Joined on 04/15/05
Owned for 2 years 8 core water cooled
Pros: Everyone here always crosses there fingers hoping that all their components work together in sync. Well I was lucky and so far I have this monster running with no problems for 2 years, this system has been working flawlessly as a gaming machine.
Cons: none, No heat issues either, No restarts no nothing, 2 years and I feel like I am running a server. I even turn off the flat screen and go to work then come home after 10 hours. My power supply regulates wattage so if the computer is not gaming it is running on a few watts. those old PSUs used to kill my electric bill.
Overall Review: Here is what works for me: Cooler Master HAF 932 Tower (Funny I went to mid tower and was too small and ended up back to this heavy relic but works way better)(There is a newer and better HAF case but I recomend full tower for proper Air Ventilation only if your running a CPU that uses 125 watts and above which will surely be needing water-cooled.) Thermaltake Toughpower DPS 850W Digital PS-TPG-0850DPCGUS-1 ATX 12V 2.31 & SSI EPS 12V 2.92 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Full Modular Active PFC Power Supply 4 x COUGAR CF-V12HB Vortex Hydro-Dynamic-Bearing (Fluid) 300,000 Hours 12CM Silent Cooling Fan (Black) 1 x Rosewill RDRD-11003 2.5" SSD / HDD Mounting Kit for 3.5" Drive Bay w/60mm Fan 1 x BYTECC U3-225 USB 3.0 Front Hub Bracket for Dual 2.5" HDD/SSD to 3.5" Tray 1 x PowerColor AX7870 2GBD5-2DHV4E/OC Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 CrossFireX 1 x OCZ ARC 100 ARC100-25SAT3-240G 2.5" 240GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) CORSAIR Hydro Series H100i Extreme Performance Water/Liquid CPU Cooler. 240mm (located inside screw in to the top part of the case works best.) 1 x AMD FX-8320 Vishera 8-Core 3.5GHz (4.0GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 125W Desktop Processor FD8320FRHKBOX 2 x G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-1866C9D-16GXM These Ripjaws have been good to me. I first ordered 1 pair and had 16 gigs for 1.5 years until Black Friday in 2014 I decided to buy them again. I am running the full Maximum 32 gigs and really don't see a huge difference in performance. But I have seen a better response rate with the hard drive with my gaming and desktop when I am Alt Tabbing. I think the only thing left to do on this rig is to get a second video card which are no longer available. So I have been looking at the sales at new egg to see if I can get the high ends for around 150 to 200 dollars. At the end I want to prove to my clients that you don't need to spend a whole lot of money to create a monster. It is amazing that this machine is equal to the server room computers back 6 years ago. Upgrades to be done: Buy OCZ Fastest SSD drives 2 of them and put them into raid zero Buy MSI GTX 970 GAMING 4G GeForce GTX 970 4GB 256-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support G-SYNC Support Video Card Recently added and I don't regret it because I have thrown away lots of keyboards I finally gave in and paid the $300 and worth every single penny. If you can get it at 200 buy it but make sure it has a warranty. This is a computerized keyboard with a brain. Mad Catz MCB43109N002/02/1 S.T.R.I.K.E. 7 Keyboard And working on getting the Mad Catz mouse with this but not yet. I still like my Logitech Gaming G500s mouse.
Must have upgraded hardware
Pros: I plugged it in and it went well. With my water colled system and 8 core AMD CPU I have not had a problem. I believe that people that are having problems dont have the right hardware instaled, either they are trying to add this pumped up video card to thier older motherboard. You just cant do that people! Not all hardware is compatible because all of it communicates with each other like robots, You don't tell it to communicate it automatically starts to talk with each other so it can work but if they don't get along your going to experience errors.
Cons: I only got one and should of bought the pair before they stoop making these. I bought them for $80 on Black friday in 2013. oh well wait until next Black friday then give this one to my mom.
Overall Review: I started with the CPU. (AMD FX-8320 Vishera 8-Core 3.5GHz) It took a week to find the right setup. (MSI 970A-G43 AM3+ AMD 970 +) and I knew I would need memory that can handle the extreme load so I researched these (G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB)) Then of course every gamer knows that your Hard drive platters are obsolete!!!! Your system is only as fast as your hard drive so I ended up buying a SSD drive Ultra which boosted my speed actually quadrupled my system speed. So if your trying to use an old harddrive then try to buy an SSD drive asap and you will see a huge difference! Oh also if your monitor is not 1ms and doesnt have HDMI ports then forget about buying this card! Upgrade your external hardware and see a huge difference because the artifacts your experiencing could be your monitor that runs at 5ms which is horrible. RESEARCH gaming monitors they all run at 1ms eliminating ghosting.
Wow what a difference
Pros: excellent cooling. right now its at average temp 16 degrees Celsius. My Graphics card is at 34 and my SSD is at 35. When I had a fan on this 8 core FX chip that draws 125w power, lets say it was splitting atoms lol then I put this amazing smart pump that connects to the USB to give the Links program all the information on what's going on.
Cons: none so far. Make sure you check the box for water leaks or in the bag that its leaking return immediately. The box should have no damage on it if so its a water leak. Some people are unlucky and they get a damaged product, thank goodness I have not experienced that yet, Well except for the H80i that died on me after two months of use.
Overall Review: Just try to be more knowledgeable on temps because if you get a faulty pump your CPU might end up burning up your motherboard. Or your bios will shut it down before it gets to that hot.
Bootable OS Drive
Pros: I bought this for only one reason and one reason only and it was to make a Bootable OS drive. Windows 7.1 and windows 8.1 I previously bought Sandisk Cruzer Blade and it was hell and back trying to get it to be recognized by my computer. Trust me I tried everything! Download from Microsoft "Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool" Then follow the instructions. You must have an ISO format of Windows 7 Operating system on your computer or the tool wont work.
Cons: None zilch nada
Overall Review: The minimum you need is 8 gigs but this came at a super cheap price with 16b gig. $5. skeptical because it was cheap but this and PNY are so far my go to Drives for making Bootable USB drives.
Battlefield 4!
Pros: If your a gammer and always wondered how that person keeps killing you in the game where you end up calling hacker...It is because they own one of these! I camp in the corner around a wall and I hear every footstep walking towards the door! I just jump and shoot before getting to the door way and I get 3 kills before I get killed.
Cons: Has a usb cord and is not cordless but they do sell them but not at my budget price.
Overall Review: Do not buy these if your going to play against me! NO! Do not buy them lol ok hehe.