cover
Ronald B.

Ronald B.

Joined on 09/16/12

0
0

Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 26
Most Favorable Review

WOW!!!

GIGABYTE GA-Z97-HD3 (rev. 2.0) LGA 1150 Intel Z97 HDMI USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
GIGABYTE GA-Z97-HD3 (rev. 2.0) LGA 1150 Intel Z97 HDMI USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: I don't even know where to start... Price: how is this thing so cheap? Brand: Gigabyte has made a great name for themselves and I'm a loyal customer after only a few of their products. Features: for $100 you get everything than you would expect and maybe a little more. Sound: Really good Realtek audio driver I have an i5 4690k overclocked to 4.5 GHz with this motherboard on air and it's simply amazing.

Cons: no SLI support, but who cares... it's $100. Some people have complained that the form factor is off and the holes don't line up with their case standoffs; I think those people are buying cheap $30 cases or old cases from 2008, because my Fractal Define R4 lined up perfectly with every single hole in the motherboard. This motherboard is about an inch and a half narrower than normal ATX motherboards, but the holes line up with all the middle holes from a normal ATX case, so there's no part of the motherboard hanging over.(this probably should have been in other thoughts since it's not actually a con but oh well)

Overall Review: System: CPU: Intel i5 4690k @4.5GHz RAM: ADATA Gaming 1600 8GB Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97-HD3 GPU: HIS IceQ² R9 270 SSD: Samsung 850 EVO 128GB HDD: WD Caviar Black 500GB Power Supply: Corsair CX 600 Case: Fractal Design R4 Black Pearl CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO Overclock is stable for everything except for small FFTs in P95 (temp skyrockets but doesn't crash) The other 2 tests in P95 runs stable at 60 C I was worried a $100 motherboard wasn't going to allow me to get a good overclock, but this thing is doing an amazing job.

Most Critical Review

Sounds Good

AGPtek 7.1 Surround Professional USB 2.0 Gaming Headset w/ Microphone + Volume Control - Black + Red (3M-Cable) for PC Laptop Mac
AGPtek 7.1 Surround Professional USB 2.0 Gaming Headset w/ Microphone + Volume Control - Black + Red (3M-Cable) for PC Laptop Mac

Pros: Price Comfortable Nice bass Great mids retractable mic mic quality is good After over a month of use I'm pretty happy with this budget headset. I didn't want to spend $100+ on a headset because I have pits that eat everything that's hard plastic. The bass is actually really nice when turned up really high, but you have to basically turn it up so high that any vocals or treble will cause hearing loss...

Cons: It may just be the shape of my head, but when I look down they fall off my head even though they feel snug. The built in USB sound driver is complete trash. No noise cancellation, which is built into my motherboard's audio driver. Not many features that you'd expect, but it does have a few extras like a voice changer. You can tell it's not surround sound at all. it's a small step above normal stereo, so I'm not really impressed. There's no way of knowing if the mic is muted. The in line volume control is kinda useless, because it just controls the system volume, not the headset itself(most headsets use independent volume control) No way to turn off the lights on the headset which reflect off my monitor when I have my light turned off and I'm watching a movie with a dark scene.

Overall Review: I wish I could give this headset 4-5 eggs because it actually sounds really good and the mic works great and sounds great and they're pretty comfortable, but there are just too many negative things that just bug me too much to give it 4 eggs. Slightly better sound than my old Creative Fatality gamer headset, but that headset allowed me to use my realtek audio driver which canceled out fan and other background noises, and they were more comfortable and stayed on my head, plus they had a detachable mic.

Best case for custom open loops for under $100

Fractal Design Define S Black Window Silent ATX Midtower Computer Case
Fractal Design Define S Black Window Silent ATX Midtower Computer Case

Pros: -Holes in the bottom to mount a pump -Reservoir mount points on the back side -Plenty of room Amazing build quality -Looks amazing -Fits my 140mm Res with room for the pump under it. I did have to mount it as far back as possible for it to line up with my pump though, so my reservoir is actually touching my MSI GTX 1070 GAMING X.

