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Matthew S.

Matthew S.

Joined on 05/14/13

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 10
Most Favorable Review

Great Thermal Paste

Prolimatech PRO-PK3-5G Nano Aluminum High-Grade Thermal Compound in 5 Gram
Prolimatech PRO-PK3-5G Nano Aluminum High-Grade Thermal Compound in 5 Gram

Pros: *syringe was packed in its own box and it was then placed in a USPS bubble wrap envelope *5 grams is enough to easily do 20 CPUs if you use the grain of rise method *comes with a little plastic trowel if you like to use the old school application method *not too thick, not too runny *much better than your generic paste that comes on stock heatsinks and graphic cards *non-conductive so you can use it directly on the die and not just a heat spreader *much better thermal conductivity than Arctic MX-4 (8.5 W/m vs. 11.2 W/m)

Cons: *brand sticker does not stick too well and was wanting to fall off the syringe *Prolimatech states that it requires no burn-in time, but I have found that the temperatures do get lower after a week or so

Overall Review: Here are the results of my findings, before and after changing the TIM. The CPU is an old Athlon 64 x2 6000+ with a heatsink fan that came off a 4000+. Because the heatsink was smaller than what comes stock with the 6000, I needed a good paste for heat dissapation. If you want the best, this is the paste to get. Temps of CPU using old generic TIM: Idle: Core 0 - 48C Core 1 - 46C Used Prime95 (in-place large FFTs) Load: Core 0 - 80C (heatsink fan hits 100% speed) Core 1 - 74C Temps of CPU using Prolimatech TIM: Idle: Core 0 - 48C Core 1 - 46C Used Prime95 (in-place large FFTs) Load: Core 0 - 75C Core 1 - 72C Temps of CPU using Prolimatech TIM for 2 weeks: Idle: Core 0 - 40C Core 1 - 42C Used Prime95 (in-place large FFTs) Load: Core 0 - 68C Core 1 - 73C

Solid Single Rank Samsung B-Die Rev. 2 RAM

Team T-Force XTREEM 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin PC RAM DDR4 3866 (PC4 30900) Desktop Memory Model TXKD416G3866HC18EDC01
Team T-Force XTREEM 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin PC RAM DDR4 3866 (PC4 30900) Desktop Memory Model TXKD416G3866HC18EDC01

Pros: The title says it all. The only memory better than this is Rev. 1. I bought a higher clocked memory than what my Ryzen 5 2400G could handle in hopes that the future 3rd gen will have an improved memory controller. I was able to run the memory at 16-16-16-32 1T at 3400 MHz and 1.4V. After over an hour of run AIDA64 the heatspreaders were warm. The RAM stayed stable with no errors. I've been playing games with no issues. You really did an awesome job with the heatsink design. It's nice and heavy, and very appealing. I absolutely love them.

Cons: 2 very small ones: * The heatspreaders could have been thinner. I put these DIMMs next to each other and there is hardly any spacing between them for airflow, but it doesn't seem to be an issue at all. * There is only 1 XMP profile and that is for the 3866 speed. I would like to see some more XMP profiles saved on these DIMMs to make it easier for people that aren't well versed in adjusting memory speed and timings.

Overall Review: These are well worth the money in my opinion, and I recommend them for Ryzen systems as they seem to play best with Samsung B-Dies.

A great PSU

LOGISYS Computer PS480E12 480 W ATX12V Power Supply
LOGISYS Computer PS480E12 480 W ATX12V Power Supply

Pros: I want to say this first, you get what you pay for. Don't expect this to power your $600+ gaming rig. With that said, on with the review! This PSU was bought as a cheap, but hefty replacment for a Dell Inspiron 531 Desktop. That desktop is mostly stock, with the changes being an Athlon 64 x2 6000+ (Windsor) and a GeForce GT610. I estimate this system to use about 150-200W, so this 430W is overkill. I wanted this to be overkill because a cheap PSU does not usually have a high amp rail, like higher quality PSUs will have. So far, the PSU has been running without a hitch for about 8 months now, and the fan in it still works fine. It is a little loud, but much quieter than those. If you are familiar with the sound of a 120mm fan running at ~1200 RPM, that's the decibel level. It's tolerable considering I've had a couple other cheapies that have an 80mm fan run at full throttle.

