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Zayna U.

Zayna U.

Joined on 02/08/09

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 7
Most Favorable Review

I'll never buy a PSU from anyone else.

CORSAIR CS-M Series CS550M 550W 80 PLUS GOLD Active PFC Haswell Ready ATX12V & EPS12V Semi-Modular Power Supply
CORSAIR CS-M Series CS550M 550W 80 PLUS GOLD Active PFC Haswell Ready ATX12V & EPS12V Semi-Modular Power Supply

Pros: - The wires are very sturdy, yet easy enough to bend, hide, and work with without feeling like you're going to break them. - Modular! First time I've gone with a modular PSU, I'm very happy I did. Sped up the build quite a lot and made cable management a breeze. - Perfect condition, worked the first time I booted, and hasn't showed any problems yet. Just the right amount of headroom for a $550 AMD build. - Corsair quality :3

Cons: - I'm hesitant to list this as a con, but on the end of the PCI-E cable that plugs into the PSU, it said "CPU" on it, which is not accurate. The CPU Power (8 PIN) & Mobo Power (24 PIN) are not modular, and are separate from the other cables. I feel like this might confuse someone who hasn't build a computer before. It did make me a bit paranoid, but didn't cause any issues, so I'm not docking an Egg for it.

Overall Review: Considering what a bad PSU can do to a system, I'm hesitant to buy anything but Corsair. My 750W PSU in my own gaming rig has been rock solid for about 5-6 years now. Yay Corsair!

Most Critical Review

Wont POST

ASUS P6T LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard
ASUS P6T LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: Wouldn't know.

Cons: Wont post, have been troubleshooting for hours and can only assume that this things was DOA. Unfortunate, as I had a lot of faith in ASUS's quality until now. Ill write another review after I RMA this.

It's RAM!

CORSAIR Vengeance 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ4GX3M2A1600C9
CORSAIR Vengeance 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ4GX3M2A1600C9

Pros: I tend to rate RAM 4/5 or 5/5 as long as it's not DOA and doesn't cause any bluescreen issues. This RAM is enormous, but that's fine since this is a cheap build, so I'm not using a monstrous CPU cooler or anything. The system Posted on the first boot, and has been reliable ever since. Perfect for a cheap-ish AMD build :).

Cons: None.

Overall Review: Pleasing to look at.

Rock Solid (I miss that motto)

ASUS M5A97 R2.0 AM3+ AMD 970 + SB 950 USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
ASUS M5A97 R2.0 AM3+ AMD 970 + SB 950 USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

Pros: - Very sturdy construction. - Good, solid North & South bridge cooling that doesn't take up too much room. - Arrived in perfect condition with no flaws. - Awesome ASUS Bios. Very easy and intuitive to navigate. - Posted immediately during the first boot! (Always a nerve wracking moment) - About as good as it gets for the price point. - Installation disk was extremely handy & easy to use. Thankfully, it had installers for the network adapter. Prior to installing these, I couldn't connect to the Internet (Windows 7).

Cons: None.

Overall Review: It's good to know that after almost a decade, I can still order ASUS parts and rely on them to work the first time every time, (not counting shipping mishaps), and also trust them to have great features, reliability & great Bios/Software even at the ~$90-110 price point. This was my first AMD build ever, and I'm glad I went with ASUS on this one.

Very good value as expected from AMD

AMD FX-4300 - FX-4000 Series Vishera Quad-Core 3.8 GHz Socket AM3+ 95W Desktop Processor - FD4300WMHKBOX
AMD FX-4300 - FX-4000 Series Vishera Quad-Core 3.8 GHz Socket AM3+ 95W Desktop Processor - FD4300WMHKBOX

Pros: Very quick processor. Just what the doctor ordered for my partner's ~$550 build I did for her. Installation was the easiest of any CPU I've ever installed. Took me longer to apply the thermal paste and remove the thermal paste from the stock fan than anything else. With Arctic Silver paste & the stock fan, it's idling at around 37 - 42 C, which is fairly good considering that our condo's pretty warm right now. Seems to be handling everything she throws at it with ease. She plays a few Steam games, which have run beautifully, and also uses a lot of Photoshop for her artwork. As always, Newegg's shipping was extremely quick, all of the parts including this showed up in perfect condition, no dings/dents/tears in the packaging.

Cons: Maybe the power consumption? I knew this before buying, but 95W seems a tad high for a CPU based on what I know. (Could be off here)

Overall Review: Runs cooler than my i7 when I had to use the stock cooler for it a while back. The stock fan is actually pretty quiet (though it's still the loudest in the case). Even under load it doesn't get very loud, which is just what I wanted for this build.

Perfect for a $550 AMD build

ASUS Radeon R7 250X 1GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 Graphics Card R7250X-1GD5
ASUS Radeon R7 250X 1GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 Graphics Card R7250X-1GD5

Pros: Since I built this rig for my partner, she's been using it mostly. It seems to be doing a very good job of running all of the Steam games that she plays, as well as rendering all videos/movies in higher resolutions without any lag. The included software was pretty good, I've always been a fan of the Catalyst Control Center from ATI. I got scared at first, as the system wasn't recognizing that the card was there in device manager, however after installing the newest drivers, it picked it up right away. Haven't had any problems since, and the temps seem to be pretty good.

Cons: None.

Overall Review: For the price point, this seems to be a very solid card so far. I've always liked ASUS's Motherboards, so I decided to try one of their graphics cards as well in this build. Working out so far!