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Frank A.

Frank A.

Joined on 02/19/13

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 8
Most Favorable Review

Very Sweet Deal

Thermaltake Chaser Series A31 VP300A1W2N Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Thermaltake Chaser Series A31 VP300A1W2N Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Pros: Almost everything about this case is appealing. The case has two side panels that screw off. With both of these off, you can access the entire build and run wires where ever you want to under the motherboard side panel or through several portholes inside this case. This is not a motherboard panel that comes out, but instead that panel has a place where you can run wires in a 1/2 inch or so space between the door and underneath the motherboard. You get 3 spaces for optical drives and they slide in nicely and snap into place without any other hardware or plastic pieces. The case has motherboard offsets already in place in the underbelly. The installation on an ATX board went flawlessly. The plastic carriage pieces for the HDs are very intelligently made. You simply slide one out with the side panel open and the HD snaps into place with the help of small plastic rivets that go into the HD holes. I was using standard WD HDs of normal size. The exterior top and front panel are made out of plastic and snap off with rivets, and the rest of the case is made out of sheet metal. The front and top snap off without an problems, but be careful not to break them. You can add two top fans that go outside the metal case, but inside the plastic top piece. The absolute best things about this case are its beauty and refined design. I own a Tsunami Dream case already and this case is right up there in beauty and functionality. The interior of this case is painted black and as a sweet touch, so are the removable PCI tabs in the back which are made out of netted metal and not just sheet metal, to improve airflow. Thermaltake got it right with this case again. It truly was a pleasure to work with in building my latest system

Cons: The plastic top and bottom need to be carefully removed as not to crack any of their delicate edges.

Overall Review: This case with fit a Thermaltake CLP0579 120mm Contac 30 CPU fan with slightly less than an inch of clearance. As an owner of other Thermaltake cases, I can honestly say, this one was the easiest to work with and its design will make you smile because you know a lot of thought went into making this an easy case to work with.

Most Critical Review

Great Card, Horrible Driver Issues

GIGABYTE Radeon R9 270 2GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 Graphics Card GV-R927OC-2GD
GIGABYTE Radeon R9 270 2GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 Graphics Card GV-R927OC-2GD

Pros: 1) The card is fast at handling anything you throw at it in 3d. 2) The price

Cons: 1) The following driver related issues a) Screen reverting back to smaller size on each boot (fixed this after 3 hours of experimenting by Catalyst Control Center and to the My VGA Displays menu on the left and select Properties (VGA Display), then uncheck Monitor Attributes, and then in maximum resolution, pick the size you want the monitor to default to and apply the changes. It should fill the screen, although you may have to adjust the buttons on your actual monitor to center the picture. Also, in the Image Scaling (VGA Displays) area in the same menu, select Scale image to full panel size and uncheck the Enable GPU Scaling box. b) Unable to play 2d games without super slow FPS. I tried loading other drivers. I tried changing settings, etc. Spent several hours if not days trying, but with no success. It remained a pig on DAOC. Unplayable. It just lagged so much that I had to stop. If you play older games, ATI cards are not for you. their driver issues leave a lot to be desired and some people will say it's not the drivers. I say blah. It is. I tried everything else and nothing worked. The other company's drivers are much more refined and work better on 2d and 3d games. I always use the other type of card but I went for this card because the specs and price were impressive and because I was impressed with the performance of my AMD CPU, but ATI is trouble for older games imo.

Overall Review: Research compatibility issues with ATI cards in the games you want to play before buying this card.

Nice Processor for Economy Build

Intel Core i5-12400 - Core i5 12th Gen Alder Lake 6-Core 2.5 GHz LGA 1700 65W Intel UHD Graphics 730 Desktop Processor - BX8071512400
Intel Core i5-12400 - Core i5 12th Gen Alder Lake 6-Core 2.5 GHz LGA 1700 65W Intel UHD Graphics 730 Desktop Processor - BX8071512400

Pros: 1) Affordable 2) Pretty powerful

Cons: 1) Stock fan is very loud, even with no load it might rev up.

Overall Review: If you buy this processor, consider getting an aftermarket fan like the AG-400 from Deep Cool.

Great Product

ASRock Z690 Pro RS LGA 1700 (14th,13th,12th Gen) Intel Z690 SATA 6Gb/s DDR4 ATX Intel Motherboard
ASRock Z690 Pro RS LGA 1700 (14th,13th,12th Gen) Intel Z690 SATA 6Gb/s DDR4 ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: 1) Affordable 2) ASRock makes good products

Cons: None

Overall Review: One thing I would like to mention and it might be in the specs for this motherboard. The SSD I was using did not work in the top M2 slot. I believe it is a Samsung pci 4.0 2280. After almost losing faith I put it in the bottom-most M2 slot and it worked. If you have any issue with the BIOS not finding the M2 SSD, move it to another slot and try BIOS again.

Great Product for the Money

DeepCool GAMMAXX AG400 Single-Tower CPU Cooler, 120mm Fan, Direct-Touch Copper Heat Pipes, Intel/AMD Support
DeepCool GAMMAXX AG400 Single-Tower CPU Cooler, 120mm Fan, Direct-Touch Copper Heat Pipes, Intel/AMD Support

Pros: 1) Affordable 2) Quiet 3) Not as massive as some fans and will fit in smaller cases 4) Has a back plate for extra support

Cons: It cannot solve the mystery of what gravity or dark matter is.

Overall Review: If you have a lower profile case or need something better than a low profile fan, this is for you. I am using this on a 12500.

Do Not Buy for LGA 1150

ZALMAN CNPS9500A-LED 92mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler
ZALMAN CNPS9500A-LED 92mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler

Pros: It looked nice in the box.

Cons: The amount of pressure this will put on your motherboard is unacceptable. This is a faulty design for socket LGA 1150 and I would highly recommend you DO NOT buy it and try to make it work for you. I have a high degree of computer building knowledge and have built many machines and this product can damage your motherboard. Please adhere my advice. Find something else for LGA 1150. The instructions are not horrible as some have said, but the actual pressure required for the screws to mount on the brackets is a product defect.

Overall Review: Might cause damage to your processor too and bend pins. I will write an update to this review very soon when I know more. I am not pleased to say the least.