Cons: None so far. As I said before, don't expect to power a gaming right that has a graphics card with a PCI-E power connector, you might end up blowing a capacitor in the PSU.

Overall Review: It's a great replacement PSU for a manufactured computer. If you are building a computer that is using lower power configurations, you would be fine as well. Recommendations would be an A-Series AMD build, AM1 Athlon build, embedded CPU builds, or an Intel/AMD build with NO dedicated graphics cards (especially one's that require PCI-E power).

Great WiFi Adapter, Cheap Price

TP-LINK TL-WN851ND Wireless N300 PCI Adapter, 300Mbps, w/WPS Button, IEEE 802.1b/g/n, 64/128 bit WEP, WPA/WPA2
TP-LINK TL-WN851ND Wireless N300 PCI Adapter, 300Mbps, w/WPS Button, IEEE 802.1b/g/n, 64/128 bit WEP, WPA/WPA2

Pros: This was bought for a customer who wanted to be able to connect to his neighbor's (he has consent. lol) WiFi and game on it as well. This person had a tight budget so I decided to try this adapter out. So far, my customer and I have been very pleased with the adapter. The desktop is about 30-40 feet away from the router inside the neighbor's house, and router/modem is from an ISP (so nothing fancy). The customer is able to maintain 3/5 bars which I was, at first, a little worried. We ran some speed tests and were able to maintain 50-60 ms for ping! We played some games and didn't have a problem at all when it came to lag. It's been about 2 months at this point and it has maintained it's performance so far.

Cons: None so far.

Overall Review: As far as driver installation, I let Windows 7 install the necessary drivers and nothing else. We did not download any drivers from TP-Links website; just let Windows control it.

Wonderful, Inexpensive Router

ASUS RT-N12 N300 Wi-Fi Router 2T2R MIMO Technology, 4K HD Video Streaming, VoIP, Up to 300 Mbps
ASUS RT-N12 N300 Wi-Fi Router 2T2R MIMO Technology, 4K HD Video Streaming, VoIP, Up to 300 Mbps

Pros: The router GUI is nice and easy to understand. I have an ASUS 5 port switch connected to it as well and they have both worked flawlessly to power my WiFi network and my business. I have not had to reset the router yet since I set this up on March 18. Even after a few ISP maintenance outages. The wireless range on it is comparable to the range of a router/modem that you would receive from an ISP. It is in the center of my house, and I get about 50-60% on the ends of the house (1,500 sq. ft.). I can go outside to my garage and get 1/4 bars on my phone, which is enough to stream some music; that's about 40-50 ft. away. As far as what is connected to the router; 2 desktops, a switch (which has 2 desktops connected, and another 1 or 2 depending on business). We also have a laptop that gets connected occasionally, and all 5 of us have a mobile device. All of this load and it hasn't had an issue yet. I had many router/modems from my previous ISP and I would have to reset them at least once a week.

Cons: I have not had any cons with this router yet.

Overall Review: If you want a good, dependable router for a good, affordable price; don't hesitate to buy this one. I have always had good luck with ASUS products.

Not Bad

APEVIA  CF12SL-BBL  120mm UV blue LED fan w/3-pin and 4-pin connectors and black grill
APEVIA CF12SL-BBL 120mm UV blue LED fan w/3-pin and 4-pin connectors and black grill

Pros: I am using this as a side case fan. The blue LED is not overpowering and that is a huge plus. The cable is sleeved black and so is the molex adapter. For the price, it looks and feels twice as much. At full power, the fan runs about 1100RPMs and can be turned down to about 700 before it just stops working. The blue LED does dim if you decrease the power, of course.

Cons: Without any drag (putting your hand in front of it a little bit), there is an audible hum from the motor that I don't like. I'm going to try and get some foam to put between it and the side case to see if that is enough to silence it.

Overall Review: Overall it's a good fan for the money, and moves a decent amount of air. I just wish there was no motor noise.