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Margi K.

Margi K.

Joined on 09/23/09

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 3
Most Favorable Review

Still good after 1 year

PC Power & Cooling ModXStream Pro Series 500 Watt 80+ Semi-Modular Active PFC Performance Grade ATX PC Power Supply (OCZ500MXSP)
PC Power & Cooling ModXStream Pro Series 500 Watt 80+ Semi-Modular Active PFC Performance Grade ATX PC Power Supply (OCZ500MXSP)

Pros: Runs smoothly. Relatively quiet. Perfect for my budget gaming build, and I'll probably be able to port this PSU to my next computer and save a little cash, too.

Cons: None.

11/21/2012
Most Critical Review
MSI Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 CrossFireX Support Graphics Card R7870-2GD5T/OC
MSI Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 CrossFireX Support Graphics Card R7870-2GD5T/OC

Pros: Okay performance, decent price ($189.99). Stays relatively cool at idle, around 33C.

Cons: This card does NOT come with the Never Settle bundle from AMD. Newegg has some Crysis 3 codes left, but that's it. You will NOT be getting Bioshock Infinite, Tomb Raider, or Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon as stated by AMD on their website. I emailed Newegg about this a few times and they flat out refused to give me the games, as did AMD. Loud fan under load. Not much better than my old 4890 with a blower cooler on it. Does not overclock well unless you are willing to mess with voltages, and that voids your warranty. Barely got 50MHz overclock out of this before I started getting artifacts and crashes. Catalyst Control Center is awful. The UI is ancient and doesn't give you half the options that third party programs do. The rebate process is horrible. I don't expect to ever get my rebate, as Newegg, AMD, and MSI seem determined to do everything they can to screw people out of what is supposed to come with this card. Shipping also took far longer than it was supposed to. I got Two Day shipping because of my ShopRunner account, yet it took 5 days to get to me. I checked the tracking number and it took 3 days before it moved out of its origin destination in Memphis. The box arrived beat up, like it had been tossed around or crushed. Thanks, FedEx.

Overall Review: I wish I had gotten a GTX 660 instead. Nvidia doesn't make false promises like AMD does. Plus, I'd be able to get away from AMD's awful drivers. This will be the last time I get an AMD card.

Good Performance, Horrible Fan

DIAMOND Radeon HD 4890 1GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 CrossFireX Support Graphics Card A4890PE51G
DIAMOND Radeon HD 4890 1GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 CrossFireX Support Graphics Card A4890PE51G

Pros: Got it for a good discount last Black Friday (2011). The performance is everything I expected it to be. Helps me play Skyrim on mostly High settings (except things like shadows) on my old Intel Core 2 Quad 2.33GHz.

Cons: The fan on this card is the loudest thing I've ever heard inside of a computer before. When it is put under load, it sounds like a jet engine is about to burst through your computer. It's a HUGE 'con' for this card and it made me take off an egg. The card is enormous. I made sure to measure my case before getting the card to make sure it fit, and it does, but BARELY. Make sure you have a large case if you want to use this. ATI's Catalyst Control Center is awful, awful software. It's buggy, inconsistent, and crashes without warning. Crashes only happen once in a while, but when it happens, it seems like I wasn't doing anything that should have given it a problem (like watching a stream on Twitch TV). This is the reason I knocked off another egg.

Overall Review: It's a good budget performance card that still makes me wish I had more money to spend so I could have gotten something better, quieter, and something *not* ATI so I could avoid CCC.

11/21/2012