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Nathaniel J.

Nathaniel J.

Joined on 05/23/07

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 6
Most Favorable Review

Great card, bad protection design!

XFX Double D Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition 3GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 CrossFireX Support Graphics Card FX797GTDFC
XFX Double D Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition 3GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 CrossFireX Support Graphics Card FX797GTDFC

Pros: Fast, reliable, decent price, pretty, mid-range quiet level, takes whatever I throw at it game wise.

Cons: Frequency oscillation causes notable shudder in game when switch frequencies due to card load. I created a how-to to force the card to move to and stay in one freq setup, (2D, 3D) on command and then go back when done. XFX support department sucks. They just stopped helping me when they changed their site. Went off and made a solution to the oscillating problem myself.

Overall Review: Very loud buzz when running it 60% or more. Changed depending on how many shadows you have on the screen and how much. It's an attribute of the components they used, (caps and such). Not very bad but annoys some. Locked voltage, but I guess that keeps these alive. Even at the stock locked voltage of 1.213V I managed to get this cad to run at 1185Mhz Core and 1575 Memory. An alternative clock is 1120Mhz Core and 1600Mhz Memory. It's all in what runs your games better.

Great Ram

G.SKILL Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 2133 (PC3 17000) Desktop Memory Model F3-2133C10D-8GAB
G.SKILL Ares Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 2133 (PC3 17000) Desktop Memory Model F3-2133C10D-8GAB

Pros: Fast, reliable, pretty

Cons: Not plug and play at rated speed. Currently only able to maintain 1866Mhz. I tried setting all manual timings and advanced timings and still BSOD shortly after starting.

Overall Review: More detailed instruction need to be included on how to achieve rated speeds if they are not plug and play.

Out performs low end closed loop water coolers!

Noctua NH-D14, Premium CPU Cooler with Dual NF-P14 PWM and NF-P12 PWM Fans (Brown)
Noctua NH-D14, Premium CPU Cooler with Dual NF-P14 PWM and NF-P12 PWM Fans (Brown)

Pros: Straight forward installation. Quiet operation even at full speeds. Very versatile design. Decent fans, best combination between air flow and noise.

Cons: Only 3-pin fans, could have come with an extra 120mm fan for all side coverage, and could have used 4 more vibration isolation for the third fan install. Does not ship with AMD back-plate. I luckily figured out with a combination of the Intel and AMD mounting parts I could still utilize the back-plate I did have. It does however say that if you contact the company they will send one to you, but I didn't want to wait another week to install this.

Overall Review: Recommend ordering higher CFM fans if your gonna use this as a extreme overclock cooling solution. Used thermal paste that came with product. Cold start temps dropped 21 Degrees C. After burn-In temps were lowered by 7-10 degrees C. Max temp burn-in went from 38 sec to max temp from idle to 10 min to max temp from idle. Running a AMD 1090T Black @ 4.03Ghz 1.5v w/ ASUS Sabertooth 990FX original revision in an Anec LanBoy case. Expecting another 1-5 degree drop once burn/cure time finishes.

Unmatched Price/Power

AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition - Phenom II X6 Thuban 6-Core 3.2 GHz Socket AM3 125W Desktop Processor - HDT90ZFBGRBOX
AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition - Phenom II X6 Thuban 6-Core 3.2 GHz Socket AM3 125W Desktop Processor - HDT90ZFBGRBOX

Pros: Easily overclock-able! Running at 3.5Ghz with +.12v over stock. 100% Stable. Freed up more head room on my RAM from my old AMD Althlon 6000+. Generates far less heat.

Cons: Turbocore useless to the above average user.

Overall Review: No really a con, but if you know what your doing turn turbo core off and just overclock it yourself.

Perfect Ram

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 1000 (PC2 8000) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8000CL5D-4GBPQ
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 1000 (PC2 8000) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8000CL5D-4GBPQ

Pros: Had two stick working at 1066 stable for about a year. Now i moved up to 4x4GB and won't over clock past 1000. That's a mother board limitation though. Best bang for the buck.

Cons: None, rock solid ram never had any problems.

Great Case

Antec Lanboy air Blue Black / Blue ATX Mid Tower Computer Modular Case
Antec Lanboy air Blue Black / Blue ATX Mid Tower Computer Modular Case

Pros: Totally modular, set up to have suburb cable routing! Cooling ability is unlimited, (if your a case mod-er.)

Cons: No screws for any of my drives, had to search the house and my scrounge for a few hours trying to mix match screws to put in two hard drives and a CD-Rom drive. Came with abundant hangers though.

Overall Review: For 200 dollars a few more fans, and a box for assorted screws would be really great!