cover
Joseph B.

Joseph B.

Joined on 01/11/11

0
0

Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 14
Most Favorable Review

Best motherboard ever

ASUS SABERTOOTH Z77 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
ASUS SABERTOOTH Z77 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: Everything about this motherboard is amazing. The BIOS and software are phenomenal. The thermal armor design is really sleek. After watching the ASUS video, I learned that it is best to use a downward air flow heatsink (e.g. stock intel). The BIOS lets you use a mouse. The thermal armor software in AI suite is really nice. The overtime fan controller is nice too. Fans run for 10 minutes after the system shuts down. Runs smoothly on Windows 8.

Cons: Thermal armor fans are a little noisy, but that's because they are running at > 5000 RPMs most of the time for me.

Most Critical Review

Inconvenient

G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL

Pros: It works.

Cons: I bought 2 of these kits and installed them with my AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition and immediately received blue screens of death. I had to email G.Skill technical support to find out that AMD processors require that these RAM modules be downclocked to 1333 MHz or the FSB be overclocked. Even following these instructions on their forum did not resolve the blue screens and I ended up having to spend hours tweaking my BIOS to get a stable system. The worst part was that if I hadn't contacted G.Skill technical support, I wouldn't have known this information. Newegg also says it's compatible with my CPU. I personally will go back to buying Corsair RAM from now on.

Overall Review: My review is credible because I am a computer engineering student at a highly renowned university.

11/25/2011

Great PSU

CORSAIR HX Series HX750 750 W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply New 4th Gen CPU Certified Haswell Ready
CORSAIR HX Series HX750 750 W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply New 4th Gen CPU Certified Haswell Ready

Pros: PSU came with a carrying case and cable case. Who carries their PSU around in a case? I don't know, but the case is nice and I'll use it. The cables are really nice and the modularity of the PSU is really great. The maximum wattage is sufficient for my SSD, HDD, i7-3770K, and GeForce GTX 690.

Cons: None

Great RAM

G.SKILL Ripjaws Z Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-14900CL10Q-32GBZL
G.SKILL Ripjaws Z Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-14900CL10Q-32GBZL

Pros: After buying G.Skill RAM for my AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition, I was reserved about buying this for my new build (Intel i7-3770K). On the AMD CPU, I had to downclock my RAM for it to not crash my system. On my Intel build, I have no issues but I believe my RAM downclocked to a lower frequency. The RAM is a great size and doesn't interfere with air flow. Easy to install and nice heatsinks.

Cons: Color

Great case

Corsair Obsidian Series 550D Black Aluminum / Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Corsair Obsidian Series 550D Black Aluminum / Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Pros: Everything about this case is amazing. It looks really sleek and it feels nice. The inside has really good padding for noise suppression and plenty of cable management mounts/holes. There are plenty of fan mounts. The rubber things that go around the fan screws are kinda weird but definitely help with noise vibration. The hard drive drawers and 5.25" bay holders are really nice. the front of the case (aluminum) is really sleek.

Cons: The case is bigger than the space under my desk so I had to remove the case feet because they were too far apart. No big deal, but there weren't screw holes on the bottom in convenient places for my new feet, so I just attached them with adhesive. Check your dimensions before buying. Hangs off my desk a little which is fine.

Best card I've ever used

EVGA Signature GeForce GTX 690 4GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 SLI Support Video Card 04G-P4-2692-KR
EVGA Signature GeForce GTX 690 4GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 SLI Support Video Card 04G-P4-2692-KR

Pros: When I opened the box, two surface-mount resistors fell out into my hand. After inspection of the card and the resistors, it appears they fell into the package and did not belong to that specific card. Card runs fine. I can play Crysis 2 on ultra at 60 fps. Temperatures are really low too. GPU 1 is running at 32 C idle and GPU 2 at 30 C. Haven't seen the overclock stuff in action yet. Good software too. Relatively quiet fans. The mouse pad that came with the card is really great. Definitely a keeper

Cons: T-shirt that came with the card is huge. Card is long and weights A LOT.