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Jeremy B.

Jeremy B.

Joined on 10/05/08

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 5
Most Favorable Review

Superb value!

ARCTIC Freezer 7 Pro - Compact Multi-Compatible Tower CPU Cooler | 92 mm PWM Fan | for AMD AM4 and Intel 115x CPU | Recommended up to 115 W TDP
ARCTIC Freezer 7 Pro - Compact Multi-Compatible Tower CPU Cooler | 92 mm PWM Fan | for AMD AM4 and Intel 115x CPU | Recommended up to 115 W TDP

Pros: Good for light overclocks! This is the second one of these I have purchased. The first is running an E7400 @3.6GHz with a max load temp in Prime95 @ ~55deg C. I recently purchased it for my X2 6000+ (Brisbane) because the stock fan was allowing it to get around 70deg C at stock speed(yikes!). Previous idle temp in AMD was around 35-40deg C and full load was 70+ (I had it shut down @ 70 to avoid damage). Idle temp now is 25-30deg C and full load temp so far has only hit 51deg C maxed out for a few hours. This fan comes with pre-applied thermal paste, but you might want to buy an extra tube of thermal paste (just in case) as it's easy to rub off.

Cons: None that I can think of. Space was a little tight between the RAM and heatsink/fan (only a couple mm apart) with my AMD processor on an ECS K7S5A motherboard (I've heard of others not fitting so be careful). I didn't have any space issues with a Core2Duo on a P5Q SE or a P5Q Pro

Overall Review: Not a con - but the pre-applied thermal paste doesn't do as good of a job of transferring heat as properly cleaning and applying thermal paste on your own. I overclocked the same processor to a higher clock with lower temps using Arctic Silver Ceramic thermal paste. If you decide to do this, do your homework and research the proper technique. They seem to be skimping out on the packaging. The first one of these that I got for a friend had a nice color box with packaging. The unit I purchased for my E7400 was an open box model with no packaging (not a complaint). But, the most recent (brand new) model comes with a thin plastic package (though was sent in a brown box with decent packing foam). I guess their packaging change is a sign of the times.

Most Critical Review

50/50 gamble...

XFX Core Edition Radeon HD 7850 1GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 CrossFireX Support Video Card FX-785A-ZNL4
XFX Core Edition Radeon HD 7850 1GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 CrossFireX Support Video Card FX-785A-ZNL4

Pros: Card worked great for about 1 month. Roughly 300khash/second mining Feathercoins (same as Litecoin).

Cons: One Card stopped working after about one month. Will only get 50khash/second and fan only spins at between 150-2500RPM (about 1/2 the speed the other one will go for RPM and 1/6 the speed for GPU clock/memory). Never overclocked either of the cards.

Overall Review: I bought 2 of these cards. The other is still doing okay, but I wonder what happened to this one? Temps never got above 75deg C because I used a manual fan control and the ambient air temps in my house never got above 65deg F (live in cold weather/high altitude 7000ft). Also using the current Catalyst drivers (non-beta). Running i5-2500K @4.5GHz w/CNPS11XExtreme cooler, 8GB Mushkin Blackline Enhance RAM, Thermaltake 850W Black Widow, MSI-Z68A-GD80 mobo.

Would buy again

ZALMAN Z9 Plus Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
ZALMAN Z9 Plus Black Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Pros: Tool-less design. 4x included case fans. Black finish on the interior. Pretty blue lights. Decent cable management. Easy accessibility to install CPU backplate with motherboard installed in case. Top-mounted USB ports.

Cons: Bottom-mounted PSU eliminates my ability to use the bottom PCI-Express port for a graphics card on my ATX motherboard.

Overall Review: I really like this case. I started to consider a water cooling setup, but think a reservoir might make it pretty cramped on the inside. Although, a $500 water cooling setup would be of marginal gain since ambient temps of 30 deg C make the processor run at about 70 deg C @ full load (4.7GHz).

Nice board

MSI Z68A-GD80 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
MSI Z68A-GD80 (B3) LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: Board has a lot of features and made overclocking very easy (OC Genie doesn't even require you to go into BIOS, just turn off the PC, push button, turn on PC).

Cons: I didn't like how the SATA ports were laid out on the motherboard, especially when all the SATA cables provided with the computer were 90 degree cables.

Overall Review: Overclock genie used more voltage than necessary to overclock my i5 2500k. I run the computer at a stable 4.7GHz with 1.365 Vcore. I like the board and if it holds up for a long time I would say that the Con is rather minor to me and therefore would deserve 4.5 or 5 stars.

Good budget case

Rosewill R901-P BK Triple 120mm Cooling Fan, Mesh Design Front Panel, ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
Rosewill R901-P BK Triple 120mm Cooling Fan, Mesh Design Front Panel, ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Pros: The case is very spacious for a mid-tower. Plenty of space for optical drives. Space for 3 hard drives in the caddy (one of the case fans is positioned directly in front of the hard drives for better cooling. Awesome rolled metal edges on everything inside the case (no self mutilation here). Great ventilation in the front of the case. Case feels nice and sturdy (you can put your hand on the case and use it as a crutch while you stand up and I'm a little over 200lbs) and I didn't feel any "wobble" to it.

Cons: Hard drive caddy was a little complex to get out (had to remove the front panel on the computer first). Removing the panel from the 5.25" drive bays took a couple of seconds to figure out. With the fan duct on the side the Arctic Cooler Freezer 7 Pro almost didn't fit. A taller cooler definitely will not fit.

Overall Review: Blue light on the front (power LED) may be a little bright... Intel Core2Duo 7400 @ Stock Arctic Cooler Freezer 7 Pro (Chills at around 30 degrees C) ASUS P5Q LGA 775 Intel P45 COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power Plus 500W ATX12V V2.3 A-DATA 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 POWERCOLOR AX4350 512MD2-H Radeon HD 4350 512MB HITACHI Deskstar P7K500 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s SAMSUNG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner Black Model SH-S222A