Joined on 10/30/05
wow!
Pros: This thing COMPLETELY blows away everything I throw at it. I have yet to test anything above 1024x768 resolution due to being stuck with an old CRT monitor, but Bioshock, COD4, Oblivion, and source games all run FLAWLESSLY at absolute maximum settings - AA and AF higher than cheech and chong combined. the Crysis demo runs pretty decent (20-40 fps about) on a mix of high and medium settings and at full strength minus AA if I switch to 800x600; this setback is almost certainly due to my apparently insufficient RAM though. After coming from an integrated GeForce 6100, I'm absolutely in awe of what I've been missing!
Cons: I had some self-inflicted trouble with ordering (credit card issue) and the package thus arrived a bit later than I'd hoped. Also, I had some issues installing, but this was because I was so excited to finally have the thing that I forgot to completely uninstall my integrated card BEFORE inserting the new one. Once I realized my error, it took 10 minutes if not less to install all the drivers. So just to make sure, disable your intergrated graphics and then do a restart to be certain they're disabled and won't try to re-enable.
Overall Review: my specs: Biostar Tforce 6100 939 microATX mobo w/ Athlon X2 3800 (OC'ed to 2.2 Ghz) 1 gig DDR 400 Kingston RAM 80 GB Maxtor IDE HDD 500W Aspire PSU
Best card I've ever owned, hands-down.
Pros: - Gets around 60 FPS in almost every single game I have ever played from the "last gen" (IE Skyrim, Deus Ex, Dark Souls, Arkham City) on max settings and 2k resolution. - Runs relatively cool, quiet enough. - Is almost FIVE YEARS OLD and still beastmodes through almost everything. Hell, even Witcher 3 on minnimum settings/high textures looks and plays great outside of towns.
Cons: - Doesn't make me lunch.
Overall Review: I came here just to check the dimensions of this guy in preparation for a new next-gen 4K-capable build, only to realize how totally amazing it has been. This just might be the best piece of hardware I have ever owned, period.
The Methuselah of HDDs.
Pros: I have owned this hard drive for SIX YEARS with zero issues. Just in case it croaks I'm currently using it as a backup drive, but it's no slower than when it was new.
Cons: Due to all the new builds I've cycled this warrior through, the SATA port is a bit wobbly - and roughly 1/10 boots the system won't recognize the drive. It's been doing this for about three years, but there are zero drive errors so it's merely a mild inconvenience. A single restart fixes this EVERY time.
Overall Review: Probably a better deal to get something higher-end these days, but this is the most reliable single piece of hardware I've ever owned, period.
Excellent little card!
Pros: This card is unbelievable for the price. I bought it because alot of people had trouble with my motherboard's onboard LAN, and I didn't want to take any chances. It comes in an adorably tiny little box, and works perfectly without installing any drivers manually. This little thing is FAST! it doesn't hold back my 1.2 MBPs connection at all (every other system in my house seems to peak at 70-80 KBPS), and downloads are blazingly fast - they even sometimes reach 1 MBPS, on a router even!
Cons: UPS. THey shipped my entire new rig to my ALTERNATE shpping address, which caused alot of confusion, and worst of all, left it all outside in the freezing minnesotan cold! if it had snowed, my $600 dollars of parts would have been utterly ruined.
Overall Review: my setup: AMD Athlon X2 3800 Biostar TForce 6100 Intergrated GeForce 6100 2x512 MB PATRIOT memory ASPIRE X-Navigator case 500 watt PSU This network card
AMAZING CPU!! Make sure you know what you're doing!
Pros: - Unbelievable! after windows is fully updated, most games run almost sickeningly fast! - Extremely cool temps despite my inexperienced heatsink installation (30-40c idle) - Can probably handle insane overclocks, as long as you have good cooling - Pretty noob-proof installation, but...
Cons: The heatsink. It requires sweat-inducing amounts of thumb strength to clip on, so during installation I panicked and though I screwed up my beautiful new processor. I needed to exert something like 200 pounds of pressure from just my thumbs to clip it on both sides all the way, and then when pulling the plastic lever in place, it felt like it was going to snap and fly off. Did I mention I lost something like a tablespoon of blood from cutting my finger while trying to pull the plastic cover off of the bottom? So yeah, if you're a dangerously excited newbie like me, meditate for about an hour or two before putting the heatsink on. :-P
Overall Review: If this is the first CPU you install, and you're not 100% sure about how it will all work out, I'd reccomend sending it to a professional. I messed up pretty badly with installing the heatsink, and it now runs about 10c higher than every other reviewer's does. Despite MY problems, this little chip is absolutely unbelievable! My games run super fast despite being held back by a pitifully weak intergrated video chip, and it seems impossible to slow down when doing anything besides installing new programs. My setup: AMD Athlon X2 3800+ Biostar TForce 6100 1 Gig PATRIOT memory, 2-3-3-7 ASPIRE X-Navigator case Maxtor Diamond 9, 80 Gigs (IDE, 2 years old) Future addition: EVGA 7800 GT
Make sure you have a Floppy Drive!!
Pros: - Intergrated video is very powerful, considering it's intergrated - Easy to connect all the cables - Excellent board for "staged" upgrades, if you can't get your high-end rig all at once - Extremely stable, as long as you monitor video temperatures
Cons: - SYSTEM WILL NOT START WINDOWS WITHOUT A FLOPPY DRIVE!!! This was mentioned NOWHERE on the manufacturer's site or the manual. - No HDD IDE cables; assumes everyone uses SATA, which is probably true nowadays :-/. - IDE Cables are "old-school" ribbon cables, VERY hard to get out of the way for good airflow. - RAM slots are NOT color-coded as they should be, refer to manual for correct placement. - my 200 Mhz RAM (2x 512 MB, PATRIOT) runs at 166 Mhz... either CPU-Z is messed up, or more likely, the board is. - The onboard video gets VERY hot at 32 C idle, and completely crashes the system if it gets above 45 C, requiring a manual restart. It CAN run high-end games, but it's risky.
Overall Review: This was my first major build, and it works just fine NOW. When installing this board, it was a bit more hassle than I'm comfortable with. Due to inexperience alone, I messed up when installing the CPU heatsink, and it now runs hotter than average (30-40c IDLE). Connecting everything together was a snap, but when I turned my system on, it wouldn't start windows, and kept bringing up an error that I didn't have a floppy drive - something I overlooked, I figured they were so old that it wouldn't matter not having one. I had to drive to a spare-parts shop near my house to buy one, and after that, everything worked just fine. I'm using a network card, so no idea how the board's LAN port works.