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Edward S.

Edward S.

Joined on 06/11/05

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 13
Most Favorable Review

Works with Linux/XenServer

SYBA 2 Port Gigabit Ethernet PCI-e x1 Network Card - SY-PEX24028
SYBA 2 Port Gigabit Ethernet PCI-e x1 Network Card - SY-PEX24028

Pros: ~Worked out of the box with no extra configuration needed in both XenServer and several distributions of Linux, despite neither being listed on the compatibility list on the specs. ~Fits, low-profile and looks decent in a case. ~Bandwidth tests running on both ports over gigabit Cat-6 to a gigabit-capable router show full simultaneous gigabit speeds on both ports with minimal increased latency under full saturation.

Cons: None so far.

Overall Review: For the price, I'm concerned about longevity, but we'll see over time! :)

Most Critical Review

Explosions?

COOLMAX CX-400B 400 W ATX v2.01 Power Supply
COOLMAX CX-400B 400 W ATX v2.01 Power Supply

Pros: Works wonderfully and quietly when operating within normal parameters.

Cons: Owned a little over a year, and the power supply failed. Something literally exploded internally, causing two bright flashes and a wonderful amount of smoke with me just attempting to power up using a normal ATX switch. It sounded like two loud cap guns going off in rapid succession. Safe to say, PSU is dead. :)

Overall Review: Only get this power supply if you plan on only using your system for a year then getting a new one. Good for a budget, but not good for safety, longevity, or otherwise any real system.

11/10/2007

Great - but no overclocking

SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 CrossFireX Support Video Card 100354OC-2L
SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 CrossFireX Support Video Card 100354OC-2L

Pros: ~Runs all current-gen games at full-frame, max settings with nary a hiccup. Unigine Heaven DX11 Bench 2.5 Basic when running DX11, disabled stereo 3D, high shaders, normal tesselation, ansiotropy of 4x, anti-aliasing off, full-screen at 1920x1080, gets a score of 1388, average FPS of 55.1, min of 31, max of 121.7. That's with two screens on, the benchmark running on one, this review on the other. ~Runs much cooler than the 4800-series ever did. Slightly overclocked, it barely cracks 50C at full load. ~Looks good in the case ~Simple install.

Cons: ~Doesn't overclock well. Less than a 15% overclock on stock cooling before it chokes. Will try again when I get a water block on it. ~Somewhat heavy, puts a bit of downward strain on the PCIe slot. ~Power hungry.

Impressive for a closed-loop.

CORSAIR Hydro Series H60 (CW-9060007-WW) High Performance Water / Liquid CPU Cooler. 120mm
CORSAIR Hydro Series H60 (CW-9060007-WW) High Performance Water / Liquid CPU Cooler. 120mm

Pros: ~Maintains low temps on a moderately overclocked i7 4770k. Stock idle was under 30C, stock 100% load was under 60C. Overclocked to 4375 MHz, idle is 40C and 100% load with Prime95's hottest-running tests couldn't peak 75C. This is also on the stock thermal paste that came with the cooler. Will be replacing that with Arctic Silver ASAP and will update the review with further results as I do. ~Keeps the inside of the PC looking neat/clean when properly installed. ~Quiet during low to mid CPU loads.

Cons: ~Fan noise is not linear to RPM. From 0% to about 60% load, it's inaudible. From 60% to 80%, it begins to get noticeable. At 100% load, I've had 1U rackmount servers that were quieter. Replace the fan with a Noctua at your earliest convenience for sanity's sake. And for even better performance, set up two of them in push/pull. The relatively poor-quality fan is what knocked off an egg for this one. ~Instructions were not included for an LGA1150 install despite the box claiming 1150 compatibility.. You have to use the 2011 standoffs, not the 1156. It does work, though. Not a huge deal, I was able to figure it out after the 1156 standoffs didn't work, but you know there will be people out there scratching their heads. ~Stock thermal interface should be cleaned off and replaced with real thermal paste ASAP.

Overall Review: The time it takes this cooler to cool my CPU from its 100% load to idle temps is ridiculously good for a relatively small all-in-one unit. Literally, it's on the order of less than 3 seconds.

Airy, but flimsy.

Xigmatek ASGARD 381 CCC-AD38BX-U03 Black / White Steel / Plastic / Metal Mesh ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Xigmatek ASGARD 381 CCC-AD38BX-U03 Black / White Steel / Plastic / Metal Mesh ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Pros: ~Price! For the design, layout, front panel options and size for the money, you really can't beat this case. ~8 120/140mm fan mounting locations. (2 top, 2 side, 2 front, 1 back, 1 bottom.) ~Open, airy internal design. (Very spacious!) ~Tons of internal 3.5" mounts. ~Holes strategically placed in motherboard tray to allow for simple CPU cooler install even after the Mobo is mounted in the case. ~Holes and loops strategically placed in motherboard tray to make cable management a snap. (Hid most cables behind the tray and zip-tied them down to the provided hook/loops.) ~Tool-less 3.5"/5.25" mounts made installing my peripherals all too easy.

Cons: ~Colors. It's black, but has very clashing white mesh on the front. Intend to case-mod that to a more reasonable color. ~Construction. Not sure if this is due to the low cost or due to the number of fan mounting locations requiring mesh cutouts, but the varying panels feel flimsy at best. Maybe a better mesh cut or thicker metal would fix that, but for the price, one can't complain too much. ~Tool-less solution for the PCI slots was lacking, and the handle for it got in the way of installing the rear fan. Removed completely and just used screws to hold my PCI cards in place.

Overall Review: The box it came in shows that it should have come with a fan. But it didn't! Newegg's specs list don't list it as having a fan though, so I expected that. I just didn't expect the box itself to have a fan printed on it. Others may get confused by this.

Good board, might need firmware update.

ASUS Z87-A LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
ASUS Z87-A LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: ~Plenty of SATAIII connections, easy to reach. ~Two CPU Fan headers instead of one. (Allowed me to connect my Corsair H60 cooler's pump and fan both to the motherboard with ease.) ~RealTek HD Audio onboard bests even my old XFi Creative Sound Card. ~Well laid out. (Everything is easy to reach/access with even my gorilla mitts for hands.) ~Adequate cooling on the power mofsets, so even without amazing airflow in the case, they rarely peak 50C. ~Tons of options in BIOS. ~Switches in place of most jumpers. ~MemTest button right on the board. ~ASUS QConnector for both case switch and USB2. All motherboards should come with one of these! Made installation of those normally hard-to-align case options (power switch, HDD LED, etc.) a snap. ~Manual overclocking made simple via guided options. ~Fan tuning in AI3 application auto-detects minimums, maximums and optimal speeds for all fans plugged into a headers on the motherboard. (Perfect for setting up fan profiles based on need.)

Cons: ~Failed overclocking results in a boot loop instead of giving a "Press F1 to enter BIOS" message. ~"Optimized Defaults" option with Intel i7 4770K results in failed overclocking boot loop. ~AI Tune 3 also generally results in failed overclocking boot loop.

Overall Review: The boot-loops are something that might be fixed with a later BIOS revision. If that does ever get taken care of, will update the review to a 5-egg.