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Robert D.

Robert D.

Joined on 07/31/05

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 7
Most Favorable Review

Fractal Design Define R5 Black Window Silent ATX Midtower Computer Case

Fractal Design Define R5 Black Window Silent ATX Midtower Computer Case
Fractal Design Define R5 Black Window Silent ATX Midtower Computer Case

Pros: Excellently designed case with expansion capabilities. Many many installation options. Well built with more than enough quality hardware for your build. Any questions would be resolved by reading the description and visiting the manufacturer's web site.

Cons: Absolutely NONE

Overall Review: Complaints complaints. REALLY!! One complains of the power supply mounting being a problem. yet others complain of the top fans causing a dust problem. REALLY? This is NOT the fault of the case or Newegg but the lack of planning of the builder. Heat rises and cooler air falls. Folks, that's basic physics! This case was designed for a power supply to intake the air close to the floor, the lowest and coolest air available, thus keeping the power supply cool. It IS filtered! If your power supply doesn't meet the criteria then plan to get a new power supply or buy another case. The fan placement options on the top of the case are excellent. If you are worried about dust getting into the case it might be in your best interest to CLEAN YOUR HOUSE!! I have been running this case in a room with a tile floor next to an open window in north west Texas, which is a very dusty environment most of the year, and have NEVER had a "dust problem". The top fan options were designed to be utilized as EXHAUST fans. Again physics and common sense prevails. Hot air RISES, therefore they exhaust the hot air from the top of the case. My particular installation is with the power supply, a Corsair RM750X, one 120mm intake fan, and a 120mm liquid cooler in push pull configuration installed on the bottom of the case which is filtered by the included filter. I left the two 140mm supplied intake fans on the front of the case. I removed the 140mm supplied fan on the back of the case and installed a 120mm fan blowing INTO the case, bringing the cool air into the case and blowing over the Northbridge chip heat sink which keeps this heat generator much cooler and helps lower the average internal case temperature. The supplied 140mm fan that was on the back of the case is now mounted in the center most top fan slot exhausting the hot air from the case. With the average room temperature of 72F, the case stays more than cool with the fans all running in the "silent" mode. And, that's with a 130w 3Ghz processor overclocked to 4Ghz. IF your case is utilized in a carpeted room, a plastic chair mat under the case solves the problem of carpet fibers clogging the bottom filter and allows the spacing necessary for the cool air to enter the case through the bottom air filter. You can even purchase one from Newegg! Everything in my build was purchased at Newegg as I have been an avid customer of theirs for over 10 years. One CANNOT blame the case manufacturer or Newegg for the lack of research, planning, and common sense on the builder's part. Please stop complaining and do your research BEFORE purchasing a product.

A real workhorse for the older X58 motherboards

Intel Core i7-950 - Core i7 Bloomfield Quad-Core 3.06 GHz LGA 1366 130W Processor - BX80601950
Intel Core i7-950 - Core i7 Bloomfield Quad-Core 3.06 GHz LGA 1366 130W Processor - BX80601950

Pros: Intel got this one right!! I purchased this processor as a boxed version in 2011 from Newegg and paired it with a Gigabyte GA-X56-UD3R R2.0 motherboard with 6GB of G.Skill memory. I was originally running it at stock speeds with air cooling in a Gigabyte Aurora 3D case. I am now running it at 4.01GHz with the core voltage set at 1.30V in the same case with 12GB of G.Skill memory and Antec KUHLER H2O 920 cooling and Windows 7 Ultimate. The TCase temp never goes above 62C running prime95 with all four cores running. It is a 130w processor so there is a little heat generated at full bore but the Intel specs indicate a maximum TCase temp of 67.9C. I use the system for audio work utilizing Sony Sound Forge and the Steinberg products and am obviously NOT a gamer.

Cons: Absolutely NONE!

Overall Review: It's absolutely a crime Intel is not providing the chipset software for the X58 chipsets allowing it to be upgraded to Windows 10!!! Looks like I'll have to spend a little more money at Newegg to build an entirely new system for Windows 10, but I'll keep this system running for the audio work until it dies. It will be interesting to see how long it actually lasts running it at the current settings.

