dream to type on. It's quiet enough to not wake people up, but responsive enough to know exactly which letters will register.
Does what it's supposed to do, but is loud
Pros: Does what it's supposed to do
Cons: Loud
Quiet, Fast, and OC'ed Out of the Box
Pros: This thing is a beast! I was debating whether or not to get a GTX 770, but decided to save the extra $100-200 and buy this GPU. I am certainly glad I did. OC Guru is easy to use and the GUI matches the UEFI on my mobo. Before this card, I was using an EVGA GTX 260, and boy is this a MASSIVE step up. EVGA had great OCing abilities as well, but you can't beat the new 700 series technology. The biggest factor that made me choose this card, over the ASUS one, was its 3 Windforce fans. Another reason was that it is a Revision 2.0 card, and I have seen better results with that version than this GPU as a Rev 1.0. Games I've Recently Been Playing: Team Fortress 2 on High = No Lag Tomb Raider on High = No Lag
Cons: I was kind of disappointed that it doesn't say " GTX 760" on the side of the card. I have a case window with LED lighting and you can't even tell what card I have in there :( It's still not enough to take off an egg for though because, to me, performance is always greater than aesthetics.
Overall Review: My Rig: GIGABYTE GA-Z87X-UD4H mobo Intel Core i7-4770K Haswell 3.5GHz (will be overclocking once I install my Antec Kuhler 620 liquid cooling system) Crucial Ballistix Sport 16gb DDR3 (two 8gb sticks) @ 1600 Gigabyte Nvidia GTX 760 2gb OC Windforce Edition (Rev 2.0) Samsung 840 Pro 128gb SSD WD Caviar Black 1TB HDD @ 7200 EVGA SuperNOVA NEX750B 750W BRONZE ASUS 24X DVD Burner Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit OEM Cooler Master Storm Stryker Case
Freakin' Awesome!
Pros: This thing is fast, fast, fast, fast, fast. Also, this thing is fast! Plus, this drive is extremely small and looks aesthetically awesome. My Windows 7 boot time is about 10 seconds.
Cons: There are no cons, except for the fact that I kind of wish I would have gotten a larger sized data drive.
Overall Review: I kind of wish i would have gone with a 256 gb SSD. This is my first SSD and I didn't realize how much of a difference it would make.