Joined on 01/08/08
Inexpensive but not cheap
Pros: The price point was great, like 65% the price of more major brands. It isn't a very long card and stays cool. I've yet to have any problems in games ranging from Dota and CSGO to Bannerlord and Baldur's Gate. It's been about a month since I installed it.
Cons: The card is short, but is wide, it may prevent an adjacent slot being used (not that Crossfire/SLI are that common anymore.) The fan gets louder at high RPM (>80% power) but rarely gets that hot. I have a custom curve that is faster than necessary and it may not be as noticeable on stock settings. Non-load and light/older games it is quiet.
Overall Review: No problems as of yet. I tried the brand with a cheaper card and would strongly consider purchasing from them with more investment.
Fair board, with RAM and sfx issues.
Pros: It's well priced, and there were no issues with installation, there're no poorly placed SATA or case pins, etc.
Cons: After about 2 months the analog sound, all six jacks, completely quit. It's not even recognized as being in the pc (by any means), but works with USB audio outputs. The ram I received as a bundle with the board through newegg wasn't compatible with the board, and I've had multiple memory issues even after fully updating the CMOS. Also keep in mind that Asrock doesn't provide CMOS resetting like ASUS or other brands do. I had to physically transplant my CMOS into another board to flash it, after the board (due to memory errors) shut off during the initial flash.
Overall Review: I got the board looking for a cheap path to 990FX, and was disappointed. I'm now forced to by a new motherboard because (apart from the sound, and ram issues) the board doesn't seem to play nice with higher loads going to the processor. It unlocked my old 720 to 4 cores, and runs well at 3.2ghz/core stock voltages. It stutters and struggles with 125w processors on load though.
RE: Facts about movie playback by truthbtold.
Pros: I haven't tried this player. This is a response to Facts about movie playback review by truthbtold. Codecs are freely downloadable off the internet, legally. You do not have to worry about buying this drive and not having the software to work it. A quick google search for 'blu ray codecs' will lead you to anything you need, assuming your hardware can handle high definition playback.
Cons: See pros.
Overall Review: See cons.
Good build, little flimsy, not enough screws.
Pros: Cheap, reliable, good design, comes with 12cm rear fan (in a tool-less holder). The side panel has an 8cm spot, with a vent going right over the cpu (if the cpu has vertical intake, like stock cpus) and a rectangle vent on the bottom for graphics cards and such.
Cons: Didn't have enough screws, the motherboard went in fine, had enough risers for a mATX board, but i had to use my own screws for the hard drive and psu (Rosewill didn't send screws for that either, which they usually do.) The side panel is a little flimsy, it require me to hold it straight, or it would bend diagonally, and was a bit of a hassle to get back on.
Overall Review: I'd recommend it for a cheap build, probably not a gamer case, but it's still nice if you don't take it apart alot, good for parents and other computer illiterate.
Dude. Buy it.
Pros: 45w max TDP (mine was at 24w average over an hour and a half of use), and was @ 4w idle w/o AMD Cool 'n' Quiet. Very cool operating, and the hs/f was pretty quite too. Efficient, and powerful, will handle most non-gaming/editing needs.
Cons: None really, if you want a dual core, energy efficient AM2/AM3 platformed cpu, i'd definitely get this, 2.6ghz and it's 45w.
Overall Review: AMD is the way to go right now, grab a decent AM2+ board or a new AM3 board and you'll be good for upgrades for a few years. This was a customer build, and the total draw of the tower was only 11w idling.
Great, inexpensive PSU!
Pros: 25a on 2x+12v rails, for $30! 400w, has a quite 12cm fan. All the cords are braided with black mesh, and it has a 4 pin AND 8 pin CPU +12v connector, and a 6pin PCIE connector.
Cons: Only 2 SATA connectors, on one cord.
Overall Review: Great, and though some say Rosewill aren't quality, my last 3 builds were Rosewill, and all of my customer builds are (this one was for a customer, specs as follows): AMD X2 5050e ASROCK N68PV-GS 2x1gb OCZ Vista SLI Certified MSI 8500gt 250 gb WD Caviar SATA Sony DVD+/- RW SATA