Cons: Barely fits my Black Ice Nemesis Radiator. I had to remove the heat sinks off my RAM. Window is cheap plastic. Would gave liked to see acrylic or glass. I have my radiator on top, so I'm using it as an intake and the front is the exhaust. So, it would be nice to have a filter for the top, but it's not hard to make one yourself.

Overall Review: If you're buying this case, you're buying it for water cooling. If you're not water cooling, you should buy the R5 instead. It comes with all the stuff you need. This case is meant for modders. It doesn't have a fan controller, it can't have a fan shroud(would get in the way of some pumps/reservoirs), and it has more support for water cooling than any other case under $150(maybe even more). And probably the most water cooling support for its size in any price range. If you're spending close to $1000 just to cool your PC, you're not going to be bothered with w/e cheap fan controller they use. Most people with custom loops have motherboards that have 5-8 fan headers. Mine has 5 and they're all PWM. Once I get around to it, I'll build something for a fan controller under the side panel window.

Great GPU

MSI GeForce GTX 1070 8GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 SLI Support ATX Graphics Card GTX 1070 GAMING X 8G
MSI GeForce GTX 1070 8GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 SLI Support ATX Graphics Card GTX 1070 GAMING X 8G

Pros: Stays extremely cool even when overclocked to the max(which is really a con). Looks nice quiet even. Even when fans are all the way up, it's not that loud. Great for 1080p 144 Hz monitors. 8 pin and 6 pin power connector(not that the card will even let you use the extra power because it's limited to 1.093v

Cons: Voltage is locked at 1.093 even though the cards don't go above 65-70C at that voltage. This means you're stuck at around 2130 Mhz when overclocking due to insufficient power instead of too much heat. My CPU and motherboard can handle the extra power... I have my i5 4690k running at 4.7 GHz no problem. Can't change the color on the red stripes(could just be mine is bugged out or something though, but mine is stuck on red either way) I can only change the MSI logo color. Doesn't really matter though, because I have a red/black theme anyway and it's coming off in a couple of weeks when I put an EK GPU block on it.

Overall Review: I hate the way these new GPU's automatically adjust their clock. I want to just be able to set it at a specific spot and leave it there. I don't need it to throttle from 2126 down to 2113 or w/e when my temps are in the 60's. It's probably the best or tied for the best GTX 1070.

Logitech G302 Daedalus Prime Moba 910-004205 Black 6 Buttons 1 x Wheel USB Wired Delta Zero sensor Gaming Mouse
Logitech G302 Daedalus Prime Moba 910-004205 Black 6 Buttons 1 x Wheel USB Wired Delta Zero sensor Gaming Mouse

Pros: price best sensor on the market extremely responsive buttons lightweight feels pretty good braided cables are a PITA, so I was happy when I found out this one wasn't braided.

Cons: Going from the G500 to this felt weird at first, but I finally got used to it, and I'm happy with it now. The shape may not be comfortably for some(smaller hands), even I find it kind of awkward feeling.

Overall Review: I got tired of the giant G500 after 3 years and wanted something that I could claw grip, and after having to cancel mt order for a CM Storm Spawn(the store couldn't get their hands on one), I decided to go with this mouse, and I'm pretty pleased so far.

Meh

Intel Core i5-4690K - Core i5 4th Gen Devil's Canyon Quad-Core 3.5 GHz LGA 1150 88W Intel HD Graphics 4600 Desktop Processor - BX80646I54690K
Intel Core i5-4690K - Core i5 4th Gen Devil's Canyon Quad-Core 3.5 GHz LGA 1150 88W Intel HD Graphics 4600 Desktop Processor - BX80646I54690K

Pros: Overclocked to 4.5 GHz and it stays under 65 C, usually around 50 C while gaming and 90% usage. Using a Hyper 212 EVO Increase in performance wasn't the most amazing improvement, but it was noticeable. I went from an FX 6300 to this, and I just game and browse the internet(no coding, editing, or anything like that). I wasn't expecting miracles, but I just wasn't impressed with the small increase in game performance. It's faster overall, but I wouldn't go over a budget just to get this CPU over an AMD CPU.

Cons: Price/performance in games isn't nearly as good as AMD.

Overall Review: With the overclock, my benchmark scores are about the same as the 4770k