Antec KUHLER H2O 920 Liquid Cooling System
Antec KUHLER H2O 920 Liquid Cooling System

Pros: Quality built product that works well

Cons: Fans extremely noisy at full speed

Overall Review: CPU: Intel i7 950 D0 (130W) @ 4.011Ghz (21x121) Motherboard: Gigabyte X58A-UD3R (R2.0) Bios FH Memory: 6 GB Corsair DDR3 1333 (CM3X2G1333C9) running at 764Mhz 10-11-11-28-1T Case: Gigabyte Aurora 3D Full Tower (mesh side panel) CPU Cooler: Antec Kuhler H2O 920 (fan thresholds set at 30 and 50 degrees C in the included software, fans blowing into the case) Additional Case Cooling: Two Aerocool Extreme Turbine 120mm Fans @ 1500rpm (one on the front and one on back, both blowing air into the case) Video Card: EVGA Geforce 210 (obviously NOT a gamer) Power Supply: Corsair GS600 OS Drive: 2 SSDs in RAID 0 (no heat factor) Storage Drive: Western Digital 1Tb (assembly temperature 47 degrees C) Ambient Room Temperature: 23 degrees C. The cpu case temperature is 40 degrees C under no load and 59 degrees C at full load with Prime 95 running for 12 hours with the Vcore at 1.31v in the BIOS. Individual core temperatures max out at 74 degrees C and the the Antec Chill Control software reports a fluid temperature of 44.8 degrees C at full cpu load. Yes this system is an older system (all parts purchased in 2011 or earlier except for the liquid cooling system) but, it does show the ability of the Antec Kuhler H2O 920 to cool the cpu efficiently at an atainable sustained overclock. Never having to run the fans at full speed, the fan noise at the above speeds provide for a very tolerable noise level even when listening to music at low volume levels in the living room.

Great SSD

Mushkin Enhanced Chronos 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MKNSSDCR120GB
Mushkin Enhanced Chronos 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MKNSSDCR120GB

Pros: Mushkin 3 year waranty. Trim and RAID support. 2.5" to 3.5" adapter bracket included.

Cons: None

Overall Review: ATTO Benchmark 550MB/s read and 502MB/s write running Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 with the updated firmware from Mushkin. Windows boots in less than 13 seconds. Asus K53E laptop with 8GB G.Skill DDR3 1333 memory. Plan on purchasing two of these drives to run in RAID0 as an OS drive in my PC with a PCI-E RAID controller. A good buy.

Intel...What else needs to be said?

Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 - Core 2 Duo Conroe Dual-Core 2.13 GHz LGA 775 65W Processor - BX80557E6420
Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 - Core 2 Duo Conroe Dual-Core 2.13 GHz LGA 775 65W Processor - BX80557E6420

Pros: Very stable. 4M Cache. Great overclockability. Runs extremely cool overclocked.

Cons: None

Overall Review: Running at 2.66 GHZ on an Asus P5LD2 R2.0 MB with 2GB OCZ Gold PC5400 memory in a Cooler Master Cavalier 3 case with stock INTEL cooling. Added an 80mm Enermax fan on the side of the case. RAID0 utilizing WD 1600YS drives with a WD740ADFD drive partitioned to a FAT32 pagefile partition and a NTFS scratch disk partition. With Prime 95 on both cores, temps are 28C idle and 46C full load at stock voltage on the processor, read with Asus Probe. Room temp at 72F. This processor will overclock much much more but I have no need as I do not play games. LGA775 heatsink mounting is very sturdy if you don't play basketball with your computer as the ball!! All items in my system were purchased thru Newegg.

Excellent processor for the $$

Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 - Core 2 Duo Conroe Dual-Core 2.13 GHz LGA 775 65W Processor - BX80557E6420
Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 - Core 2 Duo Conroe Dual-Core 2.13 GHz LGA 775 65W Processor - BX80557E6420

Pros: It will take just about everything you throw at it. Cool running and it's not a 3-letter joke(A*D)!! Upgraded from P4 630.

Cons: Intel technical documentation lacking VCore voltages and other basic engeneering data on spec sheets, for those technically inclined.

Overall Review: System: E6420 with stock cooling solution at 2.53Ghz, Asus P5LD2 R2.016 mobo, 2GB Kingston ValueRam DDR667 at 4-4-4-12, CoolMaster Cavalier 3 case, Coolmax CP-500T PSU, Nvidia 7300LE video card...all purchased from Newegg. Runs 28C no load and 47C with two instances of Prime95 running (both cores at 100%)at a room temperature of 71F. 4MB L2 cache is a great feature on a processor in this price class.